Each year in March or April, homes around Central Asia are abuzz with activity. It’s Ramadan, the holy month in the Islamic calendar, where Muslims fast in the day. Families gather to break fast in the evening, and it’s common for families to visit one another to do so together.
In Central Asia, where Islam has been the dominant religion for centuries, this has become part of the social fabric of society. For Christians, who are the minority and persecuted, it can be a very lonely time.
For Muhammadali, it wasn’t just expulsion from the family. When Muhammadali renounced Islam for Jesus Christ, his brother was so enraged he nearly beat Muhammadali to death. One of the blows was on the head with a glass bottle. Muhammadali has had to have several surgeries on his eyes in the following years to lessen the pain caused by his broken bones. Hence, he must wear sunglasses most of the day now, even whilst indoors.
Program Host Muhammadali has to wear sunglasses most of the time because of injuries sustained when he was beaten by his brother for following Jesus.
But like Jesus who, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2a), the persecution has only strengthened Muhammadali’s resolve to share the Good News of Isa (Jesus). He is doing so as a program host in Kyrgyzstan within FEBC Eurasia’s visionary Isa Resurrection project.
The Isa Resurrection project reaches out to Muslims across Central Asia, including entirely unreached people groups such as the Karakalpak people. As it is illegal to publicly invite people to receive Jesus in many Central Asian countries, the content shared by the team is factual. Video testimonies, Biblical history, or Bible stories are shared on social media, online, and on app, in addition to radio broadcasts on daily living. On average, each testimony video on ‘Jol Şyndyq Ömіr’ channel (‘The Way, the Truth, the Life’) gets more than 50,000 views.
Listener Elvira was one of the many impacted. “My husband is a radical Muslim,” said Elvira when she called the hosts of one of FEBC Kyrgyzstan’s programs. “He is extremely jealous, never letting me out of the house and constantly checking my phone.”
Many women in Kyrgyzstan find themselves in similar difficult situations. They feel trapped and have nowhere to turn. But God wants to be their refuge.
Elvira became a regular listener of FEBC Kyrgyzstan, talking with the hosts of the program often. When they shared the Gospel with her, Elvira became a believer in Jesus. “I wish I could come meet you, but my husband won’t let me go to the city,” she told them.
Though circumstances have not changed and Elvira is unable to tell her husband she has become a Christian, she now knows she is not alone. Once fearful and in despair, she is now alive in Christ!
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