Ask For the Nuri People
The Nuri* People
The Nuri people live in the mountainous regions of a small Central Asian country. For generations they’ve lived in spiritual oppression and isolation without access to the good news of Jesus. Our team has been there for just over a decade. It’s a tough place: hard to reach, resistant to relationship. Yet God is opening doors and people are finding faith in Christ.
These men and women, once intimidated and isolated, are now sharing the Gospel courageously. They too share God’s vision to build up the body of Christ. Christ’s love is driving them to see their own people reached. (2 Cor. 5:14)
This partnership model is working! Our team has already seen fruit. We have re-roofed clinics and schools, protecting people from the snow, wind, and rain. We have introduced new stoves, efficient and cost effective, ensuring warmth as the temperature plummets in the winter. Through projects like these, Nuri disciples have opportunities to reach into spiritually and geographically isolated communities and share the Gospel.
These opportunities are significantly propelled forward as local believers and expat missionaries lovingly serve the people. And because this model is working in the area, there is a great need for this process to repeat again and again, by sending more Canadian workers to partner with the relatively new believers among the Nuri.
Discipleship + local partnership + platform projects = Gospel sharing opportunities. What is missing in this equation is more expat workers. More workers who are willing to step out of the familiar in obedience to God’s call on their lives. More workers to disciple Nuri believers and facilitate projects in new areas where, unless someone takes the Gospel to these remote, even harder to access areas, the people there will never hear of God’s great love for them.
Pray for the Nuri People:
At Pioneers, we are all about this vision! Following God’s call to those who have not heard, witnessing the transforming power of God’s love, and supporting local believers as they proclaim God’s love among their own people! Now is the time to multiply the work that is being done by walking through the doors that God has opened and sharing the love of Jesus with more Nuri who have not yet heard the good news.
I ask that you would pray with us:
Praise God for already changed hearts and lives in the community that is breaking through generations of firmly held folk beliefs.
Pray for those God is calling to GO to the Nuri people and others just as unlikely to hear of God’s love – that they would listen and obey His voice, by faith.
Pray for supporters in Canada to come alongside our work for the nations. We praise the Lord for those already helping and are praying for God to light the fire of this vision in many more hearts.
September 1stAsk For The Nuri* People
A Springboard to the Gospel
Farhad* sat cross-legged on the floor sharing a simple meal of bread, tea, nuts, and dried fruit with several Nuri* men. They leaned into the story he was telling, fascinated to hear about the rich man who, after living a life of luxury, is tormented after he dies...
"In his overwhelming suffering, the rich man looks up to see Abraham with the beggar Lazarus by his side. Lazarus, the very beggar that had lived at the rich man’s gate, longing to eat the scraps of food that fell from his table. The very beggar the rich man had been indifferent to during life on earth.
But now, the rich man begs Abraham to send Lazarus 'to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue,' a small respite from the agony of the fire. Abraham responds that the chasm between them is great, that it has been set, and that no one can ever cross from hell to heaven or heaven to hell." (taken from Luke 16:19-31)
The Nuri men were startled. This parable challenged their commonly held belief that the divide between hell and heaven may be crossed through the ceremonial washing away of sins in hell. It illustrated the horrible permanence of hell and pointed to the need for a saviour. Farhad told this story as a springboard into sharing about Christ as the Saviour and the Hope of the Gospel.
*names and locations have been changed for security purposes