Former drug addict uses his past for good and ministers to those fighting the same addiction

Borislav Krachunov (left)

As a result of his parents’ divorce when he was six years old, Borislav Krachunov says he had an unhappy childhood, spending years in an orphanage and boarding school. Eventually, he says, “Drugs absorbed me with great power,” starting with alcohol, marijuana and finally injecting heroin. “My life was being destroyed, as well as my soul. My dreams were lost. My relatives did not seem to care about me, and I was alone.” He justified using drugs as a sedative to cope with the problems in his life and lost all hope that he would stop using them one day.

In 1991, he visited an evangelical church, and although he says he didn’t take what he heard there seriously, God sowed His Word in Borislav. “He continued to work in my heart until the seed bore its fruit of true repentance.” Eleven years later, he received Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior. “I received Him with faith and hope that He would change my life and make me that person He wanted me to be. I was set free from drugs, cigarettes and alcohol.”

Borislav says his way of thinking changed, and the Holy Spirit gave him love, mercy and compassion toward other people. He enrolled in the Bachelor of Theology program at Bulgarian Evangelical Theological Institute (BETI), and planned to counsel and work with addicted people when he finished his studies. “I understand their pain,” he says. “I want my earthly days to be lived in ministry to God and to my neighbors…As Christ’s minister,…I want to…preach the Word of God and be able to convey the truths of Christ in an easy, comprehensive language to people, so that they can be set free.”

Borislav graduated in 2006 and works with drug-addicted young people in Sofia. Some have already passed through rehabilitation, and now he is a mentor to them, helping them rearrange their lives. On behalf of his church, he is also included in a program that is organizing literacy courses for people from the gypsy background.

UPDATE: Today, Borislav ministers in Plovdiv, the second largest city in Bulgaria, with his wife, Emanuela, and their two daughters. The couple works with an association called Mothers against Drugs. Drug use is high in Plovdiv, where a university resides with many foreign students from Greece and Turkey. Last summer, he organized an anti-drug concert for young people. Borislav and Emanuela have started a Bible study and hope to plant a church there as well. Before his first daughter was born, Borislav served as a traveling preacher for Baptist churches for a while. He continued his education at Shoumen University in Bulgaria where he finished his Master’s degree in Theology in February. Borislav has also written two books, one of which is about his experience “from death to life” as a drug addict who Jesus saved.