What is God Doing in Uzbekistan?

Uzbekistan             

Population: 25.6 million

Capital:    Tashkent

People Groups:  66

Main Religion: Islam 84%

All Christians:  1.2% (mostly Russians)

Representatives of a ministry that provides Bibles to people living in the former Soviet Union are concerned about recent civil unrest in Uzbekistan. Islamic extremists in that country have been blamed for a recent rash of violence and kidnappings. Officials say terrorists want to establish an Islamic state in the Central Asian region. Mark R., a spokesman for Bible Mission International (BMI), says the violence in Uzbekistan is not surprising. The country, he says, is known as “a real hot spot” because extremists from other hot spots have been flushed into Uzbekistan. “Uzbekistan has always been a difficult area to work in, in that regard, so again this is not something new - but it could have some serious consequences for us,” the spokesman said. Despite the violence, the ministry's work continues. “When we're talking about missions and making an impact in those Central Asian states, we've made a choice as a mission that we would not be involved there using a lot of Western people,” he explains. "For that reason, we came in and did training with the nationals. We're now concerned about what could happen to the work that's going on in that part of the world.”  BMI has a goal of establishing 300 churches in the region.  Agape Press, April 2004

Praise God for a Tajik believer in Uzbekistan, who received a Bible from a Russian soldier while serving in the Soviet army in Afghanistan in the early 1980s. Discharged from the army, he began reading his Bible and came under deep conviction of sin, but he had no Christians to turn to in his village. When his Muslim prayer rituals gave him no relief, he decided to pray to the Jesus he had read about in the Bible. Jesus came to him in a vision and assured him of forgiveness and now he is a bold witness for Christ in his village.   Mission Direction, January 1996