Aizada

This past Sunday, my team went to a village about an hour away by marshuka from where we are now. Right when we got there, we visited a clinic/center (the place where three of my team mates taught English last summer). After visiting, one of the directors brought us to a Baptist Kyrgyz church. We had a translator who was an old student of my team leader, but I was sitting behind her, so her whispered voice didn’t project to my side. I took that opportunity to just soak in the whole scene. There were roughly 30 people, all sitting in pews listening to what was going on. They would pray for each other, pray for their neighbors, pray for those who didn’t believe. They sang songs from a little yellow hymnal book, and listened to the pastor preach from the pulpit. I kept wondering about how each one of them came to know Christ. From body language, I could tell that one guy had brought another lady to church, and so maybe it’s by trying to share with our friends. For others, it didn’t make sense because there were old men without wives and old women without husbands. Then there were only a few families and children. There was even a German couple who came 6 months ago, but could almost understand everything that was being preached in the service!

Anyway, those were just details, but this was the best part of the service:

I met the sweetest 11-year old girl named Aizada. She was skinny with a light brown skin tone, freckles, and long light brown hair gathered together in a ponytail topped with a blue headband, not perfectly done but as if she had fixed her hair in the morning then went out to play shortly thereafter. She wore light blue overalls with an orange and white striped shirt underneath. Unknowingly, her shoes matched her whole outfit as they seemed to be made of some denim material accented with orange and white trims. During the service, our team sat in the second pew, and she was in the first. As we introduced ourselves to the congregation, she would look back and forth between us and the translator in an attempt to connect the delayed description with the actual person. She continued to look back at us, and I would smile at her each time. Her smile was so precious because you could tell that she was excitedly fascinated by our presence. When it was time to sing praise, she turned around and shared her hymnal with me, flipped to the correct page, and pointed at the words as we sang them. When it was time to read Scripture, she turned around again and pointed at the verses in her Bible so that I would know what we were reading. Even though we couldn’t speak the same language, she still tried to make sure that I knew what was going on.

After service, I felt so touched by her kindness that I waved her over to give her some toys that I had brought. She chose a ring and a mini watergun. She could probably buy better toys in her bazaar, but I think the fact that we gave her something made her appreciate the little gifts that much more (I think it helped that they were so colorful as well). As I was being ushered outside to catch a cab to go to the next service, she came outside and hovered around me. I asked her in Russian how old she was, and she answered “11” in English! I was so surprised, and she could tell that I was surprised since her smile grew when I reacted. The cab approached, and she opened up the door for me. I proceeded to get in the cab, but I turned around, knowing she was there, and decided to get out and give her a hug. I felt like I was going to miss her so much even though I had only known her for two hours at most! We waved goodbye to each other as the cab drove away, and that was it.

I’m not sure why I felt so connected to her after such a short time. I hope that in her future, she continues to go to church and that God will continue to cultivate her kind heart. At such a young age, she already had a heart to serve, even if it was as small as showing me where the passages were and what song to sing, but I know that if she allows God to use her, He will use her in such amazing ways!

In other news, we went to a Russian home church after this service, and I was proposed to by an Uzbek guy. He has been Christian for nine years, but his Muslim family doesn’t know. Our team prayed for him and his family after service, and I hope you can pray for him too. Oh! And don’t worry. I said no :]

Van-Kim