Past the pain endured and the struggles faced, one can easily identify the protection of God threaded through his entire testimony. Born to Christian parents, Gagik strayed early on. He left school to join the mafia, where he earned a sense of manhood with a tough exterior, drug dealing, and violence. He helped run a store of stolen goods at the age of 14 and, over time, earned enough community respect to lead one of two rivaling gangs. His first heart change came in a classroom setting where a professor began to teach on the subject of religion; eventually, the rivalry dissipated and it seemed Gagik would begin a new life. Christians were persecuted by the Turkish in this area and Gagik’s parents wanted to place him in a new environment, so they went through with plans to move to Russia. Gagik, stepping away from his Christian community, began to move back into criminal life with the Russian mafia. 
His life was under attack, physically and spiritually, but God continued in relentless protection. One day, a bullet finally caught Gagik’s chest and with burning skin, he stood to unsuccessfully return attack on the man who fired at him. Gagik remembers moments like these where God’s intervention is almost overwhelming to recall, stating “I was two feet away from a man, aiming a gun at his head point blank, but it wouldn’t fire.” Gagik says he then fired it at the ground with bullets releasing effortlessly. “I understood those things were miracles of God, but I couldn’t change myself. I was so deep in that life.”
Tangible moments of God’s protection over Gagik are just as evident as the Lord’s spiritual interventions. Even in sin, Gagik recalls the inability to shake the fact that drugs for people meant death. Much like God protected Gagik, Gagik felt a duty to protect people. In the midst of this lifestyle, Gagik began to dream of another way of life and hope that God would show His hand in it all.
