Twenty years ago, as Germans pounded the Berlin Wall with sledgehammers, 11-year-old Oksana Boiko couldn’t imagine how her life was about to change.

Like most Russian children, she continued to wear her Pioneer scarf to school — the symbol of the youth program that taught the values of communism. That changed in August 1991, as the Soviet Union dissolved.

For Boiko, an even more dramatic transformation followed in 1994, when she became a Christian. She moved to St. Petersburg, Russia, for college and served as secretary for the Neva Church of Christ. In 2003 she traveled to Ypsilanti, Mich., and with the help of Ken and Karen Martin of Saline, Mich., she earned a master’s in educational leadership from Eastern Michigan University.

“I can’t say enough good about Oksana,” said Joel Petty, an American missionary and former director of the Institute of Theology and Christian Ministry in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Boiko, academic dean for the institute, is not only a skilled educator, but also “a gifted evangelist with a great love for the lost in general and especially adherents of Islam,” Petty said.

This fall Boiko enrolled in a distance-learning program at Fuller Theological Seminary in California, pursuing a master’s in cross-cultural studies with concentration in Islamic studies. She is raising funds to complete the degree.

“I believe this degree will provide me with a better knowledge of the Scriptural, cultural and psychological aspects of sharing the gospel and help me enable other Christians to share the Good News,” she said.


What do you remember about the final days of the Soviet Union? How did your life change?

I don’t remember the fall of the Berlin Wall. I was 13 when the Soviet Union collapsed. I remember we stopped wearing the Pioneer scarves at school — we were required to wear them as a part of the uniform.

After that, the economic situation changed for the worse. We began relying on the crops we raised in the garden. There was a lack of money always and I remember that we couldn’t afford to buy clothes.


How did you become a Christian?

I think my search for God started at the age of 12, when I began wondering if there were more to life than what I had been presented with by society, ideology and my parents.

I had studied English since second grade. There were only a few schools that offered such program in my hometown. Therefore, when the missionaries came it was most logical for them to come to school and offer Bible classes.

The first missionaries — Martha Carroll and her son, Kent, from Texas — came in the middle of the summer of 1993. Since my best friend and classmate, Natalya Morozova, and I had nothing fun to do and we wanted to practice our English, we went to those Bible classes.

We studied the Bible in a group setting for about two months, and I began to realize that what I had heard made sense and very well corresponded with what I had seen in the world. I think that through Christianity, God answered the longing of my heart.

I was baptized in my hometown, in the river Kama, on Aug. 5, 1994.


Do you think Russians are better off now than they were under communism?

I think in terms of opportunities and freedom we’re better off now, but not as much as I’d like.

On the other hand, we have so many poor people — especially elderly — that barely survive. It wasn’t like that during the Soviet time. For a lot of people, if they get disabled they won’t be able to provide for themselves, so it is abject poverty.

People, on the average, live day-in and day-out without much savings for the future. Maybe this is how life is supposed to be, so we can only rely on God. Life here definitely makes my faith stronger.


How have Churches of Christ grown in Russia in the past 20 years?

As far as I know, in most of the big cities of Russia there are Churches of Christ. However, most of them are small — 20 to 50 people on average.

What, in your opinion, are the biggest challenges to church growth in Russia today?

I think the biggest challenge for the churches now is education — in theology, ministry, missions. Church ministers want to systematize their knowledge, have a deeper understanding of Scripture, find answers to their questions, learn how to understand the biblical text better.

They want guidance from more knowledgeable and spiritually mature people. They also want to learn how to minister, how to share the gospel.

These are the needs we hear every year at the Institute of Theology and Christian Ministry from incoming students. There’s a tremendous need to train our own teachers and scholars.
 

Tell a bit about your interest in Islam. How did that come about?

I was born and raised until the age of 18 in one of the Russian republics, Tatarstan, right in the middle of the European part of Russia. The population there is about 50 percent Muslim.

Mostly, people lived together and celebrated each other’s holidays, cooked the foods of each other’s cuisines, et cetera.

Until I met Muslims in Michigan, where I studied from 2003 to 2005, I never had any encounter with Islam as a belief.

At the university in Michigan I met several Muslims from Turkey, and we had a lot in common in terms of culture.

I befriended quite a few Muslims, and that’s when I really began learning the Islamic belief system and got insight on the traditions in different countries where Muslims are the majority.


We understand you have studied at a Muslim cultural center in St. Petersburg, and that you once contradicted a teacher who made inaccurate statements about the Bible. What was that like?

This happened in 2007 at an Islamic cultural center. (We have three in the city, plus two mosques — the oldest is one of the largest mosques outside the Muslim world.) I was taking Arabic lessons with a friend — a recent convert to Islam. 

We studied in a class with one of the leaders of that center. I had a Bible with me — just in case I could give it as a present.

My friend and the teacher began talking about King David, and I got my Bible out and was looking for a psalm. The teacher saw it and began talking about Moses. He was making such grave factual mistakes that, when I corrected him, even my Muslim friend supported me.

At the end of the conversation the teacher asked me if I could show him the Old and New testaments. So I presented him with the Bible I had brought.

Of course, I was shocked that he asked me for the Bible. I was in awe, seeing God at work. It was also disturbing and stressful to hear how God’s truth was twisted.


What do you like best about your job?

I like the fact that people learn something new every day — and I can see how the students grow not only in knowledge, but spiritually. It changes their lives — and mine too. It is never boring.

There are a lot of challenges in educating others, and a lot of responsibility. But it is also one of the most rewarding jobs in the world — not financially, but psychologically.  


ADDITIONAL REPORTING: LYNN McMILLON


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