A current day pioneer traces the story of how the gospel has taken root amongst his adopted people — the Uyghurs.

Across a wide region of eastern Central Asia dwell a Muslim people of perhaps 12 million—the Uyghurs. For thousands of years their homeland has been a crossroads, as traders and merchants, new ideas and religions have travelled along the Silk Road between Central Asia and China. Shamanism, Manichaeism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and Nestorian Christianity have each flourished among the Uyghur peoples over the centuries.

In the 6th century, Nestorian monks founded churches that lasted a thousand years. Islam arrived in about 900 AD, and for the next 500 years Christians and Muslims dwelt together in many of the oasis towns.  However, as the Nestorians lost vitality, and also through tribal conflicts, Islam became the dominant religion and knowledge of Jesus faded.

In the 1890s, Swedish missionaries began working in the region. After 40 years of labour, several hundred believers were in fellowships.  However, severe persecution destroyed these in the wake of political upheavals in the 1930s.

In the 1980s, doors reopened. Foreign teachers and students were allowed into the province and began winning young Uyghurs to Christ.  Several elderly believers from Swedish days, who had held their faith through fiery trials, came forward.  Despite poor living conditions, difficult travel, government harassment, illnesses and many other trials, Christians came from across the globe to work, to study and to share the good news of Jesus.  Since the early 1990s, a small network of Uyghur believers has begun to emerge.

The Uyghurs’ strong traditions of music and hospitality have brought many opportunities to meet and make friends.  Their Islamic heritage made many eager to hear about the faith of others and their views of God.  However, developing friendships to a level of trust where spiritual truths can be openly and deeply discussed takes time.  The spread of the gospel amongst the Uyghurs has thus demanded faithfulness, gentleness and perseverance.

Government interventions and pressure from local imams and their own communities to conform to Muslim traditions have also made the work challenging.  Add a fiendishly awkward language that few foreigners can master, and it’s easy to see why there remain only dozens rather than thousands of Uyghurs following Christ.

Today’s pioneers

We’ve all been inspired by stories of historical pioneers that God raised up such as James Hudson Taylor, Amy Carmichael and William Carey. But the task of seeing the gospel take root amongst all Muslim peoples requires more pioneers to step forward today.

Our experience has shown that if a team lacks someone with a breakthrough, pioneering, apostolic-type gifting then they are rarely very effective.

In his book “A Vision of the Possible”, Daniel Sinclair tentatively attempts to describe, from his observations, the type of profile such people generally have:

>> God uses them in a variety of ministries. They are the kind who tend to make things happen. Often they are good at making something out of nothing, ministry-wise, successfully starting new works from scratch. Generally there is a history of evangelistic and discipleship fruitfulness.

>> People readily catch their vision and feel led to join in.

>> They have gifts of Bible teaching and leadership.

>> They can be quirky and sometimes hard to get along with.

>> They can have thick skins and hard heads. They tend (right or wrong) to not back down very easily—on anything!

>> They can be self-confident, over assertive, and independent. When this is the case, you can see the Lord taking them through a process to grow in these areas toward greater fruit of the Spirit and total dependence on Christ.

>> They want to have a good handle on everything in the ministry. This can seem like a tendency to over-control.

>> They have their own ideas of what they want to do.

>> They do not fit the mould. They colour ‘outside the lines.’

>> They have a genuine hunger for a deeper relationship with God.

>> They are broad in their horizons and think beyond ‘our’ church.

>> They thrive on doing things that are challenging and risky.

>> They tend to become overextended in their commitments.

>> They are always on the lookout for key openings. When the normal ways of getting in seem blocked, they look for other ways to get to the people to show God’s love.

>> They can be extroverted or introverted, glittery or non-showy. Apostolic gifting doesn’t just come with a particular personality type. Some examples: Apollos was winsome. Paul was driven and task-oriented. Barnabas—whose name means
“son of encouragement”—was strongly pastoral.

Does this sound like you or someone you know? If so, you might be interested in the training weekend we’re running in March to help such people explore their calling to break new ground in the Muslim world with the gospel.

What does pioneer work actually look like on the ground? Often it is simply about befriending people, sharing truth and offering to pray with them.

Ibrahim is a man that we met at the school gates when dropping our children off at local school. He has always been incredibly open and interested in the things of God. Over time our families became good friends and we would meet together, eat, relax and talk. As we got to know each other better Ibrahim began to share his heart and the anxieties in his own life. Unemployment in the region where Ibrahim lives is a real issue and it challenges the ideal of the man being able to provide for his family. We were able to share with him the reality of God being personally involved in his life and offered to pray for his need of work. He was a faithful Muslim and was happy to pray but it was a new concept to him that God wanted to answer and meet his needs. Shortly afterwards he was able to get a three month contract in a factory.

Over time we were able to share a number of scriptures with him relating to seeking after God, how He provides for us and how God looks at our hearts. One night in a restaurant Ibrahim recounted these scriptures and conversations to an increasingly interested audience of waiters, waitresses and customers. With his gregarious good nature and desire for God he was unwittingly doing an ‘open air’ better than any ex-pat!

Due to the political situation we had to leave the country recently. Before we left we had a meal with the whole family. We gave Ibrahim an Injil (New Testament) after making him fully aware of the impact possessing this book could have on his life. Having a copy of the Injil in Uyghur is illegal where he lives. He was thumbing through it excitedly even as we ate and literally devoured the verses that we highlighted. God’s word does not return void and we trust Him with this seed and the many others that have been sown in recent years amongst the Uyghurs.

Pray that:

>> The Uyghur believers would know His peace, courage and wisdom as they strive to stand in difficult environments.

>> The Uyghur believers would have the desire and God-given skills in evangelising and discipling their own people.

>> The governments in countries where Uyghurs live would cease their persecution and allow the Uyghurs to express their love for God freely and corporately.

>> God would continue to move amongst the Uyghurs and that very soon growing, vibrant and lasting Uyghur fellowships would be raised up in Central Asia.