I was born in 1970 in Russia in a small country place in the south part of Tula region. Being raised in an alcoholic family, I was eager to leave since conditions were not pleasant. (But praise God, my Dad got saved last year after 15 years of praying for him!)

I came to know Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior in 1992 on February the 14th. It was a great time in our country when thousands  of  Russian young people were receiving Christ. I did not come to the Lord through tragedy or any other problems in my life. I was just very curious about everything happening. So I thought I would listen to the Norwegian ministers for half an hour and go back to my classes, but God touched my heart and radically turned my life upside down...or should I say right side up! One month after I was saved I was baptized with the Holy Spirit and then several months later baptized in water.

Within my first year in Christ, I was given a prophesy concerning ministry. After that I felt a call to become a pastor (which I couldn't believe in the beginning!). It took four years for me to come to a certain level of maturity  and  trust in God.

My wife Marina, & I worked together with our Pastor Randy Craighead. Then after two years together I became the pastor of Tula Christian Center.

My wife & I were married in 1993 and I am still in awe as to why in the world she made the choice to be the wonderful, lovely wife of a crazy redneck named Oleg :-)! She has become a real support in many ways. I really thank God for her & for our two gorgeous kids. Our children, a boy & a girl, are 7 and 13 years old (what else you can ask for!).

In June 1996 we became pastors of Tula Christian Center. From that time we've been doing our best to raise up strong leaders for the glory of God. We were able to plant several churches over the period of ten years. We have prepared a great pastoral team which is able to minister on their own. 

Now more and more leaders grow in different areas of the ministry.

In 2000 we were able to purchase our own building for the church. It was truly a victory!  It  took  years  of  prayer and  fasting  before the  officials  of  our  city  would agree  for  us  to buy the building. It was literally impossible in the past due to preconceived attitudes toward all Protestant churches. What we did was turn a former cafe, which had a reputation for drug dealers and mafia gathering, into a Lighthouse for our neighborhood, Praise God!

Since 1997 we've been traveling around the world preaching the Gospel, speaking to leaders, and maintaining relationships  between the churches. We keep seeing many miracles in people's lives and want to be a greater blessing and encouragement wherever we go. We thank God for His grace being on us while on these trips. Our hearts are wide open for missions and we long to embrace more new nations in this world to bring people the light of Jesus!

October 2007 is the next missionary trip to India (click here to see our last trip to India). We can't wait to see new miracles in people's lives. Please, be praying for us. This time we plan to have five people in our team. 

Education history:

• 1988-1990 - Military School

• 1991-1992 - Preparatory Course at Tula Pedagogical University

• 1999-2000 - One year pastor's course at Moscow Presbyterian Academy

• 2004 - Advancing Leadership Skills Course at Haggai Institute, Maui, HI

• 2007-present - Vision University, Ramona, CA

Ministry growth:

• 1992 - Born again

• 1992-1994 - Associate pastor and pretty much serving in the local church in Tula

• 1994-1996 - Associate Pastor & interpreter for Pastor Randy Craighead

• 1996-2006 - Senior Pastor in Tula Christian Center

• 2000-present - Regional Presbyter over Southwest Network of GSCAEF

I want to thank all of you who have been supporting us during all these years. We really appreciate your love and care for us. We serve a wonderful God and we hope to be a blessing to anyone on this Earth whom Jesus sends us to minister to.