A church planter is beaten in Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan (MNN) — Violence against Christians in Kyrgyzstan has Christians on alert. The incident has directly impacted the work of the Bible League.

The Bible League’s Scott Thunder says this is a threat at the highest level to their ministry. “A Bible League trained church planter in Kara Kuldza, Kyrgyzstan and his son were surrounded by a mob of about 80 people and they beat him severely. The mob took all of our materials there and burned them. The burning lasted for four hours.”

Thunder says this is a well thought out effort by radical Islam to hurt Christians. “They think that they’re doing god’s will by beating them and defiling their wives and they’re abusing their children because they think they’re doing the will of god, according to how they understand it.”

That lack of understanding is the reason the Bible League is working in areas where radical Islam is present. “So that we can show them the truth of Jesus Christ and that they can have their eyes opened to the truth and they can really understand what it means to follow God,” says Thunder.

This attack, Thunder says, has impacted their work in Kyrgyzstan. “People who have stepped up and have said, ‘I am going to be a church planter,’ well now they’re marked people. And, trying to get other people to join the program, they’re seeing what’s happening to a lot of our staff and they’re shying away from it.”

Christians are being asked to pray that believers will be bold in sharing their faith. But, it’s going to be difficult because local authorities aren’t persecuting the crime. “The local authorities, not only do that not see it as a criminal act, they’re actually petitioning the government to close our entire ministry down. They are signing letters and sending them to their government saying, ‘we don’t want them here. We want them out of our country.'”

Prayer is the most important thing that can be done right now, says Thunder. “We just need to pray for the church planters and their families for safety and protection. We also need to pray for some sort of spiritual awakening in the people Kyrgyzstan, that their eyes would be opened.”

Funding is needed to replace the literature that was burned. Click on the link below to get connected.