My Trip to Central Asia

Dear friends and family,
Hello! It’s been a little while, but I am back safely from Central Asia, and I wanted to let you know that it was an amazing trip! To start, I want to thank you for all your prayers for me and my team; we needed every one of them!
Those ten days in Asia God was teaching me that He is in control no matter what, and I need to trust in that. A verse that He gave me was Isaiah 2:22, “Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?” God wanted to drive home to me that He is where I should place my trust, even when I don’t understand, or when it seems crazy to do so. Ultimately it is His will that is going to be done.
Spending time with the missionaries was great, and we were able to learn a lot about missions in a where Christianity isn’t allowed. We joined in on a few missionary team meetings and seeing the accountability and support that these people have for each other made me want to be a part of it. There are many things that I didn’t and still don’t fully understand about long term missions, but my eyes were opened a bit more to the struggles and joys of this calling.
While in the country there were several experiences that were highlights in my trip. First was going to international church. It is illegal for citizens to be Christians or attend a Christian church. Despite this, there were some nationals that did attend church with us, which was really neat, but can also be really dangerous. More frequently, nationals attend house churches. There was a house church meeting at one of the missionary’s apartments, and we all wanted to go, but we couldn’t attend for fear of drawing too much attention.
Another experience that was impactful to me was a prayer walk that we did. We had three focuses. First we walked past a mosque and prayed against the foundation of Islam. Then we walked past a government building praying for a Christian leader to be raised up and for corruption to stop. Finally, we walked past an ancient church and prayed for the house churches, and for more believers. During the middle of this walk, I could sense the people’s sadness as the Spirit touched my heart for them. Before we began, we talked about the power of intercessory prayer as demonstrated in Exodus 17 when Moses prays over the Israelites in battle. At the end of our walk, the missionary leading us talked about not just saying words, but truly believing that God will bring about what we’ve prayed for. He also focused on the importance of realizing that God desires to work in this country, so we should pray in faith that these things will be accomplished.
Another highlight was getting to go to several homes of local believers. One woman in particular stuck out to me. At every point during our conversation she quoted Scripture. It just flowed from her. Before we left I prayed for her. She was so thankful that we had come. Seeing how much we encouraged her by just being in her house made me realize the impact we could have.
I hope to go back to Central Asia again. In the mean time, I’ll be praying for the country. I’d like for you also to commit to praying for Central Asia everyday for a week starting when you receive this letter. Please pray for more believers (especially men), for the strengthening of the house churches, for more missionaries, and for God’s workers to be encouraged and effective. Also please pray for me, that I will continue learning from my experience in Central Asia and that God will cement these lessons in my heart. Again thank you so much for making this trip possible.

Love,

RachelUs in the country.

In three refugee settlements we gave presentations to older students on how to prevent human slave trafficking and distributed care packets to every student.

These are typical living arrangements for people living at refugee settlements.

This is our team standing outside of a mosque. We didn’t see as many as I thought we would. Many people in the capital city are not quite as strict when it comes to practicing the Islamic faith.

A group of students in one of the English classes enjoyed practicing conversational English with us and finding out what we knew about their culture.

We walked past this man on one of our prayer walks. He’s holding a set of prayer beads. Each bead helps him recite the names of Allah. Some people recite these names five times a day after each call to prayer.

College

On the first day of college I learned that all the recent American presidents are idiots, that puppet shows are better left for television, and that playing volleyball with a bunch of people who know each other from high school when you don't know them can be totally and completely frustrating and unfun even when you win. On the second day of college I learned how to go incognito and the art of blending in in front of an intramural gym full of people, that spray paint does not work best on a windy day, and that if you are going to play dodge ball, catch more than you throw. On the third day of college I learned that the Fall Convocation is still boring for as many good things as they say, that the federal government, Federal Reserve, and more specifically President Obama, participate in socialism for the rich, and that sitting on my bed, eating a wrap which has honey mustard dripping out of it, and checking my email at the same time does not work. I'd say its been a pretty good first three days.