From Seeking to Serving: an Uzbek Woman’s Call to Scripture Translation

00:00:02
Don
Welcome to another edition of the Reflexio Podcast. I'm your host, Don Little. And today I sit down I sat down with Feruza, who's from Uzbekistan, and she tells a good part of her story of how growing up in a very devout Muslim family, she came to faith in Christ through reading the Bible from cover to cover when she was 18 years old. And Miraculously, and God prepared her and equipped her and led her into becoming a part of a key team that translated the entire Bible into Uzbek. And they celebrated the publication of Uzbek Bible in 2016, 10 years ago. So you're going to find this a fascinating story. She's a remarkable woman of God with great gifting and God prepared her especially for the translation work that she's doing now in other languages in Eurasia.
So welcome back to Reflexio.

00:01:01
Don
So welcome, Feruza, to the Reflexio Podcast. It's a delight to have you with us.

00:01:07
Feruza
As-Salamu Alaykum, Don. It's nice to be here.

00:01:08
Don
Well the co allow People don't know who you are, although I'll say a little bit in the show notes. Can you just introduce yourself a little bit?

00:01:20
Feruza
Of course, I am Feruza. That's a Persian name. I'm from Uzbekistan. And foremost, first and foremost, I like to tell people that I am a follower of Jesus.

00:01:32
Don
Amen.

00:01:32
Feruza
I belong to God and that's who I am And second, I am a wife. I am a mother. I'm a daughter. I'm a friend. I'm a sister.

00:01:43
Feruza
And I am part of a big family of God all over the world.

00:01:50
Don
You have children, family?

00:01:54
Feruza
Yes, I have a big family. So in Uzbekistan, usually when you ask, do you have a family? like Yes, wait I do.

00:02:00
Don
You're talking about...

00:02:01
Feruza
I have a mom, I have sisters, I have a brother. Um, I have dozens of cousins, not grandparents anymore, sadly, and, um, husband and three children. Yes.

00:02:13
Don
All right. Yes. So I've talked to you before. we got a little bit of your, well, I got a lot of your story. you don't have as much time today, but can you share a little bit about your upbringing and how you God found you, how you came to Christ? Yeah.

00:02:33
Feruza
Yes.

00:02:34
Don
Yeah.

00:02:35
Feruza
Yeah, I mentioned Uzbekistan. So I was born and raised in Uzbekistan. I was a child when the Soviet Union fell apart. So the first 14 years of my life, I lived and experienced life as a Soviet, as an Uzbek in the Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan.

00:03:04
Don
And what was that like? Your family? or were you in a big city? Were you in a village? or

00:03:12
Feruza
so at have a I look back and I think, oh, God is je glad knew exactly where I needed to be, when I needed to be there, so I could learn the life lessons that he had for me.

00:03:25
Feruza
So the first 10 years of my life, I was in a small village, what we call the valley. There's one valley, I believe, in Uzbekistan, and that's the Farhana Valley.

00:03:34
Don
Okay.

00:03:36
Feruza
So my grandparents lived there. So I grew up in a big family of six uncles and two aunts and an older sister in a small village,

00:03:46
Feruza
and a very devout Muslim family despite the Soviet Union not wanting religion to poison the minds of the people. My grandfather, unfortunately I don't really have the full story of how he became a serious Muslim, but he did and he was one of the de facto mullahs of the village.

00:04:09
Feruza
There was no such formal designation back then, so we can discourage that, but he was a like an imam and a mullah and I remember

00:04:13
Don
Right. Right. Mm-hmm.

00:04:20
Feruza
um growing up, just I remember seeing my grandpa and my grandma sitting and reading the Quran. He didn't know Arabic. He just read the Arabic Quran. There was no Uzbek commentary or translation of the Quran at the moment, at the time. So my very first memories are actually very much a political and religious. that I remember waking up in the middle of the night one night and seeing my grandpa and grandma eating.

00:04:52
Feruza
and I was since considered kind of the last child of my grandparents. They had nine kids and then they were raising myself and my older sister. I'm like What are you doing? And they said, Oh, the ram Amazon is going to start like, Oh, what does that mean? Oh, that means you fast all day from before daybreak till after sundown.

00:05:13
Feruza
Oh, but why didn't you wake me up? They said, Oh, you're too young to fast. So those are the memories. And I learned how to pray the Arabic prayers and the and namaz as I learned how to walk and talk.

