On May 24, the Seventh-day Adventist Church celebrated a centennial in an unlikely location: the nation of Kazakhstan.
On May 24, the Seventh-day Adventist Church celebrated a centennial in an unlikely location: the nation of Kazakhstan. After a century that included 70 years under communism—and a decade of adjusting to independence—Kazakhs are interested in learning more about the Bible, Christianity—and the Adventist message.
The celebration, which brought more than 600 believers to the main concert hall in Almaty, featured a message from Ted N.C. Wilson, a general vice president of the worldwide Adventist Church. Several local government officials attended the event as a sign of support for religious diversity, including an assistant to the state minister of religious affairs and the vice-mayor of Amaty.
A one-hour documentary was also shown detailing the persecutions suffered by Adventist Christians during the Soviet era.
Says Wilson: “The most moving part of the celebration was presented in a video program focusing on recollections by older members of hardships the church endured in the Soviet period. The testimonies of determination to stand firm for the Lord and the spiritual appeals made by those testifying brought tears to my eyes.”
“During communism it was very hard,” recalls Ivan Ostrovsky, assistant to the president of the church’s Euro-Asia region, which is based in Moscow. “They killed a lot of our church leaders.”
Even before communist times, the Adventist Church in Kazakhstan faced challenges. Beginning with the work of Andrei Lubchenko, a participant in World War I, Adventism took root in the area, with members ultimately uniting to form an agricultural cooperative along the lines of the apostolic church. The venture failed, however, and was ultimately disbanded. Other workers were murdered when visiting remote villages or died in prison.
Another pioneer worker in the region was Michael Kulakov, later president of the Adventist Church in the Euro-Asia region, who was discharged from a Soviet prison at age 26 and exiled to Kazakhstan. He contributed to the restoration and expansion of the church in the area, and in 1955 moved to what is now called Almaty to reorganize the church there.
The church flourished during the mid-1960s when state repression ended.
What the communists didn’t kill, capitalism helped siphon off: after Kazakhstan gained its independence, many members of the church, including pastors and administrators, emigrated to Germany, because of their own German origins, to find better paying jobs. Church membership took a precipitous drop, says Wilmar Hirle, Global Mission director for the Euro-Asia region.
However, Kazakhs “are so open to listening to the gospel,” Hirle adds, noting that while Muslims—mostly of Sunni heritage hold a 3 percent majority, 47 percent of the population versus 44 percent who are members of the Russian Orthodox Church, and 2 percent Protestants. The church is sharing its understanding of Jesus with Kazakhs, now chiefly through small group study sessions. Many of these studies begin with comparing verses in the Koran with Bible verses.
Although the Adventist Church is growing in Kazakhstan—there are now, Hirle says, some 7,000 members in the nation—budgets and salaries are low. The average Kazakh has an annual purchasing power of $5,900 per year, but an Adventist pastor in the country, however, earns only $2,000 per year.
However, “they don’t feel poor,” notes Jeff Scoggins, a general field secretary for the region. “This is normal [for them].”
Because of increasing secular influences in the country—which are seen by some as a challenge to tradition—Kazakhs are becoming responsive to the gospel.
“Muslims [in Kazakhstan] are open to listening” to the message, Hirle says. “We have very big opportunities to preach to them.”
However, Ostrovsky says, the need now is for books, in both Russian and the local language, since people in the country “love to read.”
And while large-scale evangelistic campaigns remain a challenge to arrange, Kazakhs, a health-conscious people, are very open to health seminars. Younger people in the country appreciate the chance to learn English in church-sponsored classes, Scoggins adds.
