Sasha and Ira were both born in non-believing families during the existence of the Soviet Union, when the whole country was atheistic. Faith in God was persecuted and people who attended churches were considered mentally and morally underdeveloped. Children of believing parents suffered from merciless bullying in all educational institutions. In Ira’s words, “In our families, there was never any mention of faith in God or Christianity in general. We both went through a divorce in early childhood, my parents divorced when I was three years old and Sasha's parents when he was five years old. I had an alcoholic stepfather and Sasha's mother was a single mom raising Sasha and his brother alone.” Sasha and Ira met at school, at only 14 and 15 years old. They dated for several years and made plans for the future. Ira recalled this time and said, “We had no example of a good family and the right relationship between father and mother because all of our friends had similar situations. But God intervened in our life!”