From Russia with Love

Guilherme “Gui” Mezavilla first met Paul when they were assigned to the same small group during an Intercultural Engagement class at Moody in January 2021. Gui and Paul were literally from opposite sides of the world. The son of missionaries to Brazil, Gui was a freshman residential student who had been raised in Brazil, Italy, and Great Britain. Paul was an online student living with his parents in Krasnodar, Russia.

But the two students struck up a fast friendship, and Gui was impressed by Paul’s desire to reside in the US and finish his studies in person on Moody’s campus. A year later, as the spring 2022 semester began, Paul told Gui that he planned to gather the necessary documentation and apply for a student visa that would enable him to come to Chicago.

A few weeks later, Paul’s dream encountered a surprising obstacle when Russia’s military invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Within days every US embassy in Russia shut down operations—and with it Paul’s hopes of obtaining a student visa and other critical travel documents.

“At that point I became convicted to help him,” Gui said.

“As an international student myself, I know the difficulties that one can go through to get a visa in times of peace. Imagine what it could be like in times of war? I felt like Paul did not have a friend in Chicago and that his journey could be blessed by having a friend that could talk to him.”

With all US embassies closed in Russia, Paul collected his meager funds and flew to Kazakhstan, one of Russia’s neighbors to the west, where he could obtain his visa and passport to the US. After receiving his passport and visa in August following a monthlong delay in his paperwork, Paul began traveling to Moody in time for the fall 2022 semester. But after flying to Turkey and then to Germany, he was not allowed to board a connecting flight to Chicago. Airport officials would not accept his COVID-19 vaccination since his vaccine was not administered by an approved pharmaceutical company.

Because Russia didn’t have access to any of the approved vaccines, Paul had no choice but to return to Turkey. He stayed in Ankara for five weeks so he could acquire both required shots of the Pfizer vaccine. Unfortunately, the delay meant he would have to miss Moody’s 2022 fall semester on campus, so he hastily enrolled in additional online classes while pressing ahead to arrive in Chicago for the spring 2023 semester.

After Paul returned to Russia from Turkey, his future plans grew even more clouded when the Russian government announced the worst possible news: It would begin drafting young men into the military the following week.

As a member of Russia’s naval reserves, Paul was prohibited from bolting to another country, but he believed God wanted him to continue pursuing his educational dream.

“I talked with my parents and decided to leave the country,” he said. “I didn’t believe in the war. If I declined to go into the war, it would be either the war or jail for me. The draft started on Thursday. I made the decision to move out on Friday. I didn’t have much time. The rumor was all the borders would close on Monday to keep men from fleeing.”

After quickly considering all of his travel options, Paul decided to cross the Kazakhstan border with four friends he knew from a church roughly nine hours from his hometown. Paul boarded a train on Saturday that transported him near the border on Sunday. Once he connected with his friends, they drove together until encountering a traffic jam five kilometers from the border crossing.

With traffic backed up for three miles, Paul and two of his friends elected to abandon the car and walk. They waited in line for more than 36 hours (“I barely slept an hour while we were in line,” Paul recalled) before finally crossing into Kazakhstan.

Paul’s journey was far from over. Joining several Russians they met in line for the border crossing, Paul and his new group scraped together a few thousand dollars to hire a passenger van taxi that transported them several hours to Atyrau, Kazakhstan's main harbor city. From there, Paul traveled to Almaty, where he stayed in the dormitory of Almaty Bible Institute for six weeks while waiting for a new visa to be processed.

Unable to go back to Russia, Paul then flew to Ankara, Turkey, after a layover in Kuwait to visit a friend before he could travel to Moody. A week after Paul’s arrival, he and his friend were evicted from their friend’s apartment building because the landlord wanted to lease their apartment to new tenants for a higher fee.

With nowhere else to turn, Paul got in touch with friends from his home church who agreed to host him for several weeks in a house they were renting in southern Turkey. Then, when he needed transportation and a place to stay in Istanbul as he awaited his flight to Chicago, Paul was connected with a small Istanbul church of about 30 members. The congregation offered to supply him with meals and accommodations inside the church for three days until he flew to Chicago on December 10, 2022.

“My journey was hard, although for me it didn’t feel like something unbearable,” Paul said. “God continues to bless me. When I was in Ankara, a Christian university took me in. I experienced great blessings in all those things.”