00:05:27
Feruza
So God, I believe, prepared me for the life I have now.

00:05:28
Don
Okay. Mm-hmm.

00:05:34
Feruza
He does that for all of us from before we were born. But my very first memories show me that God, God had something, for my life that, um, is not always pleasant, but it is sure. Joyful.

00:05:50
Don
You said too earlier that among your siblings and your cousins who you're living with, that you tend to be the more serious one about about everything, about life and reading and religion.

00:06:02
Feruza
Yes. Yes.

00:06:04
Don
that you asked a lot of questions to your grandfather.

00:06:07
Feruza
I did. I was, I believe during that time until the fall of the Soviet Union, until Uzbekistan became a independent Republic, I was the only one who asked questions, who memorized the Arabic prayers, who would, who was interested in all things religion.

00:06:26
Feruza
But because we were learning all these things in Arabic and because there's a lot of superstition, because there was no serious religious of religious education, there's a lot of folk Islam practiced was in Uzbekistan.

00:06:39
Don
Mm-hmm.

00:06:41
Feruza
So a lot of the animistic traditional things mixed in with religion. So I would ask, I mean, there was, I remember something about ancestor. There's a lot of aspects of ancestor worship. So after someone died, there'd be a what we call a casa bowl of flour and light and they would put it near the window and I'd say, hey, why are we doing this?

00:07:04
Feruza
And so to help the spirits go, but why? my grandma would say, stop asking those questions. Don't ask those questions. It will be bad. So the curses will come upon you. So asking questions or even doubt, far be from us, but even just asking questions was discouraged.

00:07:22
Don
Mm-hmm.

00:07:23
Feruza
So it was, I was really, by the time I was eight, I believe, I was very depressed, I think, because I remember crying in front of a mirror and just saying, God, why did you make me?

00:07:36
Feruza
Why did you make me? Why did you bring me into this world? And if you did, why did you make me a woman? Because in my society at the time, professionally, women were encouraged to go to school and there were a lot of professional women.

00:07:52
Feruza
But at home, still, they would be the ones who served. They would be the ones who always we basically didn't have a voice, a very strong voice.

00:08:01
Don
Thank you.

00:08:03
Feruza
So I was very depressed. And also, I knew that, okay, in this life, I'm doomed to this housework and having kids. And obviously, I had to have sons. And it would be my fault if I didn't, as many, many people say in my society.

00:08:18
Feruza
But also in eternity, my grandpa had told me that all of our sins and good deeds will be, weighed on judgment day whatever outweighs would, really decide my eternal fate.

00:08
Feruza
By the time I was eight, I knew that I was doomed to hell because there was no way I was going to do enough good deeds all my life. Yeah.

00:08:42
Don
That's an unusual awareness of sin. Muslims don't usually pay attention to that.

00:08:47
Feruza
No, no, but I, yes, you're right.

00:08:47
Don
Yeah.

00:08:50
Feruza
And I, but My grandpa told me even that even the bad things we think, the bad thoughts are counted as sin.

00:08:58
Don
Yeah.

00:08:59
Feruza
And my mom said, okay, well, what do I do then? At the time, nobody told me what I could do about it, how I could. They said, oh, just try to do good works.

00:09:11
Feruza
But I know that I will never do enough good works. So that put me in a very, very a bad place, even as a young girl.

00:09:15
Don
Thank you.

00:09:21
Don
So let me ask you another question about your upbringing based on our previous conversation. You said that you were, a I know, we would say precocious, I guess, very energetic and you love to read.

00:09:37
Don
You said one summer you was some uncle's library and you read almost every book in the library all summer long.

00:09:38
Feruza
Yes.

00:09:44
Don
So

00:09:44
Feruza
Yes.

00:09:45
Don
but your family was supportive of your at least someone in your family was supportive of your unusual intellectual interest can you talk about that a bit

00:09:54
Feruza
Yes. So they knew that from when I was little, that I love talking. is because my grandma said, oh, you cry till you learn how to talk and then you didn't stop.

00:10:06
Feruza
So, but then when I learned how to read, I did, I was, I read one, I was eight or nine. I read the whole, all of the newspapers and the books and my uncle noticed and my uncle had gone to a boarding school in Uzbekistan during it the Soviet Union. And he's told my grandpa, Feruza,

00:10:25
Feruza
ah will be the, her intellect or will be wasted here in the village. So after that, they actually sent me to a boarding school when I was 10 to, yes, it was in the capital, Tashkent.

