Islam in Central Asia Torn Between the Past and the Future.

Gullia is Muslim and proud of it. Her people in Uzbekistan are all Muslim and it is unthinkable that she could be anything else. She is a pretty 19-year-old student who is into the latest fashions and music just like students all over the world. Gullia has an important exam next week so today she went to a shrine outside the city. She visited the grave of a holy man who is said to have performed many miracles. Gullia tied a small piece of cloth to the iron grill surrounding the shrine before stretching out her palms and praying for the saint to help her. She ran her hands down her face to transfer the blessing and murmured a quick “If God wills.” Orthodox Muslims would condemn this kind of superstition which dates back to the animistic beliefs of pre-Islamic Central Asia. These practices continue today with the frequent use of amulets, charms, curses and fortune telling. Gullia has never read the Qur’an and the only thing she knows about Islam is what her mother has passed on to her. Still, Gullia is proud of her glorious Islamic heritage.

Once she went on a school trip to Samarkand and was amazed by the dazzling tile work of the awe inspiring mosques built by Timurlane. Arab armies brought Islam to Central Asia in the 7th century. By the 14th century Samarkand and the region beyond the Oxus river was an intellectual center of the whole Muslim world. It boasted the most advanced astronomical observatory in the world at that time, while its poets and calligraphers were emulated all over the Middle East. Gullia didn’t hear much about Islam as she grew up since the 70 years of Russian communist rule repressed religious knowledge and belief. Muslim teachers were exiled to Siberia and it seemed that only elderly villagers continued to believe. Since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991 more and more Central Asians have become interested in Islam as they seek to recover their historical identity. Gullia’s brother is fed up with the poverty and corruption he sees around him. He has read some Islamic books smuggled in from Afghanistan - but in secret for fear of being arrested and tortured by the police. Gullia herself shudders at the thought of being made to cover up like women in fundamentalist Iran. Some days Gullia wonders if there is another way to get closer to the God who seems so far away….

Drug and Alcohol Centers Offer Hope Along the Silk Road.

Lives ruined by alcohol and drugs are being transformed in a rehabilitation centre in a Central Asian country. The man behind it all is Rafael, who learned about the dangers of addiction the hard way. Once a prosperous family man, he lost everything as a result of alcoholism. In desperation while on a trip, Rafael cried out to God to restore his life. A short time later he converted to the Christian faith. Rafael began to reach out to those in prison. He made friends with a prisoner called Folka who also became a follower of Jesus Christ. Folka was dying from tuberculosis so the prison authorities released him to the care of Rafael, who promised to look after him for his last few days on earth. However, Folka didn’t die! God completely healed him from TB as well as from alcohol and drug abuse!

About the same time, Ina came to Rafael asking for help. Her life was a mess – she was a drug addict as were her two teenage children. Her husband was in jail. Rafael arranged for her and her sons to go through a rehabilitation program. Meanwhile, her husband Alex came out of prison and became a Christian. Rafael started to take other addicts into his home but soon became concerned at how many started drinking alcohol after they left. One night he had a dream in which he saw a vine. The branches were taken off the vine and then put back on. Rafael realized that the addicts needed a place where they could receive long term support. He and his wife put their home up for sale to purchase the grounds of a disused church where they set up ‘The Secret Place’ rehabilitation center. Pavel and his wife even sold their wedding rings to buy food for the addicts who came to stay. Now three years and incredible answers to prayer later, ‘The Secret Place’ offers men and women the opportunity to deal with their addictions and hear more about the Christian faith. Ira and Alec, along with Pavel and Wofka, run training programs every morning and oversee practical activities in the afternoons. Their vision is to see residents transformed by Jesus and go on to reach out to the surrounding communities. One of the residents is a young woman called Elsa. She grew up in a government orphanage but had to leave when she turned 18 years old. She was kidnapped and became someone’s slave. Elsa became pregnant and was sent to the hospital to get an abortion. The doctor took pity on her and arranged for her to be sent to the center. Now Elsa is literally hiding in the Secret Place with her daughter. 

Pavel had always felt inferior to Russians and tried desperately to match their heavy drinking habits. Eventually he lost his job as a gynecologist. His wife became a believer in Jesus and tried to persuade him to go to the centre but he refused. Later on Pavel became a beliver himself but was only able to stop drinking for several weeks. His church sent him to the Secret Place where he says he’s now living a new life! 

