Mark Gillmore: Hello, I’m Mark Gilmore, welcoming you to our Go Mission podcast.

It certainly has been a blessing to be conversing with Brother Timur and hearing just how God has prepared him as a vessel called to global mission work.

I know that, Brother Timur, let me welcome you once again.

Good to have you.

Thanks.

It’s great to be here.

It’s a joy to hear just how God has taught you about himself and how he works in our world.

I really connected with you in recent couple of years regarding what God is doing in Central Asia.

And we’ve heard your story of how God started you into missions.

Could you kind of just summarize how did God connect you into the realm, the countries of Central Asia?

And then just what we’d love to do is just get a feel for what is God doing in that region of the world.

Brother Timur: All right, yeah.

When I was serving in Siberia, it was an interesting place, lots of stories there.

But one of the important marks on my journey was that I had led a Uzbek man to faith in Jesus Christ.

This man was formerly Muslim, and he is from the country of Uzbekistan.

And so after he had trusted Christ as Savior and began to grow, he began to ask me to take the gospel to his lost family back in Uzbekistan.

And I’d been looking at ways to do that, and I was eventually thrown out of Siberia.

Actually, I was thrown out quite a few times.

But one of the last times that I was expelled from the country, my wife and I, we went to Uzbekistan.

We had already made some contacts with an Uzbek pastor there, and he was under a lot of persecution at that point.

But when we were talking with them, they said that they had a need of Bibles.

And so we ended up smuggling some Bibles into the country, and it’s just amazing how God works even on that situation.

As we were going in, we got stopped at the border crossing.

We were coming in from Turkmenistan.

Actually, we had just smuggled the first copies of the Pentateuch into the country.

We walked from Turkmenistan into Uzbekistan.

As we were there on that border, the border guards started digging through our bags.

My bags had the Bibles in them. and my wife’s bag had some medication, not even medication, it was vitamins.

And she was going through first, and they were digging through hers, and they were accusing us of being drug smugglers, and we said, that’s vitamin C’s.

They were looking at that and hemming and hawing, and then finally they started digging into my bags.

And they picked up my personal Bible and started thumbing through it, and some hunting pictures fell out of the Bible.

And the guy looked at those, and he said, oh, wow, you like to hunt?

I said, yeah, I do.

And he’s looking at the deer that I had in this picture, and he completely forgot about the bag because we started talking hunting stories.

And at this point, I already had mastery of the Russian language.

So we’re speaking Russian.

It’s a second language there in most of Central Asia.

He put everything back in the bag and wished me a wonderful trip.

Well, we made it in, and we had a phenomenal time just serving the Lord there in Central Asia.

But we realized that we wouldn’t be able to stay there.

It’s kind of interesting.

It was very difficult to get there, and then it was almost impossible to leave.

They were arresting my wife, saying that she was there illegally, even though everything was completely legal.

And we couldn’t stay, but we couldn’t go.

So we were kind of stuck.

We finally were able to get freed up.

And we realized that it was right about that same period of time over 300 missionaries were being generally purged and deported and sent out of Uzbekistan.

We were also in Turkmenistan.

We were thinking that maybe that would be a place that we could stay, and we realized that that was going to be impossible as well.

And the only way to have been able to stay there would be a job with the American embassy.

They denied me.

I had applied, and they denied me.

And a job with the UN, I looked at that and really didn’t want anything to do with them.

And a job with John Deere, and they rejected me.

So I thought, well, God’s got better plans.

And so on our way out, we stopped in Istanbul, Turkey, and we realized that there were close to 70,000 illegal immigrants from Turkmenistan living and working in Istanbul, Turkey.

And so we decided that I needed to come back and try to take a trip there.

And we went back to leave my wife in Ukraine, and I went to Turkmenistan with three brothers from the country of Turkmenistan.

Let me take a step back because when we were thrown out of Siberia permanently, we were praying about going.

We realized that it wasn’t going to be an option to go to Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan was on our hearts.

