Let me introduce you to German. He’s a pastor in Central Asia. He’s also a businessman and was in our last Business Start-Up Training. He sees opportunity to grow his business and serve God through the business. His business makes bricks and he practices the principles of hiring people and working day-by-day with them allowing him to share his faith in real situations before his workers. He grows stronger in his faith as do his workers.

Perhaps his story could be told hundreds of times from the former USSR. While in the west we celebrated Perestroika, what actually happened to people in the USSR was quite different. As German tells it he grew up in a family that didn’t have any skills in being a family and loving each other. He basically grew up on the street, hustling for himself. He says:

After high school and professional technical school I was called to serve in the Soviet Army. After military service, I worked at a reinforced concrete plant and soon married, but my marriage quickly fell apart. Loneliness and disintegrated marriage led me to alcohol dependence. Seeing me dying, my older brother told me about a man who served in the church. Looking for a way out from my problems, I asked for help from that man. My meeting with the young pastor ended with my repentance in 2001. God began to work with me and in 2004 I was baptized and I made a vow to the Lord that I would serve Him. Since then, the dependence on alcohol was finished, God miraculously truly freed me and gave me a new life, a family. Since 2005, I have been in full-time ministry, and at the moment my wife and I serve as pastors of the Church in the city of “A” and we bring up four sons and a daughter.

In the church there are two rehabilitation centers, one in the city and one in a village. We have served alcoholic and drug addicted men and women, single people and people with disabilities for 10 years. My relationship with God is the most important and highest priority in my life, He resurrected me, I was lost, but He gave me His love. Through God’s grace, I enrolled the Moscow Theological Institute, to study His Word more deeply and grow in His service. My whole household all serve the Lord, my eldest son – leader of the worship team, middle son – helps in the children’s service, the younger ones are actively involved in church festivals.

Most businesses were shut down and destroyed as the USSR dissolved. German tried several trades, but times were hard and nothing seemed to work. He says:

But God revealed to me that I have the skills for the production of building materials, and in our city there is no functioning factory for the production of building materials, but the city is expanding, building new areas. I decided to change the direction of my business, began to engage not only in trade, but in the production and sale of construction materials. In the last 3 years, I was convinced that our manufactured products are in demand. Also for the opening of new jobs — one of the priorities to reach out to people particularly those who have faced addiction like me.

This is what it’s about, this Business 4 Blessing – seeing lives changed, seeing the church built, seeing communities being blessed.

Because of the growth of the business and new regulations, German needs to move his factory out of the city, but he also sees more opportunity to sell his bricks to a wider customer base. Of course he needs investment to do that. If God lays it on your heart to participate in this business, contact me at nora@b4blessing.com. We have a business plan and believe that German and his business is worth the investment.