Ministry on the Silk Road

Moreover, it was not just silk that was transported, but exotic spices and many other products, as well as technology like gunpowder and paper. Religious teaching like Buddhism, Islam and Christianity were also spread by monks and merchants plying their business. The gospel first reached all the way to China in 645 AD, brought by Nestorian missionaries and laypeople sent out from churches in modern day Iraq and Iran. This is about the same time the gospel reached our benighted islands!

Despite this hopeful start, the ensuing years saw the destruction of most of the Christian heritage. The Mongol hordes wiped out all the believers and destroyed the churches of Central Asia, while Islam marginalised, oppressed and intimidated Christian communities in the Middle East. By the middle of the 20th century all that remained were a few inward-looking groups faced with extinction, with virtually no outreach to the Muslim masses all around them.

However, God was not finished. God’s Spirit moved the global church to pray, which resulted in a new wave of zealous young missionaries being sent, and then the collapse of Communism brought down the forbidding walls preventing access to Central Asia. New shoots started to spring up from the barren soil. Churches were planted and young leaders emerged. In this article I will tell the stories of three women, to draw out some of the key principles of ministry among these unreached peoples. All the names of individuals have been changed to protect their identity.

NARIN When Lenna my wife and I arrived in Turkey in 1980 there were only 50 Turkish muslim background believers in the whole country of 50 million. We settled in Ankara, the capital, where there were only three. On our second day there was a timid knock at our door, and when we opened it a slightly built 19-year-old student introduced herself, “Hello, I’m Narin, and I was told you could be my friends.” She did indeed become one of our closest friends, who taught us so much about what it means to be a Turk who follows Jesus.

She was born in the south of Turkey, but when she was still a child her parents found work in Berlin, leaving the children in the care of their granny in a mountain village. Granny used to look after some goats while Narin was responsible for the hens. Even as a child she thought a lot about God, and the Muslim traditions the neighbours told her. They told her about the Sirat Bridge that everyone must pass over when they die. The bridge is ‘narrower than a hair and sharper than a sword’, and underneath are the flames of hell waiting to consume everyone who fell off because their bad deeds outweighed the good. She was terrified, but Granny tried to reassure her that the sheep she sacrificed during the annual Muslim Sacrifice Festival would carry her over. Narin found this very unconvincing, and decided she no longer believed in God, becoming the only atheist in her village!

For secondary school she was sent to stay with her uncle and his family in Istanbul. She missed her parents desperately and was very unhappy. However, mum and dad came to visit every summer, bringing with them a suitcase full of gifts. One summer when she was 14, she looked in the case one more time hoping for another goody, when she found a tract with the simple message that God loved her like a father. A Christian lady in Berlin had befriended her mum and dad and given them the leaflet. Narin’s heart was longing for a father’s love and was deeply attracted by the idea of a loving God.

She was introduced to two OM (Operation Mobilisation) girls who explained that God’s love was most fully expressed in sending his Son as a sacrifice, ‘the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’. Jesus was the sheep who would forgive her sin and carry her into heaven! She was thrilled and believed in him as her Saviour. However, she still had doubts. How could Jesus be God, and how could she be good enough to please him? About a year later when she was 15 Matthew 5:8 deeply troubled her, ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’ She cried out to the Lord, “Am I pure enough? Let me see you.” That night she had a dream in which she saw Jesus in his majestic glory, with his face shining like the sun. He said, “You wanted to see me!” She never doubted his divinity again.

Narin came up to Ankara for university, going on to become an English teacher, and a frequent visitor in our home. There were long hours listening to her pour out her worries that she would never find a suitable man to marry. The Turkish church was so small that we knew nearly all the single fellows, and none of them seemed suitable. As far as she was concerned all Turkish men beat their wives, and she could not trust any of them! We walked with her through a couple of tentative friendships with Western guys, but they came to nothing. Would she ever find the man of her dreams? We kept listening, sympathising, offering words of assurance, and fervently praying. Finally, we heard of a recently graduated eye doctor in the Izmir church, who turned out to be the loving, faithful, considerate Mr Right we were all crying out to God for!

Narin, the village girl, went on to be awarded a Ph.D. in English literature. Sadly, her life was cut short when she tragically died of Motor Neurone Disease earlier this year. Her husband has posthumously published a book of her poetry.

Here are three key ministry principles Narin’s story teaches us:
1. God’s sovereignty. He chooses his elect among the most unexpected people, like a Turkish girl in a remote village far from any Christians. He is building his church, and his final victory is certain. Ultimately it is God who is working, while we go in his name in confidence and hope. Our job is to find the people he is already calling to himself, and to water the seed that he has planted.

2. The power of the gospel. These days we tend to look down on tracts as a method of evangelism, but even a simple leaflet can open spiritual eyes because God’s word is able to create something from nothing, to shine his light in dark hearts. We should have confidence in our message, to proclaim it widely and boldly. ‘We are not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation.’ (Romans 1:16)

3. Relational discipleship. Often people coming from Muslim backgrounds carry emotional baggage because of troubled families, which means they need to be loved with God’s self-giving love, and to be patiently taught the truth that will set them free. Christian workers have to have the emotional resilience for the demands of deep, caring, long-term relationships.

AILA was born to a nominally Muslim family in Kazakhstan in 1989, just as the Soviet Union was collapsing. In the chaos of that period her mother left home when Aila was a baby, and as her father was working away from home she was brought up by her older siblings. When she was four her father realised this arrangement was not sustainable, so he took his children to an orphanage and left them there. With the Communist state taking control of every aspect of life, orphanages like this were common. She kept hoping her father would come back and take her home, but he never turned up. Eventually he lost the right to get his children back because of his negligence. Life was tough for Aila, as she was often beaten by the staff and older kids and started to steal food from the kitchen because she was so hungry.

