UZBEKISTAN - The new church
19/08/04 - Many turn to Christ amidst hardship and suffering
Sixteen years ago, there wasn’t a single indigenous Christian in Uzbekistan. Mark Orton* met the first Uzbek Christian in 1989 and, on his return 15 years later, he discovered a vibrant church of several thousand.
Mark works with Open Doors, an organisation supporting persecuted Christians around the world, and he explains how it all came about: “For years, during the 70s and 80s, Open Doors had a vision for this part of the Muslim world which had no opportunity to hear the Christian gospel for 70 years under the Soviet regime.
"We tried to train and inspire the German Baptist churches in the area to reach the Uzbeks, but without much success.
"However, during the 90s both the German Baptist and the Russian churches returned to their own countries; but just before they left, a Russian church reached a few Uzbeks with the gospel and shortly after that, revival started.
"It has been exciting and such a privilege to be part of that, and we now have a number of team members who are very key people in this Uzbek church.”
Church growth is particularly significant in the north of Uzbekistan, around the Aral Sea. The Aral was once an enormous inland sea which was a thriving centre of life for all who lived around it, providing fish, travel, recreation and commercial opportunities. However, during the 50s and 60s the rivers flowing into the Aral Sea were diverted in order to irrigate the desert as the communist authorities wanted to grow cotton. Towns and villages that were on the coast are now 125 km from the coast, with ships still stuck in the desert because the sea shrank so rapidly.
Mark said, “I asked one of the brothers why people were turning to Christ. He said, 'Firstly, people don’t want to turn to Christ because of the persecution but they know they have to because the message is so compelling.'”
Then he said, “I think the fact that the Aral Sea has dried up has really shaken people. The whole of their lives revolved around the sea - they worshipped the sea. One day, at the end of the 80s, they saw the shoreline move back in just one day and it was as if their whole lives were disappearing in front of their eyes. The whole village wept. So that is another reason why people are open to the gospel.”
Mark was shocked to see so many people living in decayed, badly built tower blocks from the Soviet era with no electricity, bad water, no money and empty shops.
At the same time there is a tremendous Christian revival going on there, mostly amongst young people. Mark explained how they share their faith: “Most of the converts are 20–30 years old and meet together in homes because the police are hunting for them. During the day, they train in evangelism, and in the evenings they go and visit their friends, share the gospel and people turn to Jesus.
"In the town I visited, they have 70 cells and their vision is that every year they multiply by two, so they are hoping for 140 cells next year.
"In order to multiply they must first prepare a leader. They then have five steps to spiritual life that the group has to learn. As they get to fifteen people, they divide so that they won’t attract the attention of the police.”
The Christians are so nervous of persecution that they only invite people to meetings once they are sure they have genuinely decided to follow Jesus. Mark says, “Most people are either atheists or Muslims, and both have a vested interest in stopping the Christian revival.”
Christians are often arrested on spurious charges and kept in prison for days, interrogated and beaten painfully on the soles of their feet.
Persecution within families is another difficulty. An extreme example is of one boy who was taken hunting by his Muslim father and deliberately shot dead.
Mark met two female Christian medical students. He reported, “One of the professors barged into their room, searched it, and found some bibles. They were soon thrown out of their accommodation. That is the sort of treatment they get all the time. Yet, in spite of that, people keep coming to Christ.”
Open Doors have been able to help the Christians cope with this church growth by printing Christian material, taking in literature and carrying out training sessions for new Christians and Christian leaders.
Particularly at the beginning of this revival there were many miracles, despite the fact that the Christians say they are not charismatic or focussed on miracles, but on the word and on discipleship. One example was of an evangelist who was hospitalised with a serious infectious disease and was so weak she couldn’t sit up. Four Christians went to the hospital and as they read the Bible and prayed and cried together, the lady sat up and is now well again. The Christians feel they are reaping the fruits of the prayers of evangelists who have come before, and they are very grateful to the missions who are still helping them.
Mark tells the story of one Christian, Samuel*, who was converted as a 19-year old and baptised half an hour later in a lake. The visiting pastor then gave him a Bible, told him he was now a minister of God and left him in charge of the six who had also turned to Christ with him!
Samuel didn’t know what to do so he took one Bible verse each day, spoke about it, told the people that Jesus died for their sins and sang some songs. Then people would be healed and many people would come to Christ.
He finally received three months of Bible training in Kyrgyzstan, but when he came back in 1995, the persecution started. Firstly, his wife lost her job as a computer teacher because her husband was a Christian. Then the local police threatened him with arrest if he was caught out on the streets. Then they came to his home handcuffed him, and arrested him in front of the neighbours.
