We are experiencing a time of blessing,” said Genrich (Heinrich) Foth, president of the persecuted Baptist Union of Kyrgyzstan, at this year’s 53rd session of the Euro-Asian Federation of Evangelical Christians-Baptists.
The event was held at Moscow Theological Seminary April 22–24.
“We have no idea what tomorrow will bring, but we know what we are called to do,” he said.
“We are experiencing wonderful opportunities to proclaim the gospel.”
The Protestants of the five Central Asian states once belonging to the Soviet Union — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan — share a similar fate. They all suffer persecution at the hands of Muslim governments seeking to emulate the models of Iran and Saudi Arabia.
“Mosques are sprouting like mushrooms,” Foth reported. According to him, Kyrgyzstan’s 150 Protestant chapels are confronted with an increasing number of mosques — presently approximately 3,000.
“We feel the pressure of Muslims from all corners,” he added.
A number of church leaders, including Vassily Korobov from the Turkmen Baptist Union, are no longer permitted foreign travel. The three Uzbek Baptists sentenced to heavy fines in 2009 — Pavel Peichev, Dimitry Pitirimov and Yelena Kurbatova — are barred from leaving their country for three years.
In several countries, visits by guests in residential high-rises are watched closely.
A guest from Turkmenistan reported that even private discussions at home around the coffee table can irk the police. Persons participating in such gatherings are consequently trained to make all suspicious objects, like Bibles, disappear when the doorbell is rung.
“It’s much worse than during Soviet times,” the guest said.
The importing of Christian literature has become nearly impossible and the erasing of hard drives and flash sticks at border crossings commonplace.
“I keep seeing terrific Christian literature here in Russia,” a guest from Uzbekistan said. “But how can I get it back to my country?”
In most cases, work among children and youth is only unofficially possible.
Uzbekistan, for one, also produces highly-defamatory, anti-Protestant propaganda.
National TV repeatedly sends a report on a converted ex-Muslim woman who, after being killed in a road accident, could not be buried in a Muslim cemetery. In the end, she was reportedly left behind in an open field as fodder for jackals. The report’s commentator concludes: “This will happen to every Muslim who changes his faith.”
A second program shows the country’s leading Baptists interspersed with scenes of Charismatics in a state of ecstasy. In no way are the two groups distinguished from each other.
In view of their common context, Franz Tissen of Saran, the president of the Kazakh Baptist Union, intends to hold a conference this month for workers from all five countries. About 150 are expected to attend.
Regional conferences reaching as many as 7,000 active believers are to take place in these countries soon as well. This is to occur despite significant political instability such as the closed border between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. (Russian Evangelical Alliance)
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