The series of “coincidences” that preserved Paul’s health and safety until his arrival at Moody was the hand of God working through the assistance of Gui and numerous other believers at the school and around the world. The behind-the-scenes efforts of Gui, a friend he had never met in person, were particularly valuable.

As one example of Gui’s aid from afar, when Paul needed a new visa, Gui arranged an appointment for him in Kazakhstan and helped arrange for funding to cover all costs. With Paul’s finances especially tight after missing Moody’s fall 2022 semester due to vaccination issues, Gui took it upon himself to contact friends, fellow students, and professors for donations that would support Paul every step of the way.

Gui even connected Paul with a church in Lombard, a suburb of Chicago, that met with Paul via Zoom and agreed to pay the entirety of his online education for the fall 2022 semester.

“I was the project coordinator of Student Missionary Fellowship, a student group at Moody, and we also sent prayer emails to other students around Moody,” Gui said.

“I was actively asking partners to help financially to get Paul to safety. Donations started to come from places I have not imagined helping. We were able to raise funds for his flights all the way to Chicago, to pay for his first semester at Moody, and for his living costs there in Turkey and in Chicago for his transition.”

Throughout Paul’s journey, Gui found himself continually awed by God’s perfect timing.

“First, in giving us peace in the midst of chaos and granting us faith to believe that He is sovereign,” he said.

“Then, having people to walk alongside me in supporting Paul spiritually with prayers and financially. I saw how the Holy Spirit led people in being so generous to Paul.”

That isn’t to say that Gui’s faith never wavered.

“I actually doubted a lot of what God was doing,” Gui said. “I was distraught when Paul was turned back the first time in August (2022). We had gone through all the process of him getting his finances and visas. I was so excited to have him as my roommate for the fall semester and to usher him into the Moody community. Thankfully, God had other plans even though they seemed a lot more uncertain and painful to Paul.”

As he maneuvered through so many uncertainties, Paul actually encouraged Gui as the friends communicated frequently by phone.

“Paul held his peace throughout his whole process,” Gui said. “I am very impatient and can be a very anxious person. I learned from Paul that some things hit very hard on us, and yet God is worthy of every glory, honor, and praise. I believe that Paul ministered to me more than I did to him.

“In the midst of so much chaos and my worries about his life and future, he showed me so much courage and faith while at the same time being content to what God had done in the past, present, and very much what God had for him in the future, even if it meant for him to go back to Russia and eventually reject his drafting into the war and being jailed for non-patriotic beliefs and refusal to follow a government demand.”

When Paul’s flight touched down in Chicago in December 2022 and his dream was finally realized, the first person to greet him at O’Hare Airport was Gui. Paul and Gui had planned to be roommates at Moody during the fall 2022 semester. But with Gui graduating from Moody with a BA in Biblical Studies that month, Paul found a different roommate for the spring 2023 semester.

While Paul is on target to graduate with a BA in Biblical Studies in May 2024, Gui is now majoring in Missionary Aviation at Moody Aviation in Spokane, Washington.

“God has a higher calling for me to combine my passion for flying and the opportunity to reach unreachable people in isolated places around the world,” Gui said.

Although they are now separated by 2,000 miles, their unlikely partnership during Paul’s ordeal has bonded them as friends for life.

“Paul is very smart, dedicated, and a brilliant student,” Gui said. “He was a bit confused in the beginning why I was going beyond my capacities to help him. He was even unsure of taking money from me when I started supporting him. I remember him saying, ‘You don’t know me in person. Why would you like to give me money?’ Obviously he was not ready yet for the generosity we find in many believers around us in America.

“Now I call Paul a best friend despite the little we have lived together. I pray that God leads me to Russia and that I can serve the Russian church with Paul one day. Oh, how sweet this day will be. All glory and praise goes to God alone.”

As Gui alluded to, Paul is convinced that God led him to Moody to prepare him to proclaim the gospel and teach God’s Word in his homeland.

“I definitely am sure that God is calling me to come back to Russia and serve there since I believe He put me there for a reason,” Paul said. “I have access to the people and opportunities which foreign missionaries don’t have. More missionaries are leaving the country, and fewer are coming.

“In a country that is less reached than China, I feel the call to serve in the sense of ‘who if not me.’ I plan to serve in my church and preach and teach and evangelize.”

God opened that door for Paul to train for that special calling through the unlikeliest of friendships.

“Gui is a great friend and brother in Christ,” Paul said. “I truly believe God has sent me him to serve me. Without him I would not be here where I’m standing today.”