Since this week was our last week in Kyrgyzstan, I am going to talk about our ministry here and what that looked like.
It’s been pretty wild seeing the huge change in how the Lord has transformed the way I think about ministry from Gap Year til now. My passion to share the gospel was fueled by the loss and Jesus’ Great Commission mandate in Matthew. Now, my love for God has given me a newfound passion and motivation to serve others. You might think there’s nothing wrong with how I viewed ministry before, well let me put it this way: the thing fueling my reason for missions, ministry, and saving the loss was the problem. Do I go on missions to bring God glory, or am I motivated by a sense of guilt about not following His instructions? Or am I driven by human needs? Is it my compassion for people or my passion for God? Sad news of bad problems or Good News of great joy? Passion is the key word, which is the heart set free to pursue that which is truly worthy. Unfortunately I can’t remember who said this, but a speaker that we had in Perspectives class said “those who set their hearts on what is most worthy—the glory of God—live with joy-filled abandon. Their hearts are both seized and satisfied with ambition for Jesus to be ardently worshiped. The love comes to dominate and integrate all other desires so that they live in the freedom of single-minded purpose.” So, in a short and sweet sentence; the fuel to do missions for any other reason except for your love of God will eventually die out, and will possibly burn you out. Please don’t think I’m saying that having compassion for people is bad or if your heart aches for the loss. It’s good to have those things, it just shouldn’t be first to fuel your heart for missions, but it can be second because all of that results in having passion for God. Everything flows out of communion with Him…so what is your motive for missions?
I’m not saying I’m fully there yet. I still don’t have the “perfect” motive, but I am saying that the Lord keeps sending me on missions and continues to reveal the real reason behind my yes. He is working all of it out. So as I’m saying all of this to you, I am also reflecting on my own heart as well.
Let’s talk about my time here:
I didn’t really know what to expect for ministry but because of the way I looked at ministry in the past, this lead the Lord to really make me aware of how I have relied on works to make me justified before Him. I’m going to be straight up honest which can sometimes look nasty and messy, but I didn’t think that building relationships was ministry. I only counted ministry as ministry if it hurt me or cost me something. In other words, I felt like I had to be suffering for it to be ministry. Silly, I know, but that was what the Lord has seen all along and simply made me aware of it. So this country has been all about being intentional sowers into relationships.
For the sake of keeping people safe, I will not be sharing any names and any locations besides Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan which is where we were located.
A quick little run down of our schedule:
Monday was Sabbath, Tuesdays through Thursdays were spent at various universities around Bishkek going into classes to help them grow their english by making conversations, and also making appointments with students one on one. In the afternoon on Thursdays, we would host a bible study/ worship/ community gathering for our fellow believers, which was about 25-30 people! Friday is spent doing a prayer walk at different locations. Our host tells us where to go and talks about it and what there needs are, then we head into street evangelism. Saturday we also make appointments with the students for one on ones.
Now that you know the gist of what we did, now I can get into a little more detail.
The first thing our host taught us is that we were not allowed to share the Gospel inside government buildings, and the universities are technically associated with the government, so we were not allowed to teach the gospel and were advised against speaking the name of Jesus. Because of this rule, we had time in our schedule carved out for one on ones which was for the purpose to share the Good News and also just hanging out with them to get to know them! We would walk along the streets, go to a coffee shop, go into a mall, etc. This is why building relationships was so important. Our entrance into sharing the Gospel is building relationships…. funny how the Lord was teaching me a lesson about that.
Kyrgyzstan has honestly been amazing. I felt like we all really pressed in and gave it our all, and the Lord did use it. We as a squad have been praying to see some fruit and WE HAVE SEEN IT. Let me testify!!
Testimonies
I was given the privilege to go out with some students and host one night. I got to talk with them and find out where they were at with God and they were all in different places. One of them said she depends on herself for everything and is closed off to God, another is seeking and searching for something, and another is curious and not sure what to put her faith and trust in. Along with all of that me and my teammate got to share where we were at with the Lord and what our relationship looks like. One of the girls keeps asking our host about wanting to watch the Chosen!
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For street evangelism, I was partnered up with a Kyrgz Christian. We went and felt the Lord tugging on our hearts with two Indians who were having a lunch break. We sat down and after a while we finally got to move into a gospel conversation. I was discerning some things in the spirit to pray and when I did I immediately saw the fruit of me using my authority the Lord has given in and it was crazy!! So much peace came into the atmosphere and he began to actually listen. With all that he was sharing, the Lord brought 1 John 2:16 to mind. I read it out-loud to him: “For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.” He immediately stopped talking and got choked up on his words. The Lord, with His living and active word, brought conviction to his heart and didn’t know what to say!! It was definitely the right words at the right time. Praise God. I have never seen that before and it really encouraged me and my Kyrgz friend!
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As a few of us were walking back from the grocery store, we saw a homeless man on the ground trying to get help to stand up by another homeless woman. She was trying to help him up but couldn’t. His knee was in such bad shape. We got to pray over them and specifically for his knee and he started walking just fine and had the biggest grin on his face! His arms were open wide and was walking around as if he was saying “look at this!!” We also gave them some toilet paper that we just bought for our house… God provided in an abundance for them, how sweet!! Their last words through the google translate app to us before we departed: “I love you all. It doesn’t matter what nation. The most important thing is that you are good people. I love you very much.”
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The Lord has been highlighting a few people to some of my teammates. We have been so intentional with the Holy Spirit’s leading and he gave open doors to fully lay out the gospel for them. After some time, we fully saw their salvation! I will tell a little about one of them: One girl’s salvation came out of nowhere. One week we are inviting her to go to church and her response was: “I’m sorry, my religion doesn’t allow that.” Two weeks after that she is telling us she is very interested in church and reading the Bible. We had no idea that God was doing so much. He was giving her revelations through the Word and when we met with her, there was so many notes in her notebook about what God was showing her. She was actually understanding what she was reading and it all made sense to her. This was literally all Him! Just at the right time, God revealed Himself. She kept saying “Jesus is knocking on the door of my heart! I know it I know it!” She gave her life to the Lord and even wanted to get baptized. We ending up getting her a bible in her language as a goodbye gift and she was just in awe, going to the table of contents and reading all the books of the Bible, flipping through all the pages and seeing the Word of God. She could not put it down!
So that was only a small portion of testimonies out of many. I hope you’ve been encouraged and actually got a glimpse of how Kyrgyzstan looked for all of us!!
Praise God moment: I AM FULLY FUNDED. I have been before I even left for this country. That’s INSANE.
On the other hand, one of my teammates, Malachi, needs some support!
The Lord opened the door for him to come four days before we launched to go on the field, so he is still really fresh into fundraising for this! He was divinely placed by the Lord on this trip. I can see that so evidently. God opened the door at the right time even though four days seems like it’s too late. If you feel a passion to donate and support him, here is the link!!
MALACHIS BLOG LINK
Turkey
Heading to Turkey so so soon! We leave in two days. Please be praying for us! The rest of this trip will not look like this country. Our ministry is “ATL” or “asking the Lord”. We do not have any hosts, places, locations, ministry, planned out. It is all up to us to pray about it and set the plans in place. Pray that the Lord will fully intervene and show us where He wants each of us.
Thank you!
Until next blog,
Lexi B
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