Kyrgyzstan’s inspiration and touch

2018 Kyrgyz Republic Visit Review

Photo courtesy/Huang Mingfa

About fourteen years ago, I first set foot in Kyrgyzstan, which was a great shock. The difference in cultural and economic conditions left a deep impression on me. The people who followed me were a group of young people who grew up in the United States. For them, life in Kyrgyzstan was simply unimaginable. Some of the things they did there might be the first time in their lives. However, because of this, our church (New Jersey Lord’s Grace Church) has sent a summer short-term mission team to Kyrgyzstan every year to help the Christian schools and orphanages established by Elder Yang Jiashan.

The Bethel Center also began planning and promoting a mission to Kyrgyzstan four years ago. This time, there are about forty-five members from different cities and countries, the largest number ever. They include church leaders, heads of organizations, and brothers and sisters who are looking for a cross-cultural mission field or are interested in becoming missionaries. In just one week, everyone has experienced a lot. Whether it is what they heard, saw, or received, it is difficult to describe it in words. Cross-cultural missionary work is a new field for the Chinese. During this journey, we all have the opportunity to hone each other and learn together. I hope that this kind of missionary mission can sharpen the edge.

my most touching moment

During this mission, we specially arranged for everyone to come into contact with several different teams: education, medical care, poverty alleviation, business missions, agriculture, orphanages, language schools, discipleship training, theological teaching, tourism, early childhood education, etc. In addition, we also arranged for everyone to participate in the worship of the local Russian church and the worship of the Chinese church.

The most touching moment for me was the performance of the orphans during the Russian-language church service. They were originally going to visit the United States in April this year (2018), and they had arranged more than fifteen performances in the eastern United States. Whether they were short plays, dances, poems, testimonies, hand bells, etc., they were very touching. The result of so much hard work and hard training, but was forced to cancel due to visa rejection. Now being able to see the results of their rehearsals in the Russian-speaking church is really comforting, and I believe that all these efforts will not be in vain.

▲Watching the performance of orphans in the Russian-speaking church was the most touching moment for the author.

The Lord is so urgent

We also arranged a special testimony during the event. There was a girl who grew up in a Muslim environment and was familiar with the Quran. Her father and brother are both imams (meaning teachers or scholars), but she is far more familiar with the Quran than her father and brother. However, she had been suffering from an incurable disease since she was a child, and she didn’t know how long she had to live. Until one day Jesus appeared to her in a dream and healed her. He even showed her his hands with nail marks. Because she had never been exposed to Christianity or attended church, she didn’t know that it was Jesus.

Later, because I met a Christian sister, I learned that Jesus healed her. This sister took her to church, and she has been going to church ever since. Not only did Jesus heal her, he even appeared to her in her dreams every day, teaching her, telling her what she had done wrong, what words she said wrong, and what records in the Bible she was based on. This went on for a long time.

Everyone was stunned and could hardly believe it. In the past few years, I have often heard that Jesus appeared to Muslim friends in dreams, or gave them revelations in dreams and led them to believe in the Lord. But this was the first time to hear first-hand testimony face to face, and it was quite shocking. . It also makes us deeply feel that our Lord loves our Muslim friends so urgently! Such testimonies help us further understand the mind of the Lord Jesus. We hope that we can always take the heart of Christ as our heart and convey this vision so that more Chinese people can participate in Muslim propaganda.

"The Lord has helped us so far."

This publicity visit was also the most challenging in the past because the number of people far exceeded the number of beds the foundation could accommodate. So we were forced to stay in the capital, Bishkek, and take the bus to Tokmah every day to visit the elementary schools, junior high schools, high schools, universities and orphanages sponsored by the foundation. The journey took nearly two hours. Time, efficiency, Cost and co-ordination are relatively difficult. In addition, the person in charge of the local travel agency is unable to accompany and translate throughout the process due to family commitments, which brings even greater challenges.

Thank the Lord that different angels come to help us every day so that our schedule is not delayed. Although our plans often fail to keep up with changes, God has the best arrangements every time, which deeply touches us. As Psalm 84:5 says: “Blessed is the man who has strength in You and sets his heart on the highway to Zion!” We believe this is a new highway, a road to sanctification, It is also a pilgrimage road, a road where God is present and under God’s control. Although we come from different places, we are heading for the same Zion Highway. On this road we walk hand in hand and heart to heart. Because this is a new season, God is going to do new things and great things in this new season. God will raise up Chinese people from all over the world to walk this Zion Highway together - the highway to meet God.

Although everyone is called to serve in different places, whether in China, Central Asia, the Middle East, or Israel..., in the end we all have to meet God in Zion. This is the destiny of the Chinese people. In the near future, we will continue to promote life journeys at different levels every year, including prayer walks, missionary visits, experience camps, short-term missions or long-term missions, etc., through travel in Xinjiang (ancient Silk Road), in Central Asia ( Kyrgyzstan, etc.) and the Middle East (Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, etc.). We hope that more Chinese will respond to God’s call, enter the Promised Land together, and move towards unified missionary work together.

The LORD Ben-ezer, the LORD has helped us until now. (See 1 Samuel 7:12)

Kyrgyzstan (also called Kyrgyzstan) is an ancient landlocked country in Central Asia, bordering China to the east. It has a nomadic tradition and beautiful scenery. It is a low- to middle-income country. Its economy is mainly based on mineral mining and agriculture, and it relies on remittances from citizens working abroad. . Gross domestic product (GDP) ranks 144th in the world. It gained independence in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed. Ethnic groups: 73.2% Kyrgyz, 14.6% Uzbek, 5.8% Russian, 1.1% Dungan, and 5.3% other (2017 data). Languages: Kyrgyz (official) 71.4%, Uzbek 14.4%, Russian (official) 9%, other 5.2% (2009 data). Religion: 75% Muslim, 20% Russian Orthodox, 5% other. (Compiled by: Li Wenping/Source: US Central Intelligence Agency website www.cia.gov)