Story Title
Tatyana’s Story: New Life Through God’s Word
Tatyana, who lived in Gorlovka, Ukraine with her husband, Vitaly, and their two daughters, never dreamed that war would ever come to her homeland. After the fighting broke out in Ukraine, Vitaly felt called to defend his country, so he joined the army and left to serve in the war zone. Two weeks later, Tatyana learned that her husband had been killed in the fighting. She was shocked and couldn’t bear to break the news to her children, Nadya and Alina. After receiving the news about Vitaly’s death, Tatyana and her daughters fled to the village of Granitnoye in the Donetsk region, where Tatyana’s mother lived. For the first four months after the move, Tatyana couldn’t find work, so she helped her mother with the household chores. Her family only survived because of the help they received from School Without Walls (SWW) students, who brought them humanitarian aid and…
The (Literally) Life-Saving Power of God’s Word
“I am always looking for new ways to share the Gospel,” shares Olga, one of our ministry partners from Barnual, Russia. “One way I do this is by visiting the local train station once a week to leave a few copies of God’s Word around the station. “One week when I was in the process of setting out a few of the New Testaments that I had received from Mission Eurasia, I heard a voice behind me ask, ‘Are you the one who brings Scriptures here?’ I turned around to see a severe-looking elderly woman, dressed all in black. ‘Yes, I am,’ I replied. To my shock, she bowed to me. She told me that she had been visiting the train station every day for a month, hoping to meet me and share her remarkable story with me. She told me that normally she always carries a copy of the New…
Meeting Jesus Through Gift of Hope
Every Christmas season, the School Without Walls (SWW) students and graduates trained and equipped by Mission Eurasia deliver thousands of Christmas gifts to children in need throughout Eurasia. Each festive, hand-delivered Gift of Hope is filled with toys, treats, and a children’s storybook Bible that shares the story of the greatest Gift of Hope of all: Jesus. The gifts are distributed by our leaders in orphanages, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, schools, and neighborhoods where children are suffering or abandoned. Each Gift of Hope gift represents a connection to the local church and a starting point for a relationship with caring Christian role models. Tigran, whose life was impacted through Gift of Hope and the example of one of our SWW students, Alexey, shared his story with us in his own words: “My name is Tigran, and I am 12 years old. My mother died of cancer when I was nine, and my dad is a…
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…
Olesya’s Story: Finding God’s Light in a Dark World
In the midst of the spiritual emptiness spreading across Russia, Light Magazine–a beautiful evangelistic magazine containing the Gospel of John and designed and printed in partnership with ShareWord Global– is helping young people choose to follow Christ, rather than living for the world. These remarkable young people, like Olesya, are spreading God’s Light to their communities and families: Olesya is 15 years old and was born in South Ossetia, but her family moved to North Ossetia not long after her birth. There they started going to church, where Olesya’s brother and parents were baptized. After becoming a believer, Olesya’s father stopped drinking and swearing. “I was so happy that my family became Christians, because we finally got along,” she shared. However, after some time, Olesya’s father left the Church because he was angry that so many people claimed to be Christians but didn’t live in line with God’s teaching. Sadly, his disappointment led him…