Spring is a wonderful time in Tajikistan! If you ever decide to visit this country, come in the spring—April or May! By then, it’s already quite warm but not yet too hot, and the scenery is at its most beautiful (with plenty of flowers, and the greenery hasn’t yet been scorched by the sun).
Let’s start with the biggest news: at the end of February, we found out we’re expecting another baby!!! Please send your congratulations! God loves us deeply and blesses us—it’s truly touching. In October, we’ll welcome a new little one into this world! Besides the joy, this brings with it serious decisions again: where we’ll give birth, where to get Ukrainian documents for the child, how to provide for a family with two little ones, etc. But there’s still time until fall; we’re putting all of this in God’s hands—He definitely has a plan for us.
News item number two: our eldest son, Andrei, is flying to Germany. He’s wanted to do this for a long time, and we can’t hold him back any longer. He turns 16 this year, and in Tajikistan he feels “like he’s in a cage”; he won’t be able to get any kind of proper education here… His flight is on June 15, but we’re having trouble buying him a ticket since Andrei is a minor. But we believe that God has this situation under control as well.
As for my training to become a prenatal class instructor—with the arrival of my new pregnancy, I’ve had to put all my plans on hold (I can’t say they’ve “fallen apart”). Yes, I received my certificate, although it took the mail a month and a half to deliver it. But morning sickness during the first three months didn’t give me a chance to do even a little bit… So I decided to be more active online: to run a Telegram channel for pregnant women in Khujand and to create a separate channel for new moms. God also sent me the opportunity to create informational leaflets about childbirth and distribute them at local clinics. It was wonderful, since I had to do very little myself! One sister came up with the idea, another sister printed the leaflets, and we were able to distribute them on behalf of an organization that supports women. So, my part was simply to create the leaflets themselves. That’s how God works in my life!
I’ve mentioned before that I’m pretty “lazy” and don’t like to fuss around, run about, or engage in a lot of visible activity “just for the sake of doing something.” I love my relationship with God when He Himself leads, guides, and opens the right doors, and I simply follow Him. That way, every action always comes directly from God and glorifies only God, leaving me no chance to think or say, “I’ve done so many good deeds!”
Now that my morning sickness is behind me, I’ve already scheduled a meeting with some moms (tomorrow), and in a couple of weeks I plan to meet with pregnant women. This is still nerve-wracking for me, since I have very little experience with in-person meetings.
Sergey has put his sign language studies and trips to the suburban school on hold for now, since God has sent him a new opportunity: to become part of a team at a foreign company that installs solar panels in Tajikistan. This is Sergey’s favorite field, and most importantly, the company’s leaders are Christians, and they’ve promised to get Sergey a work visa (for the first time in three years here). My husband couldn’t resist such an offer. But getting the visa turned out to be not so simple; due to corruption, we have to wait longer than usual, since neither we nor the company owners are willing to pay bribes.
It turns out that in terms of ministry and spreading the Good News, we’ve been as “unproductive” as possible this season. The only exception is the board game club, which is still going strong; we’ve even met some new people with whom we’re gradually building friendships.
We also try to serve by opening our home; that’s why we rent a four-bedroom apartment so we can host guests. And home groups sometimes meet at our house—one from the Baptist church, one made up of missionaries, and one from our church (Sergey was entrusted with leading a home group with two young men, which was a pleasant surprise for us).
And spring is also birthday season for us! Little Salim had his first birthday in March, mine was in April, and Sergey’s milestone birthday—his 40th!—was also in April. God gave us the opportunity to celebrate with friends, and it was truly warm and festive—the first time in three years here. By the way, this spring marked exactly three years since we first arrived in Tajikistan!
We continue to pray for the possessed young woman, a young and active sister in Christ, who has been in such a dire condition for seven months now… She was discharged from the psychiatric hospital as incurable, and now she lives with her non-believing parents, who, unfortunately, have been aggressively hostile toward visitors for the past couple of months… And her husband, whom Sergey has supported and mentored in every way over the past few months, has now decided to file for divorce, and this is yet another source of pain for us. Please support this whole situation in prayer: for the girl’s deliverance (we know for sure that God is powerful enough to set her completely free!), for the strengthening of her husband’s faith, and for our hearts, that we may not give up but continue to stand in prayer for them.
It has been almost a year since the Lord showed us that in this new season we would be dealing with finances and demons. Indeed, financially God is blessing us now more than He did a couple of years ago. For example, we can buy clean water for drinking and cooking instead of drinking from the tap, which is especially important for me during my pregnancy. But there is still no stability whatsoever; even Sergei’s job still doesn’t provide a steady income, since his visa isn’t ready yet. And we face demons periodically, but we still don’t understand what our part in this is, what to do, or how to handle it; we pray every time, but there are no visible results.
But for the first time in the three years since we left home, we’ve had a little dream: to fly to Turkey, either for a short vacation or to have our baby there (it’ll be easier to sort out the paperwork there than in Tajikistan). Why Turkey? Well, for some reason, that’s the country that’s been on my mind. We were there once, when I was deported from Russia; my son and I had to spend three days in Antalya. Now my husband and I have agreed to pray about this, that the Lord might grant us the opportunity to visit there again. But we will definitely return to Khujand!!
Actually, Khujand has already become a second home for us; no matter where we go, we come back here, just as Jesus returned to His friends in Bethany… Though, over the past year, Khujand has changed a lot and continues to change! There’s a lot of construction going on here—so many, many new high-rises; it’s practically a construction boom! Right around our house alone, there are now six or seven new construction sites practically right next door, where there used to be garages, playgrounds, and just green spaces. There are already several hundred such construction sites all over the city! The city is changing drastically, growing, and developing; new stores, supermarkets, cafes, and clinics are opening all the time (though there are still huge problems with the quality of medical care). To be honest, this isn’t really our kind of atmosphere anymore, but we’ll see what the Lord has in store next…
Over the past few days, I’ve had this strange feeling that I need to pack an “emergency backpack.” I shared this with my husband, and he encouraged me to go ahead and pack it. But I haven’t done it yet; I don’t want to act on my first instincts alone. I always need some kind of confirmation from God, just like Gideon did.
Also, during this time, several of our friends are leaving Central Asia, and this is yet another surprise for us—an unpleasant one at that. Three families are leaving for good, and two more hope to return later, but that’s not certain. Once again, an unpleasant feeling of abandonment rises within me, just like in the early days of the war in Ukraine, when all the leaders and friends hurriedly left, and the Lord told us to stay. Perhaps it is against this backdrop that thoughts of the “emergency backpack” arise. But just as then, so now, God has His perfect, good plan for us! All that remains is to try to trust Him every day and see what happens next.
We are so thankful to everyone who supports us during this period. Through your support, we see God’s special care. May the Lord reward you a hundredfold and show you how His kingdom grows through it.