Silk road 3 A ministry visit in Kazakhstan
Dr. Mihai Malancea, Vadim Bulgac
“And the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
Dear friends and partners, first of all we thank God for all of you who take a significant part in the ministry among Muslims in the formal Silk Road Countries. May our God richly bless you all with all the spiritual 
and material resources you need to continue serving the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, our Lord Jesus.
From August 23rd till August 31st together with brother Vadim, the Dean of the Social Work program, we made a ministry visit in Kazakhstan and planned to visit Uzbekistan as well. So far we had a great time in Kazakhstan mentoring our graduates, preaching in Churches, meeting key leaders and working at renewing the Study Center of Chimkent Bible School.
Renewing Study Center of Chimkent Bible School
The Chimkent Bible School was founded in 2002. The school was started by the collaboration of the College of Theology and Education in Chisinau, Keys Ministry, and The Baptist Union of the Southern Kazakhstan region.
CTE Faculty 
and Administrators visit Chimkent 4-5 times per year teaching and laying the foundation for the Bible School there. Since then we continue to develop programs, investing in leaders, missionaries & church planters cross culturally.
Since 2007 the Chimkent Bible School has got into a partnership with the Theological Training Center (TCMI) in Europe located in Heiligenkreuz, Austria. TCMI Institute for post Graduate studies which continues to provide training for CTE & CBS graduates on MA & M.Div programs.
Recently we have got into a partnership with a German Organization HILFE FUR BRUDER INTERNATIONAL. Thanks to a nice collaboration with Johanna Bauer, Project Manager of Hilfe fur Bruder International, we received a nice gift for renovating two students’ Dormitories, one for boys and another one for girls.
The local leaders renewed 
the two dormitories, painted and fixed the floor, bought new beds and made new wardrobes and other furniture. The first two days we helped to buy all the necessary things like blankets, pillows, iron table and other needed items for the students.
We enjoyed buying all those things together with the local Leaders Vladimir Telesh and Kairat Dosaev.
At the bazar we were amazed, once again, of the intercultural differences. Kairat, the national leader of CBS who is a graduate of CTE as well one of the first Asian TCMI student on Master (MA) program at TCMI, did a great job negotiating the price of the things we bought together. See the attached pictures of the Bazar in Kazakhstan. Please pray for the local Bible school Leaders.
Camp Ministry
On August 25th we visited the Youth camp where we met a large number of youth studying the Word of God every evening and doing many other activities such as climbing mountains, playing Soccer and volleyball during the day. In the evening we gathered together for worship and Bible study. We thoroughly enjoyed the youth program. Vadim and I were both able to speak to the youth and encouraged them to invest more time in Theological Education.
We also
met the leaders of the Baptist Union who were all together with the young people in the camp. That was a real pleasure to observe their dedication to the youth. It was also a pleasure to meet our first graduates for the Chimkent Bible School who are leaders of the Baptist Union in Southern Kazakhstan. Amongst them was Veaceslav Stasiuc who is the president of the Baptist Churches in the South Region.
We also met Yurii Baranov who is also one of our first graduates and now is the youth leader of the region. At that moment we did have a sense of fulfillment seeing our Graduates serving faithfully our Lord as we read in 2ndJohn 4 “It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth just as the Father commanded us”. Please pray for the young generation in Kazakhstan as well for those who train them in the Lord.
Ministry in the Jetsay Region or a lesson about a dedicated leader
During August 27th – 29th we visited Jetsay region. Geographically, Jetsay region is the bottom of Southern Kazakhstan.
At 9:00 in the morning we started our 5 hour journey under the hot sun. There are about 300km from Chimkent to Jetsay.
While driving into the region we could feel the specific hot air. The outside temperature was 41-43C(106-110F) degrees. The temperature was so high that even now, when I am writing about this, I still feel the hot wind blowing my hair.
