AZERBAIJAN
— Since the launch of the Azeri New Testament on audio cassette in December
1999, Faith Comes By Hearing (FCBH) listening sessions have been
held in towns and villages across the country, bringing thousands of people
to a knowledge of the Scriptures.
The
FCBH program is in its infancy here, however, and many churches have
not yet adopted it as part of their regular schedules.
Most listening sessions are held in people’s homes or other informal environments, according to distributors who have travelled thousands of kilometres to let Azeri-speakers hear the Word of God in their own language.
Mikhail* is one such FCBH distributor who has seen lives changed through the program. During one trip to a small village on the southern slopes of the Caucasus mountains, he organised a listening session in the home of a family so poor that their house did not even have a door. Poverty had left them without hope.
One man in the group was there under protest – he did not believe the stories that Mikhail had told about Jesus, and said he was not interested in hearing any more. But as the tape began to play, he fell silent.
When he heard the same stories about Jesus that Mikhail had told he was amazed. “Are these words from the real Holy Book?” he asked. “I thought you had just made them up.”
After two more hours of listening, he stood up, embraced Mikhail and said that he had been changed by what he had heard. He had many questions about the Bible and asked for his own set of tapes so that he could learn more. The listening session continued well into the early hours of the next morning.
Some months later, Mikhail returned to the village. The poor family in whose home the FCBH session had taken place thanked him for bringing God’s Word to them. Their apple orchard had yielded a good harvest, and they were filled with hope for the future. Others also stopped him in the market to tell him how hearing God’s Word had brought joy into their lives.
Diners in a small tented restaurant in the mountains were delighted to listen to the Azeri New Testament as they ate their meals. Mikhail had decided to lunch at the restaurant on his way home from a distribution trip, and took the opportunity to play the tapes.
“It was a very special place to listen to the Word of God,” he said. “All the people were listening and the restaurant owner asked if we could give him a set of tapes to play regularly to his customers. We also gave a set to his son, who wanted to form a listening group.”
In Zakataly, a town in the far north corner of the country, a family agreed to host a listening session in their home and gathered together friends and neighbours.
“Everybody was amazed that I had come such a long way to share the Good News with them,” recounted Mikhail. “When I first arrived in the town they thought I must have come to buy nuts and chestnuts, which grow there a lot. We listened to the tapes and discussed them until 4am.
“One young man at the session was so moved that he wanted to share his discovery with the rest of his village. I gave him a set of cassettes and went with him the next day to his village, where we organised a listening session. Afterwards, the people told me they had great joy in their hearts.
“Word about the session spread, and when I tried to leave for home the next day I could not go – more and more people came to me and asked if they could listen to the New Testament. Later when I was leaving, 12 people insisted on seeing me off at the bus stop, which was 30 kilometres away from their village.”
Distribution of Russian audio Scriptures is also taking place in Azerbaijan, and many house churches hold regular Russian FCBH listening sessions. Christian participants have said that listening to God’s Word is inspiring them to go back and open their Bibles, while non-Christians who have attended sessions have also become interested in the Scriptures.
An entire family became Christians after attending a Russian FCBH session – they had recently moved to Azerbaijan from Georgia and had never encountered the Scriptures before. Sets of tapes have been given to teachers, church leaders and evangelists all over the country. (WR 358/3 - 03.01) [PHOTOS]
*Name changed to protect identity.