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Eldar* and I continue our conversation about evangelism among the unreached in his home area, the Caucasus region, the church-planting hub that ANM is starting there, and his prayer requests. Rebecca: How many people groups are in the Caucasus region of Central Asia? Eldar: Around 186 people groups. 157 are unreached people groups, some even unengaged [which means they have no active Christian multiplication]. Around 100 languages too, but there are big trade languages [that everyone speaks] so we can all communicate. Download the free Central Asia prayer guide now. Rebecca: What about churches in the area? You said that there are historical ones, but are they just seen as historical sites or are they active? Eldar: Church in the area is associated with a building. People’s first introduction to Christianity was the Catholic or Orthodox church. Now, when people want to know about Jesus or Christianity, they go to the Orthodox church. But there are many occasions where an Orthodox priest directs people to Protestant churches to answer questions or pray for them. Most of the ancient churches are museums, though. People go there just for the history. Today, Protestant churches are educating members and new believers. The church is a lot like the one in the early church. It’s about us, God’s people, not the building or park or home. Anywhere we meet, we are the church. When we come together, we become the church. That is the concept, but there are two different kinds of local Protestant churches. One type is big enough to register with the government. They have an official address and when young people search on the internet for churches or Bibles, they find it. They go to those churches, they hear the Gospel, and they get saved. The second type of church is non-registered house churches. Their strategy is to stay small and multiply house churches, often underground. They focus on equipping and appointing house church leaders. Give now to help church planters like Eldar. Rebecca: ANM is helping native missionaries like you with a church planting hub in the Caucasus region. I know the goal and the hope is to have a place where people can receive church planting training. Tell me more about what that looks like. Eldar: Our vision is to provide Gospel access among unreached people groups in the Caucasus region. We believe we can only do that through equipping, establishing, and supporting local Christlike leaders. These leaders are going to plant churches, and churches are going to become a place to access the Gospel. I know the importance of this from personal experience. When I was 15, God gave me the desire to look for a Bible, but I didn’t know where to find one. I didn’t have access to the Bible or church or Christians. That’s one of the definitions of an unreached people group. They don’t have access yet. In my home country, there are only about 10,000 believers among a population of 10 million. So our role is to create access. Our strategy is to move God’s people on their spiritual journey with Jesus. We target five categories of people: outsiders, new believers, committed followers, effective workers, and world Christians. How do we get them from outsiders to world Christians? We evangelize them, establish them in faith, equip them with evangelism tools and skills, and give them God’s global heart for all people groups. Then we send them out. To implement this strategy, we need a centralized hub where we can bring all of our church planters, workers, and potential leaders for training. We establish them and send them back to their countries to fulfill the Great Commission. We have five coordinators who are overseeing this movement throughout the Caucasus region. We meet with them to talk about potential workers, established Christians, people interested in baptism, and such. As a hub, we can help these coordinators. We can offer supportive training, retreats, meetings with different regions, and more. Rebecca: That’s awesome. Is there anything else that you want to share? Eldar: Right now, the desire of churches in our region is prayers from our brothers and sisters in America. Pray that we will reach the next generation and pass our legacy on to them. We didn’t receive Christianity from our parents. We’ve never experienced this transition. We are all first-generation leaders. Now we’re raising the next generation of leaders and asking how we’ll pass it on, how we’ll transition. We want to see this next generation, this second generation of Christians, church leaders, and missionaries. Please pray and support this work. Rebecca: Thank you. Download our free guide How To Pray for Central Asia so you can start praying for Eldar, his fellow Christians in the area, and unreached Central Asian people groups. *Name changed for his protection |
