Central Asia

There are seven “stan” countries in Central Asia. These include Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. Willi, our ministry coach in Eurasia, has been training leaders in this area for many years through his mission organization. The local leaders that he has most recently been serving has been asking for more training and he has begun to use our leadership materials.

Typically, participants in his leadership training seminars are from various Central Asian countries, as well as various denominations. The focus is on spiritual growth and includes both pastors as well as lay leaders. They have to meet rather secretively, as  they are primarily Muslim countries. Though he is based in Germany, Russian is his main language which is      the common trade language in Central Asia. Since all of our materials are already translated in Russian, he is able to use them to invest in leaders in this part of the world.

Ukraine

For many years Jacob has been part of our local leaders cohort in Zaprozhnia (Zap.). Recently, Willi was able to meet with him while in the city to provide encouragement.  He will be doing a seminar in June with Jacob’s church, whose leaders we have been training for many years.

The priority at this time in Ukraine is to provide encouragement and showing up in person, as it is easy for them to feel somewhat abandoned. Zap is in the far east of the country and the situation is very tense as they are 40km from the front lines. The main concern is becoming occupied and the nuclear power plant.

Yet in spite of the obstacles and risk, Willi continues to travel there to encourage them in person. It involved lots of difficult travel to get to Ukraine and Central Asia, so thank you for your prayers for safety and guidance as he continues to serve leaders in this region.