Even Irina

Papa closed the curtains so no one could see inside their house. Irina felt a tingle of fear. Sunday was the scariest day of the week! There was not one church house in their town in Kazakhstan. The government made sure of that. Papa and Mama and others who wanted to have church met in each other’s houses.

Papa prayed every day that Irina would grow up to obey God. But Irina’s teacher said that God did not exist. “Do you believe in God?” Irina’s teacher asked her. What would happen to Papa and Mama if Irina told the truth?

Even Irina is a true story that shows both children and adults what life was like for believers in a Communist country in the 1970s.