But the reason it was on our hearts was we were at a conference from our mission board, and there were several Turkmen believers who were there.

And two of them had been expelled from their own country because of the gospel.

They couldn’t return.

And a third was a student.

And as I was talking with them, in fact, they were sharing their testimony, at the conference, and one of the men just began to weep.

He said, would you pray that in this conference God would raise up somebody to go in our place?

We can’t go back to reach our own people.

But they said, somebody here can.

And my wife and I had only been married for about six months at that point, and I just heard their testimonies, how they had been beaten, electrocuted.

Their own government had put bags over the heads of their children and were threatening to shoot their children if they didn’t reject their faith in Jesus Christ.

And it was just step by step.

It was just awful.

And as he was asking and putting out that plea that God would call somebody to his people from that conference, I just had this feeling.

I thought, we’ve got to go.

And I looked at my wife and I thought, how am I going to explain this to her?

We’ve only been married for six months.

I’ve been arrested and jailed three times in Siberia.

And now we’ve been expelled twice from Siberia since we’ve been married.

And now I want to go to where they electrocute people.

I didn’t know what to do.

And I was sitting there and my wife jabbed me in the ribs and she said, you want to go there, don’t you?

I said, yes, I do.

And she said, so do I.

Here’s the great thing is that when God works, he works not only in the husband, he works in the wife as well.

And when I saw that, I thought, praise God.

Even before this, there was no question that God had given me the wife that I needed.

But here was another very obvious sign that it was exactly who God had prepared for me.

And so we went, and we realized we couldn’t stay there.

So I had left her in Ukraine, and I went with these three men who couldn’t return to their own country. we went together to the country of Turkey and into Istanbul, and I only had three days.

And I thought, what can you accomplish in three days on a missions trip?

I was thinking, you know, to see a Muslim come to Christ, it’s going to be years before I see a Muslim come to Christ.

And we went on this three-day trip together with these men from Turkmenistan, and our idea was to walk along the street and watch for faces, kind of practice face control.

And when we saw a Central Asian face, we would stop them, engage them in conversation.

And so we did, and we started finding Turkmen all over the streets of Istanbul.

Very neat.

And so we started to talk to them, and we said, we want to have a Turkmen day.

We’ll do this on Saturday, and if you give us a phone number, we’ll call you and come and just be with us on this Saturday to celebrate our country.

And so I didn’t understand Central Asian culture at this point, but I knew that they loved hospitality and I knew that they love stories and I knew that they love tea.

And so these men said, if we can find an empty office building, rent it for the weekend if it’s possible.

And we’ll buy a carpet, throw it on the floor, a teapot and some tea and some cups.

And they said, that’s all we need.

And so we did.

We found an office, and we met there.

And as that day, that Turkmen day came, they all showed up.

And we had 20, maybe, yeah, probably about 20, maybe 30 Turkmen show up.

And so we were sitting there, and one of these Turkmen brethren, they said, I want to share a story with you.

Everyone was sitting around sharing stories, and one of them said, I’d like to share a story with you.

And he started to talk about weddings.

I didn’t realize that their culture, they absolutely love weddings.

They live and die to see how many weddings they can be involved in and go to.

And I’m the opposite.

I try to escape every wedding I can.

So they’re talking about these weddings, and they’re just eating it up.

And he said, now, there was a wedding feast, and the king sent people out.

He sent out his servants to go and invite people from his kingdom. to the feast of his son.

And as he was sharing this story straight out of Scripture, he was spinning it in a way that only a Turkman could.

And he was talking about the beauty and about the music and the decorations and the clothing and all of these things, and they were just eating out of his hands, listening about the story of this wedding feast.

And he said as they were inviting everybody, everyone started to back out and say, no, we’re busy, we’ve got things to do, we can’t come.

And he said, can you imagine the shame?

Now, this region of the world operates by shame and honor.

He said, can you imagine the shame that they just put on this king who invited them to such a beautiful, wonderful event?

