“From
the Tropics to the Tundra”
An
Update from the Blair family in Kazakhstan, Central Asia
October
2000
E-mail: blairstan@hotmail.com
Mailing
address: Send support
money to:
Blair’s Pioneers
c/o
KECS 12343
Narcoossee Road
P.O.
Box 244 Orlando,
Florida 32827
Almaty
480000 [checks are
to be made out to “Pioneers”
Kazakhstan - noted for Blair’s on a separate paper]
(do
not send mail after
November
1 please)
Phone
(from USA) - 011-732-72-636790 [we’re 14 hrs ahead of Pacific Standard Time)
Aloha
from Almaty!
We send this letter with love and
appreciation for your faithful prayers and support; and praise to God for His
great faithfulness. We are quite busy with our ministries here – teaching in
the Seminary and children’s school, and pastoring in the International
Christian Fellowship. In September we marked two years of service here. This
means that we will have home leave soon. We leave here December 15. We plan to
be in California twice: mid-December/early January, and June 2001. From
mid-January till early June we’ll be based in Hawaii where the boys will study
for a semester. Following our home leave, we plan to return here for at least
two more years - maybe longer. We hope to see you, please keep in touch.
Summer
Growth
This summer was a wonderful “growing
season” in the spiritual lives of our sons, especially Nathan (16) and Josiah (15). Both of them had
short-term service opportunities.
Here’s a quote from Nathan’s letter: “My experience in
Thailand, I must admit, has been the best two weeks of my life. God deserves so
much praise and adoration, he worked everything out, making our trip run so
smoothly…. The village I worked in used to worship demons, but now only 4 out of
the 150 village people are non-Christian; pray for the witch-doctor, the chief,
and two of the oldest peoples in the village. They are still gripped by demons
and spirits. The worship services at the village were awesome. It brought tears
to my eyes as I witnessed kids and adults alike, with their hands raised and
voices praising. These people shared an amazing love with their Father in
Heaven. I felt a lot of guilt as I realized these people had no shame in
serving the Lord, I knew that I was sometimes embarrassed about my faith.
Through these experiences, God gave me the desire to worship Him freely and
without shame.
It was so good for me to join up
with my friends from Hilo (Hawaii). It was so interesting to see how everyone
had grown up and matured. Their fire for Jesus encouraged me to greater
appreciation for my Father in Heaven. They helped to rekindle my desire for
total servanthood to the Lord. The day of my sixteenth birthday, July 9th,
I vowed to serve the Lord from then on and recommitted my life to Him fully. I
pray that I will be open to wherever he wants me to go and whatever he wants me
to do. - Nathan Blair”
Josiah also wrote about his service experience: “I went to a camp in
Kazakhstan, located near the China
border. It was in the mountains, looking down on the steppe. The camp is owned
by the government, but this season they let Christians run it. Because of the
government controls, we were restricted from talking much about Jesus. But we
talked about God and some prophets of the Old Testament (which is what Jesus
talked about!) I went to the camp with some of my friends from school. We all
stayed in a cabin with about 10 other kids… Our role at the camp was to show
the love of God to the kids. We spent day and night with the kids. At the daily
lessons I saw kids crying. They realized they needed something in their life,
they realized they needed God. We were allowed to talk to the kids about Jesus
in one on one talks... Everyday we played soccer with the kids. I am glad that
God brought me to this camp, and now I realize that you should use every
opportunity to the glory of God. God had a special plan for every kid at that
camp to hear and see his love. I want to ask for prayer for the kids to search
for Jesus, the answer of life. - Josiah Blair”
God is working in Aaron (13) too. He was not yet old enough to go on
these trips. But it was neat to see him present a Russian/English New Testament
as a birthday present for his best local friend. As parents we are so thankful
for your continued prayers for our sons.
Seminary
News: Residential Discipleship Course
For the second year we began our
Seminary year with a one-month “boot camp” of spiritual examination. This
summer our national leaders traveled to
a dozen cities around Kazakhstan to recruit students. It is wonderful to see
these leaders “taking ownership” of different aspects of Seminary leadership
and ministry. In many cases their understanding of the cultures gives them
great practical wisdom and decision making ability. They found many pastors who
had never heard of our Seminary and were eager to send qualified students. We
have developed a “mailing list” and have now produced our second Russian/Kazakh
language Newsletter which we are sending out.
The result of these recruiting
efforts was eighty students from around Central Asia (including our first North
American - from Canada). Together they studied the basics of the faith, shared
in small groups, did daily work projects, and lots of life on life experiences.
During the month our students heard from sixteen different teachers, most “M’s”
from the Almaty area from many boards and denominations. We had two excellent
Visitors Professors - one was our first Black American. From this fine group,
we had the hard task of selecting sixty to enter the academic program (30
Russian and 30 Kazakh language). It was encouraging to see a couple students
who did not make last year’s cut because they needed more growing time in their
local church - they did and they’re here! We notice a definite increase in the
“quality level” of perspective students, which reflects a similar growth in the
Church of Jesus here in Central Asia.