In the region are seven evangelical Churches, as we find in the book of Revelations. The largest one is in Jetsay. There is a congregation of 60 members and about 20 kids. The other congregations are in groups of 20-30 members. The church building is a formal German church, now it is almost empty because all the Germans moved to Germany.
Saturday evening we met with a group of potential leaders, and we had a long discussion while enjoying a traditional oriental meal. Because of the lack of theological training, the leaders we met kept asking questions for several hours in a row. We enjoyed the Oriental evening for more than 5 hours of fellowship, which continued with some private discussions till 4:00am. Pastor Valera pleaded with us to come and help them educating leaders for ministry. We were overwhelmed by the lack of Bible education and by the hunger of the new believers to learn more and more how to serve our Lord. Seeing and understanding the big need in training, we almost came to tears, Brother Vadim and I together came to the conclusion that we need to help them in training local leaders for such a big harvest.
Dear partners, please do not take this easy but pray hardly for that region. Remember that the harvest is plenty and the workers are few. Please pray for the workers in Southern Region of Kazakhstan.
Sunday morning we were involved in a worship service in Jetsay Baptist Church. We were told that 30 years ago there was still a strong German church with a number of 900 believers but after the Germens who were in the territory for over than 200 years left, only a few dozens of Russian and Tajik people remained in the Church. Now the national Church formed by Kazakhs and Tajiks is growing, please pray for them asking God to help them grow in knowledge of our Lord, please pray for Pastor Valera and his Family, he is married to one of the CTE graduate, Hatina Dosova. They have two very nice daughters half Tajik and half Gagauz. One thing that impressed us the most was the dedication of the Pastor. He is a Moldovan missionary who came into the region with his father in 1993. He came there as a small child and was the third son out of seven children at that time. We learn from Valera Bratan (the minister) that he is the only ordained missionary of seven churches in the region. I want to remind to you dear friends again that the harvest is plenty but the labors are a few.
As mentioned above, Valera was born in Moldova, Gagauz region, but has lost his Moldavian Citizenship because he hasn’t returned to Moldova for a long time. Because of some health problems his parents turned back to Moldova, but Valera has dedicated his life to the lost people in that hard place to live. His servants heart beats for Kazakhs, Uzbeks and Tajiks who are living in the area. Our hope is that this message would make you join him in prayer and also help him in different ways for the extension of God’s Kingdom there.
Every day of each week, he runs from one service to another, taking the good News of Jesus Christ to those who are lost in their sins and transgressions. He continues this ministry for many weeks and years in a row. Please pray for such a dedicated leader, pray specifically that we might find a way to help him to get more Theological Education and at the same time pray that our Lord will send there a colleague to help him with the large harvest he is involved in.
Sunday he leads the worship service in a few churches, then during the week he visits one of the churches each night. Most of the churches are in the villages around the Jetsay town, which are placed one hour or more one from other.
Stalinsk the place of wanted slavery
Sunday in the afternoon we got to the village Stalinsk (named by the soviet dictator) a region of cotton, watermelons and melons (honeydew). After lunch together with Maxim Dosov(another graduate of CTE) & his Family, we drove to Uzbekistan to our Uzbek colleagues. Driving in a very hot weather with a driver who was driving 80 mph, we were praying continually that the Uzbek officials would allow me to get into Uzbekistan, since they turned me back in 2009 without any explanations.
The sad news came in the moment I gave my new passport to the officials so that I could get into the country, when the officer suddenly stood up, came out and asked who am I? After I explained that I am a professor of Intercultural Studies and I want to have a short visit in Uzbekistan he disappeared with my passport for about 20 minutes than came back and said: “Your friends may go but you should go back, you are not allowed to visit Uzbekistan.“
Of course the three of us tried to make them give us a reason by asking them why? Give us an explanation please? The answer was short: We don’t have the obligation to give you any answers, go to the Embassy in your country and ask them.
Back to Satalinsk
Of course I felt a big pain in my heart, being rejected for the second time. Then I understood how hard it is to be rejected. For a moment my mind was captured by a thought; how painful it must be for the Creator to be rejected by those to whom He gave His life.