And they’re all, no, how could that be?

He said, but wait.

And he sent out his servants again to the poor, the lame, the maimed, the unwanted and they responded and they came now these Turkmen when they were sitting there they heard this and they said that’s us they said out of all of Central Asia this is us and particularly the group that they had amassed were from a region of the country that the rest of the country despises and they said this is exactly us they said we understand this story and he continued and he He was talking about how you were supposed to be dressed and how the guests were showing up, and there was one dressed in the improper attire.

And one Turkmen lady stood to her feet, and she was weeping, and she said, that’s me.

Now, he had not even drawn the net on the spiritual side of the story yet.

She said, that’s me.

She said, I can’t stand in front of a holy God because I’m dressed in the filthiness of my own sins.

Now, there had been hours and hours and months of prayer leading up to this, Mark.

And this is where the battles are won and lost, is on our knees.

They’re won when we’re on our knees.

They’re lost when we aren’t.

And she stood up and she said, that’s me.

What do I need to do to be saved?

Now, he hadn’t finished his message, and she prayed to trust Jesus Christ as Savior.

Before he was finished with that message, there were five Turkmen Muslims who had trusted Jesus Christ as Savior.

And at the end of that time, they were begging us.

They said, let’s meet again tomorrow.

We said, we can’t.

We’re flying out at 10 in the morning.

They said, we’ll be here at 5.

And so 5 in the morning, we met again, and some others came.

And two more trusted Christ as Savior that morning.

I flew back to pick up my wife.

I said, let’s pack our bags, and in two weeks’ time, we’re moving to Istanbul.

And so as we were looking towards this, God just continued to open these doors.

And when we’re working with Central Asians, the connections throughout Central Asia just continue to open up.

Everything works on network.

It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

And the more people you know, the wider it just continues to open, which brings us to today where we’re involved in all of these countries in Central Asia.

Mark Gillmore: And God’s giving you opportunities even with some of the just the horrible tragedy that happened in Afghanistan as the U.S. pulled out of there.

Any encouraging word on that angle?

Brother Timur: Yes, absolutely.

Over the years, we began to meet Afghanis.

Some of them were refugees.

Others were not.

Some were very rich.

In fact, you go to the Grand Bazaar in Turkey, and the majority of those rich merchants are Afghani Turkmen.

And so I had been working with them for the years in Istanbul.

But from there, I started to receive a call from a man that kept asking me to go to Tajikistan.

And he said, I have three Afghani men who have been fasting and praying for two and a half years that God would send a missionary.

And this call from him actually was throughout all those two and a half years.

I just didn’t have time to physically go.

And I was trying to find somebody to send.

And this comes right back to, you know, we need laborers.

It’s not in vain that Jesus said, Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth laborers into his harvest field because we are seriously shorthanded.

And so I was trying to find somebody to send.

I couldn’t find anybody to go.

Finally, I was able to go.

And I went, and I was there for two weeks.

And in those two weeks, it was very interesting.

I met one of the men.

He said, Come with me.

I want to take you for a walk.

And so I thought, Well, that’s kind of strange, but sure, let’s go.

We started walking through the city of Afghani refugees, and we were talking and looking, and we got back to his apartment, and he said, what did you see?

I said, I saw thousands of Afghani men sitting around, growing out their beards, dreaming of the next jihad and reading the Quran.

He said, that’s exactly what happens in this city.

He said, something has to stop that cycle.

He said, as it stands now, everything’s just going to be moved to a Western country.

He said, the only thing that I can see that is ever going to change my people or change the world is Jesus Christ.

And I said, you’re absolutely right.

And literally, as I was walking through that park, all I could think of is sheep scattered abroad, not having a shepherd.

We went back to his apartment and we prayed.

And I asked him, I said, how do you think you can reach these men?

And he said, I’ve been praying and fasting.

And I said, God has to have shown you something by now.

And he said, for the last six months, I realized that if I’m not reaching my people, nobody will.

