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How God used another culture to transform me
by Frank Decker

For almost 10 years, my family and I lived in Karaganda, Kazakhstan, as missionaries. We were there concentrating on the transformation God might do in the lives of Kazakhstanis. But through our experiences, God also transformed me in ways that, I trust, will mark me the rest of my life.

During our time in Kazakhstan, there was a question that I came to dread. And cab drivers in Karaganda always seemed to ask it. When they learned I was American, they would ask: "Which is better-living in Kazakhstan or living in America?" For me, that was like one of my children asking, "Dad, which of us children do you like best?" It was a question that sought to validate one and invalidate the other. Besides that, this question seemed to assume that there was a best place to live, and that living in that place could bring fulfillment.

I felt trapped trying to choose between answering "the United States" or "Kazakhstan." But it was the wrong question. During my time in Kazakhstan, I came to realize there is no good place to live without Jesus. What makes life satisfying is not where I live, but how deeply I am experiencing Christ. Of course, as Christians, we all believe that. But I have never believed this as deeply as I do now, because I saw it. Most of the members of the church in Karaganda are poor. But life together was glorious and full, because we regularly experienced the presence of Christ.

One day, as I sat in a prayer meeting, one of the new believers shared her story with me. A Kazakh woman, born and raised in a rural village in Northwest China, she had lived most of her life in a yurt (a round tent made of felt), cooked the family meals over a fire, and followed the family livestock from one pasture to another. Her understanding of life had been shaped by a mixture of communism, folk Islam, and Kazakh superstitions. Culturally, we were worlds apart from each other. But as I listened to her testimony, and saw the smile on her face and the tears in her eyes, I understood that she and I had the same experience of God's grace.

In Kazakhstan I met many people like this woman, with whom I had almost nothing in common except faith in Jesus. Each of their stories added evidence that the Gospel is universally true-and that it is good news for everyone. More than ever before, I am convinced that the message of Christ has the capacity to transform lives in any place and to give people in every culture purpose and power for living.

This conviction has changed me. When I began my ministry, my desire was to live, preach, and die in North Carolina. It was home. God's call to serve in Kazakhstan transformed that in me. Now I see so clearly that Christ's followers are liberated; we are not dependant for our joy on any location or lifestyle. Knowing Christ is what makes life satisfying.

Also because of our time in Kazakhstan, I am attracted to people from other places, other cultures, other life experiences and worldviews in a way that was never true before. I am attracted to them because I now can see in them the same hopes and fears that are in me. And I am attracted to them because-just as Christ has transformed and brought joy to my life-I am eager to see the joy that will come to them as they open their lives to Jesus. The Gospel of Jesus brings meaning to any life in any culture. That conviction, which grew so deeply in Kazakhstan, has become the defining force for my life.

Missionary service is not fueled by uncommon bravery, but by a burning desire that comes simply from realizing that Jesus can transform a person's life and that this relationship with Christ is what makes life satisfying. A life once caught up with the joy of sharing Jesus can never be truly captivated by anything else.

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A few weeks ago while traveling in Africa, I received an urgent phone call telling me that Mission Society missionary Joel Duggins had died suddenly of a heart attack. I immediately felt as though someone had slugged me in the stomach. That's how shocking the news was.

Joel, his wife Marylee, and their children had just returned from their third term of service in Kazakhstan, where they had been instrumental in planting the Living Vine Church in Karaganda. Joel also served as president of the Central Asian Evangelical School of Theology. At his funeral, fellow missionary Jim Ramsay stated that he could have filled five 747 jumbo jets with people from Kazakhstan who would have wanted to go to the funeral to thank God for Joel's ministry. In the words of Dr. Terry Wortz, "When I went to Kazakhstan I had the Holy Spirit, but Joel threw gasoline on that fire."

Joel wrote this article a few weeks prior to his death, and it was first printed in the Mission Society's Heartbeat magazine. We share it in gratitude to God for a life fully given to the purpose of advancing the Kingdom worldwide.

Frank Decker, Great Commission columnist

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