Source: Christian Aid Mission, November 21, 2013
Like most ethnic Kyrgyz, [Dinara’s] Muslim family followed the religious traditions of their ancestors. From childhood she believed truth could only be revealed through Islam.
While running an errand in her village, Dinara came upon a strange sight – a gathering of Christians who were openly singing and preaching about their God. She stopped in her tracks when the speaker shared how Jesus Christ changes lives.
Consumed by worries over family quarrels, illness, and mounting debts, this wife and mother of two children longed for peace. She accepted the invitation to have someone pray for her needs.
Three days later Dinara sought the counsel of a Christian neighbor who attended the event, asking how she, too, could become a follower of Jesus.
Today Dinara is growing in her faith and enjoys attending a home Bible study. Her husband thinks she is merely visiting friends. Knowing he will be furious, she dares not tell him or any of their relatives about her conversion.
Identifying oneself as a Christian brings all sorts of challenges for new believers, who experience misunderstanding, ridicule, and in some cases even abandonment by families who feel they have scorned their very heritage.
» Recently the government of Kyrgyzstan allowed a reporter to investigate the country’s prisons. Check out A Month in Prison (Institute for War and Peace Reporting). Readers might also be interested in Thieves of Honour, a new novel set in Kyrgyzstan, and Fields of Gold, an account of ministry in neighboring Kazakhstan (reviewed in our November 27 edition).