00:10:35
Don
And was that in the capital or bigger city? OK.

00:10:40
Feruza
And at the, during the Soviet Union, they would take gifted kids.

00:10:40
Don
Right.

00:10:45
Feruza
They would say the gifted children, whether it was music or sports or math or literature languages, And they would send them to boarding school. So I went to a boarding school when I was 10.

00:10:58
Feruza
Now for a lot of Americans, it might sound really strange and it may sound like I suffered, but it was a privilege. So II was there from when I was 10 to 17.

00:11:13.18
Feruza
I finished school, high school, and it was one of the best seasons of my life.

00:11:21.40
Don
What was school like? were You studied languages? I mean, was Uzbek and Russian?

00:11:25.78
Feruza
I did. Yes, it was a school for specifically learning Russian and Russian literature at a very high level.

00:11:36.14
Feruza
So most of my education was done after sixth grade.

00:11:36.91
Don
Right?

00:11:39.46
Feruza
Everything was done except the Uzbek language and literature in Russian language. So my academic language was Russian. But the Soviet Union fell apart when I was 14.

00:11:50.55
Feruza
So that would have been my ninth grade.

00:11:51.33
Don
Right.

00:11:53.15
Feruza
um they were able to keep the school. I was able to finish that school. I don't think it exists as such anymore, but I was able to finish it.

00:12:05.85
Feruza
However, yeah, when I was 14, the Soviet Union fell apart and it was a really hard time for a lot of people because Uzbeks lost their identity as these communists were building a future for everyone, were socialists, so socialistic, these idealistic plans fell apart. Oh, well then who are we? And so and in many, many Uzbeks embraced their identity as Muslims.

00:12:35.58
Feruza
And you know for they were there now Uzbek and were Muslim, but many people, but a lot of people didn't know what that meant.

00:12:36.38
Don
They said, oh, we're Muslims. Yeah.

00:12:46.39
Feruza
And that's when I was like, oh, I love training. So God is using that now in my life as a translation, Bible translation consultant. But back then when a all these young women wanted to learn about Islam, it's like, I can teach about, I can teach you the prayers because I wanted to be calm when I was little, looking at my grandpa, I had said, I want to become a treat teacher. I Like a woman mullah, Otanoy is called an Uzbek.

00:13:12.79
Feruza
um And all of a sudden I had that opportunity. and So that's what I did. I taught these young women how to pray my friends and even a couple of the older ones.

00:13:23.95
Feruza
But as soon as I started doing that, this darkness, that emptiness that I had felt when I was little, like feeling like I had no purpose in life, came back. And even though I had a purpose, I was going to build a career.

00:13:36.82
Feruza
But that deep, deep, that spiritual emptiness came back into my heart.

00:13:42.01
Don
So it was it was meaningless. You were teaching these prayers, but they didn't really satisfy.

00:13:47.58
Feruza
No, there was such darkness.

00:13:47.91
Don
Yeah.

00:13:50.07
Feruza
And so that's how I finished high school. I was 17. I thought, oh, I want to, what do I want to do in life? I knew Russian and I didn't want to teach Russian. like Okay, I'll become an English teacher. I didn't know English. So I went to language school when I was 17 to learn English.

00:14:12.41
Don
was it language school or a university language department?

00:14:15.19
Feruza
This was a specific school for learning English in English literature, not university yet.

00:14:20.15
Don
Okay.

00:14:22.72
Feruza
I started university the next year.

00:14:23.66
Don
Right.

00:14:24.72
Feruza
This was a school at the university.

00:14:25.43
Don
Okay. Okay.

00:14:27.36
Feruza
So I started learning English in September. I had had some English grammar during school, but I learned English. I started in September.

00:14:38.62
Feruza
and I met a who had moved to Uzbekistan from the U.S., and what the husband was teaching English there.

00:14:49.32
Feruza
He wasn't my teacher, but he was just doing lectures in the evenings, so I went to his lectures. I don't remember much because I really didn't understand anything in September.

00:14:58.46
Don
Right. You were just learning English.

00:14:59.83
Feruza
I was just learning, but in November, when...

00:15:00.16
Don
Yeah.

