Teaching the faith in Kazakhstan September 29, 2025

How does culture shape the way a missionary shares the Gospel — or how a translator translates?

It’s an intriguing question arising in Kazakhstan, a primarily Muslim nation in Central Asia that borders Russia and China.

The ethnic Kazakhs (as opposed to the Russians who have settled in the country) have a long heritage of living as nomad herders, seasonally guiding horses, sheep, goats, camels, and cattle to the best grazing lands and water. Theirs is an oral culture, passing on stories and songs through long and eloquent poetry while gathered around a crowded dinner table.

In many ways, it’s a lovely way of life. But for the Lutheran missionary, teaching the faith to the Kazakh people presents a variety of challenges.

An incomplete Lutheran vocabulary

The Lutheran faith is quite new in Kazakhstan, where in fact the Bible wasn’t completely translated until 2010. The Kazakh Bible had its first revision in 2015, and according to LCMS missionary Rev. Jonathan*, there is some terminology that they’re still working on.

“For example, when we were working on translating the phrase ‘the Lord’s Supper’ for the Kazakh Small Catechism, we coined a new phrase: ‘the breaking of the bread ritual’,” Rev. Jonathan recalled. “In the Kazakh context, ‘the Sacrament of the Altar’ wouldn’t make any sense. They asked, ‘Isn’t an altar where Muslim sacrifices are given?’ So we settled on a Kazakh phrase that if you ran it through Google Translate, it would probably say ‘the Tablecloth of the Lord.’ But the feeling and the meaning of it in the Kazakh language is “the Feast of Our Lord.’ Kazakhs say, ‘Wow, that’s beautiful that the Lord has put this feast before us, and it’s His gift!’”

An oral culture, not a reading culture

Another challenge is that many Kazakhs are not fluent readers.

“In translating the catechism, we aimed for as simple a vocabulary as we could, while still keeping the accuracy,” Rev. Jonathan explained. “But even so, because it’s a translated work, it doesn’t fit the Kazakh oral patterns. They have rhyme schemes. They memorize long poems, but the poems have the cadence of a hymn. They can memorize long passages in that format, but even though we try to keep the grammar and vocabulary of the Small Catechism simple, it’s hard for them to memorize that straight prose.

“We need to work with some Kazakh poets at crafting something more like how the Kazakh people actually speak – exactly what I believe Martin Luther would have done, if he were a Kazakh,” Rev. Jonathan laughed. “Luther aimed at how people actually speak, and I’d like to do a version of each of the Six Chief Parts, put into a poetic translation that they can take with them when we missionaries and teachers are not at hand. If we want the church to be truly Kazakh and carry on, on its own legs, that’s a resource we should provide in the near future.”

Ministering to nomads

Though it may sound rather humorous, there are many times when Rev. Jonathan struggles to find his parishioners.

“People’s locations are very fluid because most of them have two seasons: the nomadic season and their settled season. Wherever you see a town on the map, that’s their winter grazing lands (areas that are sheltered from the elements), but where there’s enough water to help the grasses grow to feed the flocks during the winter. That’s when most of our solid small group work happens, because that’s when I can find the people!” he said.

Rev. Jonathan ministers to about a dozen large extended families, each at a different point in the understanding of the Lutheran faith.

“Three of my groups are like steady churches,” he said. “These churches are very spread out, so to have a resource like the Small Catechism that we can leave in their hands allows them to continue to learn when I can’t be there. We’ve even had some lay leaders who have been able to help catechize new believers using the catechism. We praise the Lord for that!”
To read more about Rev. Jonathan’s experiences in Kazakhstan, go to www.LHFmissions.org.