Der Eindruck eines ausländischen Christen in den Bergen von Kirgistan
[Condensed from a report of a summer stay in the mountains by E.S.]
The Kyrgyz are historically nomadic shepherds. Today they live in villages and cities, yet at the start of summer many of them still take their flocks and herds for a fifty to a hundred mile walk into the mountains to areas where temperatures are cooler, there’s plenty of water, and there’s lots of green grass for grazing. The Kyrgyz call these areas "Jailoos". Since the Jailoo is typically quite a distance from the nearest store or open market, the people tend to eat only bread, milk products which they can get from their cows, and meat from sheep which they have slaughtered. The people tend to go to the same spot every summer, so they know the other families within a five mile radius of them, and whenever anyone passes by they’re very glad to sit down and have tea, bread, and cream together.
One of the families who passed by the place where I was staying invited me to stay with them for a few days, at a place a couple hours’ hike further up the mountain. I gladly accepted. While I stayed with this family, I didn’t have much discussion with the father and mother, but I had plenty of discussion with the two sons who are in their twenties and three of their cousins who are in their late teens. Four of the five of them were quite eager to talk about God. They are convinced that Islam is the only true religion and that I blaspheme by saying that God has a Son. One morning I felt the Holy Spirit giving me all the right things to say to clearly make the case that Jesus is God’s Son and that many things in the Old Testament (which they believe) pointed to Christ’s act of salvation - such as the shedding of the blood being a necessary consequence of sin. Yet they were closed to what I shared, for right after we talked they tried to convince me to repeat the Arabic phrase, "there is no God but Allah, and Muhammad his prophet." As our talks went on, I felt a heavy heart for them, particularly in prayer. I felt that our discussion was mainly academic. They didn’t see any reason to believe the Word I was saying as opposed to the words they had been taught....
The day after I returned to my initial host family, the grandfather got quite upset with one of the boys for not watching the sheep carefully. They decided to count their three hundred sheep, and they found that thirty-four were missing. They were stunned. That many sheep were worth two and a half years’ of a man’s salary. They prepared to go looking for the sheep. I asked whether they minded if I prayed for us to find them. And so I asked in Jesus’ name that we would find the lost sheep.... We spent a good part of the day in a tiring (and toe-blistering) search. We found thirty of them; I was certainly thankful to the Lord for finding the thirty for us, yet I couldn’t help to be sad over the other four. Not only was even four sheep a significant loss for them, but the fact that not all were found didn’t quite as conclusively prove the power of Jesus’ name as I had hoped (or at least from my limited perspective it didn’t.) I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t say that I was disappointed. The next day, as I left the Jailoo, I had a lot to think on. I know that my burden to pray for God to testify to His Word among the people of the U. region is a right one. I see how my role is simply that of the messenger and how the proof has to come from God (after all, His Word says so.) I know too that God alone knows when is the appropriate time for a visible sort of confirmation and when He will best get someone’s attention through a still small voice. Clearly neither of these instances was God’s timing for Him to convict hearts; yet I know that I have to keep praying with faith, and I ask you to keep joining me - that we would believe that in His own timing, and in His own way, God will confirm His message and draw many of those in U. to Himself.
After the first twenty-five sheep were found, the boy who had been yelled at said to me, "you need to pray again for the rest of the sheep," and then when the grandfather came around later carrying two more on his horse, the boy proudly told him, "Evan prayed that we’d find more." Oh, may God draw that young man to Himself and teach him as well to pray in Jesus’ name."
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