AFWIS Joins Operation World in Prayer for the Republic of Kazakhstan - Asia

Published on Operation World (http://www.operationworld.org)

Home > Jul 30: Kazakhstan

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Jul 30: Kazakhstan

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Kazakhstan

Republic of Kazakhstan

Asia

See Prayer Information

Geography

Area: 2,717,300 sq km
World’s ninth-largest country. Dominating Central Asia and trade routes between east and west. Much of the country is semi-desert.
Population: 15,753,460    Annual Growth: 0.73%
Capital: Astana
Urbanites: 58.5%
HDI Rank: 82 of 182 (UN Human Development Reports 2009)

Peoples

Peoples: 76 (54% unreached) All peoples
Unreached Peoples Prayer Card

Official language: Kazakh    Languages: 43 All languages

Religion

Largest Religion: Muslim

Religion		Pop %	Ann Gr
Christians	1,914,045	12.15	-1.5
Evangelicals	104,511	0.7	3.5
Muslim	8,456,457	53.68

Challenges for Prayer

“To be a Kazakh is to be a Muslim” – but theirs is a folk Islam strongly influenced by shamanistic practices. Other Muslim countries (Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan) invest huge amounts of money to send Muslim missionaries – some are effective even in converting Russians to Islam. The number of registered mosques grew from 46 in 1989 to 1,282 in 2002 (quite apart from many unregistered ones). Traditional Islam is on the rise, even trendy in some sectors, despite the government actively opposing radical Islam. Orthodox Christianity is perceived as the religion of Russians, and evangelicals are often regarded as dangerous sects. Pray for this misconception to be broken; pray for freedom from historic spiritual bondages and prejudices.
Russians and Ukrainians – from the early 1990s onward – have emigrated back to their ancestral homeland in large numbers. Most who remain are non-religious or Orthodox with German Catholics and Lutherans as well. The Orthodox Church increasingly aligns itself with Muslims, seeking to cement its own religious status at the expense of newer religious groups. Pray for renewal among the Orthodox. Many Russians are impacted by the fast-growing evangelical/charismatic/Pentecostal churches, much more so than Kazakhs.
     For an additional 7 Challenges for Prayer see Operation World book, CD-ROM, or DVD-ROM.

More Information

The Operation World book, CD-ROM, and DVD-ROM provide far more information and fuel for prayer for the people of Kazakhstan.