Just sleeping at night is a miracle

It took 27-year-old Elena three years to find her way to freedom after initially running away from an Exodus centre.

Elena first visited an Exodus centre three years ago – but her old life wouldn’t let her go.

“I stayed at the Severskaya centre for two weeks. I left and thought I would never come back. I thought, I’ve had enough, it’s not my cup of tea.”

In fact, that’s not the only reason. “To be honest I was made to leave.”

Somebody – she doesn’t say who – came and took her away and everything started over again. She was a student at the time, four years in to what would turn out to be a seven-year habit.

“I carried on taking drugs and studying, studying and taking drugs. But it became more difficult to keep on studying and maintain my habit, because all the money went down the…” She struggles to find an appropriate phrase.

Then, “Don’t mince words,” says one of the pastors, “All the money went down the vein!”

Elena tried all sorts of treatment to kick her habit. Once, she says, she even survived five days without drugs.

“Then I found myself in Moscow – a very difficult place to live. One day I went to see some Exodus ministers in their flat in Moscow and they decided that it’s time for me to go to the centre.

“I’m really grateful to them. I don’t know what would have happened to me if I hadn’t gone to see them.”

It’s clear that Elena had reached the end of her rope – a rope that could easily have become a noose. Just three weeks after arriving at the Exodus centre on the outskirts of Rostov-on-Don, Elena tells her story in an unemotional, matter-of-fact way. But the final detail she shares hints at the chaos drugs had turned her life into.

“I have very few testimonies to share. But the fact that I could sleep again just three days after my arrival is a miracle in itself.”