As many of you will know we are working with two expressions of community.  The first is the house of peace or house church as expressed by Jesus in Luke 10 and the other, our friends in Central Asia, have called houses of mercy.  A house of mercy is a community where people off the street, out of prison, out of addiction, out of prostitution can live for as long as they desire.  It is not a 9 month program.  It is a community where they can live, even marry and raise a family or leave as they wish.  The only basic rule is to contribute to the community as they are able.  The healing program?  Worship and work in relationship.  

The friends in Kazakhstan wanted to have a house of mercy but could not find appropriate rental accommodation and, if they did, the owners would not rent to them for such a purpose so four years ago they rented an disused Soviet era bath house or banyan.  They told me that this was not a very nice place but it was a house of mercy for two years.  

Now to a back story!   A few years ago a Mulllah, well known in Kazakhstan,  became a follower of Jesus through reading the Koran.  He is fearless in sharing his testimony and began to lead others to become followers of Jesus.  He met our friends in Kazakhstan and loves how they are doing community.  He shared the story of the house of mercy in the banyan within his circles of influence and two secret MBB followers of Jesus blessed our team with two  large houses and two cars.  It was a joy to visit the houses and to receive hospitality in them.  Each house is home to a community of about 15 people.

In the book "Church Planting Movements",  Dave Garrison summarizes 10 characteristics of movements that multiply and 10 deadly sins that kill movement. (If you have not studied that book, please do!)  Not surprisingly one of the killers of movement is what he calls "the devils candy" which is outside money and in particular money for salaries.    We could not have purchased or rented two houses for our friends in Kazakhstan even if we had wanted to but they made the step to rent whatever they could and make a start and God provided!  One of the characteristics of all movements that multiply is that the primary resources in people and finance are in the harvest.

The photo above is the first family in a Kazakh speaking village of 100 families to become followers of Jesus.  We were honoured to share a meal with them with the young woman who led them to Jesus. 

Your brother

Steve