At the end of December 2020, Viktor came to the Christian Mission “New Life.” By that time, alcohol addiction had been part of his life for many years. He worked and tried to live an ordinary life, but alcohol gradually took more and more away from him.

Viktor recalls that he had known about God before, but this knowledge did not change the way he lived.

— I knew that God existed, but I still continued drinking. I kept telling myself, “I’ll quit on Monday.” Monday would come — and everything would start all over again.

His family repeatedly asked him to give up alcohol. His children told him that they were ready to support their father if he stopped drinking. But Viktor could not break free from the addiction on his own.

He learned about the Christian Mission “New Life” from people connected with the mission in Velykyi Dalnyk. They were the ones who encouraged him to come and try to change his life.

Several years have passed since then.

Today, Viktor lives at the Shelter for Elderly People and People with Disabilities of the Christian Mission “New Life.” During this time, not only his everyday life has changed, but also his attitude toward God and toward himself.

— Now I have a completely different understanding of God. I no longer feel the urge to drink or smoke. Now I have the desire to live differently.

As his life began to recover, Viktor returned to work. For about three and a half years, he worked as a janitor.

Then something happened that could have ended very differently.

One morning, Viktor was walking to work when he was hit by a car at an uncontrolled pedestrian crossing.

He remembers almost nothing about the moment of impact.

Treatment and a long period of recovery followed. During this time, the Christian Mission “New Life” arranged the necessary assistance and care for him.

Later, the driver of the car came to visit Viktor in the hospital.

— He came up to me and said, “I’m the one who hit you.”

But instead of anger, Viktor told him that he held no resentment toward him.

He speaks calmly about what happened: it happened, and he does not want to blame the man.

But their story did not end there.

Before the accident, Viktor practically had no valid modern identification documents — he still had an old Soviet passport. The man who had been driving the car later began helping him obtain new documents.

They continued to stay in touch.

The driver visited Viktor, and Viktor also visited him at home. What began with a road accident gradually developed into a relationship that, under different circumstances, might never have existed.

Today, Viktor looks at this experience through the lens of faith.

Perhaps, he says, even through difficult and painful circumstances, God can bring two people together and use that meeting for something greater.

For one of them, this story became an opportunity to help the person he had accidentally injured. For the other, it became another testimony that life does not necessarily end after painful events.

Sometimes, they become the beginning of an entirely new chapter.

There had been other situations in Viktor’s life in which he miraculously survived. He recalls a serious car accident when the vehicle was traveling at high speed. Despite the severe impact, he and two other passengers survived.

In the past, he saw such events simply as coincidences.

Today, he sees them differently.

The greatest change did not happen around him, but within him.

In 2026, Viktor was baptized in water, consciously affirming his faith in God.

The man who spent years postponing change “until next Monday” now says something very different:

— If it were not for God, I don’t know what I would have today. Thank God, I no longer feel drawn back to my old life. There is an opportunity to change — and there is a desire to do so.

Viktor’s story is not over yet.

But today he has what he could not find on his own for many years: a sober life, people beside him, work, restored documents, faith, and a place that has become his home.

And perhaps most importantly, he no longer has to wait until next Monday to start living a new life.