Gospel proclamation and discipleship are spreading across the Caucasus — thanks to national believers, such as Mehdi. In his region, he is forming groups of disciples and teaching his disciples to do the same.
At the crossroads of Europe and Asia, between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea, lies the Caucasus region. It is a land known for its natural beauty and diverse people groups, many of whom are unreached. Yet right now, gospel proclamation and discipleship are spreading across this land — thanks to national disciple makers.
The OM in the Caucasus team runs a social media disciple multiplication ministry among Muslim people groups in this region. Through social media ads, they share the gospel and offer prayer. They also connect those who would like a copy of the New Testament with a national disciple maker, who goes to meet the interested person — even if that requires travelling a long distance.
Two years ago, the ministry’s leaders held a seminar to equip and encourage national believers. It focused on disciple multiplication: making disciples who make disciples and forming groups of disciples that reproduce themselves. Mehdi,* a pastor from a small province in Azerbaijan, attended the seminar. He became a believer more than a decade ago, and had been diligently meeting with people in his area who had requested New Testaments through the ministry. Although the leaders had been in contact with him for some time, they had not met him in person prior to the seminar. For the first two days, Mehdi barely engaged. At one point, a leader asked him how the training was going, and he responded, “I’ll let you know at the end.”
After the teaching ended, everyone sat together for tea. People from the Caucasus love sitting together and drinking tea. That’s where deep conversations happen and deep relationships form. You don’t have business or religious conversations in passing; you must sit together, eat and drink tea.
During this time, Mehdi went to the leaders and said, “I have received 50 people from your ministry to meet. I gave them a New Testament and talked with them. I came here to tell you that it’s too much. I can’t keep up. Just giving people a New Testament and then walking away is not building the Kingdom of God. But when I heard your teaching about disciples who make disciples and your passion for multiplying groups of Jesus followers among the least reached, I was shocked. I realised that I actually haven’t trusted my disciples to make their own disciples. I haven’t given them the tools that they need to move forward in the Kingdom. So, while I did come here to tell you that I wanted to leave, I actually am here right now to tell you that I am excited to continue to partner with you.”
Then Mehdi took out his phone and began to show photos of the people and families who had come to know Jesus in his area as a result of the social media ministry. One of the photos showed a young man in his 30s, who had been a drug addict and requested a New Testament through social media. However, when Mehdi went to his home to give him the New Testament, the addict had not been interested in the Good News of Jesus. But the visit did not end there. Although the man was uninterested, his wife and children were very interested. They all decided to follow Jesus. Soon afterward, the man himself became a believer and then led his own brother to follow Jesus. That man’s spiritual healing changed his life, and he is now free of his drug addiction.
Mehdi shared more photos and stories, which were a taste of the fruit to come. A few months later, he attended another training seminar. This time, though, he came to share his testimony.
At the opening of the seminar, Mehdi stood up before the other Azerbaijani disciple makers and said, “When I first met with the leaders of this ministry, I wanted to tell them that I was quitting because there were just too many people interested in Jesus, but now I am training my own disciples to make disciples. And our ministry has multiplied. We’re now doing work in four provinces, not just one. We’ve started discipleship groups in those four provinces — praise the Lord!”
Since this time, Mehdi has devoted himself full-time to multiplying disciples, even stepped down from being a pastor, which is unheard of in this region. He formed a group of active disciple makers, and each of these disciple makers has a group of their own new believers.
In 2024, the OM in the Caucasus field launched a REACH school for Turkic language speakers. Mehdi and several of his disciples joined as students. They eagerly took what they had learnt in the classroom and shared it with their own disciples in Azerbaijan. And God blessed and multiplied them. In June, they baptised five new believers!
Entire households are being saved in the Caucasus region. Truly, the harvest is plentiful! But the workers are few; please pray for workers to come out of the harvest. Pray for more international disciples and mentors to come and partner with the OM in the Caucasus team. Please pray for the Lord to provide wisdom to the ministry’s leaders. And please pray for the Lord to continue to provide the resources for these national believers to go out and multiply their faith in Jesus.
*name changed