Religious Freedom
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 do…
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…
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 long…
“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 ever…
Outreach to Muslim Students in Kyrgyzstan
Alima is a young Christian professional in Kyrgyzstan who teaches math to primarily Muslim students. After attending one of Mission Eurasia’s Next Generation Professional Leader’s Initiatives (NGPLI) forums in Bishkek, Alima was encouraged and filled with new conviction and ideas for sharing the gospel through her profession. She shared her story with us: “I am a math teacher at a Christian school in Kyrgyzstan. I’ve always had a penchant for numbers, and when I had to choose between working as an accountant or a math teacher, I chose to be a teacher because I wanted to be able to connect with students. Moreover, I believe that, as a Christian, my calling is to work professionally while also building relationships with people so I can share my faith. “I am a second generation teacher, as my mother was also a teacher. My father worked in technology and was considered a master…
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…