CEE Story From The Mission Field
Buryat Conference
June 24, 2004
The Buryat are a Mongolian people numbering approximately 436,000 within the country of Russia. Approximately 252,000 of these live in the Buryat Republic of Russia. This is the largest unreached ethnic minority in Siberia. The majority of these Buryats practice Lamanistic Buddhism and Shamanism.
The 1st Protestant missionaries began work among the Buryat in 1818. This work lasted for 22 years. Sadly, today witnesses little, if any, remaining fruit of this work. The great majority of Buryat have never heard the gospel or the name of Jesus Christ. There is not one single Buryat church in Russia and only the Gospels of Mark, Luke and John exist in the Buryat language.
It is for these people that the Buryat Partnership Conference was held. Missionaries from America, New Zealand, England and various other countries, recently gathered together with Buryat Believers in Far East Russia for the 7th Annual Buryat Partnership Conference.Over 50 believers, who were committed to sharing the gospel with the Buryat people, worshipped and praised together daily in the Buryat and Russian languages before splitting into work groups focused on different aspects of strategy. There were groups for mass media, prayer mobilization, cultural research and evangelization through the arts. The results of each group were concrete projects to be done during this next year.
IMB Missionaries Lee and Sandy Young praise God for such a successful week in the city of Ulan-Ude. They also rejoice to discover that there is an increase in the number of Buryat believers! As reported by those at the conference, in 2003 there were 461 Buryat believers in Russia. There have been 124 new believers over the past year, bringing the total to 585. That's a remarkable increase considering many of the believers are the first and only Christians in their villages. Despite the good report, Lee and Sandy are still looking at the big picture.
"With 436,000 Buryats in Russia and only 585 believers," says Lee, "you can see there's much work still to be done."
Please pray for the strength and maturity for Buryat believers and for those who are ministering to them against the forces of darkness. If you would like to find out more about this people group you can join the Buryat prayer e-newsletter by e-mailing buryat@everyheart.net.