00:15:04.87
Feruza
um he asked me will you teach my wife Uzbek like no I'm not a teacher teachers are very highly regarded in our culture I'm not a teacher said come and speak Uzbek with my wife okay I started visiting their family teaching training to just basically speaking Uzbek with her and her three girls and that's when within those two weeks a month all of a sudden I was speaking  English and I understood English and she said you were supposed to teach me Uzbek but I've taught you English like but you don't you didn't teach me English I was learning English but god gave me this miraculous knowledge of English so I was able to reverse with them I would we would do about an hour or two hours of Uzbek but then in the evenings every once a week once a week We would speak English and I could I saw how they lived.

00:15:48.98
Don
Wow.

00:16:01.43
Don
So you went and spent an evening with them couple times a week?

00:16:05.06
Feruza
I did. Yeah, once or twice a week, I would go in the afternoons and they asked me to stay for dinner. And I saw how this husband treated his wife and his girls. They had three girls. They weren't going to have another kid. Like, but you need a boy. You need someone to take care of you when you're old. And they said, no, we don't. Why not?

00:16:26.01
Feruza
um he said, because God has given us three girls and that we are satisfied with that. like But why? and I saw how much they valued girls and how much they loved.

00:16:38.41
Feruza
And the husband wasn't mad at the wife for not having a boy. And they he loved his wife and his girls.

00:16:42.61
Don
Wow.

00:16:46.87
Feruza
I didn't understand why he was so kind and so loving towards his family.

00:16:52.53
Don
Right. So this is your first encounter with a Christian.

00:16:55.83
Feruza
Yes. Yep.

00:16:56.86
Don
Yeah.

00:16:56.99
Feruza
It was my very first encounter with a Christian family. Um, what I saw, I didn't know they were Christian. I saw them praying. Like, I wonder why they pray that way.

00:17:07.87
Feruza
I would, they prayed for their girls and they would read from the Bible, little kids, Bible stories. Um, and then before, um, before I left, I saw them, um, and they introduced me actually to two young women.

00:17:20.55
Feruza
They, uh, they, uh, found these two young women who had come to Uzbekistan to work and they helped me. I was commuting back and forth from my parents' house who lived two hours by public transport one way.

00:17:32.87
Feruza
And they said, would you like to live in this city?

00:17:33.46
Don
Wow.

00:17:36.99
Feruza
I said, I don't have anyone here. and they said, we can help. Fine. So I started renting an apartment with two young women. And that,

00:17:44.47
Don
These were expat women, American women?

00:17:47.55
Feruza
yes, they were.

00:17:47.58
Don
Yeah. They were also Christians?

00:17:50.20
Feruza
Yes, they were. and I just thought, this is so kind of these people. They're not my family, but they care so much for me.

00:18:00.93
Feruza
I don't understand why.

00:18:01.48
Don
Wow.

00:18:02.73
Feruza
And to this day, my family talks about this this one particular family and the young woman with whom I rented an apartment.

00:18:14.36
Feruza
they they so At the time, they said, we don't understand why they're doing this. like They are just kind people. and I didn't understand why they were so kind.

00:18:25.82
Feruza
But of course, then I did later, but at the time it didn't make sense. But I could see that they were sincere, that they really wanted to help. So I started living with these two young women.

00:18:36.35
Don
look

00:18:39.90
Don
And then this led to Bible study. Why don't you tell about what happened there?

00:18:43.87
Feruza
Yes. So I, in English, in Russian, I knew the word Biblia. But I didn't know the word Bible in in English and also the Uzbek word. I knew the word Injil and Tawrat, but I didn't really know what they were. I knew they were the books given to the prophet Esau.

00:19:08.38
Feruza
But that was that was all I knew. So this young woman asked me to, said, would you like to, you're learning English, would you like to come to this study where learning English or reading the Bible? Like, of course, I'm a very social person. Yes, I would go out every night if I could. So I started going and the first day, what surprised me the most, and I love the most that everyone attending did was they sing worship songs and in English.

00:19:37.04
Feruza
And that was fascinating. We love, Uzbeks love songs and dance, and but it was God and to God.

00:19:42.43
Don
OK. okay

00:19:45.92
Feruza
And that was surprising. Like, oh interesting but music touches our souls in a very different way so worshiping god wow this is incredible but then we started reading the bible and they she gave me a bible and it was john I mean and as soon as I read it I'm like "In the beginning was the word the word was with God the word was God" and like I just went through the first chapter like I can't do this. This is heresy and she said what do you mean this is heresy said well it says

00:20:18.100
Feruza
Jesus is this is God. And then it says that he's a son of God. This, I can't, I can't do this because I really sincerely believe all of my encounters were from, with Russian Christians. And at that time, that exact month, I believe, a Russian believer had said to me, Feruza, God wants me to give you something.