And he said, I thought that maybe I can use soccer to reach my people.

And I said, that’s a great idea.

And so we started talking about that.

And I asked him what he had.

And he had a soccer ball that the bladder was sticking out of, and he had a little whiteboard drawn up into a soccer field, and that was it.

And I said, well, it’s kind of a rough beginning, but I guess it has to start somewhere.

And so as we were talking, he said, I’ve got 25 guys that I’ve been calling together to play.

He said, we’re just kind of, we don’t have a ball.

And so I said, let’s go buy some soccer balls.

So we did, and I went bankrupt after buying five soccer balls.

It’s crazy.

It shouldn’t cost that much.

So anyways, we went back and he called these men together and he said, there are people in America who love you.

And these Afghanis started to laugh.

These are all prime jihadist age Afghanis, 16 to 32 years of age, these men.

And they said, nobody in America loves us.

And he said, that’s where you’re wrong.

They love you because they love their Savior, Jesus Christ, who died for you.

You are eternally valuable to your creator. and Jesus Christ wants to bring you into a relationship, not a religion.

He wants you to have a relationship with him.

And these men kind of settled down.

He said, here is a symbol of their love.

And he dumped out these five soccer balls and these guys just went crazy.

And they started kicking them around and they divided into teams.

And I looked and they were playing barefoot soccer.

Now, who does that?

I said, why are they barefoot?

He said, they don’t have any shoes.

And I thought soccer shoes.

And I looked over by the fence.

No, they didn’t have any shoes.

And so I said, let’s call them together.

And I was broke.

I had no money.

And I said, let’s call them together.

I am going to put my God to the challenge, and I want them to see it.

So they came together, and I said, let’s get their shoe sizes, and I’m going to tell them that I went bankrupt buying these five soccer balls.

I have no more money for this trip.

I can’t even buy food at this point.

And so we told them, we showed them, and I said, right now I’m going to put my God to the challenge because he answers prayer.

Now, they all pray five times a day, and yet they have no hope of eternal salvation.

You ask any Muslim if he’s honest, if he’s going to heaven, his answer is going to be inshallah, and that literally means nothing.

It means if Allah wills, and they know that it means nothing. because since the time that they’re born, they’re hearing these words coming from their parents.

Can we go to the zoo today?

Inshallah.

It’s not going to happen.

Can we go and play?

Can we go to the park?

Inshallah.

It’s not going to happen.

So it’s a phrase that they use all the time, but deep down, it means nothing to them.

And so they have no hope.

And so I said, I serve a God who answers prayer and there is hope in him.

And a hope is not something that stands on what I do or who I am it stands on his eternal name that does not change because his word is eternal he defends the honor of his name and so he doesn’t abrogate his word he doesn’t abrogate who he is God is eternally the same and I said I’m going to pray right now in the name of Jesus Christ that he would help me find some funds to come back this time tomorrow with 25 pairs of shoes and so we prayed and they looked and they said we’ll see you tomorrow this is interesting we we left and uh i didn’t know what to do i didn’t know uh how to find any funds and uh i had tried several atm machines that i found in town and none of them had worked and as i was praying we we said we heard that there’s one other atm machine in in the city and so we went there and guess what it worked uh great missionary prayer helped me to find an atm machine and help the uh you know help it to not steal my card and not and not rob my account blind so so uh i was able to to uh get the funds and uh we went out we bought 25 pairs of shoes that next evening we came back and uh we brought those men together he said remember there are people in america who love you but their love is just a symbol of their Savior’s love for you because your souls are eternally valuable to God.

He said, here is a symbol.

Remember we prayed in the name of Jesus Christ, and here is the answer to our prayers.

And we dumped out those 25 pairs of shoes on that field.

These men fell to their knees, clutching these shoes to their chest and began to weep.

And they said, nobody has ever loved us like this.

The love of Jesus Christ is what draws us.

And we do not know love until we have experienced the love of Jesus Christ in salvation.

