“Abai” and his family were so poor that they had never owned even one cow. When they became Christians life got even harder, as no one in their part of Kyrgyzstan wants to give work to converts from Islam. Desperate to support his wife and four school-age children, Abai travelled far from home, looking for work, but it was very difficult to find anyone to hire him, even for a short-term job. And being away also hindered his ministry to the group of converts he helps to pastor.
Children too happy to sleep
Then Abai was given five cows through his church, supplied by Barnabas Fund. His children were so happy they could not sleep – they spent the whole of the first night looking at their precious new animals, knowing how they would transform the family’s situation. When one of the cows turned out to be pregnant already and gave birth to a calf, the family had six cattle – praise God!
Three other convert families got cows too, and now the manure is being used by two more convert families for a biofertilizer project with red earthworms, the only such business in the region.
Dignity and self-sufficiency
What a privilege it is to help our persecuted brothers and sisters. But how wonderful when we can enable them to be economically independent, so they do not need our help any more!
Will you join with us in giving the gift of dignity, stable work and self-respect to faithful families who have suffered so much for so long, just because they love and serve the Lord Jesus?
- In Tajikistan, we are helping to provide equipment for a beauty salon to employ Christian women from a Muslim background. This is a safe and respected work environment for women in a Muslim-majority context.
- In Burundi we are helping another 36 women converts from Islam to become self-supporting through a pig-rearing business.
- In Uganda we are helping the church to train and equip 300 families of Christian refugees from South Sudan to grow vegetables to feed themselves and sell the surplus.
Your gift now can, with God’s help, transform their lives for ever.
What will you give?
£7.50 ($10; €9) could provide five tins of seeds (tomato, cabbage, okra, collard and amaranth) for one South Sudanese refugee family in Uganda
£8.50 ($11; €10) could provide a cultivation toolkit of hoe, fork hoe, rake and panga (machete or large knife) for one South Sudanese refugee family in Uganda
£15 ($19; €17) could buy two metal sheets for building the piggery in Burundi
£20 ($27; €24) could buy 10kg of nails for building the piggery in Burundi
£36 ($46; €42) could provide three lamps for the beauty salon in Tajikistan
£65 ($83; €75) could provide a steriliser for the beauty salon in Tajikistan
£200 ($270; €240) could buy a pig for the piggery in Burundi
