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Called out of darkness


Risbek Zaidov was born into a Muslim family of seven children. He knew poverty and oppression. He had an alcoholic father, and the harsh conditions on a state farm meant that

Risbek and his wife Ulugai

the family suffered hunger and extreme cold, with insufficient coal to warm them.

Ill health, family break-up and desperation led him to cry out to God: “At night, I would go out on the street, look up at the stars and tell God about my troubles.” He called on Jesus, “the Russian God”, and Allah, the Muslim god, but received no answer. He decided that God was only for the wealthy and the good people. Even after he became a prize student at school, he still felt a great emptiness which never left him.

Ending up in a home for unwanted youth in Bishkek, the capital of Kirgistan, he was given a New Testament by a girl (whom he cursed), but he couldn’t understand the message.

A turning point came one dark night when he and some other youths decided to rob the home of an elderly couple known to be Christian believers. At 1:00 a.m., they rang the doorbell. Two others were hiding in the garden ready to attack. But things did not turn out as they expected. “The owner turned on the light and came out smiling,” Risbek recalls. “We were struck dumb. He invited us in and made tea for us.” After sharing Jesus with them, the man eventually took them home in his car, leaving Risbek with a verse that continued to haunt him: “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29).

Later, the boys decided to visit the church whose address they had been given by the man, but the two companions they had left in the garden earlier tried to prevent them.

God continued to draw Risbek, and eventually he made the choice between his friends and his life of sin, and Jesus. He repented, and on March 20, 1993 experienced God’s forgiveness. Soon after, he was baptized and joined the church. Now he could say of pastor Henry Barg, the man he had tried to rob: “This brother, head of the Baptist Union in Kirgistan, has become my mentor and my counsellor. How amazing are the ways of the Lord!”

In 1995, Risbek completed studies at Ray of Hope Bible School. Today he is serving as a pastor in the city of Osh in southern Kirgistan. This article is reprinted, with permission, from the April 2000 Logos Canada Newsletter. Logos is a ministry which trains and supports indigenous missionaries and church planters in the former Soviet Union.

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Last modified June 27, 2000.

© 2000 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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