Global Mission Fellowship holds historic meeting in Almaty, Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan had not been the focus of mission efforts for any of the 42 Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches and mission agencies who assembled there, Sept. 17–22, for the second meeting of the Global Mission Fellowship (GMF).

While conversing with Ahaman Egizbaev, president of the Evangelical Alliance of Kazakhstan (r), Javier Soler, GMF chair, wears a traditional Kazakh robe and cap presented to him as a gift from the Kurultai. Photo: Richard Showalter

So why Kazakhstan?

Johannes Reimer of Germany, a member of the GMF planning committee whose dynamic networking leadership helped coordinate the event, explained that members wished to meet at a place of Mennonite involvement and special mission interest.

Kazakhstan has a history of Mennonite presence because of population dispersals through the Soviet years, and 32 of the 100 expatriate Christian workers in the country have Mennonite affiliation. (Reimer was himself born in Kazakhstan and grew up in neighbouring Uzbekistan.)

And, Reimer explained, “it’s a unique mission frontier where Muslims are coming to Christ in unprecedented numbers.”

On an exploratory trip, Reimer connected with the Kazakh Evangelical Alliance and the Turkish Kurultai, an association of Central Asian Turkic pastors. Both groups warmly welcomed the GMF and this opportunity to connect with the global church. They believed such a meeting would also give excellent visibility to the fledgling evangelical movement in Central Asia.

By invitation of the Kazakh Evangelical Alliance, this unique assembly, which included 91 GMF participants from 36 countries, the Kurultai, and a Kazakh mission partnership, all came together in the “City of Apples.”

The mixed assembly of about 400 communicated in a babble of local Turkic and Russian languages in addition to German, French, Spanish, and English. It was simultaneously intense, exhilarating and bordering on chaotic, but full of life-giving insight and rich cross-cultural fellowship.

Emerging mission movement

In his opening address Bishop Danisa Ndlovu, Zimbabwean vice-president of Mennonite World Conference, said, “I used to associate missions with the West. But in this era, every congregation, no matter where it is, if it’s part of the true church, should be involved in missions. We are all part of the emerging missions movement.”

On the following days, Wilbert Shenk, Anabaptist missiologist recently retired from the Fuller School of Intercultural Studies, gave three addresses to the united assembly on “Transforming Mission,” “Crossing Frontiers,” and “The Anabaptist View of Mission.”

It was understandably difficult to address an audience that ranged from highly educated missionaries and church leaders to semi-literate new Christians who don’t even have the Scriptures in their own language, but Shenk worked hard to connect.

“I’m very gratified to witness this upsurge in mission initiatives from the Global South,” Shenk said. “I hope that networking through GMF will help to encourage the sending of international and intercultural teams into situations of inter-ethnic conflict in which the gospel of reconciliation is desperately needed.”

Three participants of the GMF – Ruben Driedger (Uruguay), Rudolph Wiens (U.S.), and Alexander Neufeld (Germany) gave Bible studies on the book of Jonah. While Wiens and Neufeld both spoke in Russian, connecting with the majority audience at a deeper heart level, young Turkic pastors thumbed vainly through their New Testaments trying to find Jonah. (Many of the Turkic languages do not yet have a translation of the Old Testament.)

Connected to Pentecost

A Kazakh Christian historian, Bayeke Manarbek, introduced a new book in which he is reconstructing the Christian heritage of the Kazakh people. He said that the Parthians, present on the day of Pentecost, first brought the gospel to Central Asia where there was a strong church until it was decimated by Tamerlane in the 15th century.

“Because of the Arab and Russian empires we have forgotten our Christian roots,” Manarbek said. “But since 1990, these ancient roots are giving birth to new trees. We Christians came alive through the prayers of our ancestors, and your prayers. God is calling us to again take the gospel along the length and breadth of the Silk Road.”

Many GMF participants knew very little about Central Asia and its 300 million people, which stretches from Turkey to western China in what is known as the Turko–Persian world. Until 15 years ago it was a very restricted area, but the church is currently growing at a rate of up to 30 percent per year.

“Most of these Central Asians have been Christians for only about five to ten years,” Reimer explained. “This is a very young, but rapidly growing church. Many well-known artists, musicians, and professionals have also joined the movement. All this is happening outside the traditional Russian Orthodox, Baptist, and Pentecostal churches.”

As he led the concluding communion service, Siaka Traoré, a Mennonite leader from Burkina Faso who came from a Muslim background, told the Central Asians, “I discovered that I have much in common with you. I was educated to believe Islam was the only way. I thirsted for God. I tried to please God with rites and fasts. In my thirst I found Jesus. Jesus is the centre of all my life. He wants to be in all aspects of our lives. His transformation in our lives will transform others. May God bless you in that pilgrimage.”

GMF business

Birthed in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, three years ago, GMF is led by mission representatives from Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, and North America along with representatives from Mennonite World Conference.

During GMF plenary sessions, the group voted to move in the direction of becoming a mission or witness commission of the Mennonite World Conference, thus becoming an integral part of the MWC structure. They also voted to continue funding GMF activities through the “fair share” formula.

GMF and MWC staff will work on restructuring along these lines and present next steps for action at the 2009 MWC assembly in Paraguay. Current plans are for GMF to meet once every three years, including each time the MWC meets in global general assembly. The GMF planning committee appointed Janet Plenert (North America) as chair and Siaka Traoré (Africa) vice-chair for the period 2006–2009.

—Jewel Showalter, Eastern Mennonite Mission staff writer, for GMF