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Almaty UBF
February 11, 2014

Looking back at the past year, we thank God for his faithfulness and grace that he showed us in 2013. I will briefly share God's gracious deeds in the Almaty chapter:
First, our key verse in 2013 was . It was an indication of the need for a spiritual church building. We wanted to know God's perspective of the church of Jesus Christ and to apply what we learned. This was important because in 2012 we lost the state registration, and our meeting was outlawed. We learned that the church is neither a building nor the leaders; rather, all members form the church of Christ and it is important for us to accomplish the mission entrusted to us in any situation. To do this, one needs to have a personal relationship with God and a good knowledge of the Bible and Christian doctrine .

Secondly, to prepare brothers and sisters for self-supporting pastoral life we started a course called "Basics of Biblical Teaching". It consists of lectures and workshops on Christian doctrines. Sometimes training material is hard to understand or we may have different views making it difficult to reach a consensus. However, we believe that this course will bear good fruit for God’s glory.

Third, in the past year, we completed the study of the book of Genesis. Genesis means "beginnings" and indeed, God taught us many spiritual principles such as who God is, the nature of man, sin, the judgment of God, faith, salvation, etc. Currently, the Sunday message topics are relevant to the topics of the lectures. We started praying to God to give us a new book for study and preaching this year.

Fourth, fishing. Fishing became more difficult. On the one hand, young people are increasingly worshipping mammon (money/materials); on the other hand, due to the unofficial status of our ministry, brothers and sisters were fearful of inviting people to the center. In this new year we need to address this issue through the "home gospel" and other methods. With the help of some Korean missionaries, a "Korean club" was opened similar to our "English Club." We hope it will be used for the gospel.

Fifth, participation in world mission. Thank God for Pastor Ruth, who decided to stay in Istanbul after graduation and to work with the missionary family of Sh. Point. Together with the center of Bishkek, we participate in prayerful support and prayer for God's work in Turkey.
In July 2013, our coworkers completed the first short-term mission trip to Naryn. This is a remote and small town in Kyrgyzstan, where many people do not know about Jesus Christ. Shepherds Abraham and Sveta, as well as a young shepherdess from the Kyrgyz people named Esther went to Kyrgyzstan. In Naryn, they met with a pastor of a small local church, and served the church and also personally preached to some people. This part of Central Asia is very difficult for preaching and discipleship, so we pray for evangelism in Naryn and other cities of Kyrgyzstan. Now we have the desire to invite the pastor from Naryn to Almaty for spiritual fellowship and support.

Sixth, house churches. We now have four house churches. However, after giving birth to children and having many household burdens, we became spiritually lazy and stopped sacrificing ourselves. Now God again teaches us how to serve the flock. We also pray for the creation of new house churches through our shepherdesses.

Sixth, Bible conferences. For two consecutive years, in 2012 and in 2013, we held joint Bible conferences with UBF-Bishkek. In 2013 God blessed one particular conference named, "The Heart of the Father," where apart from Almaty and Bishkek there participated lambs (young Bible students) from Osh and Naryn (Kyrgyzstan), Dushanbe (Tajikistan), and Sh. Rustam from Astana (Kazakhstan). God opened the hearts of these young Bible students and revealed his work.

Also, in the summer Sh.Avraam, sh.Shuga and two young Bible students from Almaty participated in the Summer Conference in Astana, where God allowed them to serve the Word.
Seventh, holding a summer “camp” for schoolchildren. From July 8 – 15, 2013, we had a “camp” for high school students with the theme: "Don’t Waste your Life”. The Lord allowed us to serve three sisters from a small town. This was very small, but firstly, we ourselves received discipling and reinforcement from God through preparing the camp program. Our brothers prepared lectures on various hot topics. Also, the program had some training aspects: Daily Bread, joint work, fellowship with other believers and their dedication, as well as travel and leisure. We challenged the teenagers to devote their lives to God, turning away from the lust of the world. Thank God for the fruit of prayer for two sisters who repented and turned to a new life.

Currently, the new year 2014 has just started and we do not have a key verse for it, so please help us in prayer for it.