11 Thoughts about Kazakhstan

11 Thoughts about Kazakhstan

11. Kazakhstan is located in central Asia, south of Russia and West of China.  It used to be a part of the Soviet Union until the USSR collapse in 1991.  It is the largest country (other than Russia) in the former Soviet Union.

10. There are two main cities in Kazakhstan, Almaty and Astana.  Almaty is the biggest city (where I was at), and it is in the south, while Astana is the capital city in the north.  It takes 20 hours to get between them on a train, which shows you how vast the country is.  Other than the two main cities, there are vast expanses of mountains and wilderness, and not much else.

9. Almaty is bordered on one side by a mountain range, some of the most beautiful mountains I have ever seen.  Some mountains are up to 15,000ft. tall, which means they have snow and glaciers on them year-round.  I got a chance to hike a bit of the mountains there, and standing on the mountain looking at the city below was a beauty I won’t soon forget!

8. Cool random fact- it is believed that the Silk Road ran right through the center of Almaty.  Not very often do you get to say you walked on the Silk Road of thousands of years ago!

7. This city is also quite well-known for its winter sporting facilities.  Although it was about 90 degrees each day I was there, in the winter, they have skiing, ski jumping, hockey, speed skating, and many other competitions.  This year, they hosted the Collegiate World Championships, which brought athletes from America, Canada, Russia, and many other prominent countries.  Almaty also holds the world record for the world’s highest elevation outdoor skating rink, where many speed skaters come to train before a big competition. 

6. Recently, archeologists have been discovering new remains in the Eastern part of the country.  The last grave that was dug up had a cross on the gravestone, possibly signifying that the first descendants to this country were actually Christian, not Muslim.  This would be a very big discovery for the religious trajectory of the country moving forward- be praying that they find more conclusive evidence here!

5. Kazakh food is quite tasty, especially a dish called “lagman.”  Lagman is similar to Indonesian mie goreng, with thick, handmade noodles, beef, green peppers, tomatoes, onions, and egg, all fried together.  This dish is one of the main ones that people miss when they return to the States!

4. The traffic laws are followed to a T, because of the police activity from a few years ago.  In an order to ensure better drivers, police ticketed every person who did not stop at a crosswalk and run a red light.  Now, the drivers stop well before a person even steps out into the street- quite a nice contrast from other areas of the world I’ve visited!

3. Fellowships of believers are allowed, as long as they are registered.  Having a fellowship that is not registered is extremely dangerous, similar to Vietnam.  While I was there, I was able to help lead worship for an English fellowship, and it was cool to participate in a different style of fellowship than what I am used to. 

2. Kazakhstan culture and Indonesian culture are actually quite similar, even though the countries look vastly different.  The people are quite warm and welcoming towards foreigners, and I even got asked to practice my English a few times.  Their culture does not run on much of a schedule, similar to Indonesia, and there is quite a developing economy based around new ideas from the President.  Even small details, like taking shoes off at the door and shaking hands when people arrived were quite similar.  It was very interesting to see a place that looked like Europe (with wide roads, modern buildings, traffic laws, and lots of activities) but a culture that felt fairly similar. 

1. There are so many people trying to do ministry to the local people.  Kazakhstan has been named a Muslim country by the President, but there are small pockets of believers and many, many believer families are trying to reach out.  I met people doing various work: business training, English camps, ethnomusicology study, and drug addict recovery just to name a few.  In addition, there is an International School to support the children while the parents work.  Please be praying for safety for these people and continued growth of the Word through these areas. 

Luke Forshey

June 25, 2017

In Awe of Worship

Today I got the chance to tour an Orthodox cathedral in Russia.  It was amazing…there really are no words to describe it. I wish I could have taken photos, but the photos wouldn’t have done it justice anyway.  I’ll try to paint a picture with my words instead. 

When you walk in, there is a small room to get dressed properly, including women covering their heads and men wearing long pants.  Once you enter through the main doors, you enter into a full-body worship experience.  The smells of the incense fill the room.   The candles remembering each saint burn bright.  Every single inch of every wall is covered in decorative paintings and gold leaf.

As you walk to the main altar, you see a vast number of saints’ photos lining the walls of the front of the cathedral.  All of these saints have their heads pointed towards a giant painting of God, about 4x the size of the other paintings.  Above this is a painting of Jesus’ crucifixion, with 2 disciples looking at the cross.  In the space between God and Jesus are murals of Jesus’ life story, especially his miracles and parables.  Each painting in the whole cathedral is separated by elaborate gold trim, with intricate designs specifically carved into the gold. In addition to the front of the cathedral, this care and design is shown throughout the whole building, with walls stretching 50 feet high, at least 4 domes, pillars decorated with gold, and many different altars and icons to remember the saints.  To say this place of worship is spectacular and awe-inspiring would be an understatement. 

