“Nuriddin Vlashinov” with “Andrew Colbourne”
Preparing for Service When I first arrived in Central Asia over a decade ago, the team I joined quarantined me for a week because I had not received a proper introduction into what it means to live and work in such a context. I had completed a rather long application to a mission agency and was accepted within a few weeks, but this ministry did not have the human resource capacity or time to prepare me for what was to follow. Of the four other new missionary team members, I was the only one who stayed on the field more than a few months. I managed to survive because of the deep relationship I developed with the team leader and the resilience I had acquired during my life up to that moment. But my work could have ended in disappointment, lack of clarity of God’s calling on my life, or personal harm. Ministry in Central Asia is hard, and Christian workers too often leave because of family issues, team conflicts, need for psychiatric treatment, ministry disillusionment, or difficult living conditions.
Thus, to avoid being a Central Asian missionary casualty, careful preparation is essential. First, one should be one hundred percent certain of one’s spiritual calling. It is essential to be confident that one is headed for the place to which God is leading one. The Call by Os Guinness (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1998) could help clarify God’s purposes, including a healthy, realistic focus on what one life can accomplish. Most sending agencies spell out the level of biblical training required of their candidates. Such formal grounding in Scripture not only undergirds spiritual calling, it also helps sustain the new missionary on site. Experience in ministry is also highly advisable prior to overseas missionary service. Regardless of prerequisites, some practical, hands-on ministry experience is greatly encouraged. Too many workers burn out in the first term because the learning curve is so steep. It is important to get involved in the “mess of ministry”—the difficult, painful, and complicated sides of pastoral care in one’s own culture first. Most of the lessons learned through involvement in ministry in one’s home environment will transfer directly to a missionary context.
Another prerequisite for missionary service is robust physical and mental health. Sending organizations typically require routine medical checkups while some favor more elaborate physical and emotional screenings through such services as InterHealth (London, England, www.interhealth.org). We have seen too many workers unable to function or leaving the field because of health issues. The fact is that throughout Central Asia, medical services are still basic or inadequate. For one’s physical and mental health, two vacations per year are advisable, one of which should be outside the region.
Coping with Culture Shock
An inevitable ordeal for new missionaries is culture shock. Its negative aspects, however, can be greatly reduced by preparing for it, studying the phenomenon, and learning from others who have successfully weathered it. One’s team members on the ground can be a great help in seeing one through it. For some new missionaries culture shock comes the minute they step off the plane. For others it comes as a rude awakening after six months or a year. In the latter case, it is much deeper and harder to manage. In dealing with culture shock we have found that the best advice is to talk about it. It is essential to lean on friends locally who can help one deal with the disorienting realities of the world in which one lives. It is widely recognized that reading about and studying the effects of culture shock can lessen the severity of the experience. Highly recommended are the following books by Duane Elmer, all published by InterVarsity Press: Cross Cultural Conflict; Building Relationships for Effective Ministry (1993); Cross Cultural Connections: Stepping Out and Fitting in Around the World (2002); and Cross-Cultural Servanthood: Serving the World in Christlike Humility (2006).
Studying the missionary experience in general and Central Asian history, culture, and current events can also lessen the discomfort of culture shock and better prepare one for effective service in a post-Soviet, Islamic context. We recommend the Perspectives Course (www.perspectives.org), general courses and readings on Central Asian history and religion, mission-oriented preparation through Sahara Challenge training and trips and the Bridges DVD study and seminars (http://www.crescentproject.org), and news sources including Forum 18 (forum18.org) and Radio Free Europe (www.rferl.org). In studying Central Asian religion, it is best not to focus on Islam in general, but rather its expressions in the post-Soviet context. One informative source is Morgan Y. Liu, “Central Asia in the Post-Cold War World,” Annual Review of Anthropology 40 (October 2011): 115-31; www.annualreviews.org.
In coping with culture shock, the new missionary must also come to terms with the question of personal identity. At home, one’s family, church, schooling, and job help define who one is, but almost all of these “locators” are set aside abroad. One must prepare as best one can for the painful process of being stripped of much of one’s identity based on one’s home culture. While this personal loss can actually be positive in a spiritual sense (the stripping process allows God to replace self-identification and self-absorption with Himself), it is not a pleasant experience. Think of serious burn patients who need to have their scabs removed in order for new skin to grow. New missionaries, for all intents and purposes, are children in their new culture. Cross-cultural adjustment is awkward, frustrating, exhilarating, and difficult all at the same time, but the result (a mature person who can function and minister within the new culture) is worth the pain.