And as they put these shoes on, they started to run around and jump like little children.

And then they stopped and they came back and they said, you said this was a gift from your father, God.

How could he be a father?

And so I said, let’s listen.

They said, please tell us more about this Jesus.

I preached to him for an hour that night.

Two other men that were with me preached for two more hours.

And that night, six Afghanis trusted Jesus Christ as Savior.

And that started the work of our Afghani refugee ministry.

And we have well over 300 believers today.

And it just continues to grow almost on a daily basis.

More Afghanis are coming to faith in Christ.

Mark Gillmore: And you’ve got scenarios in which you’re training them, teaching the Word of God.

Brother Timur: We are currently 42 students in our Bible Institute.

Mark Gillmore: Well, this is so faith-building and encouraging.

Just as we conclude here, you’ve already touched on it, but how can young people pray for this region of the world?

How can they just, and how can anyone who’d be burdened to join in the prayer?

Brother Timur: Tremendous question.

And pray that God would work in your heart, that God would send you.

And it doesn’t have to be Afghanistan.

There are all kinds of empty holes in the world where people are crying out, looking for truth, looking for hope.

Don’t count yourselves out.

God can use what you have in hand.

And we look at Moses, and he’s confronted by God, and he says, what’s in your hand?

And he’s holding a staff.

He said, throw it on the ground, and it became a serpent.

And you realize this isn’t about Moses.

This is about Moses’ God.

This isn’t about you.

This is about God.

And when we come to God with nothing, he takes that nothing and says, watch this.

And this is literally the story that I want to bring across to you is I have nothing.

I bring nothing.

And God says, watch me work.

This is where God delights in showing himself strong in the face of weakness.

So pray that God would send you.

Pray that God would lead you to a people group who has not heard the gospel.

There are places all over the world.

Pray that you would walk with him, that you would stay true to him, that you wouldn’t fall for the attacks of Satan that would disqualify you from service.

Pray that you would surround yourself with godly friends, that as you gather together with godly friends your age, start praying together for these regions.

Pray that God would put together a team.

Pray that he would send you as a team out to reach these places in the world because God can do that, and he wants to do that.

He is searching for heroes today, heroes of the faith.

And I truly believe that when we are willing, God will take us and send us into places to do things that we had never imagined and never dreamed of.

Pray, too, for these works, for the safety.

There is persecution there, but yet God uses that persecution, and it’s a part of his will to further the growth of the church, and we’re witnessing that on a firsthand basis.

Mark Gillmore: Well, it’s a joy to just spend time with you and to hear that call for more laborers.

And I think, where can we get more people like you?

Where can we find men like you and getting to know you?

You just came from small-town America.

Brother Timur: Yeah.

Mark Gillmore: You came from an incredibly ordinary place.

You had the privilege, obviously, of godly parents.

But it’s not extraordinary people God needs.

Brother Timur: That’s right.

Mark Gillmore: He just needs ordinary people.

And God will do the extraordinary things.

And I’m thinking, wow, where do we get more Brother Timors from?

They’re the ones listening to this podcast.

They’re the ordinary people who feel I’m from small-town America.

I can shoot a gun.

I can ride a bike.

But that life, surrender to the Lord, becomes extraordinary. and the things that we can experience in the stories that you’ve shared they just came because you obeyed you surrendered you went and you’re not an extraordinary person God’s the extraordinary one we’re all very ordinary absolutely if God will like like I’m just thinking you you know you show up what am I going to do for three days on a missions trip you know you didn’t have it all figured out but god scripted it out and seven souls came to christ god did a miracle and and those kinds of steps of faith are in front of all of us um if we’ll just surrender and obey and that’s the burden of this podcast young people and i just uh couldn’t say it any better than what brother timor has said that the world is full of open doors and god wants you to step into one and I pray that you will.

So remember the only way to stay at peace in a world of turmoil and uncertainty is to stay on mission with Jesus in his Go Mission.