We have been in TAJIKISTAN for two months, thank God!!!
We pray for this people, for this land, so that the love of God will dispel the darkness and destroy centuries-old strongholds. We feel a difficult spiritual struggle here, we see the relationship between different events, and in every battle the Lord strengthens, comforts, and blesses.
Brothers and sisters who come to the rescue in every situation have become a special blessing for us. When we were looking for permanent housing, we could not find a suitable one. But God gave a firm understanding: He has prepared something especially for us, something from His Kingdom, we just need to wait. And the day before we were supposed to vacate our friends’ house for the next guests, a local young brother got in touch and let us live in his fully furnished apartment for next to nothing. Praise God for His children!
But new challenges awaited us, Asia does not let us relax!
We have recently experienced the effects of local occult forces. In the middle of the night, my husband became sharply anxious, we sat up in bed and began to pray. Immediately, a wave of fear, even horror, came over me, then again and again, I bent over and shrank… We prayed for a long time and recited psalms by heart until God’s peace came. Praise the Lord for His protection and protection! The Word of God is our sword in spiritual warfare.
We also see spiritual warfare in physical ailments. Our son fell ill a few days before the important prayer evening we were all looking forward to. The child had a high fever (39.6 – 39.8) without any other symptoms. For five days he lay in bed, we did not sleep at night, we prayed for him, but he did not feel better. The husband went to prayer alone, and there God spoke to him: «It will be 36.6!» The same evening the pastor came to our house and also prayed for healing. The child slept soundly all night, and in the morning the thermometer showed 36.3! And the fever never returned, thank God!
A special moment this month was a personal acquaintance with local strongholds … As they say, I found a scythe on a stone. We lost the car because we did not agree to give a bribe. While I will not describe all the details here, since the situation has not yet ended, a court awaits us in a few days. But I testify to you already now: we have peace and tranquility in our hearts, there is a clear confidence that this is not our battle, but God’s, and God cannot be mocked. I’ll be sure to share the details once it’s over.
«God will not allow trials that would be beyond your strength, and besides, in every trial, He will give both a way out of it and the strength to overcome it» – 1 Corinth. 10:13.
Along with difficulties and challenges, the grace of God is manifested in our lives. For a long time, since Ukraine, we have been cherishing in our hearts the idea of opening a board games club (we love board games very much). But so far it has not been possible to organize it. And here, in Tajikistan, God somehow arranges everything Himself, we didn’t even make any efforts for this! Well, maybe they brought here several world bestsellers from Ukraine, Russia and Kyrgyzstan… 😉
At first we only played here with the youth in the church after the Sunday meeting. But then God began to send new young people, whom we met either on the street or in a city chat. Now we have already made a separate chat in the messenger and every Wednesday we gather in a cafe to play cool strategy board games. God bless! We pray that through what we like, our heavenly Father is glorified. Otherwise, it makes no sense.
Time flies very quickly. Looking back, it seems to me that during this month we did not do anything that could be said «Here, WE did this and that!» But how much joy and admiration appears in my heart when I see how much GOD has done this month!
Our shepherd in Ukraine often said in the morning prayer: «I don’t want to just beat the air, creating the appearance of vigorous activity». And our local shepherd told us about eagles that fly into a powerful cyclone and there they simply allow the wind currents to lift them up, above the clouds, above the storm…
We don’t want to beat the air, we will calmly wait on God and trust in the direction that His Holy Spirit sets.
Where is Christ in all this?
At the prayer evening, the husband was given a picture and a word from the Lord:
In the midst of all these storms, Christ is our beacon, pointing the way to heaven.
«…and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of (our) faith…» — Hebrews 12:1-2.