In Central Asia, a person’s religious beliefs are
closely aligned with cultural identity.
(Photo by Christian Aid Mission)

Central Asia (CAM/MNN) — Raids and arrests by the secret police. Fines for Christmas gifts to children. Threats made against pastors’ families.
Unfortunately it’s a way of life for churches in parts of Central Asia, where Christians face persecution from both government authorities and radical Muslim groups.

Christian Aid Mission, your link to indigenous missions, is providing a source of hope and support for Christians under the weight of this persecution. They’re equipping leaders with the tools to share the Gospel effectively.

During 70 years of Soviet rule, atheism was the law of the land. and both Christianity and Islam were harshly suppressed. With the fall of communism in 1991, however, Islam was revived. Its influence spread during the same time many Christians of various European nationalities were migrating out of Central Asia.

Coupled with this history is a staunch cultural resistance to the “foreign religion” of Westerners, and a new wave of Muslim extremism that is infiltrating society.

Considering all of these factors, it is not surprising that hostility against the Christian minority is intensifying.

“In November, we had planned to hold a special service for the 15th anniversary of our church. However, we couldn’t do this, as some chemicals were thrown on the building we were renting,” reported one pastor. “The chemicals gave off such a smell that it was not possible for people to be in the facility.”

Another church paid a fine of more than $1,000 for handing out Christmas gifts to children. They were accused of using the needs of people for their gain. An appeal of their case to the courts proved unsuccessful.

Laws regarding religious activity vary from country to country. Proselytism is largely prohibited, and churches must register with the government. Meeting the criteria for legal registration is complicated and sometimes almost impossible, however, and government monitoring of religious activities by spies or secret police is commonplace.

Some churches prefer to operate “underground,” meeting in private homes. If caught, believers face stiff fines or prison. In one village, a woman was penalized the equivalent of four years of her income for hosting a group of Christians for fellowship at her house.

In Tajikistan and Turkmenistan there are very few believers, and many rural areas have not been penetrated with the gospel.

Christian Aid Mission assists more than a dozen ministries working in the Central Asia region. “We see a great need for more ministers to reach unreached villages and towns in the region where we live and where we are preaching the gospel,” said the ministry leader in one Central Asian country.

To meet that need, the ministry is starting a three-week training school program which prepares missionaries and church leaders for Christian service. A theological education is hard to come by in this part of the world and often requires a student to travel far from home. Many who do go away to attend Bible school in a large city do not return to their community.

Christians gather for worship at a state-registered church. The classes will be taught in house churches in multiple locations so students will have less distance to travel. About 30 people are expected to attend the July session. Those who complete the program will be better equipped to share the gospel and plant churches in unreached areas. The ministry has four missionary teams that are currently overseeing the nurture and discipleship of 39 small congregations. Additionally, they are at work planting churches in another 20 communities.

Despite the challenges, missionaries with a ministry in another Central Asian country have started more than 270 churches over the past three decades. Local believers who are already involved in ministry can attend Bible school training sessions that are held in select locations, so students from across that country can attend. The sessions vary in duration from six weeks to three months.

If anything, opposition to Christianity, particularly evangelicals, has only spurred greater unity and commitment among believers in the region. Overcoming cultural misconceptions is an uphill battle, but ministry leaders are encouraged by a new generation of believers who sense the urgency to take the gospel to their own people while they can.

Please pray:
– For more Central Asian believers to receive missionary training and to start churches in communities unreached with the gospel.
– For Central Asian governments to make it easier for churches to receive legal registration.
– For those in spiritual bondage to experience true freedom in Jesus Christ.

If you’d like to give a gift to support this training effort in Central Asia, click here.

One of the greatest joys of
Global Advance's ministry is to pass the baton of training nationals to
national leaders themselves. Just as Paul urged Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2
to entrust faithful leaders to teach others, Global Advance is endeavoring to
do the same.         

