It was an amazing trip to Kazakhstan

By Hans-Henrik Johansen

Participants were an employee from the office, my wife Kathe and me, Hans-Henrik Johansen, who is Vice Chairman of the Board. Kathe and I paid all expenses for the trip ourselves.

Danish European Mission works in an impoverished area

For the safety of the persecuted Christians, I cannot mention their names or the name of the city. The area was incredibly poor and the city was characterized by old Soviet-era apartment buildings. The trams looked like they were made from old tanks - and they made a noise as if the wheels were square.

Image: A vulnerable girl getting help

The pride of the city was a huge steel mill. They dug up the ore at one end and steel plates came out at the other end. The good thing was the many jobs and that the excess heat was used as district heating. The bad side was that everything was polluted: the air, the water, the soil and it even crunched between your teeth. This is where we help feed the poor.

Bags of hope for hungry children

Every Saturday morning, the elderly come to church. Many of them are sick, and they get a bag of food, which includes a hot dish prepared by volunteers. They also receive a Christian testimony.

Image: Volunteers prepare the food for the children and their
familiar.

At 14:00, children, young people and primarily their mothers come. A meeting is held for the mothers, and we had the opportunity to hear how women from the church sang for the mothers. There was also a Bible lesson for the older children and a children's meeting for the little ones. The little ones sang songs such as "Seek first the kingdom of God", "My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, there is nothing impossible for Him" - songs that are also sung in Danish children's work.

The families are then given bags of food for the next week. This work has brought hope and salvation to many families in the city. We met several of the children who are now adults, who bring an amazing testimony of how Jesus has transformed their lives and the church has helped them. They are now helping the vulnerable in their city, which is a testimony of how God's blessing is not something we should keep to ourselves, but pass on to others.

Visiting messy homes

When families don't show up at church, the person in charge comes for a house visit. We visited two places; one incredibly poor, where a single mother lived with 3 children aged 6-12 years. They were happy despite a kitchen with two hotplates, a washing machine in the "living room" which was also a bedroom, with an old worn divan and two chairs. A piece of plastic served as a window cover for a window where the glass was cracked - in an area where it can get 40 degrees below zero.

Image: Family getting help, but the mother and her boyfriend are still drinking and the home is very messy.

Another family was even worse. There were 3-4 children from ½ - 5 years old. The mother and her boyfriend were so drunk that they didn't wake up even when we came to visit. One baby was sleeping, a girl of about 1 year was watching TV and the rest were running around.

It was messy and very dirty. The apartment had one room and one chamber - and we were told it could be much worse.

Social work can prevent persecution

In this city, the church is growing even though there is Christian persecution and missionary churches are persecuted. But the church that the Danish European Mission works with is so respected in the area that the municipality gives the church lists of people in the city who need its help - and turns a blind eye to the fact that it is Christians who provide the help. This does not mean that social work always prevents persecution, but our partner believes that in their city it does.