Kuktepa

A church discovery team tells their story...

We were high up in the Darr Mountains of Central Asia searching for Kuktepa, the source of miraculous healing waters. This sparkling water flowed freely from an artesian well and for centuries has been used to heal all kinds of ailments. The people of Kuktepa have never heard the gospel, and that, not the miraculous waters, was why we were searching for this particular village.

This Discovery team had volunteers from First Baptist Church of West Monroe, La and Woodlawn Baptist Church of Rayville, La. These two churches have partnered with StoryRunners and Extreme Missionary Adventures (XMA) . They have agreed to serve as virtual strategy coordinators for two unreached people groups in Central Asia. In just a few days, their short-term Discovery teams would lay the foundation for a pair of two-year storying projects that would bring the gospel to oral people groups with little or no access to the message.

StoryRunners partners with short-term mission agencies like XMA that are willing to lead church teams on Discovery trips. These two churches had accepted responsibility for initiating church planting movements within these unreached people groups.

Once during a stop at a roadside snack stand for tea and a break from the vertebrae-crushing, nausea-inducing mountain roads, Latif, a village elder, told the team, "Mountains can't go to other mountains, but people can go to other people." While focusing on our charge to take the gospel to this tribe, we were oblivious to the real adventure that lay ahead.

A couple of hours and 10 miles later we arrived at the end of our directions and the end of the road but there was no Kuktepa in sight. Darkness had already fallen so we got out of the van for a better look. We thought maybe we could spot a foot trail through the scrub brush-covered mountainside or maybe light from a fire or lantern in the distance. But the only things we found were a fox running for cover and a few piles of stones, possibly cairns left by some unknown travelers commemorating some unknown events. These cairns could have been recently constructed or they may have been a thousand years old. In these mountains everything takes on timelessness. Life is still lived much as it was when Christ walked the earth.

Sife, our daredevil driver, managed to get the truck turned around on the road that was only 5 feet wider than the truck was long. Off we went, checking for a turnoff we might have missed in the dark. We found one but it was a dead-end also. After another hair-raising turnaround, we found another road, but it proved fruitless as well. Several times we spotted lights down in the valley below but it was hard to tell if they were our elusive Kuktepa or just some nomadic shepherd’s campfire. Suddenly, several lights flashed from the brush just a hundred feet or so from our truck. My first thought was Bandits--and no way to quickly turn around.

It turned out to be shepherds who had been watching us go back and forth on the mountain and who decided to see if they could help us. They told us we were in the right place the first time we stopped, but the "miraculous healing waters" were actually found to be poisonous, so the village was forced to relocate. They gave directions to the new village location, but told us it would be better not to go there that late at night. They invited us to stay the night with them. After a little discussion we decided it was as good a place as any to camp and took them up on their offer.

Within five minutes our new friends-- Zubayol, Safar, Habib and Hushmat-- had a cook fire going and were slaughtering a young goat for their guests. We added some fresh bread, melons and other items we had brought with us from town and soon we were all sitting cross-legged around a cloth spread on the ground enjoying a bountiful meal.

It was a cool, crystal-clear, moonless night with a billion stars reflecting off the snowcapped peaks all around us. Our camp was at almost 10,000 feet above sea level making the Milky Way look close enough to reach out and touch. Jerry, one of our Discovery team members, explained through our interpreter how this experience reminded him of a story he knew and asked if our new friends would like to hear it. They readily agreed, saying they loved to hear and tell stories.

Jerry then told how one day long ago two angels visited Abraham as he tended his flocks in the mountains. Just as our hosts for the night had invited us to stay with them, Abraham had insisted that these angels stay with him. Jerry told how Abraham discovered that the angels were on their way to visit the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and that God intended to destroy these cities. He went on to tell how Abraham bargained with God for the righteous people of the towns.

This story prompted questions from our hosts about who was righteous in God’s sight and how could anyone be righteous. We did not realize until then that Ramadan had begun earlier that week. These shepherds felt that since they had to tend to their flocks and could not observe strict Ramadan guidelines they could never be considered righteous. We stayed up past midnight discussing God with our new friends. The next morning we talked more over a breakfast of leftover goat and fixings.

It was obvious that these issues were very important to our new friends and that they took our discussions seriously. Much like our search for the village of Kuktepa, it is usually a long, tortuous path with many detours for a lifelong Muslim to come to the Lord. Zubayol, Safar, Habib and Hushmat have started down that path. Although at the time we thought we were lost, we were right where God intended for us to be. The seed of God’s Word has been planted in these men’s hearts through the telling of true stories, the manner in which they are accustomed to learning important facts. Their hearts are good soil, and we pray there will be a harvest from our planting. Perhaps it will be tenfold, a hundredfold or possibly even a thousandfold.

One thing is for certain: These four men would not have heard the truth of God’s Word if someone had not gone to tell them! There are literally millions more like them waiting for someone to come tell them the truth. Will you be the one to share the good news with one of the unreached people groups of our world?