Mark Gillmore: Hello and welcome back to our Go Mission podcast.

I’m Mark Gilmore and I’m continuing our conversation with Brother Timur.

And last time we heard his personal testimony, if you didn’t get a chance to listen to that podcast, I encourage you to go back and allow God to use that in your heart.

But Brother Timur, as God had laid missions on your heart as a young man coming into that adulthood, God put before you an open door, and that kind of launched you into global work.

Could you tell us about that?

Brother Timur: Yeah.

It all started, I guess, trying to figure out where to go is always kind of a puzzle, it seems like.

And we have this idea that, well, God’s got a will for us, but it’s kind of something out there in the fog, and we’re trying to figure that out.

But if God has a perfect will, he doesn’t hide it from us.

So just getting involved, serving God where we’re at, he starts to open these doors one by one.

And I was in a class in Bible college, and I’d been looking at where to go, and I just assumed Africa.

Or I’d been to Mexico several times, had phenomenal times there.

But it just seemed like that God was leading me towards somewhere where there was less missionary activity.

And honestly, that probably goes back to even my childhood again, because after I had felt called to missions, I remember being challenged about faith and the part that faith plays.

And faith is something that we all have to have, but it’s also a gift, I believe.

As we exercise it, it becomes stronger.

And so as a child, I remember I was writing out verses on faith and putting them on three-by-five cards and taping them to my wall by my bed.

And my mom came in the room one day, and she was kind of annoyed that I was messing up the paint.

And she looked at it, and she saw that it was Bible verses, and she said, well, that’s way better than putting up a poster or something.

So she just let it go.

Absolutely.

But I remember every night going to sleep just thinking about faith and what that means.

And so as I was in Bible college, I was challenged to find a people group that was still unreached and create or think of a way of reaching them with the gospel and basically just kind of making up a story how you’re going to evangelize them and go forward.

And so this was in the early 90s, and the Soviet Union had just broke up.

I just dated myself, didn’t I?

So anyways, as I was looking at that, I like to hunt and fish, so I’m thinking Alaska is the perfect place.

And I was writing to people in Alaska and asking them, where is somewhere that needs a missionary?

And everybody kept saying Siberia.

And I would read these letters and think, no, that’s not God’s will.

They don’t know God’s will for me.

And so I would write to somebody else, and they would say the same thing.

And so finally I thought, well, I’m just not going to write to anybody anymore.

I had literally written to like five or six missionaries who all said, look at Siberia.

And Siberia was wide open at that point.

And I remember hearing the stories of thousands of people trying to get Bibles and the excitement that a little bit of freedom had come to the country.

And I didn’t want to go there.

That just wasn’t anything that seemed interesting to me at all.

But, you know, the further I was searching for God’s will, it seemed like God was throwing Russia and Siberia in my face at every turn, literally everywhere I went.

And I would open up a random newspaper, and it would just be a small-town newspaper, and there would be an article about somebody from Siberia.

And I would read that, and I’d think, how can this be?

I mean, usually their news is Sophie went to go see her grandma, and that’s pretty much it.

Now they’ve got somebody from Siberia here.

So it seemed like it was really bizarre to me.

But everywhere I went, God kept putting Siberia in front of my mind.

So as I continued to pray, seeking God’s will, I was keeping a prayer journal.

And as I was praying one day, I realized that a significant amount of time, actually about an hour had passed.

And I had been praying for nothing other than people that I had never met and never seen who were dying and going to hell in Siberia.

And that absolutely shocked me that somehow God had so completely changed my heart and my thought patterns.

And so I went back into my prayer journal and I realized that I had been praying like this for over a month.

And I didn’t even realize it.

So God had taken me from, I don’t even want to think about Russia and Siberia, to hours in prayer weeping for the lost souls of those in Siberia.

And I didn’t even realize it had taken place in my own heart. and when I saw that I thought wow this is incredible and we shouldn’t be surprised but I always am and so I thought if God has so completely changed my heart it’s time for me to pick up and go to Siberia to see why God has laid this on my heart so much so I went and took a trip to Petropavlos Kamchatsky That’s just northeast of Japan, the peninsula there.

And while I was there, the plan was that I was going to stay for three months.

And I was with three other missionary families, and we were doing a lot of street evangelism.

They knew that their time was limited.

They were being harassed and told that they were going to be expelled from there.

And I went and I thought, well, I’m going to help them out as long as I can.

And Lord willing, I’ll be there for three months and really get this burden off my back so I can focus on somewhere else.

And I went and the first couple of days I was in like this 10 by 10 room, maybe not even that big.

It’s a little tiny room in a city of 700,000 people.

And I didn’t speak the language.

I didn’t know anybody, including the missionaries I went to serve with.

And I was miserable.

And we had a particularly miserable day out on the streets where it seemed like everybody was just rude and nasty.

