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The Eternal Impact of a Young Leader
David was born in Georgia, but in the late ‘90s, he moved to Israel to escape the law after living a life of crime for many years. After moving, he began using drugs, but in 2010, when he felt trapped in addiction, he checked into the Living Israel rehabilitation center in Haifa. When he completed his four-month program, he enrolled in School Without Walls (SWW) and lived in a monastery for a year. During that time, he married Svetlana, who is also a former drug addict, and now they have two children together. David served in ministry in Haifa for several years, but in 2015, he and his family moved to Rishon LeZion to start a new rehabilitation center. Since then, David and Svetlana have also started three home churches for about 30 people, and now they would like to start nine more home churches in their community so even…
“Discovering the Love of My Heavenly Father”
“My name is Roman and I was born in Israel to a family that didn’t know God. My father was a drug addict, and when I was only a few months old, he left my mother and me and moved to Eilat, Israel’s southernmost city. Later, I learned that he justified leaving by saying that he didn’t want his son to know his terrible father. In fact, I didn’t know my father was a drug addict for 10 years. I actually didn’t even know that he was still alive. “When I was 10, my father called me for the very first time. He said, ‘Son, you don’t know me, but I’m your father. I’ve been a horrible father, because I’ve never paid attention to you, but I recently became a new person. God changed me.’ That was also the first time I ever heard about God. It turned out that…
Andrey’s Story: Freed from Addiction
“I had dedicated myself to Satan and was involved in the practice of the occult from an early age. When I was only 14, I began to use drugs and then graduated to heavier drugs. I soon realized that I couldn’t help myself, even though I knew deep down inside that I should stop. My addiction to drugs was just part of a destructive lifestyle that involved immoral behavior, clubs, parties, women, and everything that the world could offer “I ended up in a lot of rehabilitation centers over the years, and it seemed like there was no hope. But when I entered the Christian rehab center in Haifa, I somehow believed that things would be different. And they were! The Christian rehab center in Haifa actually served as a springboard to a new life that is now full of joy! It was here that God changed me from the…
Irina’s Story: A Heart Transformed at Summer Bible Camp
God can transform even the hardest of hearts in an instant, and at our summer Bible camps each year, thousands of young people surrender their lives to Jesus. For the last four years, the village of Andreyevka, Ukraine has endured the violence, destruction, and despair of war. In order to share the eternal hope and peace of Christ with the children and youth living in these tragic circumstances, our School Without Walls (SWW) students from Berdyansk have been hosting summer Bible camps in war-torn Andreyevka since the war broke out. Last year, Irina, a young woman from Andreyevka, was invited to camp by one of her friends. At first, Irina and her group had no interest in Christianity and just wanted to hang out together, but then God started working in Irina’s heart. “I wanted to relax and get away from my everyday worries, but then I saw a completely…
Abandoned by the World, Adopted by the Church
“I am a Christian because when the rest of the world turned its back on me, the church was there for me,” shares Sanzhar (name changed for safety), one of our current School Without Walls (SWW) students from Kazakhstan. Despite the danger of being an open Christian in Kazakhstan, Sanzhar refuses to stop sharing the Good News because, in his own words, “Now that I am saved, I cannot help but share this Good News with others. I must share God’s love with a dying world.” It was a long and painful journey for Sanzhar to come to know Christ and join SWW. He was born to alcoholic parents, and he and his younger brother suffered a lot growing up. However, even though he had never been taught anything about God as a child, he found himself praying in his darkest and most difficult moments, and that brought him comfort…
Young Christians Sharing Christ in Rural Mongolia
The name of our School Without Walls (SWW) program comes from the flexible, adaptable nature of this strategic leadership training program—our SWW sessions and students are not confined to the traditional walls of a school building, but instead they are encouraged to conduct ministry training on the ground wherever it is needed most. Any place where a group of dedicated young believers is gathered can become the site of a vibrant SWW movement! A recent SWW conference titled “I Am, I Can, I Will” took place in a yurt base in rural Mongolia. The goal of this conference was to encourage nearly 50 young Next Generation Christian leaders from western Mongolia to deepen their own relationship with God and motivate and equip them to share the gospel with their surrounding communities. Many of the young people who attended the conference became involved with SWW through Mission Eurasia’s summer Bible camp…