One among many, she quietly walks with a friend along busy sidewalks, passing shop windows plastered with advertisements written in Russian. Her dark, navy jacket blends among the black and gray sea of wool coats and warm knit hats. Taxi drivers wait on their next fare while travelers hope for space on the next overcrowded bus. These are the streets of Voronezh, Russia, a city 300 miles south of Moscow near the Ukraine border.

The woman and her friend approach a 16-story, concrete apartment building reminiscent of communist-era Russia, when conformity defined more than just architecture. A graffiti-laced elevator lazily rises to the 11th floor, where the women exit, voices still not much more than a murmur.

Exclamatory greetings and smiles welcome Lena Lysenko and her friend Olya into the three-room home. The smell of homemade bliny—Russian pancakes topped with sour cream—captures the college girls' attention as they unlace their shoes by the front door. The cold stoicism of industrial Voronezh has faded in the light of warm hospitality.

Most Russians contentedly stay private while out in public, reserving their personal connections to the seclusion of home. Not Lena. At least not all of the time. Most notably, she is public about her faith in God, and she lives it out for all to see.

That faith began behind the closed door of her narrow dorm room—big enough for a twin bed and the necessary space to get dressed—at Voronezh State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering. During winter break 2005, Lena was on the verge of expulsion due to low grades. She came across a Four Spiritual Laws booklet that a Campus Crusade for Christ staff member had given to her the previous year when the staff member had accidentally knocked on Lena's door while searching for someone else. Lena had kept it and pulled it out a year later, rereading the simple explanation of God's love for her. She honestly prayed the prayer written at the end, crying tears seen by no one but her newfound Savior.

Lena had grown up like most young Russians—in an Orthodox environment rich in ritual but lacking in personal connection. "I didn't understand the meaning of Christ's sacrifice," she says.

She soon began to study the Bible, reading much of it for the first time. What she learned behind closed doors revealed that this message was not a private matter. Among the first generations to experience religious freedom in Russia since communism fell in 1991, Lena's peers needed to know what she knew. "When I see lots of people who don't know God, I feel like I want to do something to let them know," she says.

	Lena Lysenko (at left) converses with Campus Crusade for Christ staff member Masha Cherkasova.

One afternoon, Lena joined a group of Campus Crusade staff members and her fellow college students near the center of the city. The open public area was filled with people participating in one of Voronezh's favorite social activities: walking. The Campus Crusade outreach, titled Those That Have Ears May Hear, gave students 89 minutes to speak with as many people as possible about the gospel message. Lena's boldness surprised even herself.

"I was so excited," Lena remembers. "The sun was going down, and two guys came up and asked what was going on. Since it was my first time telling someone the gospel by myself, I didn't care much for the transition. I showed them the Four Spiritual Laws booklet and asked if they would like to hear about it."

Lena delved into an explanation of God's love, the subject of sin, forgiveness and Jesus. In Russian, she described how each must make a decision to accept and surrender to Him.

"The more interested the guy was, the more I wanted to tell him," Lena says. "It surprised me that he was listening and wanted to know what I had to say. That evening was very special for me." Although she is not certain what happened to the man after their conversation, this night sparked a growing passion in Lena to tell anyone and everyone about Jesus.

Tasting the joy of bringing her beliefs into the open, coupled with a desire to help others, brought more opportunities for evangelism into focus. Olya Mishchenko has been a classmate of Lena's since their first semester at the university. When Olya began having problems with her school work, a friend recommended Lena, who quickly lent a hand, having also struggled with the difficult content of their major in the past.

"We began to spend more time with each other," says Lena. "One day, out of nowhere, Olya asked, 'Do you believe in God?'" Lena told her she did and invited Olya to an event hosted by Campus Crusade on their campus. Although many students hesitate to attend something so unfamiliar, Olya accepted.

There, among a small group of students involved with the campus ministry, Olya saw something different. "When I looked into their eyes," she says, "they were so sincere and ready to help. I asked Lena why they were so different. She told me about God."

Olya received a Four Spiritual Laws booklet that night to take home. She read it, then turned again to Lena for answers to her questions. Later, alone in her apartment, Olya prayed and received Christ. Like many new believers in Voronezh, her moment of decision was experienced in private.

But as with Lena, it didn't stay that way for long.

Lena encouraged Olya to see the same need to publicly tell others about God. They now co-lead a women's Bible study through the small home church they both attend. With no building or full-time church staff members, individuals take the initiative to help people learn more about God. "I saw women at church who needed to grow, so I helped organize a Bible study," Lena says.

Lena gathers with two students to pray for their peers and teachers.

"I am glad that Lena and Olya understand the importance of studying the Bible," says Zhenya Zubov, their pastor. "Not many young people in Russia are open to serving God."

The Bible study's members, ranging from college age to grandmothers, gather in a small, fifth-floor apartment each week. Handling everything from lesson preparation to serving hot tea and Russian cookies, Lena's normally reserved manner gives way to confidence. Even when one of the group members, old enough to be Lena's mother, asks about how to handle falling back into previous habits after being a Christian for so long, Lena speaks with authority. "What's important is choosing to obey and take a step of faith," the 23-year-old answered. "Be attentive to God's voice and will. It is not always loud."

It is also not always easy, Lena has learned. Nearly weekly, she travels with a Campus Crusade staff member or fellow student leader to university dorms around the city. Going door to door, she leaves her shy demeanor at home, instead bravely introducing herself to strangers in order to tell them about God and how they, too, can have a relationship with Him.

Sometimes Lena's quiet transparency speaks volumes in the privacy of other students' dorm rooms. Other times, however, the closed doors stay closed.

It discourages Lena, but it doesn't stop her. Even in the last semester of her senior year, while most of her peers were thinking about finishing school, the interior/exterior design major was inspired to make prayer a greater priority among her Christian friends. The first gathering only drew two other students, but they joined Lena in praying aloud for their classmates, instructors and campus. The group stood in the corner of a public area just outside of the campus security office—unwilling to hide.

Now, just months after graduation, Lena has taken the next step in living out her private faith in a public way: becoming a staff member with Campus Crusade. This decision was met with family opposition, but Lena points to the difference God has made in her own life since she became a Christian.

"I asked my mom, 'Are you glad I have changed?' And she said, 'Yes,'" Lena remembers. "Then I said, 'Don't you want other moms to have their children changed like me?'"

While her family wants her to be like everyone else—quietly living her life with her private and public sides separate—Lena dares to be different. She can't keep it to herself.

ACTION POINT - The Next Step >Lena lives out her faith publicly so that others can see. What are some steps you can take in your daily life to be less private about your relationship with God?