October_2

Nov 10, 2023 by LMAsia

Azerbaijan

In September 2018, the church tree began to be planted here. Today we have grown from 2 to 14. Twenty have been baptized of which fifteen are local. Every day we pray and wonder who it is that we may meet. We don’t always meet someone, but we watch and pray with a growing awareness of the opportunities among our regular associates.

Our goal is to have three key local families and a group of seeking students and solid young working saints as the core around which our Lord can grow the church life. When we have a total of 50 local passports, we can petition the Ministry of Religion to grant us status as a registered group. In this restricted environment we continually turn to the Lord to see a clearer view of His economy so that our spirit will not be bound, nor stirred up by our soul, but always enterprising, so that we can enjoy the flourishing of Lebanon through the flow of life among us. When we are clear that we are serving the Lord, we need not wait for all things to be ready, but striving together, working even when there is nothing for us to work with.

As one of the former Soviet nations, Azerbaijan was under Russian sovereignty for 70 years and though this is a Muslim nation, the Russian language is widely in use. In support of our local outreach to our many Russian speaking friends here we have labored much in the Lord with consecrated serving ones from Russia. These saints came to us on a three-month rotational basis in this past academic year. This cooperation was beneficial in helping a small number of dear ones to enjoy the ministry in their mother tongue and to begin to enter into the church life.

Regarding literature work and gospel outreach we have this to report. In the past we supported the translation of ten small booklets into the local languages of Azerbaijani and Russian. (The six rainbow booklets and Basic Elements of the Christian Life, Vol 1&2). This year we have cooperated in the translation of the book The Tree of Life into Azerbaijani. Also, we have printed EOG and AIC in Russian this year. Now the book Glorious Church is being translated into Azerbaijani. All of these publications have been approved by the Ministry of Religion. We cannot mass distribute or even propagate the gospel here, so we share these texts through personal relationships. It is a wonderful time of training for us, awaiting His appearing, while joy with suffering is blent.

Concerning the blending with others, besides hosting seven annual feasts on-line, we have greatly enjoyed every contact with the saints in Tajikistan, who met with us on-line three times a week most of last academic year. One couple travelled there to Dushanbe for mutual shepherding, and also visited two cities in Kazakhstan for fellowship. Here in Baku, on Wednesdays and Thursdays we regularly join the blending and fellowship times with London and with Israel. We are much encouraged whenever our new ones can enjoy the rich ministry from Israel in the Russian language.
Our corporate prayer is often with a petition for the Lord to strengthen His move by blending us with one-another throughout this entire region, spreading a net over us from Istanbul to Dushanbe; from Tbilisi to Baghdad, and with the hope that He will afford us opportunity to join us with the local churches in the Gulf Coast and Central and Eastern Europe. Harmonizing, tempering, and losing of distinctions will usher all of us more into the reality of the Body of Christ as a fine flour meal offering to satisfy God and man. This blending and corporate living of the perfected God-men will close the age and bring in the Kingdom, consummating the New Jerusalem. We must ask and pray for this as never before.

We completed the on-line reading of the Life Studies of fourteen books of the NT in the past four years, Friday after Friday, joining with other saints abroad, diving into the truth together for the washing and the nourishing, unto the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love. This spring we were immersed with a number of others for a training for the serving saints in Asian countries. Then this summer several saints gave themselves for several weeks to go abroad for more propagation training. Now we are together again, taking aim at the new semester which is before us.

Among us we speak more than five languages, and we welcome any visitors, and also students seeking an affordable education, to come and explore your options for a short-term or long-term stay. Just last month we received an older sister and her daughter who have come for two years to join us in studying and serving the Lord. Let us continue to pray for the Lord’s move among us, to the uttermost inhabited earth.

Tajikistan

We are currently propagating in Tajikistan. It is against the law to preach the gospel in public; so, in the beginning, we only invited the ones, who had already become friends with us, to our homes to share the gospel with them. Soon, we realized that it was not easy to see the results this way; so we started going out to the park once a week to share the gospel. We gradually found a way to preach the gospel. In late April, we planned specific ten blocks of time to contact people during the week, and the Lord opened up new opportunities for us. We found the seeking ones who are in hunger for the truth and we have been able to maintain contact with them. Currently, we are in contact with five gospel friends whom are open to the Lord’s word. Some of them are the faculties in the university, some are students, and others are young adults. Some of the friends read the Bible before. They are willing to share their thoughts regarding beliefs with us; and some have regular home meetings with us.

In addition, we have been in regular contact with two families. One of the families is serving in a local denomination. Now they have home meetings with us to pursue the Life-studies regularly. The other family, whom we met while preaching the gospel on the street, consisted of a sister and her children. This sister is a true seeking one. She went various gatherings in the past. She, however, left her church five years ago, due to not seeing the expression of the Body of Christ there. She currently does not attend any Christian gatherings and study the Bible at home with her children. Now they read the Bible together with us and are very open to the Lord’s word.
We pray that the Lord would gain these two families and may the Lord open their eyes to see God’s economy and the vision of the Body of Christ. Also pray for the sons of peace to be released and for the raising up of His testimony in Tajikistan.

International College Training in Asia

The 2023 Summer International College Training in Asia was held at the Blending Center in Central Taiwan. A total of 740 college students and serving ones from Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam participated. In addition, some brothers flew in from the United Kingdom and the United States to give messages. From July 24th to 28th, the attendants devoted themselves for five days to getting into the messages of the past semi-annual training entitled “An Overview of the Central Burden and Present Truth of the Lord’s Recovery before His Appearing”; then from the 28th to the 30th, they went on a three-day blending trip.

During the three-day blending trip, by visiting the churches and participating in the church life in different localities, the students had more opportunities to blend and fellowship. The presentations and exhibitions prepared and given by the students to introduce their countries became the highlights of the blending gatherings. Although everyone lives in different places and speaks different languages, there is a precious Christ within.

Thank the Lord that by gathering together with young people who love the Lord from different Asian countries, and by studying and preparing for tests together, sharing with one another, and going on blending trips together in this all-English college training, the students not only practiced English, but also had their views enlarged to see the reality of the Body of Christ. They experienced fellowship of the one new man. Next year the College Training in Asia will be held in the Philippines. We do hope more college students will be able to participate and be stirred up and uplifted by the Lord, that they would be perfected to be useful vessels to Him and receive the Lord’s commission to be those that would bring Him back.