|
Profiles of Regular Attenders 2007 Last Updated 4/16/2008 |
||
|
Kooderbye
(Photo left to right: Kooderbye, Arman, Baltabye. Their names mean: "man about town", "dream", and "axe master", i.e. "hero".
I have known Kooderbye since May of 2002. He was the first person in Kalkaman to profess Christ through our ministry. Over the last year or so he has become my best friend. He is the kind of church member that every pastor dreams of. The work that God is doing in his life, his companionship, and willingness to trust me and open up to me never fails to lighten the burden a little. He has been the caretaker of our church here in Kalkaman for two years. His duties include shoveling snow, keeping the coal boiler running, mopping the floors, general maintenance, mowing the lawn, sweeping, gardening and this winter a new chore: helping me with the ice pond.
Kooderbye continues to plant seeds among his 30 or so relatives. They continue to reject but they tolerate his message and respect his miraculously changed life. I picked up some evangelistic tapes to distribute. We are gave them to relatives of our church members who seem like they will listen to it. One of them explains Christ and why we celebrate his birth. The other is longer and entitled "How to Know God." It is an overview of the message of Christ in Scripture. We are praying for at least 1 of Kooderbye's relatives to be saved so that he is not so alone in his family.
Kooderbye's Background: Kooderbye was born in Uzbekistan like Byeram. His mother died when he was born and his father abandoned the family. Only 2 of 11 children survived. He was raised by his older brother Baltabye who eventually became one of the leading doctors in the large Uzbek city where they lived. Kooderbye ran the home for many years and cooked for he and his brother but he moved out when his brother got married. He became a criminal at a young age and Baltabye used his influence more than once to get him out of prison terms. Baltabye was also able to get Kooderbye a technical degree even though he never attended classes. He spent much of his youth working as a truck driver and driving the road less desert between Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Russia with contraband in order to avoid the soviet authorities. He also worked as a migrant worker on the collective farms here in Kazakhstan for 10 years. He was married and divorced. His wife has since died.
He became an alcoholic as a young man. When I met him he was 53 and homeless. Like many alcoholics here he "worked" as a night guard in an unfinished house. He lived for years with no heat, no water, one light bulb, a hot plate, only plastic sheets for windows in one corner of the shell of a house. He had an old Soviet passport and no identity card. That meant that he was subject to shakedowns by the local police and could not receive any medical care. His live in girlfriend was Goolnara (She is profiled in the next section.) After a little over a year of working with him and getting to know him better we decided to sponsor his rehab and put him into an 18month Christian program called teen challenge run by Australian missionaries here. He quit after 1 month the first time and spent the summer struggling with drink. Then in September of 2004 (a few days after we bought the church building) he went into the program again.
This time, Kooderbye stuck it out in the treatment program for the full 18 months. Less than 1 out of 10 people who enter complete the entire 18 months. By God's grace both of the people we sponsored (Kooderbye and Goolnara) completed the entire program. He graduated in April of 2006 and worked another 6 months as an intern at the treatment center with the children of the patients who are in the men's program. Kooderbye's relatives thought he had died when he went into the center. A second aunt and her son did die in a restaurant fire while he was in the program. When he showed up on a pass after 18 months they all nearly fainted. He began to reconcile with his relatives who he had victimized by extorting money from them and beating them for many years. Kooderbye always tells me he was never afraid of any two men on a dark road at night, but if there were three or more he was a little worried. He began working to restore his birth certificate, passport, and other documents that he needed to get a job.
2007: In 2007 Kooderbye's older brother Baltabye moved here from Uzbekistan with his wife and is temporarily living with other relatives. (By the way most of our church members are from Uzbekistan.) Baltabye has bought some land and is going to build a tiny house there in a year or so. When we replaced Noah's roof, Baltabye took the old roofing material to use later.
2007 saw a continuation of the work that God began in Kooderbye. He turned 57 this year. He continues to have an enormous appetite for God's word. He studies his Bible and books in Russian from our Church library. He is reading Mere Christianity, the MacArthur Study Bible, a Bible dictionary and a theological dictionary. He asks me 2 or 3 questions about what he has been reading every time I see him. He claims that his mind is shot from drinking and that he can't memorize verses, but he constantly quotes scripture to me.
