School Without Walls
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…
God’s Word in the War Zone: Yevgenia’s Story
Over the summer, our School Without Walls (SWW) students hosted a youth Bible camp in the front-line cities of Andreyevka and Avdeyevka, Ukraine–in partnership with a local Mennonite church. Yevgenia, a 16-year-old girl from Andreyevka, was just one of the many young people who participated in this camp and had a life-changing experience with Jesus. Yevgenia, her mother, and their friends are going through a hard time, as war continues to rage in their hometown, and they hear the sound of gunfire almost every day. Sadly, even before the war broke out, Yevgenia had already experienced suffering. Her father abandoned her 16-year-old mother as soon as he found out that she was pregnant, so Yevgenia never met him. Her mother’s grandmother was also killed in a car accident when she was seven months pregnant, and the emotional and psychological stress caused Yevgenia’s mother to go into early labor, so Yevgenia…
Yura’s Story
Our School Without Walls (SWW) students in Moldova met Yura three years ago when he was 12 years old. They met Yura through his sister Inna who had been attending church for a while and had made a decision to follow Christ. She then started inviting Yura to children’s events at church. Yura was always very shy and reserved and wouldn’t talk to anyone. Inna explained to them that he had speech impediments, and she gave some more background information about their family. Their mother worked in Russia to support the family and was almost never around. Their father was an alcoholic and was abusive towards his children. Yura’s speech was developing normally until one day when his father returned home drunk and his aggressive behavior scared Yura so badly that afterwards he shut down as a way of protecting himself, and his speech problems were one way that this…
Zulfiya’s Story: Rescued from Drug Addiction
Zulfiya is one of our current School Without Walls students in Perm, Russia. Today she is thriving, growing in her faith, running a business, and leading an NGO that cares for homeless people in her community. But before her miraculous transformation, drug addiction stole 18 years of her life. She shared her story with us of how God rescued her from her addiction and led her to get involved in School Without Walls: “I could have died from drugs, and lost my husband and son and parents,” shares Zulfiya. “I never would have lived to see another day full of joyful laughter, the blue sky, and warm sun. Drugs stole 18 years of my life, and took my family and everything I held dear from me. “There was one day in my life that changed me from a young girl into a lonely, miserable creature living in the basement of an…