Author: William Fleeson

Story by William Fleeson Nearly two dozen children fill the multicolored classroom at School Without Walls, an evangelical Christian mission in the village of Svetlii, Moldova. Their smiles convey curiosity, and relief that a group of visitors has temporarily interrupted their schoolwork. Some wear little crosses with a diagonal slat, signaling their Eastern Orthodox religion. Their dark hair and features typify the people of Gagauzia, a poor region of southern Moldova with its own Turkic language, a holdover from the Ottoman Empire that ruled this part of southeast Europe for three centuries. The classroom space, warm and brightly lit, offers…

For young people in eastern Kharkiv, staying is an act of resistance When Liza Andreeva fled her eastern hometown of Kharkiv in March 2022, the evacuation train she took with her mother and 3-year-old brother was so full, people sat and slept in the aisles. The refugees leaned against the walls, their luggage, and each other. Those with children or pets did their best to keep them quiet, to avoid disturbing fellow passengers already stressed to the breaking point. Andereeva spent the next 18 months as a displaced person in Poland, then Germany. After that, she decided to come home…

Inside the Russian campaign to purge Christians from occupied Ukrainian territory In the middle of Sunday morning service, Russian troops stormed into Grace Church of Evangelical Christians, a Baptist congregation in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Melitopol. The glass in the church’s doors shattered as the Russians, using sledgehammers and military assault tactics, smashed their way in. The heavily armed men proceeded to arrest, fingerprint, and interrogate dozens of church members. The soldiers confiscated computers, cellphones, records, and other property. Later, the Russians took the church building itself. Mykhailo Brytsyn, the church’s longtime pastor, was preaching at another church that…