Ryan’s* city is a mosaic of the old and the new. Drab gray apartment complexes are a common remnant from the Soviet era, but Western-style malls bustle with activity. McDonalds have sprung up in various niches across the city; and, until the recent economic downturn, construction cranes dotted the cityscape in every direction.
But the tension between yesterday and tomorrow is not merely seen in the architecture. It is also visible in the city’s people and culture. This central Asian town is an educational hub for the rest of the country. With the increased affluence due to recent economic development, there is a growing interest especially from young adults and children to learn English, thus enhancing economic opportunities and integration with the international community.
Ryan’s entrepreneurial energy has focused primarily on sharing the gospel with a minority people group within the city. Ryan and his family have served in this location for the past three years. Christians have worked with the people group since the fall of the Soviet Union, but only in the last five years was the first church planted.
Ryan and his team face several barriers in their outreach. Bible translation is a work in progress and will hopefully be completed soon. Other key challenges are the people’s adamant commitment to their Muslim identity.
Despite the challenges Ryan says, “there is still reason for hope.”
He continues,
The Word is being spread widely through a correspondence course and personal visits by the leaders of the church there. There are believers, but many of them are isolated in smaller cities or villages throughout our republic. Furthermore, we are seeing young believers who are excited about impacting their culture. We believe that our targeted people group can be influential in getting the Word to many other Central Asian people groups, and we look forward with anticipation to what God is going to do among this people.
Perhaps the most inspiring story Ryan has seen is conversion of a Muslim leader in the region. A young mullah at a mosque found an advertisement in his mailbox, inviting him to start a New Testament correspondence course. He requested the course and by studying it came to know Christ. When the new convert began to teach his newfound faith at the mosque he was kicked out of job, village, home and family. He came to Ryan’s city for a church planting conference and realized that obedience to Christ should lead him to baptism. The baptism took place during the conference—a chilly November morning, just one month before the river would freeze over.
Ryan noted that this was the first known baptism of a convert by another in his own people group. He describes this new profession of faith as “very exciting and the beginnings of some great things. This has been repeated several times since then.”
With passion and opportunities like these, Ryan is committed to staying in the region. But as we highlighted in our September newsletter, access is a daunting hurdle.
Like other workers in closed countries, Ryan says, “The visa regime and scrutiny has become more difficult and challenging in the last few years.” To that end, he has looked to Access Partners to help start a legitimate business that should give more control of the visa process and a long-term platform of access.
Since September, Access Partners has worked with Ryan to develop a contextualized, viable business plan. We have crafted a business proposal for a language school that will offer high-quality education to the locals with whom Ryan and his team are building relationships.
Access Partners has relied on Ryan and his team to flesh out our understanding of the cultural and economic context. In turn, we provide a technical framework with which we analyze and optimize the market, the industry, and the financial and human resources necessary to sustain a profitable business within this city.
Ryan explains how this partnership has developed. He says,
We knew that we needed to establish a more secure platform that would provide us long-term access to this area. At the same time, we realized that the prospect of starting a for-profit business, particularly in a cross cultural context, was a daunting challenge for us. We needed some expertise. That is where Access Partners has come in. They have walked us through the process and given us confidence to proceed.
We are happy to strengthen this gospel work by meshing our business competence with Ryan’s ministry competence.
We also look toward the future with hope. We hope for a successful business launch this fall, led by a new business director that we have recruited to live and work with Ryan’s team on the field. We hope for a thriving school that makes economic sense to the community. And we hope with greatest excitement for more young converts willing to be buried in the chilly river waters emerging to live new, holy, Christ-following lives.
And so, in this partnership, we can sing the old hymn and praise God for “strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, blessings all mine with ten thousand beside. Great is Thy faithfulness.”
* Ryan is not this church planter’s real name. Names have been changed and locations have been left general to preserve the security of the mission work.