Through the financial resources
and training materials of Global Advance, thousands of leaders are being
equipped by nationals. In the past two weeks, pastors' training
events have been held in Russia, Zimbabwe, India, and Nigeria. Global Advance Russian partner Illya
writes, "Thank you for the resources you've provided to help us equip and
encourage God's people in Siberia."

Frontline Shepherds Conferences are conducted around the world. These events are
catalysts for church planting and indigenous missions efforts. The goal is to
provide national pastors and church leaders with a vision in their hearts for
the advance of the Gospel.

Another segment of Global Advance training programs is known as "Marketplace
Missions"– initiatives that provide a conduit for U.S. business leaders
to invest their skills, knowledge, and experience in the lives of emerging
marketplace leaders. Training Christian businessmen and
women in developing nations increases economic and spiritual
capital throughout the world.

Today, Global Advance is able to
utilize national teams who have been trained to train. Even so, the team is asking for your prayers
as this grueling pace continues. They're
also inviting you to partner with them financially in these mission
outreaches. 

More people than ever are begging
for the Gospel. That means more hearts
are turning to Christ which means trained church leaders are needed. Click here
if you can help.

But, Global Advance president David Shibley says they're going the other
way. Global Advance teams are busier
than ever with pastoral training and marketplace missions training. They've doubled last year's numbers and have
21 conferences scheduled between mid-September and the end of the year.

Notably, a trend has developed pointing to a strong
dedication to the Gospel. "The
median age in our conferences continues to go down. We're seeing a whole new
generation of pastors coming to the fore." 

Younger pastors coming in record numbers for training
translates to a sense of urgency. "There is a greater hunger; there is a greater intensity,
particularly among young pastors. So I'm very encouraged. There are tremendously
courageous men and women around the world who are carrying the
Gospel." 

At the invitation of local believers, Global Advance goes
into a country and provides Frontline Shepherd's conferences to help church
leaders. But they also hold Marketplace Conferences to help Christian business
people to use their business to serve Christ.

Keep praying for the training teams. There may come a time where outside teams
won't be welcomed. "We believe it's
the time to pull out all of the stops and work while it is day, while we have
opportunity to equip the church around the world, to have a strengthened
pastoral leadership, strengthened leadership in the marketplace to fulfill the
Great Commission."

Recently, one of those who faithfully worked "while it is day" at Global Advance suddenly went home to be with the Lord. Dale Witt, international director for 13 years, died of an apparent heart attack Saturday September 13.

Shibley says, "We never knew a man with a greater love for pastors, especially for those servants of Christ who labor in needy, underserved areas."

Pray that the work of providing national pastors and church leaders
with a vision in their hearts for the advance of the Gospel will continue.

Global Advance has
designed tools for the ongoing training of frontline shepherds such as CD Virtual Institutes, 2tim2.org, and the LifeBook training manual.
Click here for more details.

Chandigarh (shandigar) is literally a city stronghold of one
of the Hindu deities. The name of the city
derives from Chandi, the name of a Supreme goddess referred in
Hindu sacred texts.  Literally, the name
is translated "fort of Chandi."

What better place to hold a training of church leaders to
share the Gospel and plant new churches? Shibley explains, "It's
particularly strategic because of the large numbers of unreached peoples that
are surrounding Chandigarh and even within the city of Chandigarh.  And of course, there has been religious
conflict between Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims in that area." 

Set near the foothills of a Himalayan range in Northwest
India, the backdrop of this beautiful city belies much of the spiritual
darkness within.

Many church leaders in the region battle not only the
challenges to evangelism and the sectarian violence between the other
religions, but also isolation and discouragement.

Global Advance not only trains pastors in effective ways to
share the Gospel, they leave resources behind that often are the only ones the
church leader owns. The team leaves a
52-week topical manual geared towards Christian leaders in the developing world,
a CD-Rom Virtual Institute and a resource website, www.2tim2.org.

The library includes 100 hours of training on Video CD and
DVD in native languages, and it is given to key church leaders for the purposes of
training others. Pastors can also access the multi-lingual
website to find numerous books, articles and literature for the ongoing
development of Christian leaders.