And I came back to my room, and I was uncomfortable there.

And I looked out the window, and I thought, well, I’m glad this is over with.

No question in my mind, God does not want me here because I don’t feel comfortable.

As I was looking out the window, there were some little boys.

They were between 6, 10 years old, or about 5 of them.

And they came walking along and they stopped in front of a garage that was out in front of my window.

And they took up some spray paint and they painted in English letters lied to.

And then they put the paint cans down and sat down, started lighting cigarettes and drinking vodka.

And I looked out there and I thought lied to.

And here are these young boys drinking vodka and smoking cigarettes.

And I thought, wow, they’ve been lied to by 80 years of the Soviet Union, but they’ve been lied to for all eternity by Satan.

And who is going to tell them the truth?

And when I looked at that and I had these thoughts, I just fell to my knees just weeping for these young boys who had never heard the truth.

And I confess my sin to God. forgive me, Lord, that I would put my comfort in front of, on a higher plane than any care for those who are going to die and go to a Christless eternity.

And I asked God to just change my heart and to bring me back regardless if I would ever be comfortable or not, that I would continue to serve him wherever he put me.

And I went out that next morning with a new fervor, and I was being attacked by dogs.

I was being bullied and pushed around by angry Russians.

But you know what?

I was completely joyful to be there, to be able to have the chance to try to get the gospel into somebody’s hands.

And I was arrested and deported two days later, and that was the first of my long list of deportations in life and the first of my arrests that many came afterwards.

But when I was being deported, one of the border guards looked at me and he laughed and he said, well, your pathetic little dreams of being a missionary are over.

You’ll never be able to come back now.

And that’s probably what I needed to hear.

I just turned and looked at him and said, guess what?

I’m coming back.

And maybe it was because, you know, kind of like don’t walk on the grass.

Maybe it was the rebellion But I said, I will be back.

And I went home, came back to America, and it was a new fervor just burning within me that I had to make it back and watch God work.

And those verses of faith that I had started to learn were, I would have to say, pivotal.

And when I finally took off for Siberia on a more permanent basis, I remember leaving.

And I had a scrap of paper with an address written on it where I could rent a room.

And I didn’t know the language.

I didn’t know anybody in Siberia.

And I had applied to a university to be able to study the Russian language there.

And they had accepted me.

And then I found this random room for rent.

So that was what I had.

And I got the visa support from the university and I took off.

And as I’m flying towards Siberia, it seemed like Satan just began to hit me.

And the first thing was, you just left your parents.

You may never see them again.

And that was difficult, but I always knew that they would come sooner or later.

So that wasn’t that big of a struggle.

But as I was getting closer to Russia, I started to think, and Satan started to throw all these doubts at me.

Where are you going?

How are you going to survive?

You don’t even speak the language.

And so I was thinking about these things, and honestly, I thought, well, God’s got it under control.

And then I landed in Vladivostok, and here I was in a foreign city.

It was January, and everyone’s wearing black, and there’s coal smoke everywhere.

I’m thinking, wow, in these 10 minutes, I’m going to end up with black lung.

It’s so thick.

But as I was standing there in this airport thinking, now what do I do?

I’m not even in the right city.

How do I get to where I need to go?

I’ve got to get to a different city that’s at least a two-hour flight yet.

And I was standing there, and this man came up and tapped me on the shoulder.

And I turned around and looked, and this man said in a very thick Russian accent, God sent me to the airport today to help somebody.

And by the look on your face, I think it’s you.

Wow.

And so here’s a shot of faith.

You know, every time our faith wanes, God gives us a way of escape.

And he just, he added some faith to me.

And I said, yeah, I’ve got to get to Khabarovsk, but I don’t even know how to get there.

And he said, well, come with me.

He took me and he bought me a train ticket to go to Khabarovsk.

Now, I had never even been near a train other than in a car waiting for it to get out of my way.

And so I don’t know anything about trains.

I got on this train and I’m headed for Khabarovsk.

And I’m in my own little room on this train.

And everything seems fine and wonderful.

But all of a sudden this darkness just kind of enveloped me.

And I have never felt darkness like this before.

And it felt like it was kind of just draining all the oxygen even out of the room.

And I was laying there thinking, now what?

I don’t know the language.

I don’t know where I’m going.

I’m all alone. and then it just hits me that no i’m not all alone god promises holy spirit and and he has all authority that he has given to us to go and to take the gospel to every creature and so i thought i’ve got to get past this somehow how do i do this and so i started to pray and cry out to god saying lord you are you are more powerful than whatever influence is trying to stop me and hinder me from going, I ask that you would lift this darkness.

And as I was praying, it was literally like that dark fog just lifted from the room, and I had complete peace.

And I realized this is a spiritual battle.

Satan is trying to stop me every step of the way.

He tried to stop me as a teenager.

He tried to stop me even as a young child.

