n People in Tuva are hungry for God’s Word. This girl in an orphanage began reading her Children’s Bible as soon as she received it from the Bible Society

Meeting the needs of Tuva’s growing Church

KYZYL, Tuva Republic — “There are many Tuvin people repenting and coming to Christ but afterwards they need something that will explain God’s truth to them so they can grow as disciples.”

Teelekechi Bichik, acting bishop and leader of the Pentecostal Church in the town of Shagonar was speaking to Alexei Bulatov, Director of the Siberian Branch of the Bible Society in Russia, about the challenges faced by pastors in the Tuva Republic. Mr Bulatov was attending a meeting of the Tuvin Union of Pentecostal Churches in August to find out how the Bible Society can best serve the needs of the churches in this predominantly Tibetan Buddhist land.

Urgently needed

Mr Bichik and other pastors were quick to thank the Bible Society for providing Russian Scriptures through the Ends of the Earth program, but said that if the Tuvin church was to grow in a sustainable way, more Scriptures in the Tuvin language were urgently needed. Until late last year, only a very limited number of Bible Portions were available in Tuvin, and many pastors were forced to read the Russian Bible to their congregations and translate it as they went along.

A few months after the pastors’ conference the Tuvin New Testament was published as a joint project by UBS and the Institute for Bible Translation (IBT) (see related feature). IBT also recently published the Children’s Bible in Tuvin. These much-needed resources will no doubt boost the efforts of the churches in their evangelism, as well as increase the Bible knowledge of new believers. Work has begun on the Old Testament.

Even with these new resources, however, many more challenges remain for the church in Tuva.

“Each of us could tell stories of opposition to the Gospel from the traditional religious leaders,” said Omak Oyun, who recently started a church in Kyzyl. “Several men and women from one church have been beaten solely because they became Christians. Some men even wanted to beat me when I was a pastor in Erzin.”

Physical threat

In addition to this physical threat to their work, churches in the Tuva Republic also desperately need more resources for sharing God’s Word and training others to share it.

“We need more Scriptures in Tuvin for outreach,” said Mr Oyun. “We need a Christian library with Bible dictionaries and commentaries because we are trying to start a Tuvin Bible School. We are desperate for literature for Bible teachers and young people – there is such a need for Scriptures and Christian literature here!”

Despite these needs, the Gospel is having an impact on the Tuvin people, who have responded well to Bible Society Scriptures provided through Opportunity 21 and the To the Ends of the Earth program.

Alexander Mironenko, a pastor from western Tuva, told of a lonely disabled woman who was given the Gospels and Psalms.

“She was an unbeliever but after reading the Scriptures, and after visits by people from the church, she became a Christian,” he said. “She was so happy. We have also given Children’s Bibles to children in the local orphanage, so Bible Society Scriptures are definitely touching lives in Tuva.”

He also noted that the mayor of Kyzyl keeps the Bible, given to him by his church, on his desk.