Kim abrams*, serving in Asia, talks to Janice van eck about her twelve years reaching out to the U people, (ad)ventures, answered prayer and the particular challenges of this people group.
Who is your sending church?
KA Riverside Baptist Church, Windsor ON.
JV What type of work are you engaged in right now?
KA The main goal of our organization is to be involved in church planting among unreached people groups. For me, this currently looks much like your life at home. I work a 9 to 5 job at a baby food factory that my teammates and I have, by the grace of the Lord, started from scratch. I spend time talking to the ladies at work and neighbours in my building about the good news of Jesus. I try to use every opportunity to share a story from the Word, or a why the Lord is working in my own life. Through these natural daily relationships we invite people to study the Word with us. Since most of the people in my area are Muslim, it can seem very slow with little positive response to the good news. But, even in discouraging times, our Father is faithful and often brings someone across my path in whose life a seed has already been planted. In our area, there is are no local churches that we can serve in or invite our neighbours to come to a service with us…it is all done in the context of relationship. That is why the baby food factory and the natural connection it gives us to our workmates is so important. We have the responsibility to be in their life daily, demonstrating and speaking the truth of the gospel even as we mop the floors.
JV You’ve been studying and learning U for some time. How are you managing conversing?
KA Even after all this time, it is amazing how frustrating conversation can be. When I lived in the provincial capital, I felt like I was doing relatively well, hanging out with groups of young, college-educated professionals and joining in their conversation. Since moving two years ago, I have found the people in my new area have a different lilt to their speech patterns, it is not a dialect, just a different sing-song to their voice. Also, the ladies we hired at the factory are farmers and I thought their conversation would be simpler, but I am totally lost when they talk rapidly to each other. Thankfully, they seem to understand me! They not only respond to commands at work but they also understand the stories I share from the Word.
JV What is the makeup of your team?
KA I am in a very unique team situation. In the part of the province where I live, it is hard for expats to get Visas, therefore there are only three families and two singles living in our city/county reaching out. We are from three different countries, five different sending organizations and different backgrounds! I have one teammate who is a nurse, another who wanted to be a marine biologist, one who was a wedding photographer and another who was a professional opera singer. We all have decided to put aside these differences and work together in our area with a joint passion to see God’s name glorified among the U people.
JV Explain some of the ventures you’ve been involved with over the years?
KA I spent my first five years overseas as a language student at the local university. In that time I had to study two very diverse languages.
Next, I worked for a handicraft exporter that sold carpets, copper pots, woven baskets and other handmade U items online as a way to promote central Asian culture. During that year, the government shut down Internet access due to unrest and violence in our area and the company was forced to close.
For a few years, my roommate and I ran our own business—a translation and consulting company. During this time I often took church groups on tours of our province, giving them a vision for the area and ways they could better pray for the spread of the gospel. Officially I was their interpreter, helping them buy bus and train tickets, arranging hotels and helping them negotiate prices at the bazaar. Our province is very vast and taking bus trips often means you’re stuck in your seat for more than twenty hours. During these long hours bumping over desert highways, God provided many opportunies to share the gospel with my seatmates and I would leave them with audio copies of the Word. I met many people who were open to the gospel, but because we were travelling, I didn’t have a way to follow up with them. There was one time that, as only he can do, God arranged for me to sit beside the same lady I had sat beside two years earlier! God in his perfect plan arranged for us to be together again and the conversation went right back to spiritual things.
Now, my team and I have oppened an organic baby food business. Much of what we do is outside of my field of study, as a theology major I know nothing about designing an HVAC system or purchasing thermal processing equipment. I should say I knew nothing about. Through many tears of frustration, hours of research and God faithfully providing supporters and coaches with the needed skills, I have learned about topics relevant to setting up our own nationwide food production plant.