When she was eight some nice people started visiting the orphanage, bringing sweets and even some food. These Russians from a nearby Baptist church sang happy songs and taught stories from the Bible. Aila liked the food, enjoyed their meetings, and started to feel loved. After some time, she responded by making a profession of faith, but instead of feeling happy she became sad and found herself crying for three nights. She knelt by her bed and asked the Lord for forgiveness. Then she stopped stealing, started helping in the kitchen, with the result that the cooks gave her extra food!

However, this happy state of affairs did not last long. A Muslim Tatar was appointed as director of the orphanage, so the Baptist visits were stopped. An Imam was given permission to come instead, with rice, meat and Arabic lessons. Aila rebelled, sneaking out to parties in the evenings without permission, starting to use alcohol. Fortunately, the director changed again, and the new one allowed the Baptists back in, with an American missionary David. Aila’s interest in Jesus started to come alive again.
A year later, when she was 17, the time came for her to leave the orphanage. Usually, young people in this situation were placed in ‘Youth Houses’, where the boys were often recruited into criminal gangs, and the girls into prostitution. David offered Aila a place in a hostel he was starting called ‘House of Hope’. A year later she made a full commitment to Christ and got baptised. David became a surrogate father for her, welcoming her into his family, and arranging for her education. Today Aila is in full time Christian service, offering Biblical counselling to others who are struggling with life’s circumstances.

Two ministry principles that are clearly seen in Aila’s story:
1. Help for the hurting. Just as Jesus was anointed to proclaim good news to the poor, liberty to the captives and liberty for the oppressed (Luke 4:18), so Christians in Central Asia are called to serve those with broken lives. Churches in these countries have many who came to faith out of drug addiction or while in prison.

2. Discipleship in community. Dave offered Aila loving but firm structure for her life at the ‘House of Hope’, and deep acceptance by adopting her as his ‘Kazakh daughter’. Alcoholism and abuse have destroyed many families, and the survivors need the security of a surrogate family to build their new identity in God’s love.

SEVIL lived in Ankara, with her mother who was the second wife of her father. As a teenager Sevil would often stand at the door waiting for her father to come home. He usually went to his first wife, and in disappointment Sevil’s heart became poisoned with bitterness and hatred against her father. Without a loving father in her life, she also grew up insecure and fearful.

Sevil’s mother was interested in Christianity so when she saw a newspaper advertisement offering a free New Testament, she wrote off to order one. When she came to faith she started to attend our church, bringing her family with her. Sevil too came to faith but was still often anxious and afraid. We often counselled her not to worry, encouraging her to pray and memorise Bible verses like ‘Have no anxiety about anything, but by prayer and petition with thanksgiving make your requests known to God’ (Philippians 4:6). This was to no avail, as her nervous disposition continued to steal her joy.

After a couple of years, we organised a camp for the believers in a nearby forest. One afternoon I came back from some shopping to find Sevil hysterically fearful in her tent. I sensed this was caused by some demonic activity, so commanded the spirit to stop harassing her. She became calm at that time, but we met for more prayer in the evening. We realised the root of the fear was her unforgiveness of her father, so we asked her to forgive him.

“I can’t do that. You don’t know how much I have suffered,” she said.

We answered, “You’re right, we can’t know your suffering, but Jesus commands you to forgive.”

“No, I can’t. It’s too difficult.”

“If you don’t forgive him you will continue to be afflicted by this spirit of fear.”

She then prayed a simple, halting prayer to forgive her father. She turned to us and said with tears in her eyes, “You see what a bad Christian I am, that it was so difficult to obey the Lord.”

We responded, “No, Sevil, your heavenly father is very pleased with you, because your obedience was not to do something easy, but you did something that was very difficult.”

Sevil was transformed. Shortly afterwards when she became pregnant, she and her husband did not want her to have ‘Muslim’ on their baby’s identity card. For the baby to be registered as ‘Christian’ they would have to change their cards to ‘Christian’. That meant going to a government department to officially apply for the change, which was something that no Turkish believer had dared to do up to that point. Everyone was too afraid of what the consequences might be. But our ‘fearful’ Sevil took on the hostile civil servants until they relented. When the baby was born, they called her ‘Sevgi’, which means ‘love’, because ‘love casts out fear’ (1 John 4:18).

Two ministry principles from Sevil’s story:
1. Deliverance ministry. Many are demonised because of unforgiveness and occultic practices. We have to be able to discern the roots of the bondage, and to pray with authority for deliverance.

2. Obedience oriented discipleship. The heart of discipleship is obedience, as Jesus sends us to ‘teach them to obey all that I have commanded’ (Matthew 28:20). Saying ‘Jesus is Lord’ means we accept he has authority over all our lives, and we show that we love him by obeying him. Submitting our wills to his brings freedom and transformation.

A new day is dawning among unreached peoples, as communities who have never heard the Good News of Jesus begin to respond. After centuries of darkness God’s light is shining, setting captives free and healing broken hearts. The Lord is sending his labourers; bold to proclaim the gospel; patient to love and disciple the believers; filled with the Spirit to stand against evil. When Jesus read the Scriptures in the synagogue at Nazareth, he used Isaiah’s words to describe his ministry, which also describe our ministries as we serve him along the Silk Road:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour. Luke 4:18,19