KAZAKHSTAN: A House of Mercy

Source: Joel News International, May 21, 2015

A missionary from Canada reports about a recent trip to Kazakhstan:

“We are working with two expressions of community. The first is the house of peace, or house church as expressed by Jesus in Luke 10, and the other our friends in Central Asia have called houses of mercy. A house of mercy is a community where people off the street, out of prison, out of addiction [or] out of prostitution can live for as long as they desire. The only basic rule is to contribute to the community as they are able. The healing program? Worship and work in relationship.

“Friends wanted to have a house of mercy but could not find appropriate rental accommodation and, if they did, the owners would not rent to them for such a purpose. So four years ago they rented a disused Soviet-era bath house (banya).

“A few years ago a [Muslim cleric] well known in Kazakhstan became a follower of Jesus through reading the Koran. He is fearless in sharing his testimony and began to lead others to become followers of Jesus. He met our friends in Kazakhstan and loves how they are doing community. He shared the story of the house of mercy in the banya within his circles of influence and two secret Muslim-background followers of Jesus blessed our team with two large houses and two cars. Each house is home to a community of about 15 people.

“We could not have purchased or rented two houses for our friends in Kazakhstan even if we had wanted to, but they made the step to rent whatever they could and make a start, and God provided! One of the characteristics of all movements that multiply is that the primary resources in people and finance are in the harvest.”

» Thanks to Joel News for sharing this story. See also the original source.