The speed with which new missionaries succeed in overcoming culture shock depends in part upon how, and how often, they maintain ties back home. Email and Skype, for example, can ease the disorientation of much that is new and strange about Central Asia. However, daily communications with family and friends may actually inhibit coming to terms with one’s new cultural environment. It is healthiest to live one’s life fully in one’s new ministry setting, recognizing that constant communications with home folk may delay overcoming cross-cultural shock. Regular exercise can also ease one’s cultural transition and provide long– term staying power. Staying fit and staying healthy is part and parcel of personal well-being and contributes to long-term survival in Central Asia.
Language Study
Finally, in preparing for service in Central Asia, the question of language acquisition deserves serious consideration. First, which language should one study? Should it be a Central Asian language—Uzbek, Kazakh, Khirgiz, Tadzhik, Turkmen—or Russian? Or an indigenous language and Russian? Once this issue is settled, is language study best tackled prior to missionary service, during one’s first term of service, or some combination of the two? (Editor’s note: On the theme of language acquisition see Marc T. Conner, “Russian Language for Missionaries: Start Now Before Departure,” East-West Church and Ministry Report 3 [Fall 1995]: 5-6; and Beverly Nickles, “Russian Language for Missionaries: The Russian Context Is Best,” East-West Church and Ministry Report 3 [Fall 1995]: 4-5.)
Whether or not one begins language training before departure, learning on the field through immersion is unquestionably much deeper and faster. Once in country, we recommend finding two or more language partners: at least one teacher and one language helper. All teachers have their strong points, and if a particular teacher loves grammar, then that will be what one learns. Utilizing two or more teachers helps provide a more well-rounded learning experience. Using different curricula and having a language tutor assist with homework and assignments can also be a help. Conversational practice with a tutor is a great asset as well. Recruiting a university student who wants to practice English allows one to “trade” time with a Central Asian language speaker and opens doors for sharing the Good News. In language—and missionary service in general— flexibility is a key asset. It is best not to wait for the ideal language teacher or tutor to surface. Instead, get started as soon as possible, rather than wait for the “perfect” instructor. In Central Asia few things go perfectly in any case.
Accountability
Once in place in Central Asia, accountability with one’s team leader and teammates deserves high priority. It is important to be open, to share one’s struggles, to ask for help, and to take advice from those who know Central Asia from personal experience. Very few people succeed long-term in Central Asia without solid accountability partners. Many mission agencies arrange for new recruits to live for a time with a local family. Such an arrangement can teach valuable lessons in sharing, especially for those coming from individualistic cultures. It also can give the new missionary a belonging community for the long term.
Cultural Do’s and Don’t’s
Host families and teammates can both provide a wealth of critical suggestions on everyday life and cultural taboos. For example, these relationships can teach one appropriate and inappropriate gestures: how one should comport oneself in a new culture.
- Do not blow one’s nose in public.
- Point with two fingers, or better yet, with one’s hand.
- Hail taxis and buses with a downward wave. Do not raise one’s arm above 90 degrees.
- A flick on the neck under the chin implies heavy drinking.
- Do not lick fingers after a meal.
- Watch how Central Asians engage in handshakes, hugs, kisses, and greetings.
- . Use an “Amen” to finish a prayer, a meal, or to indicate that something/someone has finished or passed on. With cupped, up-facing palms, bring them to one’s face and wipe them down to the chin.
- A slicing motion along the neck with one’s thumb indicates “full,” “up to here,” or “plenty” of something.
- Do not slap one’s hand on top of one’s fist. This refers to sexual intercourse or prostitution, as does a single index finger wiped along one’s eyebrow.
- . Men arm-in-arm or women hand-in-hand is normal in most Central Asian contexts and does not imply homosexual relations.
- Learn the different forms of address for older and younger individuals. In making new acquaintances, one of the first questions always relates to age, asking politely what year someone was born, so that one will know how to converse properly. People are generally forgiving of grammatical mistakes when they observe clear signs of showing respect.
Combining Witness and Work
In Central Asia missionaries typically combine Christian witness and work in a business or NGO. If one holds to a holistic perspective of life, where everything one does is for God, one may find that even “secular” work is ministry, with opportunities to witness for Christ coming in the course of one’s employment. At the same time, one should not treat one’s work as an excuse for doing ministry. People will soon understand that, and that will give them the wrong message. It is best to be involved in genuine work, be it an NGO or business. Both will give one enough freedom to live one’s life and conduct ministry in Central Asia. In one’s employment it is also a valuable service to teach local believers skills that will help them find jobs so that they can remain in their country and minister there. This holistic approach is far preferable to running a short-term project. We have seen far too many Central Asian believers leaving a key area of ministry due to lack of employment that can sustain their family.
