The mark Kyrgyzstan gave me
▲A common yurt in Kyrgyzstan, with the Tianshan Mountains visible everywhere behind it.
In June 2018, I had the opportunity to travel to Kyrgyzstan with a group. The "workers" serving here are basically involved in three types of work: education, medical care, and poverty alleviation (business). What we see and understand is that there are many schools, orphanages and chicken farms here, and one of the reasons is that long-term workers need a legal status. Many of the ministries we visited were founded by Elder Yang Jiashan of the Chinese Church in North America. Elder Yang was taken up by the Lord in Chicago in 2017, but the work he started is still here. Many workers and local leaders continue to teach and preach the gospel in the schools he founded from kindergarten to college. Students from Muslim backgrounds return every year. host.
Kyrgyzstan is a very poor country, and most young people go to neighboring countries to work in order to earn more money. So there's a high divorce rate here and a lot of single mothers. This broken reality also presents specific ministry opportunities.
Lessons I Learned as a Theological Student
This journey made me see my own narrow-mindedness. Our team is very diverse, coming from different places and with different church backgrounds. Some brothers and sisters are more spiritual. At first, when I heard them sharing the visions they had seen recently, I thought it was quite funny. But after getting along for a long time, I found that they all love the Lord and turn to God to pray more promptly than I do. And cares more about the people around me than I do. These experiences have humbled me to see that we are far more alike than we are different. We believe in the same gospel. By the end of the trip, two of the sisters and I had become friends and were able to "kick" each other out by making harmless "theological" jokes.
Some local workers also have charismatic backgrounds, and I was very moved by the fact that they risked their lives to dedicate their lives to the Lord on such a front line. I will no longer allow myself to laugh at brothers and sisters of different theological backgrounds.
▲The Tianshan Mountains are shocking, but God’s deeds here are even more shocking.
An overlooked but shocking place
The work of the Holy Spirit is wonderful, and miracles really happen in this place. A Dungan sister shared how Jesus appeared to her in visions and dreams. What she described was so consistent with the teachings of the Bible that I was really shocked. God works wonderfully in ways that go beyond our introduction to systematic theology. The Lord Jesus does show himself to those he loves in a way that pleases him.
On the morning when I first arrived in Bishkek, I saw the Tianshan Mountains for the first time on the minibus. At that moment, I felt a shock that created my confidence. Story, seeing God’s work in this neglected and forgotten nation, the kind of shock to the soul and the opening of eyesight is much more intense and profound than seeing the Tianshan Mountains.
So when I read Romans 1:8-16 again, I had a new perspective. Paul said that he thanked God for the Christians in Rome because their faith was “proclaimed throughout the whole world.” The Christians in Rome presented themselves as victors. You must know that Christians were also a vulnerable group that was ignored or even persecuted in Rome, but their faith was shocking. Paul also said that God could be his witness. ah? What important thing should draw God out to testify? ! Paul said, "I remember you." Indeed, all ministry begins with “remembering”—remembering the work that is unknown but is the testimony of God. It is our nature to forget after an experience and not to think about it after we leave, but Christ wants us to “remember” the story of this group of brothers and sisters who are surrounded by the Tianshan Mountains, have overcome the world, and impact people’s hearts—the story of His church. .