Armed with knowledge, rest and new resources, Shibley says
church leaders from five states now have a new vision. "At our conference where 484
delegates attended, over 300 pastors committed to planting at least one new
church within the next 12 months. So God did very significant things at this
conference in Chandigarh."

Recently, the national secretary of the Bajrang Dal demanded movement by government leaders toward curbing the conversion of Hindus. He noted the "alarming rate" of growth in the church and wants to stop it. 

Global Advance's David Shibley says their team is headed to Hyderabad, India at the end of the month for a Frontline Shepherd's Conference to help church leaders prepare for what's coming. "I am standing before men and women who very possibly may lay down their lives in martyrdom for Jesus Christ. We give them affirmation; we give them encouragement; we also teach them Scriptural principles on how to thrive when under threat."

The Frontline Shepherd's Conferences are catalysts for church planting and indigenous missions efforts. They work to provide national pastors and church leaders with a vision in their hearts for the advance of the Gospel.

Such work is not without its risks. According to statistics from Gospel For Asia, of the 33 tribal groups in Andhra Pradesh, 16 have yet to be won to Christ. Hostility is growing but so is record growth in evangelistic churches.

Shibley says the solidarity of the body of Christ comes through prayer. "We are very grateful for prayers for the safety of our teams, particularly in this climate where antagonism against Christians is a growing threat in India. We're very confident that God is going to do something wonderful in these Global Advance conferences in India and that the church is going to take major steps forward."

This month, the Global Advance team will be in Chandigarrh, India, February 14-16, Vishakaputnam, India – February 19-24, and in Hyderabad, India – February 25-27.  

According to the Barna report, this
study shows that while most Americans value their faith and regularly engage in
faith practices, few say they have specific challenges related to the
development of their faith.

The national survey of Christian
parents commissioned by Good News Holdings and conducted by The Barna Group
found forty-percent of Christian parents of children between the ages of 3 and
18 said they do not face any spiritual challenges in their life. Among those
who identified the presence of any spiritual challenges, the most common issues
related to the spiritual development of their children.

That in and of itself doesn't seem
menacing. However, Barna concludes that
"Americans focus on what they consider to be the most important matters;
faith maturity is not one of them. The dominant spiritual change that we have
seen — Americans becoming less engaged in matters of faith — helps to explain
the surging secularization of our culture."

Global Advance's David Shibley agrees with this assessment
to an extent, noting the trend is opposite the evangelistic spirit he's
noticing elsewhere. "There is an intensified global hunger for God.
Obviously, there's been a rise in spirituality, which I believe is a search for
God. Tragically, here in the United
States, evangelism has waned, while a
spirituality interest has grown over these last several years." 

However, Shibley also said, "I'm convinced that the American Church's
redemptive gift is vision. No one casts vision better than Americans, but we
have so much to learn from our brothers and sisters in other cultures. We learn
courage, holiness, humility and obedience from their examples."

Laid against the
backdrop of nearly two decades in training church leaders, he says the growth
is remarkable. Global Advance hosts and
sponsors dozens of Frontline Shepherds Conferences around the world every year.

These events are
catalysts for church planting and indigenous missions efforts. Their aim is
to provide national pastors and church leaders with a vision in their hearts
for the advance of the Gospel. Global Advance has designed tools for the
ongoing training of frontline shepherds such as CD Virtual Institutes, 2tim2.org, and the LifeBook training manual.

Shibley says their teams are now urgently training church
leaders with their Frontline Shepherds Conferences. "We want to do all
that we can, as fast as we can, to equip as many pastoral leaders around the
world as we can, so that we can advance the Gospel as far as we can. Even in
this month, we have nine conferences altogether because we do believe that
there is always an imperative connected to evangelism and missions and that it
needs to be recovered."