He continues to evangelize when he visits his extended family 2 or 3
times a week. In fact he loves to study the Bible so that he can tell
his family what he is reading. A few weeks ago his family was mocking
his faith in Jesus. Tears came to his eyes as he told me about it. I
could see the anguish it was causing him on his face. He told me that it
reminded him of the Pharisees who mocked the man born blind after he was
healed by
Answered Prayer 2007: At the beginning of the summer he began doing gardening work for two American families and several national families in our area. This was the first regular job he has held in many years. He continues to work on getting his documents in order. It has been over a year now since he started. Last but not least, in November of 2007 he was hired by the local Missionary Children's school to be the odd job guy. He only works 2 days a week but he gets benefits and they pay social security tax for him. It was a big event for him to finally get a real job after so long and it means a lot to his family as well. But God has made him into a new man and continues to change him. We continue to be amazed at what God is doing with him.
Near the end of the year another one of our prayers was answered. Kooderbye's nephew Adilbek and his wife Amangool started coming to church. (They are the couple in the back row on the far left in the photo) Kooderbye has been witnessing to them for over a year. He never pushed the idea of coming to church. He just let them decide when the time was right.
|
||
|
Goolnara
Background: Goolnara was raised in the city where the Soviet atom bomb was tested: Semipalatinsk, 800 miles to the north east of Almaty. She was from a middle class family and married at the age of 20. At the age of 24 her husband was killed in a knife fight. At that time she had a new born boy and a 2 year old girl. With the help of her husbands mother she continued working as an accountant and picked up a second job washing floors. But she began drinking heavily with her coworkers and became an alcoholic. She spent the next 20 years living a wild life. She was involved in the occult an criminal activities. She abandoned her children and they were raised by her husband's mother. She moved to Almaty in 1997. Goolnara was living with Kooderbye in one room of an unfinished house when we met her in 2003. She resisted getting help for a year but finally entered the women's program in September of 2004 at the same time as Kooderbye entered the men's program.
At that time they planned on getting married after completing the 18 month program. They weren't allowed to talk to each other in all of that time. They were also restricted to the grounds of their respective centers for 1 year. During the 2nd year they were given a 24 hour pass one day a week. They attended our church during that time.
Goolnara's family really supported her. Their visits and support
were a great
encouragement. She has 11 brothers and sisters 8 of
whom live in or near Almaty. By the time she had gone into the
treatment center they had disowned her. She was homeless.
Less than 1 out of 10 people who enter the program complete the
entire 18 months. By God's grace both of the people we sponsored
(Kooderbye and Goolnara) completed the entire program. Goolnara
graduated in April of 2006 and worked another 6 months as an intern
in the "detox" area of the rehab center. Goolnara resigned in September
of 2006 against our advice. But she was able to visit her newly
married daughter in late October of 2006 and begin the process of
reconciliation with them. She helped her family
with painting, cleaning, babysitting, floor washing, remodeling, and
cooking. She also made a second trip to visit her son, daughter and new
granddaughter in eastern Kazakhstan. During that time she was able to
get better acquainted with her new granddaughter. Each time their
relationship gets a little better.
2007: She looked for work until January and finally decided that she was going downhill. For various reasons she was not able to find a job that would work for her. She made a good decision to go back to work at the rehab center in February. She works 24 hours a day, 6 days a week. They are locked in with female addicts and alcoholics. For this she earns $60/month. She encourages those women and challenges them with her testimony of God's power to change lives. She is badly needed there because she is the only Kazakh speaking staff person in the women's program. She had the biggest smile on her face when her counselor told her they could take her back as a staff person. She has blossomed as she has taken on more responsibility at the center. She is teaching a couple of times a week, is in charge of security, and runs the whole center on the Director’s day off. She faithfully comes to visit us once a week and comes to our Sunday service once a month. On the other Sundays she is involved in a church that was started by the staff at the center.
Her sisters Gowhar and Djanar aren’t doing as well. Despite our best efforts they aren’t interested in returning to church at this time. Keep them in your prayers.
|
||
  Gowhar and Zhanar. Two of Golnara's sisters professed Christ in the summer of 2006 and attended our church for about 4 months with their two grade-school age girls. Please pray that they would decide to come back.
Left: Gowhar with here daughter Aseeya.
Right: Zhanar and her daughter Asel. |
||
|
Byerambye and Goolmira
See Photo: tallest to shortest: Byeram, Goolmira, Eyedana, Moldir.
