A Few Drops of Ink
(March 24, 2011)
 

There’s an old saying, “A drop of ink makes millions think.”  Sounds like a Mao Tse-tung dictum.  The written word is very powerful, enough to influence millions of people to think.  For us, the printed word in the Yakut/Sakha language has the potential to make 450,000 Yakut/Sakha people think­about spiritual things and living for Him.
 
Before we left Yakutsk, Russia last spring in 2010, the Yakut/Sakha people wanted us to give them a complete list of everything we helped them print during our 16 years with them.  They printed the entire list in their Yakut Christian Newspaper.  (The article was written in the Yakut language, or we would have sent it on to you.)
 
Seeing the Big Picture
We moved to Yakutsk, the coldest inhabited big city built on ice, in the spring of 1994.  At first we lived in a room at our Russian partner Mission, Light of the Gospel, now called the Association of Evangelical Christian Churches (AECC).  This capital city of more than 250,000 people proved to be the best place to work.
 
We saw the big picture of what God was doing among the Yakut people as we traveled extensively throughout the vast Republic of Yakutia, which is 4 times the size of Texas.  This also became our vision.  We traveled with Misha Trubchik, whom we viewed as God’s apostle to the Yakut and Russian people among the Evangelical Churches, all new since the demise of communism in 1989.  Vera, a strong Ukrainian believer, served as our translator. 
 
We would pile into Misha’s little Russian economy car called a Zhiguli (Lada/Fiat) and take off with a full load of Russian Bibles, any other Russian literature available as well as gifts of food and clothing.  Misha and Vera enjoyed driving late into the night and then fellow shipping in Russian for hours and hours with the isolated, spiritually-hungry, new believers.  Everywhere we went, there were many spiritual questions that needed to be answered.
 
We spoke briefly on these trips.  We also told them about serving with American Indians in Alaska and developing literature for them.  The Lord had given us a lot of experience in developing Christian literature with the Koyukon Athabaskans in Alaska.  There was only a mere handful of Yakut believers at that time.

The first piece of Yakut Christian literature was The Life of Jesus, with fully illustrated New Testament stories, 252 pages, by David C. Cook Foundation.  It also included God’s simple plan of salvation in the back of the book.  Our mission, InterAct Ministries, organized and printed 50,000 copies of this book.  The plan was to print enough for every Yakut family.  The book was widely distributed by the Christians as well as through the National library system in the Republic of Yakutia.
 
One result of this publication was a young Yakut lady named Pasha.  She turned to the Lord and He connected her with the Evangelical Church in Yakutsk.  Several members of her family, including her parents, also became believers.  Pasha has served in two new Yakut Church planting situations, putting her growing faith as well as her ability in her Yakut language to work for the Lord. 

The Lord dropped the Yakut Hymnal project in our laps

On some of our first trips, Yakut/Sakha believers started giving us scraps of paper with their translation of favorite Russian hymns in their own Yakut language.  Thus the Lord dropped the Yakut Hymnal project in our laps.  It didn't seem to matter that we’re not musical gifted, though we do enjoy and can tell good music from bad.  Thankfully, at this stage of life and ministry, we had computers and printers.  One of our early projects was to find a Yakut computer whiz to add the five additional Yakut letters to our newly acquired Russian keyboard.
 
We had wanted original Yakut Christian songs, but we quickly learned that the National people themselves enjoyed a wide variety of songs including both translated and original ones. 
 
The Russian Bible and hymnal were available, but waiting for full distribution until communism fell in 1989.  Thinking of the Yakut people, the Institute for Bible Translation in National languages started work on the Yakut New Testament, which took years to produce.
 
We strongly recommend working on the grassroots level with any group of National believers.  This is where the real action is!  It will affect them now as well as in their future.  This is also the level where we feel most comfortable working.
 
The Lord led us to work directly with a musically talented Sakha church with an ambitious Yakut/Sakha leader named Luda.  She showed strong spiritual growth, a totally changed life and good understanding of the Scriptures.  We also share the same goal of reaching out to all of the Sakha people. 
 
For Christian literature that is widely used by Native people, the Yakut/Sakha Hymnal was the most challenging work outside of translating Scripture.  We got tons of encouragement and help as well as some misdirected criticism and opposition.  But we determined to keep moving forward with our eye on the goal­knowing it was God's will.  The end result was the most rewarding work in which we have ever been involved.  The Hymnal has 200 songs.  We’re also thankful to have helped with some audio cassettes and CDs of their songs.

The Children of God Testify is an illustrated 68-page book revealing how God is working in and through the lives of 27 National Yakut believers in Russia today.  Each one tells his or her story in their cultural setting and in the Sakha language.  Here's a picture of the book with Yakut horses on the cover.
 
