School Without Walls
Sharing Christ in the University
Anara (name changed for safety) is one of our current School Without Walls (SWW) students in Kyrgyzstan and a university professor. He uses his influential profession, and the cultural respect he commands as a teacher, to share Christ with his students and their families in this largely Muslim country: “My parents teach at a local university in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and I knew from a very young age that I also wanted to be a professor,” shares Anara. “This is a very honorable profession in Central Asia, and teachers are often called ‘Mughal,’ which means ‘honorable person.’ “After I accepted Christ as my Savior, I started going to church, where I got involved in SWW. I was particularly impressed by the courses that focused on talking with Muslims about Jesus, and I started questioning how I could possibly share the gospel with my students and still be regarded as an ‘honorable…
Sona’s Testimony: From Emptiness to Hope and Meaning
Sona is a vibrant young Next Generation leader from Armenia who is being trained through our School Without Walls program. She shared her incredible testimony with us of how God filled the emptiness of her life with love, meaning, and lasting hope in Him: “I am 20 years old, and I became a believer when I was 15. My parents got divorced when I was 10, and after my father left, I was very angry and I felt so empty without him. I closed myself off emotionally and tried to pretend like I was tough. When I was 14, I asked myself, Why am I here. Why I was born? I believed that God existed, but I imagined that He was far away and that I was alone on earth. “I tried to fill the void in my heart with science, school, and music, and eventually, I started listening to heavy metal….
Fearless Faith: Christian Leaders in Tajikistan
“Evangelical churches in our country are not very numerous, but we aspire to impact our society and we are grateful to School Without Walls for their help in this,” shared Arash (name changed), a national School Without Walls (SWW) coordinator for Tajikistan, speaking to 80 young Next Generation Christian leaders at a Next Generation Professional Leaders Initiative (NGPLI) conference last week. Tajikistan is over 90% Muslim, and Christians who openly share their faith risk persecution from their families, in the educational system, and from employers. Therefore, the goal of the conference was to pass on a vision of influential Christianity to these young Tajik Christians and to inspire and teach them how to be witnesses for Christ and transform their society through treating their workplace as a mission field. Bahram (name changed), a university student, shared how the conference’s message impacted him: “It’s not easy being a Christian in our…
Transforming Society in Kyrgyzstan
A recent School Without Walls (SWW) seminar in Kyrgyzstan focused on helping students respond to the unique challenges they face in their country following a recent incident. After a 76-year-old Christian woman passed away, Muslim leaders wouldn’t allow her to be buried in the local cemetery due to her faith, so her family had to dig up her body and bury her in a different village. However, the people in this village also didn’t want her to be buried in their cemetery, so her body was unearthed again and moved to a cemetery at a Russian Orthodox Church. Yet again, this burial was also not approved, so without informing her relatives, her body was dug up for a third time and taken to an unknown location. There have been many instances like this, but this particular case has gotten a lot of publicity among Christians, and throughout Kyrgyz society as…
Impacting Uzbekistan for Christ
Even though Christians in Uzbekistan often suffer religious persecution at the hands of local authorities, the School Without Walls (SWW) coordinator in the capital city of Tashkent, and a group of SWW graduates, organized a round table discussion on the Next Generation Professional Leaders Initiative (NGPLI) for 35 young professionals from four different churches. The lack of religious freedom in Uzbekistan makes NGPLI even more relevant in that context, as traditional means of sharing the Gospel are very risky. “I’m prepared to go out of my way to help my clients resolve problems with our product. I do my work well and respect my clients. They see this and value it,” shared Shahrat (name changed), a Christian businessman who spoke about the impact his faith has had in his professional context. “I never hide my faith, and my good relationship with my clients allows me to share the Gospel with…
Marat’s Story: Hearing God’s Calling Through School Without Walls
“I first heard about God through my uncle when I was ten,” shares Marat, a School Without Walls student who also studies engineering at a local university in Vladikavkaz, Russia. “He was in a coma for 40 days after being in a car accident that killed four of his friends. During this time his church prayed for and cared for him unceasingly, and my mother accepted Christ after seeing the love and care they showed him. I visited church with her for the first time around then. “A few years later, I participated in a SWW hiking camp and I was very impressed by the students’ kindness and support for one another. They also encouraged me to keep going when I felt like I couldn’t walk anymore. After this camp, I started actively attending church. My uncle had become a deacon and my family had all been baptized when I…