2007: 2007 has been a year of transition for Byeram and his family. After discipling Byeram almost daily for three years, we both came to the conclusion that Byeram does not have the gift of teaching. For this reason Byeram's status as intern changed to church member. In 2007 Byeram transitioned from being a part-time church employee to being a volunteer and valuable church member. He began to devote more time to his work and family responsibilities and less time to training to be a pastor. This is a good thing because he has learned where his giftedness is: in evangelism and helping people.
For more info on 2006 and 2007 see below.
He is one of our most trusted church members. Because I cannot own property in Kazakhstan, We must trust a citizen of Kazakhstan to own all of our property. Byeram is that person. He owns the church building, and the ministry center, and will own our house. That also means that he has to do most of the running from office to office to add and maintain our utility services for those properties (Phone, water, gas, electricity), and obtaining the required legal documents for conducting church activities and renting those properties to me.
Byeram also leads worship and our weekly prayer meeting. He is the gentle and non-combative one in the family, but he keeps his cool no matter what people do to him. He was a brawler and full of anger before he was saved. He was poorly taught at the local seminary and by a good friend of his. He has begun to teach and profess only what the Bible teaches. He has only an eighth grade education but he is working very hard to master basic Bible teachings.
Background on Byerambye and Goolmira: Goolmira (Byeram's Wife) wanted to be a doctor. She had been accepted to medical school and was walking to her first day of class when Byeram abducted her and negotiated with her parents to marry her. (This is still a common practice in some parts of Kazakhstan.) Byeram did not know her at the time and they were both unbelievers. After they were married Byeram did not allow her to attend medical school. 3 years later Byeram was saved and his life and heart dramatically changed. It took another 2 years before Goolmira was saved.
Goolmira shares teaching of the ladies group and helps prepare our weekly Sunday fellowship meal. She is a tough-girl who refuses to back down from God's word no matter how she is pressured. Her family's opposition has made her stronger and more sure of God's word. Although she was not able to continue in school because she married young, she is sharp as a tack and loves to study the Bible. She comes from a family that read books (unlike Byeram's family.) We have loved seeing her progress in knowing what God's word says and being able to quote it whenever she needs to. She helps Byeram when he is preparing to teach. She has also begun to confront false teaching among their friends and acquaintances from the seminary.
Eyedana is thoughtful, athletic, an excellent student, and a faithful witness for Jesus Christ. She plays with Lucy, Amanda, and Noah and loves to mimic their English phrases. Moldir (the youngest) is nicknamed "grandma Moldir" because she maintains a steady chatter and gives her advice every few seconds.
Byeram came to Kazakhstan from Uzbekistan when he was 10. He has two brothers, one sister, and two half brothers and one half sister. His father has mafia ties and lives in Uzbekistan. His mother and all of his full and half brother's and sisters profess Christ, but have poor witnesses.
Goolmira has 1 living brother and 7 living sisters. They all live in the far west part of Kazakhstan near the Caspian sea. When here father died, her brother became the leader of the extended family. 2 of her sisters profess Christ. Byeram's family visits Goolmira's relatives every other year for 6 weeks in the summer.
2006: One of Goolmira's younger sisters (Goolnoor, see below) came back from the bi-yearly Caspian trip to live with the Byeram's indefinitely. At the time we were helping them out by allowing them to live in our ministry center so that they could save money and so that Goolmira would not have to work outside the home. Goolnoor's appearance was a surprise to us and contrary to our advice to them. Goolnoor became their nanny. This enabled Goolmira to increase the numbers of hours she was working outside the home as a cook/housekeeper from 20 hours to 40 hours per week. In the late summer of 2006 while we were in the US the hours went up to 60 per week when Goolmira accepted a different job as a nanny. Byeram also switched jobs leaving his former employer (an American missionary friend of ours) in a difficult situation. This situation negatively impacted Byeram's testimony and contributed along with Byeram's lack of giftedness in teaching to our mutual decision to develop new goals for Byeram that did not include being pastor.
