On our arrival at the bible training center we were introduced to the 24 students who were all from differerent parts of Central Asia. We heard their stories, many of them were tragic. A story of a mother committing suicide to escape the terrible treatment her husband put her through. Then the children being abandoned by the father to live out in an open field in the winter until they were taken in by a Christian Pastor who raised some money for the daughter to come to this center.
Our seminars on marraige were very relevant because many of these young men and women had no concept of love and tenderness. Women were mostly treated as second class citizens and often like animals. We focussed for the first 2 or 3 sessions on the unconditional love of Christ and submitting in love to one another. Then we had opportunity to pray with individuals and to share God’s word with them. Some of the young men were a bit suspicious of us and the teaching we were bringing as it was totally new to them.
That evening we heard music coming from the courtyard, so we went to check it out. One evening a week the students were allowed to play their music through the sound system outside. It was cool to hear Kyrgyz pop music they were all dancing a mixture of traditional dance and disco and beckoned for us to join them, Kevin declined but I jumped in. What fun we had the differences in language and culture were all stripped away, dancing under the moon and the stars 6,000 miles from home. It was a great end to a wonderful day.
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