HOPE in Central Asia
Alan Cutting, Regional Manager for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, reports on the work of Samaritan's Purse HOPE programme amongst the churches in Central Asia - which aims to envision and equip local churches to meet the needs of their local community...
Journeys around here are not always easy, and can take many hours to complete. But from a hot and sticky July through to a bitterly cold and snowy December 2009, Irina travelled the length and breadth of her stunning country, seeking out and mapping church and NGO leaders, and sharing her vision for local churches to find faith-filled, natural and contextualised ways to reconnect with their communities.
A few of those she spoke with felt this was a dream made unlikely to happen due to the depressions of poverty and persecution, but despite the fact that Irina is a young, ethnically foreign woman, the vast majority of the mainly older, male, indigenous leaders she met were respectful, interested and intrigued by the vision she presented them with.
And at that stage the envisioning process had yet to formally begin! These initial visits were officially purely a factual mapping exercise, to enable Irina to know who was where and doing what. But almost inevitably, as conversations unfold, envisioning and mapping bleed together, and from a number of towns and villages, many Christian leaders urged Irina to return so they could talk some more.
Many of these rural pastors have had no formal training for leading churches. They have learned what they practice through word of mouth, and the influences they have seen modelled (for better or for worse) by their predecessors. And others simply have no predecessors. They are “first generation church” in nations where until very recently Jesus was at best “the foreigners God” – a complete mystery and totally irrelevant to their Central Asian lives and worldview. Much the same as a typical non-religious Briton might view Buddha or the Sikh temple.
Bringing the Church together
So from January 2010, carefully, gently, and by unpacking the stories of how Jesus lived loved and talked, Irina returned to some of those she had previously met, and formally started the Samaritan's Purse HOPE (Holistic Outreach Partnership Empowerment) envisioning process. Occasionally she might have mentioned her connections with Samaritan’s Purse, but more often than not Irina purely presented herself as an independent consultant. We like it that way. 
In one town, pastors, who for fear of doctrinal difference had never previously met each other, yet alone sat in the same room together, began to consider what it could be like to work together as the “community of the redeemed” in their neighbourhood. Despite their differences, which caused occasional ripples and stirrings of unrest as they dialogued, grace prevailed and they agreed to meet again two weeks later. By the time this second meeting took place, God had stirred the hearts of those who had attended. Amazingly, an initiative to reach out to the local homeless drug and alcohol addicts instantly took off, two such homeless people came to faith in Christ (and are now successfully completing rehabilitation with a partner organisation), poor families came together to clear rubbish from their district streets, and a women’s empowerment programme for 27 women and a youth club for teenagers began. And the word was out on the streets. The Christians are doing things in the community!
In other towns Irina talked with key leaders and agencies with a view to setting up local HOPE programmes, and by August 2010 we employed another regional “Church and Community Mobiliser”, and were working in three localities within the region.
What we have achieved so far
According to our logframe, our goal is to see “united churches… reaching out holistically into their communities by 2015”. Our purpose, by June 2011, is that “ten local churches from three localities will be ready to reach out holistically into their communities”.
In the first eighteen months of the pilot, we have
• Appointed a Partnership Liaison Manager
• Appointed one Church and Community Mobiliser
• Mapped 170 of the churches and NGO’s across the region
• Have mobilised, envisioned or are in the process of envisioning nineteen churches in three localities of the region
• Have seen eighteen of these churches - the nineteenth is the only church in its community - meeting with other local churches to pray, to form committees and an NGO, and begin to reach out into their communities with Christ centred social action. 
These actions include “seed projects” such as a clean up day for a small town celebrating a special anniversary, and longer term rehab programmes for the local homeless poor, alcoholics and drug abusers, and advocacy for the pastors and relatives of those Christian believers forbidden by the local Moldo (Mullah) to bury their dead in Islamic burial yards (an increasing and distressing problem in this part of the world).
When I visited in November 2010, our staff members and I visited church groups in all three of our regional centres. I found many individuals, pastors and church members giving testimonies of excitement, vision and purpose, particularly in two respects. One was regarding the hope this process has brought to those who have prayed for many years to be fully engaged with their communities, and the other was the growth of unity among the churches. Recently, “baseline and endpoint” surveys undertaken by our staff consistently confirm these anecdotal testimonies.
Looking to the future...
It also has to be said that this work still looks frail, young, and at its early stages of development. Opposition is not unknown, and the challenges are great. This drives us to pray particularly for the security of the believers, for the on-going oneness of the churches, and for the resourcefulness, character and determination to keep going amidst the inevitable setbacks and restricted opportunities afforded to those living and working for Christ and their communities in this region of the world.
We look forward to the further training and mobilising of the present groups, to seeing this programme deepen in its understanding and foundations, and in its influence. We also seek the involvement of another ten new churches with us in 2011. Our HOPE staff members have healthy relationships with those involved in Operation Christmas Child and in our regional emergency relief responses, and have invested extended and quality time into these programmes as well.
So please be patient with us. It’s early days yet. Very early days. And yet there’s an excitement in the air. A highly respected international leader who has worked in the Central Asian region for many years was amazed and excited at what is happening, and recently at a conference we all attended, he repeatedly come back to me and Irina and asked us to tell him again how this had come about. We were not really sure how to answer him. It just seems like God is at work.
For more information about our HOPE programme and how you can be involved, click here.
