I am an immigrant from Russia. For 25 years, I lived at the same place south of Moscow in a single residence in a single room. In 2015, my wife and I moved to California.
I think many people are familiar with the difficulties related to moving to a new region: search of a place to live, a stable job, learning the language, and much more. It is in times like these that you are especially relying on the Lord as you learn to trust Him in what seems to be simple things. I would like to share a testimony about how being faithful in little and being obedient to the Heavenly Father demonstrates one simple truth: the Lord is good, and He will always take care of His children. He will never leave us or forsake us, but bless us instead.
“Why are we here?” – this was a constant question that I kept asking in my head. I always ask this question of myself, my family, at the church. I would like to pose this question to every reader of this article as well.
Why are we here? Many of us were forced to move here, while others dreamed of living in America. Someone was invited by the relatives, and some are still confused: “How did it happen that I am now an immigrant?”
There can be a variety of answers to that question. However, an honest self-reflection can help us to figure it out. If we are truly honest with ourselves, and we are living in dependence on Christ, then it becomes clear: I am here not only for myself. I do not belong to myself but to the Lord. If that is the case, then the Lord will demonstrate his fatherly care for His children.
After living for a few months in Sacramento, we ended up in Los Angeles. While being there, I received a call from the pastor of The House of the Gospel Church in San Francisco, and he offered me an opportunity to serve. After we moved to the Bay Area, we lived in a tiny room at the basement of a church. Even in these cramped walls, while living with a newborn baby, my wife and I were truly happy because the Lord was taking care of us! After a few months, this room was traded for a spacious four-story mansion in an expensive San Francisco neighborhood. As it turns out, some of our friends found out that we are living in a basement, and offered us to live in their vacant house. This was another testimony of God’s care for us.
Over the course of the next year, we became more financially stable and began to look for our own place to rent. With the guidance from God, we were able to rent a place in Moraga. I was working at the local Starbucks, and had an opportunity to get to know the locals there.
While living in that rental property, we began gathering to read and study the Bile. Every Wednesday our house was filled with Christian fellowship, prayers, testimony time, and studying of God’s Word. In 2022, the Lord clearly showed us that we need to continue serving in Moraga.
With the blessing from the church of San Francisco, we began to serve in planting a church in a place that never had a Slavic church. Lamorinda of Bay Area was a place where a lot of hardened, successful, but ungodly people lived.
The Lord introduced us to a local American pastor who wanted to bless us and our small group of Russian-speaking immigrants. They allowing us to gather at their church. For an entire year, we were able to enjoy a comfortable room with a fireplace to study God’s word and pray. This was completely free of charge. The group continued to grow. In January of 2023, we had our very first Sunday church service. In March, after having our third child, I was ordained as a pastor. This marked the birth of the church. In September 2023, we became part of the Southern Baptist Convention, and in October, we became part of Pacific Coast Slavic Baptist Association.
In April of 2025, due to a series of circumstances, the church which welcomed us, had to increase our rent price three-fold. We knew right away that this is beyond our means. We began to pray: “Lord, this is Your church! If it is Your will, please help us…”
We were faced with a choice: either we need to move to a new place or we start meeting at the parks and people’s homes. We were fully trusting the Lord that He will not leave His church in need. During one of the difficult church services, after preaching at the English service and youth fellowship, I began to arrange the chairs for the evening service. That’s when I got a call from a pastor of one of the largest Presbyterian churches of Moraga. He said that he heard about our troubles and invited me to meet with him. The next day we met at his church office where he asked me about the church, our joys and the struggles that we are facing. We talked about the vision of future work with the immigrants, and the spread of the Gospel in this region in an effort to reach those who are perishing. Then he asked me a question: “What do you think about gathering at our church?”
This suggestion was already a result of the approval of their elder board. At the moment when I was worried and crying out to God, and being at a loss of what to do, the Lord already had a place prepared for His church. The Presbyterian church gave us one of their best buildings. It has a spacious sanctuary and is fully equipped for church services.
I was so gripped with the realization of how merciful our Heavenly Father is. I was at awe at the greatness of God and His will, and repented of my unbelief as I was humbled by His graciousness to us.
Why are we here? To make a better life for ourselves? Why did God bring you here? So that you could buy houses and cars? Why did you come to America? Are you living for yourself or for Christ? The Lord redeemed His Church with His precious blood not so that it would just survive in the context of immigration. The Savior died on the cross not because He cared about our cultural inheritance. Jesus died and rose from the dead on the third day not so that we would live our own lives and live for our own pleasures. The Lord brought each of us here with a clear purpose. He wants His Church to be faithful to Him and His promises, and obedient to Him in fulfilling its duty of preaching the Gospel to those who are lost, and make disciples into followers of Christ. “Go and make disciples of all the nations…baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age”.
On September 7, we had a special church service at the new location. We had leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention of Bay Area, representatives of the Pacific Coast Association, local pastors, and evangelists. The pastor of the Presbyterian church delivered a message of encouragement for us. We continued to pray, worship, and study the book of Acts. The title of the sermon was: “The Great Commission of Christ through the Local Church”.
Aleksey Kharlamov,
Pastor of the Spring Church, Moraga, CA
New Address of the Church:
10 Moraga Valley Ln, Moraga, CA 94556 (Fellowship Hall)