Just before we finalized that decision everything went on hold when Byeram's older (and mentally low-functioning) brother Nurik was murdered on the job in the early morning hours of Sunday Nov 19, 2006. Nurik was killed by a former guard who asked to be let into the locked store in the middle of the night for tea and a place to sleep. The man stole around $400. The murder's brother became suspicious when he noticed that he suddenly had come into some money and persuaded him to confess to the murder. Byeram and I went to the murder scene when the police called just before our Sunday service was about to start. Byeram examined the body and later was required by the police to view all of the crime scene photographs. (They do this because they need a family member to sign off the their investigation was acceptable to the family.) The images continue to haunt Byeram.
Our station wagon became the hearse for the funeral. You can read more about that at: Kazakh Funeral
2007: All in all another very hard year for Byeram. Byeram is still battling with "depression". Preparations for the trial and daily summoning to the police headquarters lasted until the end of May. Besides the stress of the trial, Byeram's extended family began to have even more marital and work problems than usual. Goolnoor returned to the Caspian in April. The Byeram's visited the Goolmira's relatives again in the summer of 2007 and returned with a different younger sister (Gowhar) in August. They told us that she was going to live with them for 5 years while she went to college. We gave them a choice of either sending her back home or moving out of our ministry center apartment and back to their own house. They chose to move. It took until November to register Gowhar for the spring semester and she just sat at home every day until December when she returned to the Caspian for Goolnoor's wedding. After she left Goolnoor's wedding was postponed indefinitely.
On the bright side, Byeram's younger daughter Moodir is almost certain to get a full-ride scholarship to attend the international school here in Kalkama. She will be studying in English and receive an American type High School education when she finishes. She will be starting in the 2nd grade in the Fall of 2008. She will be able to attend an American university if she so chooses when she graduates. |
||
|
Goolmira's younger sister: Goolnoor.
Background:
Goolnoor is Byeram's wife's (Goolmira's) younger sister.
Goolmira's family lives a 3 day journey to the west in a village near
the Caspian Sea. Goolnoor came to Almaty for treatment of TB in
the spring of 2006.
When she came, she was not a believer, she professed
2007: Her brother continued to support her in 2007. Although she did not attend church, she continued to secretly read the small "hideable" Bible that we gave her. In late 2007 we learned that she was to be married to an unbeliever. The wedding was postponed because of a death in the family. As of the end of 2007 a new date has not been set. We do not know her true spiritual state. Please continue to lift her up in your prayers.
Jan 2008: We received some encouraging news about Goolnoor. As the wedding approached she began to see some character flaws in the wealthy man she was about to marry. Then her prospective mother in law secretly searched her purse one day and found the tiny scrap of paper in 8point font that I had presented to her when she left. It reads: "The just shall live by faith." Although her prospective mother-in-law didn't know it was from the Bible she was suspicious of the paper and interrogated and berated Goolnoor about it. We are pleased to know that she kept it all this time. Pray that she will make a God honoring decision about whether she should marry this guy or not.
|
||
|
Goolmira's Younger Sister: Gowhar.
(Dressed in red in the photo.)
Gowhar came back with Byeram and Goolmira in August of 2007 to live with them for 5 years (against our advice) while going to college here in Almaty. She stayed until Dec of 2007 when she returned for her sister Goolnoor's wedding which was later postponed. Gowhar has not professed Christ but Byeram required her to come to church every week while she was here. She is planning to return sometime in the spring and to start her university training. She is enrolled in an unusual way that is popular here. She only attends classes for 3 weeks every quarter. The rest of the time she is free to work. Gowhar was much like Goolnoor when she arrived. She didn't talk to any of us for the first couple of months, not even Amanda and Noah. Then she started playing cards with them occasionally and ping-pong. When she left she was still pretty quiet but a little more comfortable with Amanda and Noah. She loved American food but could never tell us face to face. She told her sister after they would leave our house on the way home. Pray for her salvation. |
||
|
Gowhar and Zhanar. Two of Golnara's sisters professed Christ in the summer of 2006 and attended our church for about 4 months with their two grade-school age girls. Please pray that they would decide to come back.
Left: Gowhar with here daughter Aseeya.
Right: Zhanar and her daughter Asel. |
||
|
Kereah Ata.
Photo: Left to Right: Kereah Ata, Kevin, Kooderbye.
