Religious Freedom
He Was Going to Serve: Remembering Dmytro Panychuk
Dmytro Panychuk was a husband, father, and a servant in his church who knew how to feed people-both with food and steady words of faith. When war came to Vorzel, Ukraine, he turned his kitchen into a ministry of survival, sheltering 35 people. On March 3, 2022, Dmytro was killed by Russian forces while carrying food to neighbors hiding in a basement. His final earthly act was a testament to his life’s mission: he wasn’t going to his death, he was going to serve. “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” – Matthew 25:35 Dmytro Panychuk was killed on March 3, 2022, in Vorzel, Kyiv region. He was 47. Russian soldiers shot him on the street while he was carrying food to people hiding in a basement from shelling and occupation. He…
A Brother Who Could Not Walk Past: Remembering Viktor Maniushkin
Remembering Viktor Maniushkin, a young Ukrainian believer killed by rockets in Mariupol while running to save his neighbors’ burning home. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” – John 15:13 January 19, 1999 – March 10, 2022 Viktor Maniushkin was 23 years old. He was killed on March 10, 2022, during a Russian shelling of Mariupol – one of the first cities Russia tried to destroy in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. His family describes him simply: he was the kind of person who could not walk past someone in need without trying to help. That sentence is not a eulogy ornament. It is the most accurate description of how he died. A Faith That Was His Own Viktor’s faith in God and his baptism were a mature, personal decision. He once told those close to him: “I don’t want to…
The Pastor Who Stayed Close: Remembering Leonid Skumatov
Pastor Leonid Skumatov stayed in the frontline city of Myrnohrad to serve the elderly and wounded. He was killed by a Russian drone on September 20, 2025. “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to Him.” – Luke 20:38 By September 2025, Myrnohrad was living in the shadow of the front line. The mining city had been steadily losing the markers of ordinary life. Homes were damaged, pharmacies and shops no longer functioned as they once had, communication was failing, and the roads grew more dangerous with each passing week. The people who remained were mostly those who could not leave – the elderly, the sick, the wounded, and those without the strength, resources, or relatives to carry them out. Among them was Leonid Stepanovych Skumatov, pastor of the Evangelical Christian Baptist church in Myrnohrad. He could have left. People urged him…
“I Felt As If I Were in Paradise”: How a Summer Camp in Central Asia Pulled a Young Man Back From the Edge
Born with severe cerebral palsy and abandoned by his parents, Ruslan arrived at camp planning to end his life. He left knowing a Father who would never leave. “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” – Psalm 147:3 When Ruslan* was three years old, his parents looked at the son they had been given – a boy born with severe cerebral palsy – and decided they could not keep him. They were ready to place him in a state orphanage. In Central Asia, that decision is functionally a sentence. Institutional care for children with disabilities in the former Soviet republics has long been documented as among the most dehumanizing forms of childhood survival in the world. *Name changed for security reasons. A grandmother heard. She intervened. After many conversations, Ruslan’s parents agreed to release him to her care instead. She has been the one constant in his life…
From Cast Out to Sent Out: How a Central Asian Seamstress Is Threading the Gospel Through Her Community
Cast out by her family for her faith, Fatima returned with a transformed heart. Discover how this Central Asian seamstress is using her sewing machine as a powerful tool for gospel ministry. “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” – Hebrews 10:24 In 2018, a young woman in Central Asia watched a friend’s life come undone – and then quietly, miraculously, come back together. Her friend had lived hard. By his own account, there was no sin he had not tried. And then he met Jesus, and the change was not the polished, gradual respectability of a man cleaning up his act. It was a shattering. A reordering. The kind of transformation that makes the people around you stop and stare. Fatima* stared. “I want to believe in a God who can change a life like that,” she told him. Not…
Christianity in Azerbaijan: The Church in a Secular Muslim Nation
Azerbaijan presents a fascinating paradox. Between 85-97 percent of the population is culturally Muslim—predominantly Shia with a significant Sunni minority. Yet the country maintains a firmly secular constitution, a legacy of Soviet-era atheism, and deliberate government policy… The government actively restricts religious expression it considers extreme or foreign, applying these restrictions to both Islamic movements and non-traditional religious groups.