In early 2025, Central Asian native missionary and ministry leader Eldar (name changed for his protection) visited the ANM office. I interviewed him about the history of Christianity and contemporary evangelism strategies in his section of Central Asia, the Caucasus region.
Rebecca: What is the history of Christianity in the Caucasus region?
Eldar: I’m not good at history, but I can tell you that Christianity came to the Caucasus region through some of the first disciples of Jesus Christ, Bartholomew and Thaddeus. They came to the region and spread the Gospel and both were martyred there.
Bartholomew’s disciple Elisha went back to Jerusalem and asked Patrick James to bless him as a pastor to the Caucasus. He was blessed and sent, and that is how Christianity began to spread in my home country and throughout the region.
If you came to my country, you would see many historical churches, apostolistic churches, all over the country, especially in the northern mountains.
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During the 8th century when the Arabic empire started to grow, Islam started to grow. [Arabs] moved into and occupied my home country and Islam, started to grow and dominate the region.
The Soviet Union’s reign in the area was around 70 years. It spread communism and atheism all over the Central Asia and Caucasus regions.
We were always under occupation: Arabic, Russian, Persian, Mongolian. It’s a very mixed ethnic group in the area.
Rebecca: How does this history and diversity affect your ministry?
Eldar: So today, when we want to reach people in this region, the first task is to realize what people’s true convictions are. For example, Muslims. Are they practicing followers or just traditional nominal Muslims with a more atheistic background?
After figuring that out, we decide how to reach their hearts. Again with the Muslim example, if they are practicing Muslims, we have an approach that brings them from the sacrifice of Abraham to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
They have feasts and holidays about sacrifices and stuff, like Ramadan. Those are very good times to preach the Gospel.
We don’t just bring them the message of the Gospel, but also the culture of the Gospel. Like how sacrificial living looks for Christians versus Muslims and what it really means for your life.
They do these fasts and feasts for cultural reasons, but we come in and say that there is an idea behind the sacrifice. We ask them why they’re doing it, why Abraham sacrificed his son, then we explain the prophecy behind it.
The prophecy is that God Himself will provide the lamb. He fulfilled that prophecy through Jesus Christ.
Isaiah even talks about the lamb sacrificed for us. God was talking about the lamb sacrifice throughout the Old Testament before Christ arrived.
When He arrived, John baptized Him and said, here is the Lamb. John’s disciples then went and followed Jesus.
Then in Revelation, when it’s talking about the end of time, it says that the Lamb is sitting on the throne. All the nations are bowing down to the throne.
So that is how we bring the Muslims from Abraham to Jesus through the concept of sacrifice.
Rebecca: How do you reach people from an atheist background?
Eldar: We divide them into two categories. One category would be 30 and above. People who were born during the Soviet Union or the time of transition to independence.
They probably heard about Jesus and other religions a little bit, but they’re a mix between communism, nominal Muslim, and practicing Muslims.
There is also a growing generation who tend towards deism or atheism. It’s mainly a trend, like they found something cool.
They associate these beliefs with education and knowledge. If you’re educated or knowledgeable, then you have to deny religious things. They’re like myths or fairy tales.
We have another approach to this young generation, and really for all people. We look at evangelism through long-term relationships. Occasionally we do short-term evangelism, but mainly we focus on evangelism to friends, neighbors, and people we know.
With the younger generation, we explain things from the beginning, from Genesis. We explain that everything was created and we use modern terms.
For example, we talk about DNA and thermodynamics. We look at how God created DNA to be full of information and how there are laws to thermodynamics.
We show them that there should be intellectual creation. We encourage in them the image of a Creator Who made such beautiful designs.
Then we see a desire to know Who this Creator is. Then we bring them to Jesus.
We show them that the Creator has a signature. He wants to know you and wants you to know Him better. How do you know more? You have a personal relationship with God.
Rebecca: What about Muslims who aren’t just cultural, who actually follow Islam?
Eldar: We try to explain the difference between Yahweh and Allah. Sometimes Muslims respect Christians because we live in a multicultural country and they say we all believe in the same God.
We try to show them that with Allah there is no way to have a personal relationship. It’s hard for them to understand how we can talk about God as a father or friend because in Islam God is not a person; God is unknown, unimaginable, and unreachable.
We explain that, yes, God is transcendental in nature, but He also wants us to be close to Him. That’s how we reach practicing Muslim neighbors.
Rebecca: Great, thank you.
The second part of our interview is coming soon. Until then, download the free Central Asia prayer guide so you can help missionaries in the Caucasus region and beyond.
