Russian Christians flee persecution

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, October 29th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: A Christian family flees Russia.

Russians who criticize the Ukraine war risk freedom, personal safety, and even custody of their children. Amnesty International estimates 20,000 Russians have suffered reprisals for protesting the war.

EICHER: Zhanna and Sergey Kosiak fled Russia with their two children earlier this year out of fear for their family’s safety.

WORLD’s Compassion reporter Addie Offereins spoke with the couple a few weeks ago … and learned that the government targeted them and other members of their church for speaking out against the war.

The Kosiaks are now hoping to reach the United States by way of Mexico.

REICHARD: WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has the story.

AUDIO: [SINGING AROUND THE TABLE]

KRISTEN FLAVIN: Zhanna and Sergey are gathered with a small group of Russians around a wooden dining table in Tijuana, Mexico, singing praise songs in the home of a Mexican pastor.

When the couple fled Russia earlier this year, they weren’t sure whether they’d have a roof over their head, let alone a welcoming community.

AUDIO: [SINGING AROUND THE TABLE]

Zhanna and Sergey met in 2010 at a Bible school in Ukraine. Sergey is Russian, Zhanna Ukrainian. The couple married and settled in a Russian city near the Russia-Kazakhstan border with their two children

KOSIAK: I've been in Russia for 14 years.

That’s Zhanna. Sergey doesn’t speak much English. Two years ago, everything changed for the family of four.

ANCHOR: Good morning from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. Gunfire and explosions have been heard here and in the second city of Kharkiv …

When the war started, the couple decided that Zhanna would speak out against it.

KOSIAK: I can’t be quiet because many of my friends and my parents are in Ukraine. I need to support them. So we decided that only I will post, and we were thinking that if something happened, maybe they wouldn't take a mother of two kids.

She posted on Facebook and made videos explaining why she believed the war was wrong and describing how it was devastating her homeland.

AUDIO: [ZHANNA ON YOUTUBE]

That’s Zhanna in one of her YouTube videos in the early days of the war.

The pastor of their church also vocally opposed the war.

KOSIAK: In Russia, churches don't say anything about the war. So in our city, only our church has an anti war position.

Children at the church made bracelets, baked goods, or painted pictures to raise money to support Ukraine.

KOSIAK: For us, a Christian position is an anti war position in this time, and if you call things by their proper names, that war is war, you will be persecuted everywhere.

Men at the church handed out leaflets opposing Russia’s role in the war.

KOSIAK: That it was a sin before God to kill a brotherly people.

Police arrested one of the men.

KOSIAK: He was held at the police station for almost two days. He was beaten, humiliated

Authorities searched his home and confiscated information about the other church members.

KOSIAK: If they see that you have posted something, you go to prison, they can take your kids to the government house for kids.

Most of the church members decided to flee to the United States’ border with Mexico and request asylum.

KOSIAK: We in the Russian Federation are deprived of the opportunity to protect ourselves. We are deprived of the opportunity to speak our Christian position. We are deprived of the opportunity to speak the truth.

The Koziaks left Russia in February. Authorities interrogated Zhanna for two hours at the Russian border. But, eventually, the couple boarded a plane in Turkey bound for Mexico.

KOSIAK: We are praying and asking God for help, because we only have money to live in Mexico for two months. We pray and pray and pray. And then our pastors call us and say, oh, there is one place for your family in Tijuana.

Juvenal González pastors a church in Tijuana, just across the border from San Diego, California. His church distributes breakfast at a border shelter and he and his wife have also opened their home.

GONZALEZ: We decided about two years ago to allow people to stay in our home, especially those people from Afghanistan. They're Christian, and they've been persecuted and all that because of their Christian beliefs. And also people from Russia.

The pastor and his wife are currently hosting five Russian families, some of them were also members at the Kosiak’s church in Russia

KOSIAK: Pastor Juvenal’s house is like a refuge, and for us, it's God’s miracle.

The Kosiaks hope to request asylum in the United States—a status granted to individuals fearing persecution on account of their race, religion, or political opinion. Asylum-seekers must first apply for an appointment to enter the country at a port-of-entry using a Customs and Border Protection mobile app.

PUTZEL-CAVANAUGH: So a person would make a registration on the app, and then every day, they would have to ask for an appointment.

Colleen Putzel-Cavanaugh is an associate policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute.

PUTZEL-CAVANAUGH: And the way that those appointments are allocated, there's 1450 border-wide spread across eight ports of entry

The average wait time for an appointment is about six months. The Kosiaks have been waiting for more than seven.

KOSIAK: Many people just want to go to the United States. They don't have persecution or something.

They resubmit their appointment application every day

AUDIO: [SINGING AROUND THE TABLE]

Often, the Kosiaks and the other families gather around the dining table with Pastor González and his wife to sing and pray.

GONZALEZ: We pray for the needs, for the families and even for their job and future here in the United States.

He knows the wait can be discouraging.

GONZALEZ: Thousands of people are applying every day. Sometimes, they say, sorry, Pastor, we did not get it today. They worry that maybe one day I'm gonna get up in the morning and I say, everybody need to leave my house, I say, No, that's not going to happen. As long as God is being faithful and provided we will continue to support you

The Kosiaks aren’t sure how much longer they’ll be waiting in Tijuana. But they're grateful for the family they’ve found in the meantime.

KOSIAK: We understand that God's time is the best…So every day, we are praying only for this, that God's will will be in our life

For WORLD’s Addie Offereins who wrote and reported this story, I’m Kristen Flavin.

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