Stories from

AZERBAIJANBaku • Sumgait

Azerbaijan

Elshan Abdullayev—Baku

Fuad Tariverdi—Baku

Rasima Muradova—Sumgait

EURASIA

Grace Publications6025 Moravia Park Drive

BaLTiMore, MD 21206

Printed in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.a.

Copyright © 2012

Grace Publications is a ministry of

Greater Grace World outreach, inc.

www.ggwo.org

INTRODUCTION

These pages contain what we consider to be

good news from afar. The words are written to

take your imagination to nations, to places, and to

homes so that you would understand more about

the reality of what God is doing in His world. Think

about the people as they tell you about the days of

their youth. We believe their stories will stir you to

pray and that the maps and sketches will give you

a sense of where they are from and of what their

countries are like.

The stories you are about to read are true stories.

They are from people like you who grew up in towns

and neighborhoods like yours and did some of the

things that you do. at some point in their lives, each

of these people became believers in Jesus Christ.

each of them recognized their need for His saving

grace and entered into real spiritual relationship

with Him. also, each of these people came to be a

part of the ministry of Greater Grace World outreach,

a church devoted to preaching the Gospel and to

the mission of making disciples of Christ in every

nation.

our prayer is that these series of books on these

amazing people will help you to see the wonderful

work of God. Through the reading of these stories,

you may find yourself wanting to meet people like

these people and to go to new places and be part of

the great adventures of missionary life.

Special thanks to those involved in producing

this publication: Melissa Quickel, for her interviews

and transcriptions; Daniel Dunbar, for putting these

into story form; karen Janssen, for the drawings of

the people and the places; Sue May, for the layout

and design; and for Bruce May, for the printing and

production.

Steve andrulonis

Editor in Chief

Grace Publications

A z e r b a i j a nSumgait

Baku

AZERBAIJAN

Baku … Elshan Abdullayev

Baku … Fuad Tariverdi

Sumgait … Rasima Muradova

Elshan’s Home TownBaku, Azerbaijan

A z e r b a i j a n Baku

7

Baku, Azerbaijan

Elshan Abdullayev

Did you know that there are some people

who truly enjoy school and studying?

Perhaps you are one of them and you will understand

what i mean when i say that for elshan abdullayev

school was a hobby. Some boys collect coins, action

figures, or pictures of their favorite athletes. elshan

collected grades. He did not care what the subject

was; he studied very hard so that he could get a’s

in all of his classes. He was a perfectionist, always

trying to be and do the very best, and that is why

he worked so hard to excel in school. elshan was

very proud of his intelligence and his ability to

figure things out logically. He thought he was smart

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enough to be the president of azerbaijan when he

grew up.

azerbaijan was part of the Soviet

Union when eslhan was a boy and

ruled by communists, so he was

taught in school that there

was no God. He heard

in history class about a

godly man named Jesus

who had been killed two thousand years ago, but this

was only information for him to learn to get a grade.

after all, Jesus was part of the Christian religion, and

he believed that if he was going to be religious, he

should be a Muslim, since that was part of his azeri

culture. elshan’s father was a communist, so his

family was not religious. elshan hated him because

he drank alcohol and ignored his family when he

came home from the army. He had never told elshan

that he loved him.

The family moved to Baku when elshan was

old enough to go to university. His parents owned

two apartments and decided to rent one. an agent

brought two Finnish women, elina and Liisa, to see

the apartment and elina played a song on the piano.

elshan’s mother loved the ladies right away and

served them tea and coffee, because she wanted

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them to rent the apartment. When elshan’s father

came home, he recognized one of the women and

said, “i know you! You were playing the violin in that

place,” and he told his family that he had been going

to a nice cultural club where people talk about God.

elshan was shocked.

elina and Liisa said that their pastor would have

to approve of the apartment before they could live

there. They explained that they were missionaries

and invited the family to come to their church.

elshan imagined a building with a cross on top, filled

with sick, old russian ladies with wrinkly white skin

hoping to find some sort comfort in their Christian

religion. He thought, “What are these two ladies

thinking? i am a Muslim, not a Christian.” He knew

his father could not refuse the invitation, because

that would be very impolite for an azeri to do, but

he expected his answer would be a polite “maybe”

which would have meant “no.”

When Pastor Matti SirviŐ from the Greater Grace

church arrived, he said the apartment was nice

enough, but the neighborhood was too dangerous

for two missionary ladies. elina cried. elshan’s

family were amazed. How could someone they had

known for so short a time love them enough that

she would weep because she could not live in

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their simple apartment? after this tearful display

of unconditional love, elshan’s father accepted the

ladies’ invitation to their church, and the whole

family went.

elshan was surprised to discover that the church

was filled with hundreds of dark-skinned azeris like

him, and that they all were filled with joy and love.

He thought, “This cannot be a church. This must be

a club where people speak and sing about God.”

