Note: This update was adapted from a post on the website of our national affiliate, the Association for Spiritual Renewal.

On March 11-12, 2011, both a strategic planning meeting for Russian  Ministries’ School Without Walls coordinators and a Purpose Driven Journey seminar took place at the Association for Spiritual Renewal Center (Russian Ministries’ national affiliate) in Irpen, Ukraine.

As the 85 School Without Walls coordinators and teachers from Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus gathered, they talked through plans and strategies for this training ministry as well as the very real difficulties and abundant blessings they experience in their leadership of School Without Walls.

During this meeting, Next Generation Christian leaders Vitaly Shabunin and Andrei Murzin made two key presentations.  Shabunin shared how the church can influence society, and pointed out the passivity of Protestant churches in Ukraine when it comes to lobbying and making their voices heard.

Andrei Murzin’s presentation was on Orthodoxy in post-Soviet society.  Murzin touched on the delicate topic of dialogue between Protestants and the government-sanctioned Orthodox Church.

Over 50 pastors, youth leaders, School Without Walls students and others joined the School Without Walls coordinators for the Purpose Driven Journey seminar, led by Dr. Mark Carver, Andrew Lossau and Andrei Bondarenko of Saddleback Church.

The three men taught about the church’s and individual Christians’ five-fold purpose: worship, service, evangelism, fellowship, and teaching. National church leader Anatoly Kaluzhny, pastor of the New Life Church in Kiev, has integrated the Saddleback Church paradigm in his church, and he taught on communicating to change lives.

A lively panel discussion of the role and influence of the evangelical church in the swiftly-changing modern world featured the president of the Ukrainian Baptist Union, Vyacheslav Nesteruk, pastors Leonid Kartavenko (Moscow, Russia), Gennady Brutsky (Minsk, Belarus)  and Sergei Guts (Ulyanovsk, Russia), evangelist Andrei Bondarenko and Dr. Mark Carver of Saddleback.

The informal conversation among panelists covered serious and important topics-the decrease in influence of the church in society, church growth, and the low number of men in the church.

Michael Cherenkov, vice-president of the Association of Spiritual Renewal, noted that evangelical Christianity doesn’t shy away from using a variety of approaches and methods to overcome some of these difficulties.

This two-day seminar motivated young Christian leaders to expand their horizons, and go beyond the walls of their churches to reach out to the world.

On the 100^th anniversary of International Women’s Day, we’d like you to meet two young women, young Next Generation Christian leaders, who are making a difference for Christ and helping to shape the future of the former Soviet Union.

Liza, a student at School Without Walls, seized the day during a School Without Walls session on missions and signed up for a short-term missions trip. Liza and another young woman traveled to Abkhazia, a disputed territory between the republic of Georgia and Russia this past fall.

Liza and her friend discovered that many people in this heavy Muslim-populated region didn’t want to hear the gospel, and some blamed the hypocrisy of local Orthodox priests for their indifference.

But these two young women would not be stopped from sharing the gospe!

God gave Liza and her friend opportunities to share the gospel with a group of Abkhazian women, including their landlady . . . and word on the street began to spread about these two missionary girls and their faith.

Liza also saw God’s protection in this region that has a high crime rate, so high that their landlady’s husband kept a gun close by while he slept. One night, two men followed Liza home with the intent to kidnap her, but God protected her and she made it safely home-ready the next morning to go out and proclaim the deeds of a great God to a needy people.

Meet Diana, the camp coordinator for Russian Ministries’ evangelistic summer camp in Ingushetia, one of the most dangerous regions in the violence-plagued Northern Caucasus.

“The camp took place in a state of constant danger,” recalls Diana, “but we achieved our goal.” With God’s help, camp staff and counselors broke through hostilities and barriers, and were invited back to hold camps this summer. ” Our team is already preparing for this year’s summer camps.”

Diana also saw God work in her own heart. “For the first time in my life I realized how dear this nation is to me as I saw their children at camp. I grew up with an attitude of national prejudice and hatred for the people of Ingushetia, but Jesus broke down the barriers and destroyed the hatred. He showed all of us that these children, this nation are in great need of Him!”