[2023 Ramadan Day 9] The Great Yeshua Army, Volga-Ural!
Updated: Mar 31, 2023
This proclamation of faith for the Tatar people began in 2008 and continues to this day. It is a proclamation of faith that the dry bones of the nation, whose hope has been completely cut off, will be fully restored and rise up as a mighty army. The Tatars, the conquerors of the Mongol Empire who once ruled the world, finally fell to the Russian army in a turbulent history. In addition to losing their country, the brutal rule trampled on their last vestiges of pride, Islam, in the form of forced conversion and a tragedy where only who were willing to be baptized in Russian Orthodox style could survive in a brutal cold weather of -30 degrees. It is said that over one million Tatars perished in this crusade. However, this event armed the people with an even stronger Islamic identity, to the point where embracing Christianity was seen as an act of national treason. A people with a history of being completely cut off from the one and only Jesus seems hopeless, like dead and dried bones.
However, in Ezekiel 37, God so simply brings those bones back to life and raises them up as an army, and since 2008, the Volga-Ural body has been consistently praying for this as their hope. Bone has already been joined to bone, muscles have been filled, blood and tendons have been formed, and skin has begun to cover. This people, who belong to the nation of Russia, are ready in every way. It is economically and strategically prepared compared to other ethnic groups. Therefore, in the time of lifelessness, it is time for us to pray and prophesy saying may these bones live!
Tartar’s Islam is very unique. Tatarstan, the center of the Volga-Ural region, is a very important piece of land politically and economically in Russia. Though it is recognized as an ethnically Tatar autonomous region, more than half of the population are deliberately Russians. On the outside, this nation doesn’t look like it is closed, and their Islam isn't that strong. Through history, the Tatar people are very smart learning how to survive. They know how to reconcile with the Russian Orthodox Church and know how to strategize living in the world. In Tatarstan, many women don't wear hijabs. More shockingly, during Ramadan, only a few conservatives fast, and there is no communal fasting among the Tatars.
Even without the Ramadan fasts, they consider themselves leaders of Islam. It was the Tatars who saved the Islam of the northern peoples, which was in crisis and dying with the fall of the Mongol Empire. Through Jadidism, a kind of Islamic reformation of the northern peoples, they pride themselves on being the people who best understand the Islam that modern society demands. They even have their own mosque, the Kul Sharif, hanging where a picture of Mecca should be hanging.
However, God promised that there must be an army that arises from these dry bones! A small church planted through our body became independent since 2019. It is the only church that dreams of evangelizing the Volga-Ural people. Now, through this small church, God is awakening all the evangelical churches in the predominantly Russian Volga-Ural. The churches in Tatarstan are experiencing a God who is parting the Red Sea as they see many Tatar Muslim YGs accept Jesus in a matter of years. Many YGs are sent to the ends of the earth to as they live the life of a disciple. As we pray together for Ramadan and prophesy to this land, we are confident that a greater and more powerful army will arise from this land.
[Today’s Prayer]
1. May God have compassion on these people whose strong Islamic identity has also been absorbed by secular confusion. May every false peace be destroyed, and may God be the Master of this people group!
2. May the wind of the Holy Spirit blow, so that the current Tatar disciple movement may grow in anointing! Lord God would You use this nation’s capability so that this people group achieves Your great commission and rise as a strong and vast army!
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