More Than A Carpenter (not pictured) by Josh McDowell in the Yakut language also included the 4 spiritual laws.  Yes, Jesus is way more than just a carpenter; He is the living God and Savior for those Yakut people who will turn to Him.

Facilitating the translation of the Right Choices Bible by Josh & Dottie McDowell into the Yakut language was the largest book with 368 pages, hard cover book loaded with color illustrations.  There are over 60 stories from the Old and New Testaments, where the main character must make an important choice with the resulting consequence.
 
Ice-skating Without Permission tells about a little girl who did not take care of her little brother as her mother had instructed her.  The little boy got seriously ill, until God intervened.  In the end she learned that it is better to obey our parents than to do what we want to do.  A Yakut Christian illustrated the book.

Dorie, The Girl Nobody Loved in illustrated form proved challenging to get the Yakut translation into the quotation bubbles.  Child abuse, a worldwide problem, is mentioned very discretely in the book.  Not being loved struck a responsive note with many people.  Here’s a picture of one of the inside pages.  This book also presented the simple way of salvation for children to understand.
 
A set of three Activity books for Yakut children were used with the help of their parents, grandparents and Sunday School teachers.  These 32-page books illustrate one Bible truth on each page, with an accompanying prayer, a main thought along with cutout stickers and pictures to color.  A Yakut artist adapted all the illustrations to fit Yakutian culture. 

<>< God Created the World – The story of creation and God’s purpose for mankind.
<>< God is with Me All Day – God is present everywhere and readily available.
<>< God is with Us All Year – Builds on the concept of God’s everlasting love, rather than fearing the spirits.
 

We also facilitated the printing of several tracts.  The one pictured asks the all important question: How do I get to the highest heaven?  I found this tract in Russian, but there was no address or copyright; so we translated it into Yakut.  Then Gus, a children’s worker, came to Yakut for a seminar.  He asked, “Do you have any tracts in the Yakut language?”  One lady showed him a mock-up copy.  Lo and behold, Gus had written the tract during the time of communism and naturally did not want an address or printer’s info on it.  He just wanted to get out the Good News.  Then he offered to print more than 30,000 free of charge through a Christian printer in Finland. 
 
Probably the most used items, since Yakut people drink a lot of tea and coffee, were two mugs with Psalm 121:2 “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”  The other mug has John 14:6 Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”  We also made Scripture text calendars, pens with “Jesus loves you” printed on them; flashlight key chain holders quoting Jesus, “I am the Light of the world.”  The parable in book form of The Three Trees was also printed in both Yakut and Russian.
 
The LAMB has 184 pages chocked full with great color illustrations to explain Who actually is the Lamb of God.  The cover is a black and white  silhouette of a lamb with Jesus on the cross in the lower part of the picture.  You can see the English version online at: www.goodseed.com.
 
A 10-page brochure Growing in our Christian Lives.  We had a strong burden to give them something in writing, especially for new believers, on this vital subject.  God wants all of us to keep on growing spiritually all of our lives.  Dave authored this one.
 
We are very thankful as we look back and see how God provided the funding for these various projects through vitally interested Christians, churches, the Tyndale Foundation and Josh McDowell. 
 
We are forever grateful to our wonderful Lord for giving us the calling and opportunity to work with the growing Yakut Church for these 16 years.  It is only the Lord, Who gave us the perseverance, patience and strength to serve with the Yakut believers.
 
        Working together ­ for His glory in Russia and Alaska.

                 Dave & Kay Henry <'{{{><
 
Some praise and prayer items for the growing Yakut Church:
Praise:
1. for more than 500 Yakut believers scattered throughout the Republic of Yakutia.
2. for the 10 Yakut Churches with 10 or more members, their pastors and most of the service being in the Yakut language.
3. for spiritual progress in the past, and commitment to keep pressing on for our Lord.
4. for Christian literature and the means to help future Yakut believers.
 
Pray:
1. that the Christian literature and media will continue to be used effectively.
2. that the remaining literature will be distributed in a timely fashion.
3. that the Yakut Christians will produce more tracts and Christian literature.  They have the ability.
4. that the team working on the Yakut Old Testament translation will press toward accuracy with the original text plus making it very understandable to their people. 
5. that the Yakut Church will stay true to following Jesus Christ and His Word.
6. that the Lord will stop all the efforts to sidetrack or derail the Yakut Christians.
 
Home address: 
P.O. Box 71028, Fairbanks, AK 99707-1028, Telephone: 907-457-3934
e-mail henry99707@yahoo.com

Mission address:
InterAct Ministries, Inc., 31000 SE Kelso Road, Boring, OR 97009-6099, Telephone: 1-800-258-3464