I stood at the front of the cathedral for about 5 minutes, just admiring the beauty.  It has been a long time since I have been so in awe of a place of worship.  The design and intricacy of the building, the smells, the dress code, and the clear desire for a full body experience every time a person (tourist or worshipper) steps into the building was astounding.  Everything about the place of worship showed how important their religion was to them.

And then I thought about the churches I have worshipped in before.  I thought about the design of the building: none of it was decorated as intricately. I thought about the dress code: I often would wear shorts or not my nicest clothes.  I thought about the songs we were singing: shallow lyrics with a modern rock band don’t often inspire awe among the congregation.  And I thought about how we were acting in that worship space: how many times have we checked our cell phones during the message, or fallen asleep, or started thinking about the ten million other things to do that day? 

Where have we Americans lost this awe-inspiring form of worship?  It saddened me to see how we have shifted so far away from the care in worship of our European brothers.  Every time I walk into a cathedral like this one I am filled with awe, yet very rarely in our modern, American churches do I have this feeling.  In our quest to be relevant, we have missed the awesomeness of God. 

I’m not sure how to change this, while still drawing people into a church.  These kinds of cathedrals may not hold as much meaning for everyone, just as some hymns are hard to connect with.  But today, I was really challenged by that cathedral, and I walked out of there feeling an awe and reverence for God that I haven’t felt in a long time. 

What can we do to present this same feeling every American worship service?  I don’t know.  We clearly can’t rebuild our churches.  But I do know that God is awesome, and he deserves the reverence shown in this cathedral, every day. 

Whether you are in a large cathedral, or just in your home, take some time to reflect on the beauty and power of God today- His power is always there, we just have to realize it.      

Luke Forshey

June 21, 2017

10 Thoughts about India

10 Thoughts about India

10. SO MUCH TRAFFIC!  I saw very quickly that India is the most populated country in the world, and the city I went to was one of the most populated cities in the country.  I thought Indonesia traffic was bad, then Vietnam traffic was 5x worse, then India traffic was 5x worse than Vietnam…hopefully the traffic isn’t worse at the next stop! 

9. Why so much traffic, other than lots of people?  Cows!   Cows are worshipped in the Hindu culture because people believe over 33,000 gods live inside one single cow.  This means that the stray cows on the side of the road (we will get to that in a minute) must be given their time to cross.  And we all know cows are not the quickest animals, so they create traffic jams quite often. 

8. Why stray cows?  Well, people believe that if they “give” their cow to the gods, meaning release it to run free through the streets, they are worshipping and thanking their gods.  This leaves many stray cows, and also wild boars/pigs, roaming the streets without food, causing traffic jams.  I don’t know how letting an animal run free and fend for itself for food is worshipping, but hey, whatever you believe I guess?

7. The dress in India is very unique- I was thinking men would wear shorts and t-shirts, because it is always so hot (it was around 105 Fahrenheit one of the days!).  But instead, the men always wear button down shirts and long pants.  I think I only saw 2 Indian men in the 5 days I was there wearing shorts, and only a few more wearing T-shirts.  Women wear elaborate, colorful, traditional dresses that are quite beautiful themselves. 

6. Security is intense!  In every metro stop, bus station, or public place, there are metal detectors and full body pat-downs required.  It was incredibly slow sometimes, but I definitely felt safe.  They also have a separate area for women to get patted-down with female security guards, so there are two lines to go through the metal detectors: one for the men and one for the women.    

5. India is cheap…except if you are a foreigner.  Every backpacking blog I read said India could be travelled in about $15 per day, and I found this to be completely false.  Even the simple things, like transpiration or food, were twice as expensive for me than my Indian friend (the Taj Mahal was $16 for me to enter and $0.60 for him!).  Granted, we did eat a bit in restaurants rather than street food (which is how I avoided the dreaded “Delhi Belly” sickness, thank you Jesus!), but I still don’t see how India could be travelled in $15 a day. 

4. Indian food is amazing!  Almost the whole population is vegetarian, because Hindus don’t want to eat meat, but there are still so many varieties of tastes and flavors to make vegetarian food every meal taste different and still delicious!  I recommend you go somewhere to try Indian food if you haven’t ever had it- probably my favorite ethnic food I have ever tasted!   

