By Beate Peters
Gulbakhor is a lady you would never forget. Always wearing a national Tajik or Uzbek dress – beautiful. Always on the move, working, serving, praying and never giving up sharing the Gospel – powerful.
You must be brave to share the Gospel in a Muslim country. Gulbakhor’s courage comes from a heart which was completely transformed from that of a business-lady trafficking drugs and spending time in prison to a heart that deeply loves the Lord and the people who are lost. Gulbakhor is of Uzbek nationality, lives in Tajikistan and serves to reach Uzbeks and Tajiks for Christ – especially women and families.
Every week she has a group of 10-15 women meeting at her house – Muslim women from the neighbourhood. Some don’t tell their husbands where they go. Some don’t tell them that they hear about Jesus at Gulbakhor’s house. But they come, because they love the fellowship with singing, praying and reading from the Holy Book – the Bible. And some have accepted Jesus Christ.
Restlessly, Gulbakhor travels to other towns and villages to reach women and families with the message of Jesus Christ. She has established a network of contacts in the different places – many of them non-believers, Muslims, who respect Gulbakhor, because they see the living testimony of her faith being revealed in good works.
Once we went to a village for evangelism, Gulbakhor shares. But when you do God’s work, the enemy does not sleep. Some of the local people reported us to the police. Two days after we had left, the police came to the house of the man who had received us and demanded that he surrenders the Christian literature we had given to him. They insisted that the owner of the house call me and tell me to return and come to the police station in that village. So I went. But no-one of the people who had attended our evangelistic meetings handed Christian leaflets or Bibles to the policemen. They didn’t give them even one single Bible. The police harassed the family of our host for a long time. In the end, they fined me with 7000 Somoni (550 euros). But will the great God not intercede for His children and for the offended? He took care of this amount. God put on my heart to pray for these officers and policemen. I believe that He will work in their hearts, for He is good and merciful!
In the very North of Tajikistan, God is using Tatyana to share His love with those who are abandoned in the Muslim society. Children with disabilities and handicaps are considered a curse on the family. Therefore, they are separated, even hidden from the world outside. Being a mother of four children with her youngest daughter suffering from spina bifida, Tatyana is familiar with the pain and difficulties these children and their mothers are facing in everyday life. God touched her heart with the need of these desperate ones. She gently calls them special children because they are special in many ways.
They have special needs, they need special care, and they must know that they are precious and special in God’s eyes, Tatyana explains. There is no help for these people in our society, nobody talks about inclusion or even acceptance of these children. But they need to know they are members of the society. They need medical care, they need support in their daily struggle of a life with a physical handicap (without handicapped-accessible buildings, ramps etc), and most of all, they need to know that God loves them.
Today, Tatyana works with 8 families of children born with spina bifida. But she also built contact with other special children and their mothers. In the summer of 2022, the church of Chudyand organized a summer camp for about 20 children with different kinds of disabilities.
We had a tremendously blessed time together, Tatyana shares. Never ever have any of these children been at a camp. Some never left the apartment. Some had never been in a swimming pool. Spending time playing and learning about Jesus was so precious to them – as to their mothers. After camp, we continued praying for them and we stayed in touch with them. Then, for Christmas, we invited the kids and their mothers to our church for a Christmas event. If you only had seen the joy of the kids when they were given the Christmas gifts! Many of the mothers thanked us so much for sharing the Joy of Christmas with their kids, for not forgetting about them. And many mothers bring their kids to Sunday School or come to the church services. What a wonderful opportunity to tell them about Jesus – who never passed by the sick and the paralysed, but who forgave them for their sins, saved them, and healed their bodies and souls.
Tatyana and Gulbakhor are just two of many sisters serving in Central Asia to share the love of God with children and women. Reaching their families for Christ is just the beginning of winning a nation for Christ. But it all begins with the personal commitment, devotion and ministry of women of faith, our sisters in Christ, the Phoebes of Central Asia who carry the Gospel into a Muslim world – gently, bravely and lovingly.