Background: Kereah's grandmother had a Bible and turned it in to the soviet authorities. Since that time he wanted to know more about Jesus Christ. His wife is a devout Muslim. His children are lukewarm on spiritual things. One is the manager of a publishing house. Kereah is a faithful attender. He arrives 2 hours before service every week. Because of his cataracts he can only read very large print. I print out special large-print sermon notes for him which he reads before service. He refuses to have surgery despite all our efforts for the last couple of years to convince him to have it done. We are not sure if he is saved or not. He professes Christ but it is evident that his understanding of spiritual things is not strong. However he listens attentively and is growing slowly in his understanding. He has 3 sons and 2 daughters none of which are saved. He lives with his wife and an unmarried son. The rest of his children are married with children.
2007 saw the birth and death of Kereah's 15th grandchild. He lived only 2 days. He name was Daniel. We comforted him as best we could and he has weathered this tragedy pretty well. Pray for salvation for other members of his family. |
||
|
Goolmira Apai. her son, and two daughters were saved and baptized in the early 90's. Her husband is not a believer. Two of her daughters both married believing French men and moved to Paris, France. Goolmira Apai and her husband take turns living with their daughters in France for a year at a time.
A third daughter lives with her but she suffers from chronic depression. Her son also lives at home. He has a finance degree and works with an investment fund management company here in Almaty. He is hoping to study at the post graduate level in France. He professes Christ but does not find the time to attend church. He does not help when things break around the house as they often do here. Pray for physical strength for Goolmira Apai. Life is physical here. Things break every day and need to be fixed. It is difficult without a man around or a more helpful son. She is teachable and in many areas has been taught correctly. But not attending church for such long stretches has taken it's toll. Pray for her husband's salvation. His name is Maidan. Pray for spiritual growth and discernment for her and her children. |
||
|
Background: Bakutdjan is a cousin of Byeram. He (like Byeram) was born in Uzbekistan and came here for a better life. He works for an artificial limb manufacturer 9 months a year. He went to school when he arrived in Kazakhstan about 4 years ago to learn the trade.
Like many 25 year-old single men, he is praying for a wife. He lives with his mother and younger brother. He attends youth group at another church where his mother and younger brother attend. He does not want to join that church because of the inexperience of the leadership and some past problems that the church has had. He has some discernment and not a lot of baggage in his life or in wrong teaching - a rarity in Kazakhstan. We thank God for the opportunity to teach him as long as God permits! He is part of our unofficial youth group (see picture below) that meets before and after service to play table tennis in the church basement. He has bonded with our three kids.
2006. He bought a car in 2006 and his travel time to church was cut from 2 hours to 1 hour each way. He began to borrow money from the bank and buy things on credit. He used the money to build a new room onto his mom's house to live in if he finds a wife. His limb company had more down time than usual about 6 months and Bakutdjan worked on a remodeling team off and on to get by.
2007: A year of reaping what was sown. He was unable to pay back his loans and nearly lost his mom's house over it. He couldn't afford to maintain his car which was broken most of the time and sat in our church driveway all year waiting to be sold. We offered to send him to school several times but he didn't have the drive to even find a trade school to attend. His friends, though they profess Christ, have even bigger problems and are a bad influence. He still attends at least twice a month despite the long commute. Pray that he will take responsibility for his life. Pray that he will desire to please God and submit to the authority of God's Word. |
||
|
|
| |
|
Above: The Heinz Family.
Standing Left to Right: Noah (10th grade), Amanda (12th), Lucy (College Sophomore) Molly, Kevin |
Above: Our men. Left to Right: Byeram, Bakutdjan, Kereah Ata, Kevin, Misha.
| |
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
Jesus. So Kooderbye asked his family: "how is it that you do
not know who Jesus is when it was Jesus who saved me from the life I was
living?"
.JPG)
.JPG)
Christ in the Fall of 2006. Back home, she lives with her older
brother who is strongly opposed to Christianity. He told her when
she came that she had better not come back a Christian or else. Or
else meant he wouldn't support her. Goolnoor returned to her
village in April of 2007 after spending 8 months here. She
returned to a hostile
place for a Christian. We prayed for her to stay strong during
persecution, and that her new faith will strengthen. When she
arrived all she wanted was a rich husband. Now she
has a better understanding of what makes a good husband.
She learned to look at the inner quality of people and not at the
outside appearance -- another gift from the Lord. She is like Goolmira
in many ways. She is tough minded and immovable. She
understands quickly and well. She remembers almost everything she
hears and reads. .JPG)
.JPG)
Goolmira
Apai. (Former Attender)
Bakutdjan. 
