Open Doors International: Country Profiles: Uzbekistan 2

Problems and needs
The biggest problems and needs of the Body of Christ in Uzbekistan are:

The Church in Uzbekistan is clearly divided into three separate groups, while each group has its own problems and needs. The three groups are: the Russian local Christians, the indigenous Christians and the group of expatriate workers, also called tentmakers. Unfortunately, the relations between the three groups are far from good. The Russian local Christians tend to be inward looking, and lack initiative for outreach to local Muslims. Evangelisation takes place, but only rarely is it aimed at non-Russians. The indigenous Christians are reluctant to co-operate with the Russians, because they consider them to be oppressors. Converts are anxious to avoid any connection with the Russians, because this will give their Muslim relatives a reason to attack them. Finally, the tentmakers form a distinctive group of their own. In general, they are new to the region (most of them have been in Uzbekistan less than three years), they have to adapt enormously to the cultural circumstances of the country, and they almost never co-operate with the existing churches. Their work therefore is often small scale, and isolated.

The biggest problems that arise from this situation can be summarised as follows: the Russian local Christians almost always lack a vision for Muslim outreach; the indigenous Christians often refuse to co-operate with the Russian local Christians; and the tentmakers almost never do co-operate with the local Russian Christians. Persecution by the regime differs per group: if the local Russian Christians refrain from Muslim outreach, they are left alone (on the other hand, if they are active, they experience strong persecution: churches and missionary work are closed, believers arrested, etc.); the pressure against converts is immense and still growing; and if tentmakers act too rashly, they run the risk of being expelled from Uzbekistan.

It is easy to understand that this division of the Body of Christ seriously affects the spreading of God's Kingdom in Uzbekistan, and there can be no doubt that it is essential to overcome the internal split of the Church.

The indigenous church is young and small. Though it is hard to find exact figures of the number of indigenous believers, we must reckon with several thousands. All indigenous believers come from Muslim background, though they hardly know what this means (in Uzbekistan, the knowledge of Islamic dogmas is as good as absent). However, the same goes for Christian teachings.

Moreover, the converts are a very new phenomenon in Uzbekistan. In most cases they have converted to Christ because of the activities of the tentmakers. From the beginning, the converts remained loyal to the tentmaker by whose ministry they were converted. As a result, there came into existence small groups of converts who circled around the tentmakers. Of course, this does not offer a permanent solution, because most of the tentmakers plan to stay in the region for a limited period, and because the groups of converts need leaders of their own. Unfortunately, there are no indigenous persons available yet to take over from the tentmakers. It is also impossible to send a few Uzbek Christians to established Bible schools, because their level of Christian knowledge is low. It is easy to observe that we must work hard on this issue, since the indigenous church will be able to survive only under strong leadership.

3. Lack of knowledge of even the most basic Christian teachings among indigenous believers

What has just been mentioned for the leaders of the indigenous church (zero level knowledge of Christianity) is also the case with the rest of the converts. If the aim is to establish a strong, healthy indigenous church in Uzbekistan, we must start from scratch. Seminars, Bible study groups, correspondence courses and other types of education are all needed to build the Church from the very foundations of the Christian faith. Apart from basic teachings, the indigenous church further needs instruction on how to deal with family problems which are the result of conversions, youth work, Muslim outreach, how to survive times of persecution, the necessity to alter the style of living etc. The subjects for study are very numerous. It seems a good idea to make use of the ample experience of the Church in the Middle East with converts.

Converts in Uzbekistan are a very vulnerable group. In most cases, the knowledge of their new faith is very limited. Family members and relations have no consideration for the converts. They are seen as traitors of the national identity. Islam is an integral part of Uzbek (and any other indigenous culture) life. Often, the converts loose their job, and are kicked out of their families. Then they need to build up a whole new life. Furthermore, when repression comes, the converts are the first group that will come under attack by the regime.

All restrictive measures taken by the government to this date are related to the issue of converts. The ban on public evangelism was destined to stop outreach to Muslims. The importation of Christian materials in indigenous languages has been severely restricted. Pastors of the Russian local churches must send Muslims away. They must report when Uzbeks join their services. The arrests of believers have all been related to those who were active in Muslim outreach. Uzbeks active in outreach have been arrested, beaten up, and in one occasion even been killed.

Recently, the Uzbek secret police has summoned Uzbek believers to their headquarters for interrogation. They pressurised them to become informers and offered them cars etc. if they would co-operate.

