Many oldsters are looking back at their village recounted that Aryg Ouzou was very developed in its time, there were a huge livestock farm, a sown fields, a pig farm of Soviet Union measure. All that, was active and viable. Everything was operating including the hospital, kindergarten, public school, movie theatre, recreational center, stores… The village was considered as the state farm-millionaire. But it’s all in the past. After the collapse of the Soviet Union everything ended up in decline, the former glory was gone, the fields were overgrown with weeds, the farms were fallen apart. All kinds of work came to a standstill, and then followed the unemployment.
Those who had the chance moved to Kyzyl (capital of the Republic), in order to arrange their lives in some way. Everyone else left there just to languish in a dying village. In view of this increased thefts, robberies, murders, debauchery. Life in Aryg Ouzou changed just exactly the opposite. Where before was an order, it became happening an unthinkable things. A grave concealed sin – has shown its ugly face by expressing the worst.
That was a reality picture that our brothers and sisters came across with, while bringing the Good News to this village. It has taken so many years before the first church appeared in Aryg Ouzou. This is – a small group, consisting of sisters only, was getting together from house to house, and just prayed to God that He would extend His mercy on this place.
In 2009, brother Ranis and his wife Alim turned to God.
Presently, Ranis is ministering in the village Aryg Ouzou. He is an elder of the church “Light of the Gospel.” In this village, there is a house belonging to the church and there are people attending the Sunday services. Ranis holds on the evenings, once a week a small group of Bible study with members of the church and some people, who are just attendees. His wife is engaged in Sunday school.
Alima is the principal of the school and a teacher of Russian language, and Ranis – is a maintenance man. Their lives cannot be called too busy, it’s more of a quiet, a countryside way of life. But, despite of that, they are the light and salt for their village. The whole village is aware of their genuine belief in Christ. At first, they were treated with suspicion, as traitors of the parental tradition and Buddhist faith. But over the years, seeing their pure, God-fearing life, many changed their attitude and began to come into the house of prayer on the Sunday meetings. At the moment the group, which is shepherded by Ranis has six people, one brother and five sisters. Also, all these people are coming to Sunday worship services on the regular basis, and bringing along their children (5-7 people).
Alima is preparing classes for Sunday school, using materials from the central church “Light of the Gospel” in Kyzyl. She is good at it, because she is the mother of five children (three of them are still of pre-school ages), beyond that, she has extensive experience in school. She is not alone in this labor, she is got sister Nona helping her.