And looking back, how many things that he threw in my path to try to trip me up, to keep me from this moment where God had something in store for me.

And I made it to the end of the train ride.

I didn’t even know where to get off the train.

I kept trying to get off the train and the conductor kept throwing me back on.

And I thought, you know what?

I only paid to one point.

She’s probably not going to let me go any farther.

So I settled down.

But I finally got to where I was going and the conductor came and threw me off the train.

And I’m standing there in the train station, same scenario.

Everything’s dark, black, freezing cold.

And as I’m standing there, I just began to pray.

I said, God, I don’t know where to go.

I don’t know how to find this address.

I can’t even read this address.

And as I was standing there, I heard a young lady yelling out, Timur, Timur.

And as I was standing there, I thought, well, there’s probably other Timurs around here.

So I started to look around and she came walking up towards me and she said, I’ve been waiting for you all day.

And I said, what?

Nobody knows I’m coming here.

She said, no.

She said, but there’s a gal that’s connected to your mission board in America.

She lives in Kiev, Ukraine, and her mother lives in this city.

And she told her mother that there’s a Timur coming on the train today that I needed to meet to help him find this room. and I had no idea and uh you know God had it all under control and so uh she showed me where to where I was going and it turned out that uh this room was actually her girlfriend’s mother who had just come to Christ and so her brother and her mother were still living there they rented me a room and it was just two blocks away from the university wow and uh God gave me uh you know Just step by step, he continued to lead.

I went to the university the next day, and I couldn’t get in.

They kept throwing me out, and I would walk up to the door, and I’m trying to tell them that I’m a student, and the security was throwing me back outside of the university.

It was really funny, but it was kind of frustrating.

And so finally I thought, well, I’m going to find a way in there if they like it or not because I’ve got to find this faculty that I’m supposed to be studying in.

They don’t understand me, but somebody in there must. and so I went around the building and I snuck through a window and I ended up in the kitchen and the uh uh the kitchen workers they were looking at me they said what are you doing and and well I assume that’s what they said they were speaking Russian and one of them ran off to the English faculty and they brought back a uh a couple of English students and they looked at me and they started laughing they said why did you come through the window I said because they wouldn’t let me through the door.

Well, as we were talking, I got my point across to them that I’m a new student there.

And they took me to the faculty and we got everything organized.

I got my student ID.

And praise God, I didn’t have any more issues coming and going from the school.

Mark Gillmore: Oh, that.

Well.

Brother Timur: But that was just the beginning.

And from there, here I was in a class trying to study the Russian language.

I had no knowledge of the Russian language.

I had no knowledge of the alphabet.

And all the other students were also foreign students, Japanese, Chinese, Koreans.

And I was the only American.

And I didn’t understand anything.

They were giving me a book and asking me to read it.

I couldn’t even figure out the first letter, let alone read the book.

The rest of them had all studied for a year and a half in their own countries before they went there.

And so here I was, the idiot American.

And I went home kind of discouraged that night, but I figured, well, that’s the way it’s going to be.

Well, almost, well, yeah, three weeks into it, I realized I’m getting nowhere.

And I had been spending eight, 10 hours a day studying the Russian language.

And finally, I just thought, you know what, I have always, my entire life, I’ve had problems, not only with the English language, but with memorizing things.

And so I thought, I’m just going to back off the study for everything but maybe two hours a day and spend the rest of my time in memorizing God’s Word.

I thought if I’m putting a priority on the things of God and on His Word, maybe He’ll bless my memory and I’ll be able to remember the things that I’m studying in the Russian language.

And so I started to do that.

And by three months’ time, I had read through the Bible six times.

And apart from that, I started to understand everything that was going on around me.

And three months into my language study, it was like a light switch was flipped on.

And I understood everything.

I could answer most things.

And God gave me a gift that I had never expected to have.

I failed English three times.

And so, you know, praise God.

God is, he’s greater than languages.

But just praise the Lord for the way that he works and the way that he continues to grow our faith.

Mark Gillmore: Yes.

Well, I think that great encouragement that you kind of referenced there at the end of the Great Commission, Lo, I am with you, is the greatest encouragement we could ever experience.

Yes.

And he certainly tests that and makes things apparently more difficult until we need him more.

And it’s all working out for our good and for his glory.

Brother Timur: It’s beautiful because when we are weak, he is strong.

And there’s no question, this isn’t me, this is God in me.

And that makes all the difference.

Mark Gillmore: And missions is a spiritual battle as you experience the darkness there.

And yet God delivered from that.

And I think a great reminder, too, of the perseverance of faith, of that going through these difficulties, but then putting the Lord first, as you’ve indicated, and seeing him deliver supernaturally.

It’s all about his glory.

Well, this is a fantastic introduction to a life on mission with our brother Timur, and I trust it’s been an encouragement to you.

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.