Our partner church in Central Asia, along with its missionaries and students, is currently navigating a profoundly challenging situation.
Recently, during a Sunday service, the apartment of the church’s missionaries was burglarized. Thieves stole a laptop, personal documents, and all of one missionary’s cash savings in U.S. dollars.
The missionaries immediately reported the crime to the police, and an investigation began. While reviewing the surveillance footage, they were shocked to recognize two individuals: Timur and Baur (names changed). These young men had previously heard the Gospel, accepted Jesus, and been part of the church’s ministry.
The next day, Baur’s mother reached out to the missionaries, seeking a meeting. She explained that Timur had coerced her son, who suffers from a mental health condition, into participating in the crime. Baur had not fully understood the gravity of his actions.
That same day, another church member, Azamat, urgently requested a meeting. His revelation was even more troubling than the burglary itself. Azamat confessed that he and Timur had repeatedly entered the home of the church’s mission leader to install listening devices and gather compromising materials.
Timur eventually admitted to being recruited by the country’s security services over a year ago. His mission was to undermine the church and its pastor.
His tasks included convincing new attendees that the church was a cult and discouraging them from participating; breaking into homes to search for U.S. dollars as evidence of alleged Western financial support; photographing Christian literature and other materials to support allegations of illegal religious activity; installing equipment to record conversations in church leader and missionary homes.
Timur shared sensitive information with security services, including personal details about every missionary and information on various mission fields. He accessed this data by secretly photographing leadership group chats.
In exchange for this espionage, Timur received a monthly stipend of $300, with bonuses for particularly valuable intelligence. Additionally, the security services financed his attendance at international conferences visited by his church leaders, further enabling his espionage activities.
The exposure of this betrayal has left the church and its leaders deeply shaken. Sensitive information about the church and its activities is now in the hands of security services, posing serious risks to the safety and continuity of their ministry.
In this difficult time, the church humbly asks for your prayers for the protection of the church’s leaders, members, and missionaries from further harm and for wisdom and resilience as they navigate this challenging season.