Rafael and his team have plans to build a second accommodation block for women. The main obstacle is finance and often Rafael is wondering where the next meal will come from. Please pray that God would be faithful to fulfilling the dream he gave Rafael so that many more broken lives can be made whole.

The Culture Shaping Power of Stories in the Koran, Torah, and the Bible.

Well told or written stories have the power to change people, communities, nations and the world. Stories have the power to bless or curse. There are stories that give an understanding of reality, and those that don't. Throughout history, we see that story telling has influenced cultures like the internet is doing today. The Greeks, Persians, Turks, Arabs, Egyptians, Chinese, Indians, Jews, and many other large people groups have all evolved into what they are today partly due to the stories that were handed down from generation to generation. The ancient countries of the Middle East, North Africa and along the Silk Road have been heavily influenced by stories that are thousands of years old. The Koran (Qur'an), Torah, and Bible have some of the oldest stories that include Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael and the tribes that followed.

The one who can tell the best story in the best way can often have the biggest influence. Not only the story itself, but how it is told and how others hear it. When the printing press came into being, millions more people were impacted through this mass media. Today it's the internet which we see can tell the stories of live revolutions such as those which occurred in Tunisia and Egypt in 2011.

In the beginning of the world, 75% of the way God communicated to man was through stories. The Biblical story is that God created a world and then invited mankind to live in that world. The Bible is a story of reconciliation and redemption.

Today there is an even bigger emphasis on storytelling. People love stories. People flock to movies all over the world. From Hollywood to Bollywood, the movie industry is big business because people love to be entertained by stories. Millions of people sit in front of their TV watching daytime and evening soap operas. Many of these people are addicted. People can get absorbed into a story so deeply that they accept it as truth even if it is fiction!

For a good book on this topic, read "The Power of the Story" by Leighton Ford

How Failures Can Help Your Job Hunt and Career.

This current Gen Y generation is so much about “me” that it needs to maintain a healthy perspective. What the Gen Y are engaged in is so much bigger than their daily tasks that they spend a lot of time working on. If our dreams are not fulfilled, it is easy to be dissatisfied and feel like a failure. When people go through a period of perceived failure, they can enter a prolonged period of depression.

There is a relationship between imagination and faith. Imagination is the foundation of faith and faith the foundation of hope, and hope is what people need who are looking for a job. 

We are given just a few years to live here on earth because when we look at our lives in the perspective of world history, our lives are just a moment in time. We are transients just passing through. Normally this would not give our lives much meaning, but with a look forward, we realize that we are a part of a very large story. As we work at our jobs, we need to understand, “What is the big picture we’re doing?”

It can help to keep an eternal perspective on our lives.

To set aside our selfishness and personal ambitions and live within the context of history is of great benefit. Even our failures can be the seed for someone else's success. But the world is a bigger story and our failures  and successes can play a key role in the overall plan. We wrestle with this concept because we want our dreams to come true. Even our failures can be the foundation by which other dreams may become a success.

David, king of Israel was an artist, a musician. He had is successes and failures written out in the Bible for all to read.

The successes and failures can be the foundation of the success and failures of others that come after us.

You are a part of something so much bigger than you can imagine. Our faith is not complete without the faith of those who came before us. There are those that have gone before us that give us perspective. The saints that have gone before us are a part of the great cloud of witnesses.

Moses persevered. He was a hero of the faith. These people were:
1.    humans with successes and failures
2.    they persevered regardless of the challenges and difficulties.

The next generation will go further than we have gone. What a wonderful joy to realize that God is using us in his bigger picture.

We are a part of a narrative of redemption that if we really understood this, we’d partner with each other with more determination.

Acknowledge moderate successes, reward great failures.

“The reason we see so far is because we stand on the shoulders of giants.”  - Isaac Newton

Are  you willing to be a door stop? If so, there will be people that can come after you, walk through the door and who will do greater things.

Things that seem tragic, God can use for his purposes. Let God write the script of the story. It’s a big story. God’s story is extraordinary.

There are real failures because we mess up, but perseverance is important. God births new things out of both successes and failures.

If a “failure” happens, it is a matter of perspective as to whether or not it really is a failure or not.

Some of your failures/successes, no one will know but you and God.

Attempt great things for God. God’s definition of success and failure is very different from how the world defines them.

The crucifixion of Christ is the ultimate example of what appeared to be a failure but was the ultimate success.