In the midst of all of these different ventures, ministry looks like sharing Jesus one cup of tea at a time with my neighbours. There have been seasons where people are interested and I’ve had opportunities to lead discovery studies of the Word. Times when I discipled young believers in their walk, and even a season when I taught Bible school type classes to a group.
JV What is the hardest thing, from your perspective, on the mission field?
KA Sharing the gospel with hard-hearted people. I think for years I had a romanticized vision of missions. I thought that people were living in the darkness without any opportunity to hear the good news because there were no believers in their area or speaking into their lives. I thought if people went and shone the Light into their hopeless lives, they would gladly respond. Not only is this not a biblical perspective of the lost, I have also learned though experience how false that really is. Hearts are hard and people love their sin. While everyone at home likes to ask how many “converts” you have seen, the truth is only the Holy Spirit at work in someone’s heart can turn them from darkness to light. Salvation is God’s job all along. I am called to be faithful in proclaiming that salvation. In a part of the world where government policies and the religion of the people are at odds with each other—and they both stand opposed to the gospel—it is hard not to lose heart when we don’t see fruit. It is important to remember that success in ministry is not based on numbers, but faithfulness to him and his calling.
JV What are some of the encouragements you’ve experienced this past year?
KA Most encouragements for the last year all revolve around answered prayer. Several years ago, I had a young U girl live with me for several weeks. At the time, she was filled with questions about God but she never made a decision for Christ. I saw her briefly last summer. She called me out of the blue to say she was in town. We met in front of the train station for only an hour, but within the first few seconds, I saw the difference. The first thing she told me was that she loves and is following Jesus. I have been praying for this young woman for a long time and was encouraged to see how God continued to work in her life, even though we were now living in different provinces. It was a very, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” sort of situation. I was also encouraged when God answered my prayers for a roommate. When I first moved to my new city, there were only two other English-speaking families to join with for fellowship. If I wanted to have a girl’s night with another single Western woman, I had to take a thirteen-hour train ride. This was the situation for a year and a half. During this time, I struggled with loneliness in a way I never had before. But I was so encouraged when another single woman moved to our city and actually became my roommate. It was such an answer to prayer!
JV What are some of the particular challenges of the people group you work with?
KA The U people are a minority people group, meaning they are subject to the control of a government that often has a very different agenda. They will tell you they are a people who are oppressed religiously, socially, economically and in every other area of life. This minority status and the feeling of having their ways threatened causes them to cling more tightly to their traditions and ways of life. They will tell you that to be U is to be a Muslim, and view following a different religion as a threat to their ethnic identity. Since moving to a more traditional area, I find that most people have a busy obligatory social calendar. One seventy-year-old woman I know still gets together twice a month with her elementary school classmates! Everyone has been neighbours for years and aren’t really in need of new friends. Breaking into these established relationships, especially as a cultural outsider, has been challenging. When I think about a church planting movement taking root among the U people, their geographic situation always plays a role. They do not have their own country but are spread over several nations (Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern India). Even in the province where I live, there is such a large desert that pockets of people are found in oaises over a vast area. While the Internet does help information travel, the U people are so diverse and spread out, only God could work in such a way as to see masses turn to him.
JV What do you miss most about Canada?
KA I miss wearing jean and having my hair down. U culture is very dressy—sparkly dresses every day—even when I am only going to buy vegetables. I miss Timmies and the “going for coffee” culture, but actually the longer I am there the less things I find I really miss. Of course I miss my family, but I am so thankful that I can talk to my family online every week. In fact, I think we are more intentional about connecting than we might otherwise be because I live far away.
* Name changed to protect her identity.
5 THINGS ABOUT KIM…
1 I love books and reading. After working in a library during college, I now organize my own books according to the Dewey decimal system. AKA, I am a geek.
2 Currently, the most listened to song on my iPod is “Behold our God” by Sovereign Grace.
3 I have had four joints replaced, which makes it fun going through the metal detectors at the airport.
4 I ALWAYS wear a watch, even when I am sleeping.
5 When I asked my Dad to help me come up with a fifth one, he said, “You have a quirky sense of humour.”
Who is your sending church?
