Nurzhan: Portrait of a Kazakh Believer

KAZAKHSTAN Spring 2008

“In the victim’s eyes, I saw God. From that time, I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t rest, couldn’t move,” Nurzhan says.

When Nurzhan speaks in his native Kazakh, his voice rises and falls like the gallop of a horse on the Central Asian steppe. When he speaks of God’s work in his life, a happy rumble joins the cadence. One doesn’t have to listen long to understand why.

Nurzhan met Jesus just over 10 years ago, five years after becoming a professional criminal. Once a champion wrestler, he was used to solving problems with brute force. Robbery and racketeering were a means of surviving the uncertain economic times following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and these served him well until one particular job left Nurzhan afraid and uncertain.

“In the victim’s eyes, I saw God. From that time, I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t rest, couldn’t move,” Nurzhan says. The pain and fear eventually drove him to the house of his wife’s younger sister, who had married into a family of believers in Jesus. They told him “fully about the true road of Jesus,” and Nurzhan knew his life could never be the same.

Kazakh man praying“In 1997 I fully gave my life to Jesus. I told him, My life is yours. I will die with you. My goal in life is to be with you, because tomorrow in heaven I will meet you. I will stand before you.”

Though initially Nurzhan’s father seemed accepting of the decision, acceptance gave way to fear and attempts to coerce Nurzhan to deny his newfound faith. He threatened to kill Nurzhan, to disown him; when that didn’t work, he tried to bribe him. Eventually he asked a mullah to meet with Nurzhan in order to bring him back to Islam, the traditional faith of the Kazakh people.

The plan didn’t work. Instead of convincing Nurzhan of anything, the mullah was convinced that Nurzhan had found the true road to God. Their meeting ended with Nurzhan giving him a copy of the New Testament. Nurzhan’s dad, who waited in the car for the meeting to end, saw the two men coming out of the meeting like old friends, with Nurzhan no closer to renouncing his faith, and he exited the car, walked straight to the mullah, and planted his fist in his face.

Nurzhan’s dad was no closer to understanding or accepting Nurzhan’s faith, but that day was significant in Nurzhan’s own spiritual journey. He felt that God had miraculously revealed himself to the mullah, and Nurzhan saw it with his own eyes.
“We decided then, that for the salvation of the Kazakh people, we will serve Him,” Nurzhan explains. With his wife and four children, he has spent the last 10 years sharing his faith whenever he is able.

“Right now Kazakhstan is very open for sharing the gospel. We can go anywhere and talk to anyone,” Nurzhan says.

While foreign Christian workers in Kazakhstan have wondered if the economic upturn in the country, due to significant oil revenue, has dampened the spiritual hunger of Kazakhs, Nurzhan feels that Kazakhs remain eager to hear about Jesus.

Kazakh praying“Right now people have less time because they are all at work, but generally people here are very open. We have lots of opportunities to share the gospel…if people are having a party, celebrating a holiday…there are opportunities.”

Nurzhan’s dream is to make not just converts, but true disciples. “My vision is to make multiplying disciples—not to just see people come to Jesus, but to see them be disciples. And for them to go on and teach others, to serve others.”

“Right now we are also thinking a lot about house church. If in one year, we have one true disciple come forward, that is great and we are happy,” Nurzhan says.

Everywhere Nurzhan goes, he is finding Kazakhs who are ready to receive the gospel. Even when he is not looking, people seem to seek him out. Laughing, he tells the story of a woman who recently called him five times one night, asking him to please come speak to her husband about the gospel. He dreaded the ride late at night, across town, just as he was preparing to leave town for a conference. But he eventually heard the Lord, he said, and decided to obey. That night, a whole family received salvation.

These are the miracles Nurzhan is seeing regularly among the Kazakhs.

But most miraculous to him is the work of God in his own family. In the last couple of years, Nurzhan’s father, sisters, older brother, brothers-in law—all once so violently opposed to Nurzhan’s faith—have surrendered their lives to Jesus.

Nurzhan’s wife and children are committed to ministering with him. Currently his daughter is discipling 12 of her schoolmates. His oldest son is a champion wrestler whom Nurzhan hopes will be an example to other Kazakh young men of the strength found only in Jesus.

Nurzhan’s story is a picture of God’s work throughout Kazakhstan over the past 17 years. Though culturally Muslim, the Kazakh people are only nominal in their understanding and practice of their faith. As the gospel has spread among them since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the number of believers has gone from less than 10 to thousands. And primarily it has moved along family lines, as faithful men like Nurzhan have stood firm in their faith and shared with others the truth they have found in Christ.

*Names changed to protect believers. Photos do not depict the people in the story.

Pray for Kazakh Believers

Learn more about the peoples of the former Soviet Union

Dagestan :: Kazakhs :: Kyrgyz :: Muslims of Moscow :: Tatar :: Turkmen :: Uzbek