Mark says, “In a small town, that means you are a criminal.”
On his release, Open Doors supported him through a year in Bible college. But again, on his return, he was arrested and accused of planting a bomb in Tashkent. His religious books were confiscated and they were rude to his wife, who was crying. He was again humiliated in front of the neighbours and then taken to the police station and imprisoned. Samuel said, “They knew it wasn’t Christians who had done it. It was just a way of intimidating us.
"They wanted to make a video of me asking the president of Uzbekistan for forgiveness, but I couldn’t do that. I wasn’t guilty. Why should I ask for forgiveness?”
One time in prison, he refused his bread as he was fasting. The criminals in prison started asking questions. Samuel was able to speak to them about Christ and they cried as he told them, "God loves you".
Following four months in a freezing cold cell, sleeping on a concrete floor with no blanket in the middle of winter, Samuel was threatened with 8 years in prison despite the fact they had no evidence against him and his only wrong-doing was the storing of religious books and supposedly washing a woman in the river because he was baptising people.
Due to lack of evidence, Samuel was eventually released. He reports, “Now the persecution is less from the authorities and more from the Mullahs (the Islamic authorities).”
A particularly hard thing to bear in their culture is that Christians are denied burial in the family tomb. Some Christians have had their cars tampered with to try and create car accidents as a way of intimidating the Christians.
In one town, a pastor was arrested, along with his family, and taken to the city limits and told never to come back. In this same town, a Russian pastor had a registered church but lost his registration and his livelihood, for actively witnessing to the Uzbeks. Open Doors have lent him some money to set up a small restaurant so he can earn a living. It is one of 60 different micro-credit projects set up by Open Doors where for £30–60 you can help people set up a small business.
Mark sums up the situation for Christians: “The people are very poor, there is terrible unemployment, they have a lot of persecution from many sources; yet they have the Lord, they have a tremendous joy, they are sharing the gospel and they are seeing many people come to know Jesus.”
To find out more about the Persecuted Church, call Open Doors on 01993 885400, email info@opendoorsuk.org or go to the UK and Ireland website at www.opendoorsuk.org.
*names changed for security reasons.
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Background Information:
Uzbekistan is an authoritarian state with limited civil rights. Its’ population of 26 15 million is 88% Muslim, with 9% Eastern Orthodox, and 3% other. There are now approx. 25,000 indigenous Christians who are experiencing huge revival, especially in the region named Karakalpakistan. The first indigenous converts in Uzbekistan came to the Lord in 1991/1992. Before that date there were only a handful indigenous Christians. There is now no city in Uzbekistan that does not have its own indigenous congregation many of whom are under the protection of registered Korean and Russian churches, although many are unregistered.
The cause of the growth is the perseverance of the indigenous Christians who came to the Lord at first. They have developed new ways to reach out to their fellow Uzbeks making use of Uzbek cultural traditions. Drinking tea and sharing meals have proved to be excellent outreach opportunities. Uzbek Christians dropped western and Russian liturgy and songs and adopted indigenous poetry and music instead. There is great openness to the Gospel among Uzbeks as a result of this ‘Uzbekisation.’ People realise they don’t need to drop their own background, their own culture if they want to come to Christ. Conversion is no longer seen as a threat to their identity.
Christians have formed professional music groups that specialise in indigenous songs, both secular and spiritual. These groups have become very popular in Uzbekistan and they are invited at weddings, opera buildings etc. On a smaller scale Christians also use the minstrel tradition in Uzbekistan. Poetry and literary recitals, and story telling are still very much alive. What Christians do is that they travel around the villages and tell/sing biblical stories with a guitar or traditional music instruments. Entire villages are reached with the Gospel in this way.
Although authorities tolerate the existence of many Christian evangelical groups, they enforce the law's ban on proselytising. The Government often monitors and harasses those that openly try to convert Muslims to Christianity.
Unable to gain official recognition, Uzbekistan’s indigenous churches are forced to meet illegally and often in secret. Iindigenous believers are ‘invited’ to the police station and are interrogated, intimidated, harassed, verbally abused and beaten. Culprits are in most cases local authorities, who misuse their powers to persecute Christians. However, at present there are no indigenous Christians in jail, labour camp or psychiatric hospital.
General discrimination of indigenous Christians is also common. People can be degraded in their work or even lose it altogether when they are found to be converts, even experiencing eviction.
Literature work is dangerous. If caught red-handed, believers will go to jail for five to eight years. Few Christians are willing to take the risk.
The (national) media are under strict state control and Christians can make no use of them at all.
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