Pray that these Frontline Shepherds will be bold in their
faith.                                           

Global Advance's David Shibley says they've hit it
with the growth of their ministry. "That which took us, literally, a
decade to do, from 1990 to 2000, really began to gather steam in the year
2000.  It has continued to accelerate until now, there will be over 100
conferences this year."

This month alone , Shibley says Global Advance is holding 18
conferences.  They'll be in Thailand, Colombia,
India, Kenya, Bolivia,
Liberia, Cameroon and Congo.  That's stretching his team a little thin,
isn't it?  Not at all, Shibley
replies.  He says what's really exciting
about the growth is that 25-percent of those conferences are led by national
church leaders. 

Simplistically, Shibley says it's a 'lead and disciple'
concept.  This year, they're not only working to equip pastors and
marketplace leaders, but they're also adding the final component of the
outreach. 
Shibley says they are the: "…wonderful pastors wives, who have been
neglected, especially in the developing nations of the world. Now, we are
encouraging and equipping them, turning them into a prayer force in their
nations."

Please pray.  He's
urging believers to feel the needs of fellow brothers and sisters in Christ
around the world, many of whom are struggling economically. Shibley notes that
many of these national church leaders are rich in faith and can live
courageously for the Gospel,  but they
sometimes need support.  Click here if
you can help.

So,
who are the Frontline Shepherds?  They
are on the frontlines of the church's Gospel advance. They are the native
pastors, evangelists and church leaders who sacrifice themselves to evangelize
and establish churches among unreached people groups. Often, they face
incredible opposition, lack vital resources, and have no access to theological
or ministry training.

Take that a step further.  Suppose a church leader is also a business
person in a developing nation.  How then,
does someone of this capability meld faith and business successfully?  GAM believes that Christian business leaders
in the developing world must be equipped with Biblical principles as well as
practical business skills in order to be change agents in their nations.

Through partnership, business leaders
and church leaders or pastors can work jointly to lift their nations out of the
poverty cycle.  By equipping Christian business leaders in less developed
countries, GAM can bring spiritual and economic renewal to nations. 

As such, the conferences they're providing help
strategically align pastors and Christian business leaders in developing
nations toward evangelism.  Their
goal: provide nationals in developing nations with tools and a vision for the
advance of the Gospel.  

This year, the team is slated to conduct 104 Frontline
Shepherds Conferences for pastors, and Marketplace Missions conferences for
Christian business leaders.  Please pray
for the training team's safety and strength.

Though there are limits to what can be done through a three-day Frontline
Shepherd's conference (FLSCs).  "What we have seen is that these
conferences become a catalyst for vision, for planting of new churches, for the
fulfilling of the Great Commission and especially for evangelizing and
discipling the unreached peoples in surrounding areas." 

Other
pastors' conferences may emphasize family life, leadership development, or some
other subject. GAM may address these subjects, but they are not the theme or
purpose. FLSCs must always promote evangelism, discipleship and missions. They communicate
through both instruction and impartation by the Holy Spirit. Their teaching is
a mix of inspirational instruction and practical instruction in ministry skills.

At a FLSC, there
is always a call given to the delegates to publicly commit to spending daily
time with God and planting at least one new church within the next twelve
months.

What then? Shibley says their approach to discipling pastors is
five-fold:  "Through ongoing printed material, the Lifebook;
2-Tim-2.org, which is our ongoing training through the Internet; our Global
Advance Centers, which hold Global Advance Institutes; the Warren Shibley
library in India; and then, literally, hundreds of sets of our 100-hour
bilingual training virtual institutes."

The Lifebook is a 52-week topical manual geared towards Christian leaders in
the developing world. It's translated into multiple languages and given
away to pastoral and ministry leaders throughout the world.

The virtual institutes provide a "fast-track" of practical
teachings for the discipleship and development of leaders around the world. 100
hours of training on Video CD and DVD in native languages are given to key
church leaders for the purposes of training others.

It's all geared toward encouraging the church to reach its full missions
potential for the global harvest.  Click
here if you want more information.