Doubly Displaced
Theme of the Week: Look for That Silver Lining
Bill & Amy Stearns
Thursday, July 12, 2007
 1 of 1
Key Bible Verse: Everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News (Philippians 1:12).Bonus Reading: Philippians 1:13-18
In the 1930s, thousands fled what is now North Korea as the Japanese invaded. Many settled around Vladivostok. When Joseph Stalin began developing a weapons manufacturing center there, he deemed the Koreans a security risk. So he relocated them in five areas around the Soviet Union. One was Tashkent, hub of the 20-million-strong Uzbek people. The staunchly Muslim Uzbeks had for centuries violently resisted any efforts to introduce Christianity. But the Uzbeks welcomed the Koreans for their industry and kindness. Within a few decades, they were included in all facets of Uzbek cultural life.
In His orchestration of global events, God had planted strong pockets of believers among these transplants. Little did Stalin suspect that revival would sweep through the Koreans, and that their Uzbek and Kazak friends would begin coming to Christ.
The first public sign of the breakthrough came on June 2, 1990, when a young Korean from America preached to a swelling crowd in the streets of Alma-Ata, capital of Kazakhstan. [Whole Uzbek villages were converted to Christ in the wake of] the first open-air Christian meeting in the history of Soviet Central Asia.
—Bill & Amy Stearns in Catch the Vision 2000
My Response: Can I welcome upheaval in my life to benefit God's greater kingdom?
Thought to Apply: There's nothing written in the Bible that says if you believe in Me, you ain't going to have no troubles.—RAY CHARLES (singer)
Adapted from Catch the Vision 2000 (Bethany, 1991) by permission.
Copyright © 2007 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity. 1 of 1
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Help me, Lord, not to fret or fume about troubles, but to accept them as part of Your plan for the ultimate good of Your kingdom—and me.
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