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‘Relevant’ skills: School Without Walls students thankful
Mission Eurasia’s School Without Walls (SWW) program is equipping and training Next Generation leaders for evangelism and discipleship – one young life at a time. In their own words, these young believers in the Eurasian country of Georgia share how the program has helped prepare them for ministry. Salome’s story When Salome – now 25 – was a child, her grandmother told her about God. “And even though I didn’t understand much of what she said, I was always impacted by the love she felt for the Lord and the kindness of her voice,” Salome shared. “As I got older, I never really thought about whether the things I did were right or wrong.” But Salome said her family told her that she needed to decide if she was going to pursue a “real relationship with God.” As she struggled with this decision, she realized, “I couldn’t find any evidence…
Grigorii’s Story: From Communist Party Leader to Follower of Christ
Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. – Psalm 119:18 “I spent most of my adult life working as a local Communist Party leader,” shared Grigorii. “I ran meetings and kept lists of party members, including members who brought shame on our Party by doing things like attending church. My entire meaning in life was tied up in the Party. “When the Soviet Union fell, I lost my job and my life lost its meaning. I moved to a small town and struggled to make ends meet. I faced a lot of health problems, including difficulty walking and seeing. My old glasses were completely useless and I had no money for new ones. It got to the point where I could no longer watch TV or read a book, and instead I just listened to the radio. In the summer of 2014, I…
Irina’s Story: A Heart Transformed by 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 through 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 who attended the conference became involved with SWW through Mission Eurasia’s summer Bible camp ministry,…
A Muslim Family Transformed by the Gospel: Lika’s Story
“I was born into a Muslim family and like a good Muslim, I followed all of the rituals,” shares Lika, one of our School Without Walls (SWW) students from Georgia. But God got a hold of her heart—and the hearts of her entire family—in a powerful way when she was invited to one of Mission Eurasia’s summer Bible camps . . . “A few years ago when my family moved to the town of Gory, one of my cousins told my parents about a Mission Eurasia summer Bible camp and asked their permission to invite me to attend,” shared Lika. “I attended the camp and was amazed at the kindness of the SWW students I met there—and I started attending a local church soon afterwards. I was so excited about this new church that I shared about it with my whole family, and soon my sister started attending with me….