Meanwhile in Uzbekistan

Here's an email I received on Saturday from someone who spent some time in Uzbekistan recently.

I imagine some of you may have read the news on Uzbekistan from the last 2 days. The story is here

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/05/14/uzbekistan/index.html

Most of you know that JP was there for 2 years and I was living in the same region, Fergana Valley, that this news is coming from. Right now there was a big protest by over 10,000 people against the oppression of the government in Andijon. They took guns from a police station freeing people in the jails there. The government opened fire killing hundreds of People. I emailed my former Manager out there and he said most of the people where he's at, Kokand, haven't even heard about it because the governments blocked all the media in the country and filter internet sites. But he said it's very peaceful where he's at. There are 2 mission families though in Andijon where the fighting occurred. They definitely need prayer because they aren't to leave their houses as the military is walking the streets now.

He said there are a lot of house churches coming up now and little by little God's making himself known. He said we need to pray that this fighting doesn't start to spread and that civil war doesn't erupt. If this spreads then he said "then God have mercy on Uzbekistan!" The people are very oppressed and are seeking for relief of their suffering. Extreme Islam is growing there as well. We need to pray for God to intervene here and that his churches will grow and people will find their peace in Christ instead of trying to get it through the government, or Islam and that their hearts will be opened to seeking the truth because of what's happening.

Thank you for all your prayers.

DN

Here's NPR's report for today, "Islamic Protests in Uzbekistan Leave More than 500 Dead"
Baldilocks' commentary, "Rumors of Wars...and of Fault"
Gateway Pundit has news and video (hat tip Instapundit.)