Spring 2000

Week six

What's inside:

UPG information; project list; One Day info; and God’s Heart for the Nations Bible study

Unreached People Group (UPG) focus: The Kazaks of Kazakstan (Central Asia)

The Kazaks are a Turkic people who comprise 40 percent of the population of their namesake country. Kazakstan is located south of Russia and to the west of Mongolia and China. The Kazaks are the second-largest Muslim people group in Central Asia. Large numbers of Kazaks also live in Russia, the Ukraine and Mongolia.

Traditionally that Kazaks were nomadic shepherds, but during the years of Soviet domination many Kazaks were forced into city life when their farms were overtaken for communal farming. To resist the Soviet takeover, many Kazak farmers slaughtered their herd, thereby creating a famine that left about 1 million Kazaks dead.  The Kazaks embraced Islam in the 16th century and combined Muslim practices with their traditional religious practices. Animism and ancestor worship are still part of the Islamic beliefs of Kazaks.  (Animism is the belief that non-human objects have spirits and ancestor worship involved praying and offering sacrifices to deceased ancestors.) The Soviet attempt to suppress religion led the Kazaks to more fiercely adopt Islam. Among the almost 7 million Kazaks there are less than 700 known believers.

Currently the Kazaks are facing ecological catastrophe because of mismanagement of their natural resources. The Aral Sea is virtually desolated and much of their drinking water is contaminated.

Prayer Points:

• Pray for God to reveal His glory among the Kazaks.
• Pray for long-term laborers to be sent to the Kazaks in every country where they live.
• Pray for unity among believers, both Kazak and non-Kazak so that Muslims will understand the love of Jesus by seeing the love and unity among Christians.
• Pray that the Lord will start a church-planting movement among the Kazaks that will spread throughout Kazaks worldwide.

For more information, see http://www.kazalliance.com (part of www.peopleteams.org) and http://www.ksafe.com/profiles/home.html 

Project List for Central and Southern Asia

DEADLINE FOR SUMMER MISSIONS APPLICATIONS: March 10

ONE DAY!!

May 19-21 in Shelby Farms, Tenn.

One Day that will revolutionize your life … One Day to come before God with your heart and mind open to His voice … One Day to praise Jesus with your song and your life … One Day to ask God where you go from here—how to take His glory to the nations … One Day to encounter God that will leave you and the unreached nations forever changed.

Bible study:

GOD’S HEART FOR THE NATIONS