He wondered, “Why are these people like me, yet

very different from me?” The people had something

mysterious inside them, and he was jealous enough

of them to want to figure out what this mysterious

something was. He paid little attention to Pastor

Matti’s preaching from the Bible, but spent the

service observing the other people like a scientist,

trying to understand the “trick” that made everyone

so happy. By the end of the service, elshan had told

God that, although he now believed

in Him, he would never

become a Christian, since

he was a Muslim. He

had no explanation

for the trick.

Thinking that

more observation

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combined with logical thinking would help him

understand the trick, elshan decided to come back

to the church until he figured it out. every Sunday

morning he went to the meeting, and when he

learned there were also Sunday and Wednesday

evening meetings, he attended those as well,

but he still could not understand what made the

church people so happy. Deciding that he needed

even more opportunities to observe, he enrolled in

Bible college, a shy, unsaved Muslim guy, sitting in

the corner of the classroom, not talking to anyone,

just taking notes and feeling strange whenever the

other students told him how much God and they

loved him. He found himself looking forward to the

meetings and his classes.

Finally, after months of observing Christians,

he realized he understood their trick: Nobody in

the church or the college was any different from

him, except that they believed what the pastor was

preaching and teaching. He had learned enough to

know what they did, but he was not believing it. He

knew the Bible said that all men are sinners and that

God loves sinners, but hates sin. He knew that God

sent his only son to die on a cross to deal with sin

so that people, like him, could believe and be free.

it didn’t make logical sense to him, but alone in his

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home, he prayed, “God, i

want to be a Muslim and

believe in Jesus Christ.

Come into my heart and

change my life. i want to

have the same life that

the people in the church

have, and they say to just

believe.”

Little by little, God changed elshan’s life. He

began singing in the church and he finished Bible

college. He married a wonderful Hungarian woman

and together they serve God in the Baku church

and as missionaries to iran. elshan’s father received

Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior and he stopped

drinking. He came home happy about his life and

brought joy to his family. He told elshan, “i love you,”

for the very first time, and they became good friends

as father and son. it wasn’t elshan’s knowledge that

changed his life; it was his simple faith in Jesus

Christ.

Fuad’s Home TownBaku, Azerbaijan

A z e r b a i j a n Baku

14

Baku

Fuad Tariverdi

When Fuad Tariverdi was growing up in

Baku, azerbaijan, he had many hobbies

and responsibilities. He liked to draw and play

sports. He attended a special club where he learned

how to build a radio and work with electronics. He

enjoyed listening to music and practicing the violin

and the piano. He took care of two birds, some

kittens, and his fuzzy, jumpy dog Top.

But Fuad’s biggest job was to look

after his little brother.

Because Fuad was five years

older, he was put in charge

of his little brother when their

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mother had to go work

as a doctor. Fuad told his

brother stories and made

up games to play with

him while their mother

was at her job. Because

he did such a good job

taking care of his brother,

Fuad’s family nicknamed

him “second mother.”

Fuad had a busy life, but he sometimes found

time to ride his bicycle on the great, long boulevard

beside the Caspian Sea where families came to relax

and play. He was a happy boy, but he did not know

God. His grandmother was a faithful Muslim who

prayed five times a day, but his own family never

went to the mosque to worship. Fuad’s idea of God

was a big, old, gray-bearded man who watched over

him to make sure he was being good. He liked the

idea that God took care of him, but he was afraid of

what might happen if he wasn’t a good boy.

even though Fuad did not know God, when he

became a teenager he began speaking in his heart

to Him, praying, “if You are there, help me with

this.” He became curious about the priests and the

holy book in the russian orthodox church that was

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next to his house. He sneaked in and watch the old

grandmothers and grandfathers lighting candles

and he tried to touch the mysterious, sacred book,

but he got caught and was told he could not look

into it.

Fuad had questions

about many things that

were happening in his

life, like the death of

his friend in the army,

but no answers. He went

to college to study to be a

mathematician and fell in love

with a girl who was studying mathematics

too. one day, his girlfriend’s mother came home very

excited. She had seen a poster that asked “is There

Life after Death?” and she had gone to a church to

hear what a pastor named Tom Schaller had to say

on the subject.

Fuad heard that this pastor had spoken from

the Bible, the holy book, and that the people at

the meeting had sung songs, clapped, raised their

hands, and laughed. He thought this was a joke,

because he believed that people talking about God

had to be very serious. after he met an american

missionary, Fuad’s heart began to change. He went

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to the Greater Grace church, which was meeting

in a little hall inside a school, and when he heard

Pastor vladik preach the gospel from the Bible, he

discovered who God is and received Jesus Christ as

his Lord and Savior.

after his salvation, Fuad married his girlfriend.

They went to church and Bible college together.

Fuad began leading the music in the church, and

when he graduated from Bible college, he became

the pastor of his church. Nothing in Fuad’s life had

happened by accident. remember how he loved

music and practiced the violin and piano? God had

prepared him to be the music leader. remember

his hours as the “second mother” who took care of

his little brother? God had prepared him to be the

pastor who watches people’s souls. What is God

preparing you to become? if you are one of His

children, be sure that He has a plan for your life and

that everything that happens to you is making you

ready to serve Him in a very special way.