Coping with Corruption
As one works in business or in an NGO, an understanding of post-Soviet bureaucracy and market functions and dysfunction is essential. How one will respond to pressures to bribe is best resolved before one inevitably finds oneself in such circumstances in Central Asia. For help in thinking through and praying through issues of bribery and extortion see Ron Koteskey’s e-book, Missionaries and Bribery (missionarycare.com) and various responses to the predicament provided by post-Soviet church nationals Ministry Report 5 (Winter 1997): 8-10; 21 (Winter 2013): 14-16. The present authors have divergent views on bribery, but they both are successful in their interaction with officials. Also, if one manages people, it is important to have a solid biblical understanding of the ethics of work. As lax as work discipline may appear in a Western context, Central Asian society functions at an even slower, more casual pace, and missionaries should not presume that they can fix all ills that they encounter in life.
Location and Finances
Another practical decision missionaries to Central Asia have to make concerns location. Living in urban areas affords anonymity, more foreign relationships (which can be helpful or harmful), better access to resources (printed materials, computer repairs, car parts, etc.), greater schooling choices for children, and usually more open-minded people. Living in rural areas offers a slower pace of life, more opportunities for conversation, simpler living without the distractions of modern technology, and ready, aspiring English speakers (and thereby virtually unlimited language practice). Urban and rural choices also, naturally, have their drawbacks. In large cities, people often do not have time to talk, while small towns and villages often have more narrow-minded citizens. In any case, prospective missionaries should discuss their choices of location with their families, keeping in mind their needs, strengths, and weaknesses. Finances deserve attention as well. Most of Central Asia remains a cash transaction environment. However, the region is changing quickly, and ATMs are in increasing evidence in large cities. It is advisable to establish a bank account which will help with salary and other necessary transfers. In preparing for missionary service and in planning budgets, cost-ofliving information provided by trusted sources in a country can be quite useful. Everyone spends money differently, so it is a good idea to learn the cost of basic items.
Lifestyle and Team Relations
Missionaries in every context, including Central Asia, have to decide how closely they will identify with those they hope to influence spiritually, including lifestyle—the degree to which they maintain Western forms and levels of comfort versus indigenous living conditions and customs. Additionally, if one chooses to live in a Western style, how Western (how comfortable with how many modern conveniences)? If one chooses to live like Central Asians, how much so (like a wealthy or a poor native)? Practical questions that need to be considered include the following: How often will one want to shower? How important is an indoor toilet? How important is running water? How long can one live in uncomfortable circumstances? How important is warmth in the winter? How important is personal privacy? And how will one cope in a new environment? The truth of the matter is that imprisonment or death rarely end missionary service. Rather, the difficulties of everyday life, strained interpersonal relations with team members, or conflicts with indigenous coworkers more often cut ministry short in Central Asia—as elsewhere. “Inglorious” challenges of living on the field (cold, sickness, lack of privacy, cultural clashes) can quickly eclipse the “glorious” challenges (persecution for one’s faith) in the day–in/ day–out grind of living in Central Asia.
In Conclusion
In preparing for ministry in Central Asia, many tasks can and should be undertaken beforehand to ease cross-cultural adjustment. But ultimately, nothing is more vital than one’s identity in Christ and permanently abiding in Him. Challenges and difficulties will come, but if faith is strong, so will be one’s dedication and desire to learn and adapt. Missionary candidates should be prepared to suffer. It is part of life, not an accident or something to avoid. The suffering that comes with living in Central Asia is not glamorous: electricity goes off and one misses Skype with one’s parents; an electric meter is not working and electricity is cut off for days in the middle of the winter; water pipes freeze in December, meaning no running water until March, etc. It is not that one is likely to be put in jail. Rather, one will be pushed to the limits of one’s patience and one’s trust in God. Thankfully, nevertheless, the discomforts and stress and frustrations are worth it because God is the author and finisher of faith. It is well to remember that when one changes location to Central Asia, God does not change, and the “mission field” does not change. God’s mission field continues to be the heart of every member of His creation, including the heart of His missionaries.
“Nuriddin Vlashinov” and “Andrew Colbourne” are missionaries in Central Asia.