Usen Kurumbaev
We pray that the stories I am sharing to him from the Bible will remain in his heart and soften him to understand the need of the Savior. Pray also as he read the Bible himself, God will open him to the truth of His great love for him found in Christ.
I met Usen in our outreach event, called Life Talks, where we engage our outreach and young people of Kazakhstan to practice their English with us, learn new skills, and interact with other people. It was Saturday that we met online through this event and Wednesday afternoon (09/19/20), I invited him to be my partner in our language exchange program. He will teach me Russian and I will teach him English in pure conversation only. From that day onward we never failed chatting and video calling each other.
We started to get to know each other that same day of Wednesday and learned that he is a cadet and in training for two years to be a military officer someday. I believe it is an answered prayer fr me because I am praying for some Kazakh who are in the office to reach out like policemen, military men, and government officials.
Thursday, when he called me while he was still in duty and I was meeting a Kazakh friend also.
We talked a lot already for three days and shared mostly likely what made us in common, like priorities in life, hobbies, and likes and dislikes. Until we did not have anything to talk about anymore.
Then I introduced to him the So Cards which I just borrowed from from a friend. This led us to more deeper conversation and Biblical stories.
Through this So Card, I was able to tell him the friendship of king David and Jonathan and plainly told him that he can read this real-life friendship in the Bible. However, I just typed the story on WhatsApp where he can retell the story in English and can give his feedback about their friendship.
When we finished the So Cards, I introduced to him the 66 Questions I am making from the 66 books of the Bible. I asked him the questions from the theme of God’s Promises, the story in the book of Genesis. We answered the questions in Russian and English and told him the story behind the question. Then just last night (09/07/20) while we were talking I opened again, what can he say about the story of Promise. He told me that he did not understand it properly because of improper translation of the Google translation. So he just said to send to him the book with pictures of the story, which I do not have but told him that I am reading it directly from the Bible. Before we end our conversation last night, he asked me to send to him the Bible app in English where he can read the story also. In line with this outcome, we decided that I will read the stories in the Bible in Russian and him in English and tell the stories when we meet again online.
Yes, he is a Muslim, and he knows that I am a believer of Christ but God is doing something in our language exchange that deepens our friendship with each other and makes us vulnerable to the Word and love of God.
Include him in your prayers that he will come to know Christ in no time. Thank you so much for your unwavering prayers for us.