KA Riverside Baptist Church, Windsor ON.
JV What type of work are you engaged in right now?
KA The main goal of our organization is to be involved in church planting among unreached people groups. For me, this currently looks much like your life at home. I work a 9 to 5 job at a baby food factory that my teammates and I have, by the grace of the Lord, started from scratch. I spend time talking to the ladies at work and neighbours in my building about the good news of Jesus. I try to use every opportunity to share a story from the Word, or a why the Lord is working in my own life. Through these natural daily relationships we invite people to study the Word with us. Since most of the people in my area are Muslim, it can seem very slow with little positive response to the good news. But, even in discouraging times, our Father is faithful and often brings someone across my path in whose life a seed has already been planted. In our area, there is are no local churches that we can serve in or invite our neighbours to come to a service with us…it is all done in the context of relationship. That is why the baby food factory and the natural connection it gives us to our workmates is so important. We have the responsibility to be in their life daily, demonstrating and speaking the truth of the gospel even as we mop the floors.
JV You’ve been studying and learning U for some time. How are you managing conversing?
KA Even after all this time, it is amazing how frustrating conversation can be. When I lived in the provincial capital, I felt like I was doing relatively well, hanging out with groups of young, college-educated professionals and joining in their conversation. Since moving two years ago, I have found the people in my new area have a different lilt to their speech patterns, it is not a dialect, just a different sing-song to their voice. Also, the ladies we hired at the factory are farmers and I thought their conversation would be simpler, but I am totally lost when they talk rapidly to each other. Thankfully, they seem to understand me! They not only respond to commands at work but they also understand the stories I share from the Word.
JV What is the makeup of your team?
KA I am in a very unique team situation. In the part of the province where I live, it is hard for expats to get Visas, therefore there are only three families and two singles living in our city/county reaching out. We are from three different countries, five different sending organizations and different backgrounds! I have one teammate who is a nurse, another who wanted to be a marine biologist, one who was a wedding photographer and another who was a professional opera singer. We all have decided to put aside these differences and work together in our area with a joint passion to see God’s name glorified among the U people.
JV Explain some of the ventures you’ve been involved with over the years?
KA I spent my first five years overseas as a language student at the local university. In that time I had to study two very diverse languages.
Next, I worked for a handicraft exporter that sold carpets, copper pots, woven baskets and other handmade U items online as a way to promote central Asian culture. During that year, the government shut down Internet access due to unrest and violence in our area and the company was forced to close.
For a few years, my roommate and I ran our own business—a translation and consulting company. During this time I often took church groups on tours of our province, giving them a vision for the area and ways they could better pray for the spread of the gospel. Officially I was their interpreter, helping them buy bus and train tickets, arranging hotels and helping them negotiate prices at the bazaar. Our province is very vast and taking bus trips often means you’re stuck in your seat for more than twenty hours. During these long hours bumping over desert highways, God provided many opportunies to share the gospel with my seatmates and I would leave them with audio copies of the Word. I met many people who were open to the gospel, but because we were travelling, I didn’t have a way to follow up with them. There was one time that, as only he can do, God arranged for me to sit beside the same lady I had sat beside two years earlier! God in his perfect plan arranged for us to be together again and the conversation went right back to spiritual things.
Now, my team and I have oppened an organic baby food business. Much of what we do is outside of my field of study, as a theology major I know nothing about designing an HVAC system or purchasing thermal processing equipment. I should say I knew nothing about. Through many tears of frustration, hours of research and God faithfully providing supporters and coaches with the needed skills, I have learned about topics relevant to setting up our own nationwide food production plant.
In the midst of all of these different ventures, ministry looks like sharing Jesus one cup of tea at a time with my neighbours. There have been seasons where people are interested and I’ve had opportunities to lead discovery studies of the Word. Times when I discipled young believers in their walk, and even a season when I taught Bible school type classes to a group.