3. “You may be whatever religion you want.”  This quote came from a friendly Indian man I was talking with on the bus.  He said that a person’s nationality is important, because that defines who a person is, but the religion is a personal thing and does not need to be shared with others.  Please be praying for these people: I don’t know if this is a common feeling throughout all parts of society or just his own opinion, but religion definitely plays a major part in defining a person. 

2. The Taj Mahal is incredible.  If you ever get a chance to go, don’t even think twice.  The whole complex is completely symmetrical, made with white marble and red stone, and fine gems are cut into the marble- nothing is painted.  There are four gates, along with a mosque and a guest house on either side of the main building as well- these parts often get left out of pictures but they are equally as spectacular.  Pictures make it look pretty amazing, but the beauty of the building is even more breathtaking live!

1. When people become Christians, their lives should be changed.  “Behold, the old has gone, the new has come” it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17.  I saw this attitude so prevalent in the lives of the Indian Christians I worked with.  Many of the Indian people from outside of the Christian faith were quite pushy, rude, and very difficult to enjoy being around, but the Indian Christians I met were some of the most friendly, welcoming, and helpful people I have met.  We quickly became close friends over just a few hours of talking with some of them.  Christianity changes people, and that was so clear to see through my time in India.  Continue to be praying for their work; there are so many people in India who do not know Him as their personal Savior. 

Day 9 of 42 completed! 

Next adventure: Central Asia

Luke Forshey

June 17, 2017

10 Thoughts about Vietnam

10 Thoughts about Vietnam

10. Sidewalks are not safe anymore.  If there is too much traffic on the road, use the sidewalk, why not?  I almost got hit by the 3 motorbikes riding along the sidewalk, in a space that no more than 2 people could walk on.  In addition, the sidewalks aren’t very well constructed, so they are bumpy and have lots of street signs and electric poles in the way.  That being said, walking across the streets is incredibly safe.  You wouldn’t need to even look before you pulled out- people would wait for you and most times not even honk if you are in the way.  Even though the traffic is much worse here than in Indonesia (Ho Chi Mihn City has the most motorbikes of any city in the world- 7 million registered to be exact), it felt safer crossing the streets. 

9. The city is organized so well.  There are 11 sections of the city broken into districts, and all you have to say is “I’m living District 4” and people knew where you were.  Each district is also known for a specific thing, so District 1 is the tourist district, while District 4 is the food market district.  It made navigating a brand new city quite easy- I walked 12 miles around the city yesterday and only had to ask for directions once! 

8. I felt totally safe the whole time.  There are so many police, almost at every street corner, and I never felt intimidated by large crowds of people.  They were all quite friendly and appreciated me, and all of the other foreigners that I saw, were there.  Even walking back to my hotel at midnight last night felt fine, with no one looking to rob me even in a not-very-populated part of town. 

7. There are so many people from Europe.  Most times in Indonesia, if you saw a white person, they were typically speaking English, but here, there were so many different European languages spoken.  Vietnam was colonized by the French, so it makes sense the strong European influence, but I was not expecting that.  There is also every ethnicity of food available, although I stuck to the local food while I was there.

6. The English level of locals is not extremely good.  In Indonesia, I was used to people coming up and having a decent conversation, to “practice their English,” but here, that didn’t happen.  Instead, they would see me, say “hello,” and then walk away.  It happened about 5 times in the last night I was walking around the city. 

5. If you need a visa to enter a country, make sure you keep that visa with you to exit as well!  That might be common sense, but I packed my visa papers (my visa was already stamped in my passport!) in my checked luggage before I left for the airport.  When I got to customs, I had quite a scare when the officer asked me for my visa papers- I thought I wasn’t going to get out of Vietnam! 

4. The drinks here are so good!  Coffee, milk tea, bubble tea, home-brewed beer- you name it, it was delicious.  I could spend a lot of time exploring all of the different cafes and coffee shops around the city.  The food was also delicious and incredibly so cheap- 50 cents for local Vietnamese food!

3. This country is incredibly liberal- communism does not have that much control over these people’s lives.  I tried asking a few university students about their life in Vietnam, and they said they can’t vote for their president, but otherwise, life is fairly normal for them. They can use Facebook/Google, then can watch whatever movies/TV they want, they can practice a religion, same-sex relationships are allowed, the party scene is HUGE and overall, people are fairly happy.  This was a mindset change for me – I anticipated all communist countries to be quite intense government control, which is simply not true here.