This academic semester Dayna will teach a
course on “Bible Study Methods.” Mark will teach two courses, “Preaching” and
“Theology.” Actually we are “team teaching” with national leaders. We are
grateful for their willingness to partner with us in the classroom and hopeful
that they’ll grow to “solo” teachers soon. Pray for Alexander, Vladimir, and
Galina. May God equip them to equip many of their own people.
The “text” for Mark’s course on
“Preaching” will be a book he has written! It is a project which he has been
working on for the last two years. It is based on several great books which he
has plagiarized, experiences of teaching preaching here and in Uganda, and
having preached lots of bad sermons – or something like that. The best thing is
that these hundred plus pages have been translated into Russian and Kazakh. So
the students this term will be editors – looking at a new chapter every week.
If, after all the students fix it up, it would be a useful ministry tool. We
will explore having it published here. This would be our second Seminary
publication. One graduate recently produced a Kazakh/Russian hymnal which
includes fifty-eight compositions from national musicians.
PLEASE
PRAYERFULLY CONSIDER THE INSERT ABOUT THE NEW BUILDING.
Board
Craze
What do three boys who love
snowboarding do in the summer? Skateboard! Did you know a nolly is not a real
olly - neither is it a kick flip twist? Mom and Dad have been learning much
about such skateboard technicalities. All we can remember is taking roller
skates apart and nailing them to a foot of two by four lumber. Our boys are
light-years beyond those dangerous dinosaurs. Now you order your “assembly” --
a deck, bearings, wheels, pads, and grip
tape. (A bit more expensive than the good old days too!) What’s especially
interesting is that they now have Christian rock “boarding” bands - electronic
crooners and pluckers singing a hard rock Gospel to those who land on the hard
pavement. Another missiological frontier has been crossed in people group
specialization! What we parents find very exciting is that our boys see no
contradiction between Jesus and “boarding.” Not only is He Lord of Heaven and
Earth, but also of their bumps and bruises. What a “cool” Savior!
Tien
Shan Educational Center
This is the name of the newly
registered school. God has graciously provided a wonderful teaching staff for
the new academic year. We still do not have Kindergarten, 1st grade,
or English as a Second Language teachers. But the other staffing needs have
been covered for this term. Yet, this place is constantly “in transition” and
the staffing needs are endless. Our “little boys” are now 11th, 10th,
and 8th graders who practically block their mother from sight as
they hail a taxi together each morning. Dayna continues as the High School
supervisor, and also teaches Earth Science,
Health, an Elective, and Bible.
Remember more than a year ago when a
new school building was purchased? Well it seems that just maybe they have
found a doorway out of the legal black hole which has kept them from occupying
their rightful quarters. The tale of woe is too long to tell. The short end of
it is that man – even high and mighty officials – are really terrible sinners;
but God is sovereign and gracious to His children. We’re not out of this abyss
yet, keep praying. There are a bunch of kids which cannot come to school due to
present space limitations. But then we’ll need more teachers; and so our dependence
on Him goes on…..
Computer
Wedding
Recently Mark was asked to perform
two weddings. The first was between a worker in USAID and a national. It was a
nice garden wedding and a good opportunity to share the Gospel with about one
hundred diplomats and nationals. The father of the national was a high-ranking
General in the Kazakh army. The second was last week. The couple were young
American Peace Corp volunteers. Again, it was a time to share with them the
love of the Bridegroom for His Bride. Fortunately, this second ceremony was
witnessed by just a few friends, in the Central Park just across from our
apartment.
This second wedding was an afternoon
of a busy seminary workday. Rushing home, I was so glad the vows were stored in
a file on my computer. “What great things these computers are!” I was even able
to “Find” and “Replace” the names of the Bride and Groom from the previous
wedding. Then I realized that my wonderful computer could lay out the text in
“Landscape” (horizontal) - in two wide columns. With the push of a few buttons,
the vows - with the right names! - were printed. All I had to do was cut the
pages in half and I was ready to hustle over to the park. When the beautiful
couple had processed in to stand before me, as the video camera rolled for
loved ones who could not attend, I opened my Bible and began to pronounce the
ceremony. As I got to the second page of these half-sheet notes I realized
there was something the computer did not do. It was something the “superior
intelligence” was supposed to do - correctly collate the pages. Well this dear
couple was thrilled to receive one extremely short ceremony. If it was a Las
Vegas Wedding Chapel they could have kept the motor running. Frantically
flipping through the pages - while trying to stay looking very Reverend - I
found the paper with the “I do’s.” I walked them through most of them, said a
prayer, and that was it. I am now wondering how to get that video-taped
evidence out of the mail!
Yours
in His love,
Mark,
Dayna, Nathan, Josiah, and Aaron Blair
