«To everything there is a time, and a time for every thing under heaven:
a time to scatter stones, and a time to gather stones;
a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to save, and a time to cast away;
a time to be silent, and a time to speak»
(Ecclesiastes, 3:1-8)
Amazing time!!! A time of change! Recently in prayer I complained to God that in our family changes are too frequent, other people somehow manage to live for years in one place, decades even… But we have changed so many places-jobs-services in two years. And God spoke to my heart: «This is My grace». Well, this article is not going to be about change, but about grace!
In October we had everything steady – work, ministry, board game club. And then I got word that an inductive Bible study session was starting at the end of the month in Dushanbe. I had long wanted to attend such a training, as I had taken a similar course on the book of «Esther» in Ukraine before the war. In the summer I learned that Tajikistan also has such sessions. And now, by the grace of God, a sister blessed me financially to go to the capital of Tajikistan for this training. My husband also blessed me to go to the capital for 10 days, although since the beginning of the war in Ukraine we have not been separated for more than 3-4 days.
A few days before the training began, we learned that Brother Alexei, who had served in Central Asia for many years and now continues to serve one of these people, would be teaching. And my husband had a desire to get to know this brother better, because we also pray for this people.
By the same grace of God, 3 days before the trip, my husband quit his job (his employer never gave him a work visa). We had the finances to go to the capital, but only one way. But during the study, God saw everything through to the details and we were greatly blessed by studying Inductive Course «Тhe Covenant» for 10 days.
My husband also had a difficult conversation with the pastor before the trip, and it turned out that they didn’t understand each other’s expectations. In the end, the decision was made to pause the youth meetings that my husband was leading. And that, too, is God’s grace. After all, no one has a clear vision for youth ministry now, and it is not right to do «just anything».
The boardgames club was also put on pause, as the owner of the cafe where we were meeting asked us not to meet there until spring. We could understand him, because we didn’t pay a penny for the rent. Besides, there were already more than 20 people coming to the games, we were noisy and taking up a lot of space, while we made minimal orders in the cafe, just tea-coffee-water. We had seen for a couple of weeks that the hall was getting crowded, and here it was – God’s grace: we would no longer gather there.
Anyway, having finished all our business, we just left for 10 days and immersed ourselves in an in-depth study of God’s Word, discovering new facets of God’s heart, His character, His relationship to the covenant and to us as heirs of the Abrahamic covenant.
As we arrived, we realized that the Lord had something new in store for us again, by His grace. All that remains is to wait, to learn, to find this new thing. Perhaps it will be a new job, a new ministry, a new stage of development of the boardgame club, maybe even a new city. One of the brothers advised to take training in DTS, and we sent several letters to different locations of this school, if God wills – we are ready to take this training in any part of the world.
Also during these two months there were different events: our son’s birthday (the photo is our gift to him, a dream come true – a horseback ride), the death of our precious brother in Christ in Donbass, my attempts to read the Bible with an unbelieving girl, as well as new acquaintances and some important conversations that impacted us. For example, we met Brother Carl from England who came on a short-term mission trip and had a desire to pray for all the missionaries here. We were very blessed to fellowship with him, told him our testimonies, remembered the journey here, and reminded ourselves of all the miracles God had done in our lives. Brother Carl said it would be a good idea to make a movie or write a book about what we went through. Who knows, maybe God will see a time when we can actually write a book.
But the most significant was still the period of training in Dushanbe. Special thanks to those who participated! We met and fellowshipped with brothers and sisters who are also on a mission to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. It is such a special blessing to find people close in spirit whom you did not know yesterday. Some of them are already well established and glorify God by serving other nations, some of them are just on their way (like us), and some of them have not found their way yet. But all of them are our family in Christ Jesus, dear and precious to our hearts.
So, as of today (late November), we are open to new suggestions and directions, to new pursuits, fields, ministries, acquaintances, to new depths of knowing God’s heart and God’s will for us.
«Those who hope in the Lord will be renewed in strength: they will lift up their wings like eagles, they will flow and not be weary, they will walk and not be weary» – Isaiah 40:31
We continue to pray for the destruction of strongholds in Tajikistan such as corruption, occultism, and domestic violence. Please remember these three points in your prayers, as many even unbelievers see these problems here, and we have experienced the first two first hand.
Talking of corruption. Тhe Lord showed His mercy – during the trip to Dushanbe not a single traffic policeman demanded a bribe from us, although before the trip we were warned that the situation was even worse in the capital. And I’ll be honest – I was worried about it, because I didn’t want to overshadow the learning process with any squabbles with traffic police… But our God is good and merciful – for 10 days none of the patrolmen paid attention to our car with Ukrainian license plates. Thank God!