Helen

Helen – From 1992 to 2002

When the Chairman of the Moscow Department of Education saw the out­stand­ing qual­i­ties in the young peo­ple whom we brought to Russia, she ex­claimed: “What I see here is what I want all my stu­dents to be like, and I will do what­ev­er it takes to make this hap­pen.” She then asked me to se­lect and train Russian stu­dents who would help her achieve this goal.

When I met Helen, I im­me­di­ate­ly saw in her the qual­i­ties that we were look­ing for. So I in­vit­ed her to come to the Moscow Training Center. During the next ten years, she not on­ly served at the Center, but al­so earned a de­gree at the University of Moscow, which qual­i­fied her to be the as­sis­tant to the di­rec­tor of our col­lege. Helen al­so served in the in­ter­na­tion­al de­part­ment at the Oak Brook Headquarters, at the Indianapolis Training Center, and on two trips to Taiwan.

To Whom it May Concern,

I met Bill Gothard when he and hun­dreds of ATI stu­dents came to Moscow, Russia in the ear­ly 1990’s. At that time I was 15 years old. The first time we met, Bill gave me a vi­sion of what my life could be like by lov­ing the Lord Jesus Christ and serv­ing Him. I be­came a be­liev­er in the Lord, and so did my fa­ther and oth­er mem­bers in my fam­i­ly.

In 1992, I was in­vit­ed to come to the Headquarters. This was an ex­cit­ing op­por­tu­ni­ty for me. For the next ten years I served at the Headquarters and at the Moscow Training Center. During those years Bill Gothard en­cour­aged me, trained me, and showed the great­est re­spect for me as a young la­dy.

I want every ATI stu­dent to know that I am grate­ful for your part in help­ing me re­ceive sal­va­tion in Christ. I thank God for each one of you, but it deeply dis­ap­points me that some of you are defin­ing Bill Gothard in the way that you have. I am con­fi­dent that his mo­tives were and are sin­cere, and the sac­ri­fice of his life demon­strates the kind of per­son that I have known dur­ing those ten years and be­yond.

I am now hap­pi­ly mar­ried to a won­der­ful man. We have three chil­dren whom we are rais­ing up to love Jesus and serve Him. I con­tin­ue to con­sid­er Bill Gothard as a close friend and men­tor. I will al­ways be grate­ful for his great in­flu­ence in my walk with God.

Sincerely,

Helen.

Footnote:

Helen ac­tu­al­ly met Jim when she was six­teen years old. I had asked Jim to join our group to go to Moscow. She was in­stant­ly at­tract­ed to him but dur­ing the next ten years of her sin­gle ser­vice, she did not see him, then God brought them to­geth­er, when she was 26 and he was 32, they mar­ried the next year.