Some people think that studying history is a waste of time, because they think whatever was done in the past is dead and gone, and we should be focusing on now, which is living and vital. I certainly don’t agree with them. The Bible clearly endorses the importance of learning from history as even the Holy Spirit inspired the Word of God to be conveyed to man within the framework of human history. To emphasize the importance of learning from the history, Paul wrote to the early churches, ‘Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.’ (1Corinthians 10:11) and ‘For whatsoever things were written a foretime were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope.’ (Romans 15:4). That also explains why the apostles (and many early saints) were very careful about recording the events that happened in the church and among the Christians.

History is important especially now that we are living in an era when innovations and discoveries are much esteemed. People are constantly thinking of creating new things to attract the attention of the mass; it is as if everyone is striving to move forward, with scarcely any time to look back to the history. This can be used to describe the churches in Kazakhstan now.  Though Christianity in Kazakhstan can be traced back to the early 1900s1, the initial spiritual work was mainly done among the Russians and Germans. No significant outreach effort among the native Kazakh people was done until the independence of the country in 1990s. Since then, the Kazakh churches have been caught up, first with the excitement of thegrowth of the church, then trying to cope with different issues that came along the way. Today, the Kazakh churches are yet to face more challenges lying ahead, both externally as well as internally. Externally, the churches are coping with the increasing pressure given by the government; internally, the struggle in the making of local leadership, and dealing with the different theological issues and the creeping in of false teachings into the church body. Everyone is striving to cope and grow; no one has the time to look back to what has really happened in the past two decades.  Nevertheless, what took place in the past twenty years determined the shape of the churches today. Only if we have the time and courage to look back and look into the twenty years of His-story among the Kazakh people, will we benefit by what we learn from that.

The first Baptist church was established in Petropavlosk, in the North of Kazakhstan in 1908.  W.Wardin, A. Baptists Around the World, A comprehensive Handbook. Broadman & Halman Publisher, Nashville, Tennessee. Having lived among the Kazakh people for the last 10 years (by God’s grace), the writer has the privilege to witness a ‘teenage’ church growing into a ‘young adult’; and also experienced some of the struggles together with them. Very often, we are thrilled by the work of God among the people; but sometimes we are puzzled, wondering where the Spirit of God is leading the church to. The writer often asks, ‘Why has God let us experienced this; what does he want us to learn; what is He expecting from us?’ I think I will get the answers when I spend time looking back to the past. As Paul said ‘Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.’ (1Corinthians 10:11) What happened in the past was for a reason, that we may study their examples and learn from them; and that we may be encouraged and be infused with hope as we continue to fight and strive. And it is the writer’s desire to write them down so that it may be an admonition for the new generations of Kazakh Christians and ultimately that all the generation will praise God for what He has done among the almost-forgotten nations in Central Asia.

1.2 The Problems – The Trend of the Development 

 

As the USSR collapsed, the foreign missionaries were excited about the new openings

they found in Kazakhstan to reach the former Muslim peoples groups. Apparently, prior

to the independence of the country, there were people called ‘non-residential’ missionaries who were assigned to focus on reaching the Kazakhs. Some of them settled outside Kazakhstan but were ready to cross the boundary once the wall of USSR falls2. In the 1990s, Kazakhstan soon became one of the most popular mission fields especially among the Korean and Western mission agencies. The missionaries were thrilled to find that not only has the door of the country opened; the hearts of the Kazakh people were ready too. The Kazakhs who had always been God fearing nomads had been deprived of worshipping their   (TangirIe), which is the Creator God they used to worship when they were moving around the vast steppes. After almost a decade of god-less period under the rule of the USSR, the people were hungry for spiritual food and ready to listen to anyone who talks about God and spiritual things.

 

Given that context, it didn’t take long for the missionaries to see the fruit of their work in Kazakhstan. Kazakh churches soon became the fastest growing MBB (Muslim Background Believers) church. According to David Garrison, 13,000 Kazakh natives came to faith in Christ over a decade and a half under the Central Asia CPM3.  Korean and American missionaries were the main labourers who worked among the native Kazakhs in the beginning. Many of them moved in with their families, immersed themselves in the culture and learned the language. Some of them even settled down in some remote villages where the people were then living with few or shattered infrastructures.

The pioneer missionaries had to endure hardship to a certain extend because of the harsh weather and those years were called ‘perestroika’, meaning years of reconstruction after the withdrawal of Russian control, where things were scarce and the whole country was trying to pick up the pieces themselves. It was during those difficult years that we see tremendous growth in the church planted and spiritual revival witnessed among the believers.

 

However, we see the church growth going downhill 15 years later as the country

became stronger and people’s life became better. What are the factors that contributed to the growth we saw in the last decade, and the reasons for the slowing down of the church growth later? What impacts have the foreign missionaries made to the local churches today? What are the mistakes to be corrected in the churches today? As we look into the development of the Kazakh churches over the past two decades in this paper, we will study the trend of the development of the church; the influence and impacts of the foreign missionaries on the local churches. We shall also look into how the Kazakh Christians are to prepare themselves to face the current challenges. In the final chapters, the writer will try to envisage the future direction of the local church in general

 

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