Central Asian Update Part 7
Thank you for your prayers today. Shawn’s dad seems to be in stable condition but remains in very serious health. Other team members’ health seems to be improving as well.
We spent the morning and early afternoon in a Central Asian city where we distributed Bs and tried to build relationships between the Islamic world and the Christian world in this part of Central Asia. Although it is illegal to evangelize in these countries, it is not illegal to talk with people and let them bring up the issue of religion. In our travels and experiences, the native people never fail to talk about religion. Their assumption is that all Americans are Cs and that is simply not the case. Their perception of C-anity comes from American culture, and the American culture they see is “Desperate Housewives.” This is no joke. Muslims in the middle east think that it is a common occurrence for every American man to have multiple sexual partners in an evening’s time. This is the message Muslims are reading and linking to C-anity. To associate G’s name with that is an abomination. This begs a couple of questions: Is our American pop culture so deteriorated and perverted that this is the best we can offer? I pray not. Are Cs truly exhibiting, by G’s grace and power, evidence of gospel change in their lives? I pray so. However, I remain a realist in my assertion of the degradation of American pop culture and the lack of evidence in the believer.
In the afternoon, we travelled to a historic series of caves that was one of the original Central Asian settlements. We saw many, many caves in rocks that reflect the size of the mountain itself. The sights along the Tigris River were breath taking. We drove to another city and had supper at a Burger King – refreshing after a week of Central Asian food. In a parking lot, some stray kids came up to us and one of them began patting my belly with big eyes saying, “Money, money!” I suppose the larger you are the more wealth is perceived (thought you could use a good laugh).
Tomorrow we will be doing much of the same work amongst neighborhoods and market districts in hoping of planting the gosp seed (Bs) into fertile soil. Please pray that G will draw sinners to Himself and that He might be glorified through their lives.
