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Carlos* and Blanca,* part of the OM team in the Caucasus, live among least-reached people groups in the country of Georgia. Through spending time with local believers and sharing the gospel with those still seeking, they have noticed a strong resistance from the Orthodox Christian community to talk about Jesus. Recently, they were invited by other Jesus followers living in Georgia to help lead a training to share tools for reaching their neighbours and to encourage one another to sow seeds of faith through weekly rhythms of prayer and spiritual conversations.
The original plan for the training was to hold two separate sessions: one for expats and another for local pastors. But Carlos and Blanca believed the two groups needed to walk this journey together, as there was much the two groups could learn from each another. So, the training was held together.
As they exchanged tools, shared stories and offered hard-won experiences, a collective realisation surfaced: When it comes to sharing Jesus Christ within Orthodox contexts, especially in Georgia, there are very few tools – if any at all – that resonate. There are no resources specifically crafted to bridge that gap, no contextualised pathways to meaningful gospel conversations rooted in shared history and spiritual language.
Together, they began asking: How did people come to faith under Soviet persecution? What stirred hearts to search for Jesus in secret, behind closed doors, in the 1950s and 1960s? Which whispered words opened the door to deeper conversations, such as: “Have you heard of a living Book?” or “Would you like to meet a living God?” These seemingly small invitations carried great spiritual weight, igniting quiet awakenings at that time.
After the training, Carlos and Blanca reached out to others living in Orthodox-majority regions. The consensus was the same: there is a gap. While each Orthodox tradition is unique, the absence of bridge-building resources echoes across borders.
The burden is clear. Now they are praying and asking what it would look like to gather voices across generations – those formed in the traditional Orthodox expressions and those shaped by lighter cultural faith. They want to understand the bridges the Holy Spirit used in those journeys toward Jesus. Through listening deeply, prayer and discernment, they hope to shape tools that empower the local church to use those bridges again, tools that invite people to hear the full gospel story – and to respond freely.
This vision is still unfolding. Please pray for God to supply the right people, the right moments and the right tools – exactly when needed.
*name changed
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