24 BETHELUNIVERSITY.EDU/MAGAZINE Throughout her life, Olga Petrosyan ’06 has seen God’s hand at work in her story. When she was just four years old, her family was forced to flee for their lives from their home in Azerbaijan, losing nearly everything they had, including lucrative careers as an English teacher and space engineer. Ethnically Armenian, they faced rejection and persecution everywhere they went – from Russia, to Ukraine, to Armenia and back to Russia. Her family settled in Volgograd, Russia, with her grandparents, in a house without running water, heat or a septic system. Eventually, in 2009, her parents sought, and won, asylum in the United States. Their harrowing true story is the subject of the feature film “Between Borders,” produced by former missionaries Lonnie and Isaac Norris, now streaming on Amazon and Angel. It stars Elizabeth Tabish of “The Chosen” as Violetta Petrosyan, Olga’s mother and one of the film’s central characters. For Olga, seeing her young life portrayed on the big screen has been both triggering and healing. “I was very scared to see it. I stopped reading the script because I was so triggered,” she says. “When I saw the film, I cried from beginning to end. But through every scene, it was healing.” One of the central themes of the film, and the real life of the Petrosyan family, is coming to faith in Christ through the outreach and kindness of the Norris family, who were missionaries at a Nazarene church in Volgograd. It was during this time that Olga also decided to dedicate her life and her gifts – including her singing voice – to God. “I prayed a dangerous prayer that I would be able to study music at a Christian college one day,” she says. She was first introduced to Bethel after her parents visited campus and connected with longtime Bethel professor Duane Beals, Ph.D., and his wife, Charlotte, while they were in the United States representing Russia at the Nazarene General Assembly in Indianapolis. They videotaped campus for their daughter to see. When Olga saw the video, she was amazed, but the prospect of coming to Bethel seemed impossible. Her parents earned only $100 per month with their incomes combined. However, Charlotte Beals’ sister, Jewel Norris, and her husband, Jim (the parents of missionary Lonnie Norris), learned of Olga’s dream and started the process of fundraising. God equips us all along for our next steps. Nothing is wasted. BY: Lissa (Grashorn) Diaz ’07 FROM REFUGEE TO CHILD OF GOD
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