Persecution Magazine, July 2013 2/5

PERSECU ION International Christian Concern | July 2013

ISSUE 2/5

PERSECUTION THAT CUTS DEEP Living in a town known for murdering Christians, Yaida and her family face persecution as they attempt to share Christ with their neighbors through hair-cutting.

BY CO R E Y B A I L E Y

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CENTRAL ASIA

PER S CU ECU TS TIO DE N EP TH

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YAIDA

THEY HATE CHRISTIANS. IT IS VERY LONELY TO BE A CHRISTIAN HERE.

stood back, shears in hand, as she watched her client warily eye her while sweeping up every last hair that had fallen to the ground. It didn’t seem to matter that the village had allowed Yaida to open a hair salon; the locals still think Christians are evil and believe that Yaida will use their shorn hair in a spell to force them to convert to Christianity.

-YAIDA

“They hate Christians,” Yaida told ICC in an interview. “It is very lonely to be a Christian here.”

Yaida and her family are never invited to village events. In a communal society, this is especially difficult and isolating. However, it goes beyond loneliness, extending into hardship as shopowners refuse to sell food and goods to her family. She must travel over 12 miles to get groceries, something that is quite a challenge when even the taxi drivers refuse to accommodate her because of her Christian faith.

REJECTED BY ONE FATHER, REDEEMED BY ANOTHER Yaida’s journey is an inspiring one. One of six children, she spent much of her life caring for her siblings and her mother. Angry that her frequently drunk father did nothing to help the family, Yaida once stood up to him, and was promptly disowned by him and kicked out of the house.

Rejected and alone, Yaida decided that ending her life was her only option.

She sobbed with despair as she swallowed handfulls of pills. Thankfully, someone discovered her and got her to the hospital in time to save her life.

However, pumping her stomach did not heal her soul. Empty and depressed, she moved to a big city in central Asia. Day after day, Yaida drifted with little hope in her heart, rejected and alone in a huge city, far from home. As she searched for a place to live, she silently said to the unknown, “God, if you are real—find me a place to live. I am so alone. If you make You can help today! 800-ICC-5441

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CENTRAL ASIA

it so I am not alone, I will [follow] you forever.”

Not long after her prayer, Yaida heard about a church with people who believed in a God named Jesus. She heard that the church helped people who had “pain in their hearts.” As she sat in the Baptist church, believers shared with her about her sin and God’s extravagant love. Yaida realized that Jesus died for her, and that Jesus wanted her! Even if no one else wanted her, Jesus wanted her! She was not alone after all.

An hour after arriving at the church she repented of her sin and gave her life to Jesus. Yaida shared the Gospel with her entire family. They all gave their lives to the Lord, including her father, who became a believer on his deathbed. “When I was rejected by my Father, I found Jesus. At the end of his days, Jesus found my Father,” she told me through tears.

BEHEADED FOR HIS FAITH Yaida later met and married a Christian man. Her father-in-law was the only Christian in his village. He was very bold and shared about the love of Jesus freely. The villagers were enraged because he had once been a devout Muslim. Feeling that he betrayed his religion and his people too, they gathered together and beheaded him on his front porch.

Yaida and her family, bound by a culture which required them to move back to the village of their deceased, came to bury their father and planned to stay. The villagers would not allow them to bury a Christian in the village. “Deny Christ, and then you can bury your Father here,” they said.

Banning Christians from burying their dead is a common form of religious persecution in central Asia. It took seven days of pleading and praying, but finally they were able to find a place outside of the village where Yaida and her husband could bury her father-in-law. The village, however, was not happy that in place of one unwelcomed Christian, now stood a whole family of Christian believers.

Yaida with Regional Manager Corey Bailey

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Yaida’s trailer that serves as her salon.

Although college educated, no one would hire Yaida or her husband, but when villagers saw Yaida cutting her children’s hair one day, things began to change.

“Our people find that a good haircut is very important,” she said with a smile. In this part of central Asia, a hairstylist is top priority for a village, and yet the nearest barber is miles away. A few villagers allowed Yaida to cut their hair, but always swept the clippings into a bag to take home with them, afraid that if she kept their hair she would be able to convert them.

When the village leader promised his blessing if she got a ‘real’ salon, Yaida and her husband scraped together enough to purchase a tin trailer next to their home. However with no roof or insulation it is only useable a few months of the year.

THEY WILL KNOW YOU ARE MY DISCIPLE Despite the fact that the villagers murdered her father-in-law and continue to persecute Yaida and her family, Yaida longs to share the love of Jesus with them. The couple firmly believes the Lord has told them to stay and evangelize with their lives. “We can show them that we live our lives differently,” she says. “Everyone watches us anyway, maybe now [as owners of the town salon] they will talk to us. When you depend on someone for something, then it is OK to ask them things. If they depend on me for a haircut, then they are allowed to ask me questions about my life and what I believe. It is a big hope for me, my family, and for the Gospel to be preached in our village.”

Thanks to ICC donors, we are providing funding to turn her shipping container into a real salon that can be used year-round.

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