What is God Doing in Tajikistan?

Tajikistan               

Population: 6.7 million

Capital:    Dushanbe

People Groups:  46

Main Religion: Islam 90%

All Christians:  1.4%

Some of you may be wondering the connection between providing shelter and church planting.  I was personally very encouraged recently when I visited the SNI work in northern Tajikistan in the ancient city of Penjikent.  It is a city that is cut off from Dushanbe for six months out of the year.  Because of the snow covered passes we had to travel ten hours by van, mostly traveling through the Republic of Uzbekistan, to reach Penjikent. Shelter Now International has been working in the region for the past year and a half.  We were awarded a contract through an international agency to relocate a village that was in a high mountainous valley to a plot of land just outside of the city of Panjikent.  The village was slowly being washed away by mudslides and it was imperative that the villagers move quickly. There was almost no human way that the people of that village would have heard the gospel, but through the contact of three very dedicated families working with Shelter Now who were willing to pioneer the work of SNI in this remote area.  I would like to just share the story of one young man I met, which I will refer to as "Temur," whose life was changed because of his contact with the SNI team.

Temur was from a very religious family, both his father and grandfather where mullahs (Islamic religious leaders) in their village.  When Temur met the Shelter Now team his life was literally in deep spiritual bondage.  He had discovered an ancient book of black magic and had used an incantation found in the book to help him seduce his cousin.  But by using the black magic he had opened his life up to demonic activity and his family began to be heavily oppressed by the spirits associated with the book.  In the space of a very short time both Temur's mother and aunt fell into a deep depression and both committed suicide by pouring gasoline on themselves and setting themselves on fire!  One can hardly image a more cruel death, a death certainly inspired by demonic powers that desire to kill and destroy.  I have read accounts of women committing this type of suicide in India, and I now realize there is definitely a spiritual connection throughout this region.

Temur began attending a Bible study started by the SNI team and during one of the prayer times manifested signs of possession.  The team was able cast out the demons in Jesus' all powerful name!  Temur was wonderfully delivered and when I met him I couldn't have imagined what his former life was like.  What I saw was a young man totally on fire for Jesus, very zealous for his new found faith.  Praise God for a small group of men and women in the area that meet together with Temur.  Some of the curious seekers have already fallen away, but the group goes on despite opposition.  As I met with the new group of   believers, my own faith was encouraged and awakened!     Shelter Now International, February 1999

Translation work has begun on parts of the Gospel of Luke into the first-ever book in the Wikhi language, a group of some 11,000 Shiite Muslims who live in Tajikistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and China. A man named Akbar, who works with the Institute of Linguistics in Moscow, is doing the translation. Translator's News, August 1998