Russian Missionary Shares the Gospel with a Village in a Former Soviet Country

AIMS News: Posted 6/1/2005

Editor's Note: The following article is a testimony written by a Russian missionary from "Pastor Yerik's" congregation, who is ministering in Tadjikistan, a small country in the Middle East that was previously under Communist Russian rule.

We came to the first Tadjik village on the route we were traveling and started to tell the first people we met about Jesus Christ. In spite of civil hostilities within the country, the Tadjik people were very hospitable to us.

One old woman invited us to her home. She told us about her son, "Iso" (meaning "Jesus" in the Tadjik language), who was a drug user. He was currently at home, dying of tuberculosis and couldn't get out of bed. When we arrived, the poverty was so overwhelming. The house was dirty. Half-naked children ran around it. On the bed lay her son, a skeleton covered in skin. There was an atmosphere of darkness and death in the room.

I remembered my own condition before I became a Christian. The Lord had healed me and set me free. I saw the same situation here. We told Iso about Jesus and explained that he could be saved and healed. He was interested but told us that he couldn't declare that Jesus was his Lord because he was born a Muslim. We prayed very hard for him and left.

Two weeks later, I joined another team to go to other villages. We met a kind, disabled man who gave us shelter for the night. He told us how the war had taken his sons and many of his relatives.

In the morning, a young mullah came to his house to read the Koran. He was very kind and friendly and didnít oppose us. As we talked with him that morning, he asked if he had ever met me. I didnít think so. Then, he asked if I had ever visited that Tadjik village and met a man named Iso. When I explained that I had been there, he excitedly told us the rest of Isoís story.

After our departure, Iso got out of bed and walked around the village. He testified that the Christians had prayed for him in the name of Jesus Christ. He declared that he felt better and that he could walk again. We thanked and praised God for this miracle.

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