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MOSCOW Fall 2007
The changing face of Moscow
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To truly understand modern Moscow, one must see beyond the stereotypes to the faces of nearly one-third of the city’s 10 million people: Asian faces, Turkic faces … Uzbeks, Kyrgyz, Afghans … people in search of help and hope.
Aidar’s face tells the story of today’s Moscow. His olive skin, dark hair, and weary eyes mark him as an immigrant to this proud Russian city. He has come looking for work and wages to send home to his family in Uzbekistan. Though marginalized because of the color of his skin and the nationality listed in his passport, Aidar is not alone numerically speaking; he is one of 2 to 3 million Muslims living in Moscow.
Anywhere between 800,000 and 2 million illegal immigrants flood the streets of Moscow daily, working construction, driving buses, cleaning courtyards. Without work permits they are especially vulnerable to corruption and ill treatment. Aidar has experienced this hard reality, but far from home and alone, his choices are limited.
Used as a cheap workforce, sidelined by Russians out of fear and prejudice, the Muslim population of Moscow is largely unseen. Likewise, it is overlooked or avoided by most Christians seeking to evangelize this historic city. Currently less than a dozen missionaries are focusing on this huge population segment. As a result, only an estimated three churches exist among Muslim-background believers in Moscow.
Touch their souls
“For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
—Romans 15:4
How will the Muslims of Moscow hear the good news? Since the vast majority know little about Jesus and his message, the first step is getting God’s word into their hands. You can help make this happen. Short-term volunteers are needed who can distribute packets containing a Bible, the Jesus film (an evangelistic film based on the book of Luke), and a study course customized for Muslims. Because the Muslims in Moscow have few friends, your kindness can open doors and hearts to the message of God’s word.
One key resource in this seed-sowing effort is the Eastern Russian translation of the Bible. With a heart toward Muslim readers, translators have put God’s word into a Russian version which uses terms and vocabulary familiar to people from Muslim cultures. So far more than 50,000 copies of these Scriptures have been distributed throughout the former Soviet Union, but many more are needed. Please ask God to provide the resources for more printings of these Bibles. Also pray for a great harvest to come from the gospel seed sown in Moscow.
Give your life
“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” —Matthew 9:37–38
- A logistics team is urgently needed in order to lay the groundwork for volunteer teams doing literature distribution projects.
- Long-term workers are needed to focus on church planting efforts, particularly among the three major unreached Muslim people groups in Moscow: Tatars, Azeris, and Tajiks. Each team will first study language in the homeland of their assigned people group—Tatarstan, Azerbaijan, or Tajikistan—and then relocate to Moscow.
For more information about these opportunities, please write to all.peoples@pobox.com or call 1-804-219-1458. For more information about opportunities in the Central Asia region call 1-800-999-3113 and ask to speak with the Richmond Associates for the Central Asia region or e-mail centralasia@pobox.com
Pray
- Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers to the Muslims of Moscow.
- One of our most effective tools is a Bible printed in a way that is appealing to Central Asian Muslims. We have distributed over 50,000 of these Scriptures and we need more. Pray that God will provide the resources to print more Bibles.
- Pray that the seed that has been sown will bear a great harvest.
- More prayer requests for the Muslims of Moscow >>>
Resources
Download the Moscow PowerPoint presentation now
Learn more about the peoples of the former Soviet Union
Kazakhs :: Kyrgyz :: Muslims of Moscow :: Tatar :: Turkmen :: Uzbek