JV What is the hardest thing, from your perspective, on the mission field?
KA Sharing the gospel with hard-hearted people. I think for years I had a romanticized vision of missions. I thought that people were living in the darkness without any opportunity to hear the good news because there were no believers in their area or speaking into their lives. I thought if people went and shone the Light into their hopeless lives, they would gladly respond. Not only is this not a biblical perspective of the lost, I have also learned though experience how false that really is. Hearts are hard and people love their sin. While everyone at home likes to ask how many “converts” you have seen, the truth is only the Holy Spirit at work in someone’s heart can turn them from darkness to light. Salvation is God’s job all along. I am called to be faithful in proclaiming that salvation. In a part of the world where government policies and the religion of the people are at odds with each other—and they both stand opposed to the gospel—it is hard not to lose heart when we don’t see fruit. It is important to remember that success in ministry is not based on numbers, but faithfulness to him and his calling.
JV What are some of the encouragements you’ve experienced this past year?
KA Most encouragements for the last year all revolve around answered prayer. Several years ago, I had a young U girl live with me for several weeks. At the time, she was filled with questions about God but she never made a decision for Christ. I saw her briefly last summer. She called me out of the blue to say she was in town. We met in front of the train station for only an hour, but within the first few seconds, I saw the difference. The first thing she told me was that she loves and is following Jesus. I have been praying for this young woman for a long time and was encouraged to see how God continued to work in her life, even though we were now living in different provinces. It was a very, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” sort of situation. I was also encouraged when God answered my prayers for a roommate. When I first moved to my new city, there were only two other English-speaking families to join with for fellowship. If I wanted to have a girl’s night with another single Western woman, I had to take a thirteen-hour train ride. This was the situation for a year and a half. During this time, I struggled with loneliness in a way I never had before. But I was so encouraged when another single woman moved to our city and actually became my roommate. It was such an answer to prayer!
JV What are some of the particular challenges of the people group you work with?
KA The U people are a minority people group, meaning they are subject to the control of a government that often has a very different agenda. They will tell you they are a people who are oppressed religiously, socially, economically and in every other area of life. This minority status and the feeling of having their ways threatened causes them to cling more tightly to their traditions and ways of life. They will tell you that to be U is to be a Muslim, and view following a different religion as a threat to their ethnic identity. Since moving to a more traditional area, I find that most people have a busy obligatory social calendar. One seventy-year-old woman I know still gets together twice a month with her elementary school classmates! Everyone has been neighbours for years and aren’t really in need of new friends. Breaking into these established relationships, especially as a cultural outsider, has been challenging. When I think about a church planting movement taking root among the U people, their geographic situation always plays a role. They do not have their own country but are spread over several nations (Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern India). Even in the province where I live, there is such a large desert that pockets of people are found in oaises over a vast area. While the Internet does help information travel, the U people are so diverse and spread out, only God could work in such a way as to see masses turn to him.
JV What do you miss most about Canada?
KA I miss wearing jean and having my hair down. U culture is very dressy—sparkly dresses every day—even when I am only going to buy vegetables. I miss Timmies and the “going for coffee” culture, but actually the longer I am there the less things I find I really miss. Of course I miss my family, but I am so thankful that I can talk to my family online every week. In fact, I think we are more intentional about connecting than we might otherwise be because I live far away.
* Name changed to protect her identity.
5 THINGS ABOUT KIM…
1 I love books and reading. After working in a library during college, I now organize my own books according to the Dewey decimal system. AKA, I am a geek.
2 Currently, the most listened to song on my iPod is “Behold our God” by Sovereign Grace.
3 I have had four joints replaced, which makes it fun going through the metal detectors at the airport.
4 I ALWAYS wear a watch, even when I am sleeping.
5 When I asked my Dad to help me come up with a fifth one, he said, “You have a quirky sense of humour.”
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