Isaiah 53:4-5

Cold smog fills the air. Icy sludge lines the sidewalks. Expressionless faces pass on the roads. Bread hangs on street corners and fences so as not to go to waste, but to feed a neighbor. No one is in a rush yet everyone has somewhere to be.

Welcome to Kyrgyzstan.

We’ve officially been in Bishkek for one week and what a week it has been. Although we don’t technically “start” ministry until tomorrow, we have already seen Jesus move in so many amazing ways. While there are a handful of stories I could choose from to share, there is one in particular that the Lord has placed on my heart.

Yesterday, some of my teammates and I were walking back to our apartment and decided to stop at the corner grocery store to pick up a couple items. As we were walking in, we noticed a woman sitting outside, seemingly disheveled, with a sign written in Russian. We went into the store and got what we needed, but one of my teammates also purchased six sandwiches to give to the woman. While this definitely appears to be an abundance of food for one person, he simply said “I didn’t know which flavor she liked, so I got two of each.”

We walked outside and I began a pitiful attempt at speaking the very little Russian I’ve learned. “Privet, menya zovut Khanna. (Hello, my name is Hannah.)” I say, hoping not to butcher my words. She smiles and through a series of hand gestures and the help of Google translate, we were able to each share our names. We learned her name is Gala and she asked if we were visiting or studying here in Kyrgyzstan- and boy what an open door that was! We were able to tell her the true reason for us being here- that Jesus has radically changed our lives and we can’t help but tell the whole world about His love. She asked if we could pray for her, to which we more than gladly obliged, and as soon as we said ‘amen’ she said “Alleluia!”. We sat with her for some time and up until the point we departed the word “alleluia” did not leave her lips. It was so incredible to see how a simple act of obedience and abundant generosity led to a beautiful moment of intercession.

From there we kept walking home but we had barely made it down the next block before we saw a man sitting on the sidewalk and a woman trying to help him up. We stopped and quickly realized that it was another homeless woman we had met earlier in the week. She was ecstatic to see us again and we began talking with her and (who we assumed to be) her boyfriend. Like Gala, she too asked for prayer. While most of us were praying for her, another one of my teammates was praying for the man’s leg and the pain that was preventing him from walking. When we said ‘amen’ and opened our eyes, we saw the man walking towards us with his hands raised in the air! HIS PAIN WAS GONE!! The Lord performed a miraculous healing right before our eyes, thank you Jesus! After that, the woman continued to give us person after person in her life to pray over. Her mom, her daughter, the man’s health, and more. We shared that it was only because of Jesus and His grace that we were able to meet again and by His love for them, the man was healed. As we were leaving, via translate, the woman said to us “I love you all. It doesn’t matter what nation. The most important thing is that you are good people. I love you very much.”

While I went home overwhelmed with gratitude for these encounters and the healing that took place, one thing that the woman said stuck out to me. We are not simply “good people”. Personally speaking, I’m actually pretty rotten. But by the transformation that can only occur through the mercy and love of Christ Jesus, am I able to love. So while we may have done a “good” deed in the eyes of the world, our hearts still burn for these people to have even more encounters with the One, True, Living God!

Would you join me in prayer for our new friends? For more interactions with them while we are still here in Bishkek, but more importantly, that they would come to know Jesus as the lover of their souls and Savior of their lives!!