Emerging Communities | Silk Road Area Feature

20/08/2021 2:37:00 PM | Eliza

The team in the Silk Road Area is seeing God break through in exciting and surprising ways.

Anna, a K believer, met Lily through a mutual friend last year and invited her to join the newly formed ‘Sunday tea’ club - a gathering of K believers and seekers. Lily’s son Sam, who’s in his mid-20s, has brittle bone disease and life has been a struggle for many years.

So when Anna gave them a copy of the Bible in the K language, they spent time reading and engaging with the story. When Anna followed up with the pair a couple of months later she asked, “Have you read the book? Have you accepted Jesus?” The answer came, “Yes!” And Lily began attending Anna’s ‘Sunday tea’ club. Sometimes Anna and another friend go to visit Lily and Sam at their house.

“I’m very happy,” Anna says. “It had been eight months since our group started and some people came but didn’t really believe. Their hearts weren’t true. But women like Lily, they are real.”

About a month later, Anna sent through photos on WhatsApp of what looked like a day trip to a nearby tourist attraction. A believer from the city had found a minibus, gathered a number of believers from across the country, plus Anna, Lily and Sam, and taken the group for a day trip to a magnificent canyon. It had long been Sam’s dream to visit the canyon before his body could no longer manage such an outing.

Here was the body of Christ coming together to admire God’s creation and bless a mother and her son through fellowship and the fulfilment of a dream. What a privilege to sit on the sidelines and watch the Holy Spirit at work!

This is how we are seeing God at work. After supporting Anna through several domestic violence incidents, very ill health, pregnancy and poverty last year, she found the courage and strength to start her own faith community.

We connected her with a believer in the city, who broadened the network to other generous and loving believers. We’ve since been able to deliver copies of the Bible in the K language for Anna to distribute, together with donations of groceries, clothes and toys. Anna has six children of her own but she is sharing these gifts with the believing families in her network.

Believers from the city have heard Anna’s story and visited her here in the village, to encourage her and spend time worshipping God with her family in their house. Now Anna has heard about other family groups in outlying villages through this network.

Another highlight has been connecting our teammate Petra, an experienced Occupational Therapist, with Lily and Sam. Petra is looking for ways to share her skills and experience with this family, to make life just a little bit easier in a world where caring for those with disabilities is not done well.

Our faithful partners and supporting churches have joined with our family and team many times over the past 12 months to kneel in prayer for Anna and her family.

Together we prayed when her husband abused her, when she was desperately ill, when she started her ‘Sunday tea’ club, and together we praised God for the safe arrival of her sixth baby in January.

What a joy to be in this together, as we follow the Spirit’s leading to support the establishment of new K faith communities in this village and, hopefully, beyond.

Click here for the full Silk Road Area feature in Resonate 37 >>
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