Coming back to Stalinsk we changed our plan and in the same time we had a big surprise. We did learn that people here have no rest at all, from March till November people don’t have a Shabbat day. They are working from early morning till late night and the second day goes with the same routine. We went to see why they are so busy during this period of time and why they do not take a Shabbat day. They are gathering cotton at this time. At the field there were a large number of people, starting from the age of seven years old till seventy. Under the sun, with over the 40 degrees C (105 F) in hard conditions for their bodies they continue to work the whole day long. From our point of view that was really hard work but for them it is normal. The children were very happy because they were promised some money, about $5 per day.
In the evening the elder ones gathered together and we had a big feast. For a few moments the Aksakal (the leader of the village) visited us, he wanted to see who the guests of the village were. And we had again a feast in Oriental style, Grapes, Water Melons, Melons or Honeydew, plus Pilaf and other traditional dishes. The elders came together and we eat and got into a nice discussion about faith in God and SALVATION trough Jesus. Our discussion continued from 9:00 PM until 2:00 AM. The elders were asking us so many questions and could get a deeper understanding of God’s Salvation by Grace. Of course we discussed about the importance of having a Sabbath day, a day of rest in which they must think more of their Creator and Savior. While we were having this discussion, a lady heard us talking about the day of rest and worship and said to her husband: “I TOLD YOU THAT BEFFORE. WE INSLAVE OURSELVES SINING AGANST THE CREATOR!”
They pleaded us to stay for another few more days telling us that they might gather the whole village to hear us sharing the Good News with them. For sure we wanted to stay but we had to turn back in two days to Almaty to fly back to Chisinau. We promised them that we would come back. Please pray that that will happen soon, because the fruits of salvation are ready to be picked up.
Monday 30th of August we turned back to Chimkent where we met some of our graduates who are involved in several different churches and we encouraged them to continue doing the good work for the Lord. We spent several hours with our beloved Family in Tverdohlebov.
The whole Family in Tverdohlebov studied with us. Vladimir and Nadia (parents) graduated from Chimkent Bible School and Yurii and Victor (sons) graduated from CTE in Chisinau. Their home reminded us of the home churches in the New Testament. Many Christian workers find a time of rest and good care in that home. For this time we met in their home Pavel Drojogareaev who is another CTE graduate, he is a missionary among Turks in Astrakhan region, Russian Federation. Vladimir took us to the train station for Almaty.
In the evening we got into the train being accompanied by two of our graduates, Maxim Dosov and Kairat Dosaev. They joined us for two more meetings we had with the leaders of Baptist Seminary in Almaty and with the leaders of Russian Korean Baptist Association of Churches.
Our mission trip ended in a home group Church in Almaty.
At 6:00PM we were invited in a home group church led by two of our graduates, Maxim Dosov and Sulton Dosov. We had a nice meeting as you might guess in an Oriental style again. At the meeting only young people participated, Tajiks, Russians, Indians, and we Romanians. We were open to their question about how to lead a Christian Life in such difficult times of globalization and high secularism and above all a Muslim country. Without any doubts we had a very constructive and fruitful ministry among that group of youth. May God bless them to grow in our Lord Jesus for His glory.
Early morning at 3:00AM Maxim took us to the airport from where we flew to Istanbul and then to Chisinau.
Hoping you enjoyed our story form the Mission trip in so called Silk Road Country. Coming to the end of it I want to mention that we shared just some of the key feelings we went through and I want to thank you for your prayers and support of CTE ministry among people who live in Central Asia or so called some time in the past, Silk Road countries. Thank you for your partnership and faithfulness to our Lord and SAVIOR.
Please consider that your prayers fully support CTE ministry. And may our HEAVENLY AND ALMIGHTY GOD FILL YOUR HEARTS WITH JOY AND PEACE.
Yours in Christ Jesus, Vadim & Mihai.