2. Vietnam people still hate America for the Vietnam War.  One of the main reasons why I wanted to visit Ho Chi Mihn City (also called Saigon, if known by the French name), was to visit the Vietnam War museum.  Its current name is the “War Remnants Museum,” although it was before called “The Museum of American War Crimes,” if that tells you the focus of the museum.  There was very little background about the war; instead, the exhibits focused on the photographers who were killed in the war (How could you kill all of these innocent people who documented what you are doing to us?), the negative affects of Agent Orange chemicals (Look at how you’ve harmed our country for years to come!), and the massacres of civilians throughout northern Vietnam (You really are barbarians, aren’t you?).  The (parenthesis) are the undertones that were found throughout each of the exhibits- you can see it is clearly a work of anti-American propaganda.  They also had pictures of almost 50 countries that had protests against the war and a few pictures about the Kent State shooting in 1973; again, all about how people didn’t want the war but the US continued to fight.  Although it was very clearly anti-American, it did make me think if what America did was necessary- I guess that was the goal of the museum. 

1. This country is lost in sin.  The Wikipedia page says this country has been declared an atheist country by the government, and about 76% of people are not following a religion.  It is very obvious- the party culture is large, prostitution is huge, and the general attitude of “better yourself to put down others” was obvious even in the few days I was here.  Please be praying for these people, these warm and friendly people, that they will find God and find a greater purpose for their lives.

Day 4 of 42 completed! 

Next adventure: India

Luke Forshey

June 12, 2017

It Just Takes Time

This week, I’ve had many people ask about my experience living in the South Pacific for the last two years.  I most likely responded with a few words:

“Amazing,” “Powerful,” “Life-changing.”  “Tough, but rewarding.”  All of these words and statements are true. 

And then comes the next sentence.  The time when the person expects me to expand on the first sentence.  Why was it influential?  Difficult?  Rewarding even though stressful?  My response, the next sentence, is incredibly hard to formulate.  How can I truly summarize the immense joys and hurts of the last two years into a few sentences? 

I could start to talk about the amazing things I’ve experienced:

            -Teaching students to record 21 worship songs in a local recording studio

            -Traveling to 6 different countries in Asia/Australia

            -Leading student trips for teaching and service, as well as a worship conference and                                    a Model UN conference

            -Seeing a worship program grow immensely at my school

            -Meeting people and forming friendships from all over the world

            -Influencing the lives of amazing students from grades K-12

            -Growing much deeper in my personal relationship with God

            -Sharing the Good News in a second language, and having people understand

            -Understanding God’s call on my life in a powerful way

            -And so many more!

But I would be missing a piece of my story if I didn’t include the difficult times.  After all, no experience is only positive or only negative.  I would need to share these harder situations too:

            -Seeing a community of like-minded Christian workers struggle to be a community

            -Struggling to pick up extra responsibilities as teachers leave school

            -Missing home for key life events (sister’s college graduation, Grandma’s 80^th                                                birthday party, a funeral of my student teaching mentor)

            -Loosing trust in the leadership placed in front of me

            -Watching close friends move away

            -Battling weariness and apathy in myself, other teachers, and students

            -Feeling lonely and stressed by cultural differences

            -And so many more!

And as I consider all of these experiences, I realize it is impossible to synthesize all of these life events into a few sentences.  I want to share the positive things, because there were so many, while also painting a realistic picture of the difficulties that abound on this field.  Serving in a different country has made me feel some of the greatest joy and deepest sorrow I have ever experienced. 

So if you truly want to know how this experience has influenced me, I am happy to talk.  I would love to share how I have changed and matured and how God has continued to write His story through my life over the last two years.  I would encourage you to think about how you can influence others with His love.  I would share the pictures of the people and places I’ve experienced.  I would ask you to pray for the rebuilding that my community will go through in the upcoming years.  There is so much to talk about. 

But there is no way to talk about it in only a few sentences.  Maybe after the wounds heal and the experience becomes a distant memory, I will have a greater understanding and have a few sentence summary. 

For now, I ask you to give me time.  Time to process.  Time to heal.  Time to grow.  And time to talk, to share, and to confide in you. 

Just know that this all takes time.  A few sentence conversation will never be enough to share all that God has brought me through these last two years. 

That being said, if you have an hour of time to spare, at any stop throughout my journey of the next few months, it would be a joy to sit down and share my life from the last two years with you.  It has truly been a life-changing experience, and I am thankful for all of the situations that have formed me to who I am today.   Just know that I have a lot of talking to do.    

And if my second sentence doesn’t come right away, I promise I will eventually have a second sentence. 

It just takes time. 

Luke Forshey

June 1, 2017