Natasha Danik was born in Kyrgystan in 1978. She was born again in 2000. Natasha is one of the most able and dedicated Missionary Students at the Almaty Bible Institute in Kazakstan. She is active in personal evangelism with teenage prisoners, homeless children and, in a special way, deaf people in her country.
As a student in the Institute she is purposeful and full of laughter and energy but it has not always been so. Her grandparents were Communists and her parents did not know what to believe. In 1992, when Natasha’s younger sister died at the age of ten, her mother started going to a Baptist church in their home city of Bishkek. She brought home a Bible which caused a fierce argument. Her father burnt the Bible. In time her mother became a Christian, her father pressed for a divorce and Natasha thought that her mother was crazy.
At the age of fourteen Natasha ran away from home and lived on the streets for over four years. She wanted to be free but found herself enslaved in a dark and immoral way of life – street wise but desolate. At eighteen she returned home and tried to find God. Natasha said, “I wanted a God I could trust”. When Natasha turned up at the Baptist church with blue hair and five earrings in each ear the church people were not sure what to make of her.
Natasha heard of the unconditional love of God for sinners and trusted in Him for forgiveness. She was baptised on 4 February 2001 to the great joy of her mother with whom her relationship has been restored. Natasha’s father lives in Russia and she has no contact with him but there are three unconverted brothers aged twenty, sixteen and twelve to be concerned about.
Natasha loves the Bible Institute and has thrown herself into the study of the Bible so that she can be an effective Christian worker at home. Her desire to put down deep and firm foundations in the Word of God is very clear to see. Natasha thinks in pictures and reduces all her lecture notes to a series of symbols which are highly memorable. She has been seen after a day of lectures leading a revision session in the classroom with other students, using her technique of symbol-learning.
At home in Kyrgystan, Natasha works for a Christian organisation in the mornings and fills the rest of her day with Christian witness and |
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service. Monday is set aside for teenage prison ministry - Tuesday for homeless children - Wednesday and Thursday for deaf people - Friday for orphanage work. On Saturday she teaches sign language
and on Sunday she signs for the deaf people in church. In all her work she places the Word of God in the centre and reads and studies the Bible with each individual and group.
Natasha was asked if she would like to travel and holiday in other parts of the world. She replied, “No. The best place to be is where Jesus changes the lives of people.”
Her commitment is deep and disciplined; her work is effective and fruitful. Natasha graduates from the Almaty Bible Institute in the summer of 2008 – she is active now but has many more plans and dreams for Gospel outreach and compassionate care for the future.
Her life is a testimony to God’s saving love and the consecrating power of the cross. Natasha wants nothing for herself, but just the opportunity to love and serve her people.
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