kyrgyzstan -- missions and missionaries

In 1992, 64-year-old Captain Yang (楊嘉善), a former merchant marine captain, decided to retire and serve God in full time ministry. He turned over his shipping business to his employees and dedicated the rest of his life to mission work.

From 1995 - 2000, he and his wife ministered among the Dungan Muslim people in Kazakhstan. In spring 2000 they were moved to open Christian schools and orphanages in Kyrgyzstan. Miraculously, Kyrgyzstan's departments of Religion, Justice and Education granted Elder Yang the nation's first Christian school license. He soon set up a Christian charitable foundation and opened its first Christian School of Blessing in September 2000 with 120 students from 1st-4th grades.

As of today, the foundation operates/supports five schools (mostly 1st-11th grades) and two orphanages that serve over 1200 children, and a university and a vocational college that offer business, law, linguistic, pedagogy, international relations, and information technology studies to over 400 students, as well as a gym and a playground with youth and pre-school programs in northern Kyrgyzstan.

 

Christian funded or not, proselytization and open adulation of Christianity is not allowed in Kyrgyzstan. An off-campus student fellowship/counseling program is thus set up and conducted by Jean, a lady pastor from Taiwan who has been residing and hosting weekly meetups, organizing summer/winter camps, providing life coaching, etc., to young adults here for well over a year.

Another off-campus, annual event organized by the foundation is a Christian value based leadership development program (called "The Way To Success") that invites seasoned business people as speakers and mentors to teach and facilitate the training for those who choose to participate.

Spencer and Diane are such speakers. They are a couple originally from Kansas and veterans of corporate world before leaving it for mission fields. They--along with their three young children--had been living among the Uyghurs in Chinese Xinjiang region for 5 years until the Chinese government decided not to renew their visa and moved here a year and a half ago.

Paul is another layman-turned-missionary that I met through the TWTS program (where I cameoed as a mentor). He was originally from Wisconsin and a gifted addiction/crisis counselor by profession, before he met Captain Yang's ministry in the States and decided to become a full time missionary himself. Before coming to Kyrgyzstan six months ago, he and his Chinese wife Angela had spent a couple years in southwestern China (雲南) evangelizing tea growers there.

From a rigid Catholic background (he is the 7th child of two church going Catholic parents), he had "converted" to a pro-active, but very kind and thoughtful evangelical in this land of non-Christian-believers. He told me two contrasting episodes that recently happened to him: In one someone knocked on his apartment door and advised he keep a low profile in his evangelical activism here; In another he was invited to a rural village by a Kyrgyz woman whose recently deceased husband was a non-practicing Scottish Christian to speak in his funeral and he took the opportunity to pronounce his faith and the gospel message at the end of his speech to hundreds of Muslims in the audience, knowing full well what dangers such pronunciation might bring him.

I met Sandra at one of those student fellowship functions Jean organized. She told me she was originally from Ohio but later moved to Arizona and then sold her property there to travel the world on missions. She has been living in a house she bought 5 years ago in the former Mennonite village and working on rescuing and educating women who are victims of bride kidnapping that she said is still quite common practice here.

John is a Canadian who came to Kyrgyzstan 4 years ago and with his churches' backing set up a farm for adult orphans who "graduated" from orphanages without employable skills and/or places to live. He had since extended his farm to include guest houses for back-packers/eco-vacationers and sell handicrafts made by orphanage children to help achieve self-sustenance for the operation.

Last but not least, Butch, a retired chief executive of a big construction company in Illinois, has been the major benefactor and brain trust for the foundation for the past 15 years or so. He happened to be here on one of his frequent visits from the States and staying in the same complex as I so we hit off chatty conversations almost daily at breakfast in the homey kitchen. He struck me as an even-keeled Mid-Westerner and straight-talking Texan (indeed he just bought a ranch in central Texas and moved down there a couple months ago) combined, a rock solid guy befitting his position as chairman of the foundation that is particularly needed since Captain Yang, a very dear old friend of his since the founding of the foundation, had passed away more than two and a half years ago.