As more Uzbeks come to Christ as their Saviour, we may expect an increasing problem. Since the authorities are so much disposed against Uzbeks turning to Christ, we must reckon with a backlash rather sooner than later. The need to support converts will continue to grow, and with each new form of repression by the regime become more and more acute.

Many people think that the need for literature in Uzbekistan was solved with the printing of the New Testament in 1993/4. The first print-run surpassed 50,000 copies. Now, a second print-run of at least another 50,000 copies is announced. In recent years, several separate Gospels have also been published. The Children's Bible of Kuyt is a great success. Uzbek believers are very fond of this book because it contains no translation errors at all.

But apart from these books, there are no other materials available for the Uzbek believers. There is no Christian (Bible) study material, no concordances, there are no materials on Islam and Muslim outreach, and most of all, the whole Bible is not yet available in the indigenous languages (with the exception of Tajik).

Yet the need for such materials is great and growing. Only the Uzbeks in the major cities are capable of reading, writing and speaking Russian. In the countryside the knowledge of Russian is almost absent. With the growing self-awareness, many Uzbeks refuse to learn Russian, and in the future this trend will continue. Therefore, it is essential that Christians in the West work to make many more titles available in the languages of Central Asia.

For several years, a local mission has been active in Tashkent. Its name is Khudo Khokhlasa. The mission has great vision for outreach to the indigenous nations of not only Uzbekistan, but also those in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Tadzhikistan. The mission founded some twenty new churches all over Uzbekistan. At first, the mission started from Baptist circles. Later, the mission tried to work independently from any denomination. Ever since the start, the mission has been under close surveillance by the regime, which was angered by the literature work in indigenous languages of the mission. It was a public secret that the telephone was bugged, that official registration was blocked and that a literature depot was sealed. In October 1995, the Uzbek KGB locked the mission's headquarters.

The pressure from the side of the authorities was one thing. In 1995, the mission encountered another, more serious blow: the largest Russian local church, the Russian Baptists, issued an ultimatum to the mission. They were given the choice to accept Baptist supervision and continue the work as a Baptist mission or to be spat out from the Baptist mother church and try to function as an independent mission. In this last case, the Baptists would do their best to confiscate the buildings and facilities of the mission for their own purposes.

The obstruction of the work of Khudo Khokhlasa meant a severe setback to effective literature distribution in Uzbekistan, and to the Russian outreach activities among indigenous Muslims. The mission was planning to establish an independent school for the training of indigenous pastors, but it remains to be seen what will become of these plans.

In January 1996 one of our contacts in Uzbekistan reported that the December 1995 closure of the mission's headquarters seemed permanent. The same source also said that the mission's leader was very depressed, but it remains unclear if the mission has definitely stopped functioning. However, whether they decide to continue their essential work in Uzbekistan or not, they are in great need of prayer and support.

The Body of Christ in Uzbekistan is formed by the non-indigenous (Russian) local Christians (more than 90 per cent of the total number of Christians), the indigenous Christians (numbering a few thousands) and the expatriate Christians (numbers confidential but limited). After the collapse of the USSR, a wave of emigration of the non-indigenous nationalities started from Central Asia.

First, practically all Germans left the region. Germany's constitution allows Germans from outside free settling in Germany. More recently, even the Russians have begun leaving. Of course, this had its effects on the church in Uzbekistan as well. Churches, which used to number thousands of members now number a few hundred. Church choirs are decimated, youth leaders have left, pastors and elders emigrate to Russia, Canada or the United States. The trend is expected to continue, meaning that more and more churches will have the greatest difficulties to continue functioning properly. Though it is not likely that all non-indigenous Christians will leave, the number left will hardly be able to continue to function as a church. The future will create very specific problems for the non-indigenous church.

Communication with and from Uzbekistan is a major headache. Its telephone system is outdated and under surveillance of the Uzbek KGB. The telephones and faxes of all major church leaders and the mission Khudo Khokhlasa are bugged. This means that Christians have to be very careful in bringing news about the Church out of Uzbekistan.

Tentmakers often have the most modern means of communications (i.e. computers with modem). Apart from the security risk they also have a problem with being posted with the situation outside their own limited circles. And usually, they just do not have the time to spend on communicating with the West. The result is that only rarely news about the Church in Uzbekistan reaches the Church in the free world.

Without regular information about the situation, interest among supporters and those who pray and fast for the Church will tend to decrease. We expect the situation for Christians in Uzbekistan to further deteriorate, and we therefore consider mobilising a prayer force to be very important. There is a great need to provide supporters with adequate information for prayer. This needs to be achieved, of course, without compromising the safety of Christians in Uzbekistan.