Rasima’s Home TownSumgait, Azerbaijan

A z e r b a i j a nSumgait

19

Sumgait, Azerbaijan

Rasima Muradova

Have you ever known someone who was as

close to you as your family? at church we

can meet spiritual brothers and sisters, mothers and

fathers, who love us and make us feel accepted. This

is a story about a girl who found her place in the

family of God.

rasima Muradova started her life in the

countryside of azerbaijan with her three sisters her

parents, and grandparents. Her grandparents moved

to Baku, the capital city, and it was like paradise for

rasima to go visit them. at her grandparents’ house

there was warmth, plenty of delicious food, and many

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kids and older relatives to play and visit with. Her

grandmother expected her rasima and her sisters

to do chores when they visited, so they swept and

mopped the floors, cleaned the countertops, and

carried buckets of water long distances, because

they did not have running water in the house.

rasima’s family moved to the small city of

Sumgait to be closer to good schools and better jobs,

but her father decided to go to russia to find work,

leaving rasima’s mother to raise four daughters on

her own. Because he spent much of his money on

alcohol, rasima’s father sent very little money, so

rasima’s mother had to move a lot to find work. The

places they lived were usually small and cold, and

two of the girls

slept in the

bed while the

other two slept

on the floor.

Sometimes

rasima’s

mother even had to sell her things to get money.

Making sure her daughters had a good education

was very important to rasima’s mother, and she

made rasima study even though she would have

rather been outside with the other children playing

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soccer. Before the school year began, she would buy

rasima a new school bag and new white knee socks,

but her school uniform was usually a hand-me-

down from one of her three older sisters. rasima

thought her mother was very strict about school,

and whenever rasima got into any trouble at school,

her mother always sided with the teacher and made

her respect her teachers.

although rasima grew up in a Muslim family,

she did not understand much about religious things,

and she had many questions. When she went to

university to study singing, she wanted to know

more about God, but she did not know who could

help her know him. it seemed that everyone she

knew made mistakes, that nobody was perfect, and

wondered how anyone could be right about God.

She decided that God would have to speak to her

Himself.

rasima’s cousin told her that she

had to be clean to go to God, so she

waited for her family to fall asleep

then poured a pitcher of

water over her head and

shoulders three times, went

to the balcony, opened the

window, and talked to God. She

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told God about how her mother

had raised her sisters and her,

how she felt she was not

smart or beautiful, and

how she feared ending

up unhappily married

like two of her sisters. She asked God to forgive her

for not praying the right prayers to Him. Because she

was afraid she was not praying right, she asked the

tree outside the window if it would please pray to

God for her. She thought that if she visited a Muslim

mosque, the people there would tell her how to

pray, but she didn’t go.

one day rasima heard a man speaking in public

about Jesus. She was curious, especially when

he heard him invite a woman to a meeting where

people would pray for her healing. although she

was shy, rasima wanted to know about prayer, so

she asked him, “What kind of prayer is this?” He

gave her his telephone number and told him to call

later and he would explain. She called and he told

her that she could learn a prayer called The Lord’s

Prayer and that if she would come get it, he would

give her the book the prayer came from.

rasima met the man at a metro station and went

with him to get the book. He brought her to a place

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where many russian people greeted her, and she

thought she was in a russian government building,

but it was a Baptist church. She tried to listen to

the message, but her knowledge of the russian

language was not very good, so she had no idea

what was going on. When the invitation to pray and

accept Christ came, rasima prayed what they told

her to say. She went to the Baptist church for a year,

but left because she had trouble understanding the

preaching in russian and was not learning enough

about God.

rasima prayed for God to help her with her plans

to be a singer. one day her sister asked her to have

tea with her in the university cafeteria, something

they usually would not do. a group of Greater Grace

missionary ladies was having a women’s seminar in

the cafeteria, and one of them was someone she

had known from the Baptist church. She introduced

rasima to her friends as a beautiful singer. The

women asked her to sing. although she did not want

to, she did. The women asked rasima and her sister

to come to their church on Sunday. rasima and her

sister went and heard Pastor Glenn Cannon preach.

She stood, joined hands with the others, and sang,

“How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to

dwell together in unity,” and the Holy Spirit spoke

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to her heart and told her that this was the place she

had been looking for, that these were her people.

rasima began spending a lot of time with her new

church family, and this made her family members

angry. in her culture, family is very important, and

rasima’s family expected her home by six o’clock

every night unless there was a very good reason.

Going to a Christian church was not a good reason

to her family, but rasima went anyway. She had

found spiritual mothers and sisters, who hugged and

kissed her and told her she was beautiful, something

her own mother rarely did. She had found spiritual

fathers who told her that they loved her and fed her

the Word of God. it was a difficult time in her life,

but, in time, many of her relatives believed in Jesus

and became spiritual family members too.

rasima, her husband, and her son are now

missionaries bringing people into the family of God

by preaching the gospel wherever they go in the

world. She knows how missionaries changed her life

and desires to teach others how to love the same

way God loves her.