00:20:43.58
Feruza
Like, what is it? She said, don't. I know this will sound weird, but God said to give you this. She'd given me a Russian Bible.

00:20:51.26
Don
Okay. Right.

00:20:51.55
Feruza
So that I had opened and said, nope, I'm not going to read this. Because Russian Christians, in our eyes, there were many of them, mean, Soviet, they're Russian. You equate culture and religion and people group just there. You can't separate them.

00:21:08.54
Feruza
So I thought, I this is weird. And to us, Christians were Russians who prayed to icons and they did this, yet they wore very short skirts and put makeup on and lived a very, very immoral life.

00:21:24.54
Don
Mm-hmm.

00:21:24.73
Feruza
And so our understanding of Jesus was the same, that, you know, Jesus is this guy that Russians say God, and God is three people. In our eyes, it was God, Mary, and Jesus. And so that's what I thought when I started, when I saw the Bible.

00:21:42.71
Feruza
And then she said, no, no, no, that's not what it means. And I said, yes, yes, it is. this is This is what the Bible says. so She said, do you want to read the Bible?

00:21:57.27
Feruza
Yes, I do. I don't know what this means, but yes, I do. And she said, okay, there's a small group in the back room that were actually reading the Bible.

00:22:10.07
Feruza
And the same time, but in a smaller group, and it was for people who were interested in knowing the content of the Bible rather than about the grammar of the Bible, or of English, I want to say.

00:22:10.39
Don
They were meeting at the same time as the other group?

00:22:22.97
Don
OK.

00:22:25.03
Feruza
And so, yeah, and I was just like, yeah, I want to read this.

00:22:26.47
Don
Fair.

00:22:31.53
Feruza
And I started reading the Bible from the very beginning. from creation to, well, we basically read to... I read it in like three, four months, the whole thing.

00:22:44.45
Feruza
but So every,

00:22:45.14
Don
Was it in you know Russian or what language did you read it in?

00:22:47.35
Feruza
In English and in Russian.

00:22:49.53
Don
Okay.

00:22:49.66
Feruza
Because God had given me this miraculous knowledge of English.

00:22:54.01
Don
Right.

00:22:54.65
Feruza
So and basically I spoke like this, but had a British accent and my vocabulary is definitely has expanded since then. It's been 32 years. But yeah, I started reading the Bible and it was amazing.

00:23:09.15
Feruza
All these stories that in the names of prophets that I had heard before, but the stories were full. They were fuller and they were there was more detail and it was a little different than what the Quran says, but I hadn't read the Quran at the time, but I had heard the stories of the prophets from my grandpa and other people.

00:23:28.88
Don
Right, right. Mm-hmm.

00:23:32.09
Feruza
So I just, I said, this is so interesting that This book that I didn't know existed is giving us the story of God and the story of who he is and the way he works.

00:23:52.38
Feruza
I didn't understand, but it was fascinating. And I was able, as I read through the whole Bible, I just thought, God wants to communicate with us because in the garden he says he was walking with Adam and talking with Adam and eve why would god want that it was very interesting and just fascinating to me so I read it and every week I would go back to that bible study in the small room there was another man an American man who was doing a bible study he was a Russian man and it was Uzbek woman, a Russian woman, and myself, there would be anywhere from three to eight of us in that group. And we could ask any questions from him from what we had read in the Bible.

00:24:43.55
Don
And so you in the study you read through whole Bible in three or four months, or or you read further than the study was going?

00:24:50.78
Feruza
Well, further, we I would just, every week, I just would read a book or two or three. And then at the study, then I would ask questions. It wasn't just me.

00:25:01.30
Feruza
There were other people in the group who who were so thirsty for this that we had. It wasn't just, yeah, me. We all would come. We'd be in different stages of reading, but we were all reading fast through the Bible.

00:25:16.40
Don
Wow.

00:25:17.49
Feruza
Yes.

00:25:17.98
Don
You said to me before that you're the kind of person that gets a book and reads the beginning of future and then reads the end before you decide to read the rest of the book.

00:25:25.43
Feruza
Yes.

00:25:27.35
Don
And you did that with the Bible too, right? You read Revelation.

00:25:29.95
Feruza
did.

00:25:30.59
Don
said

00:25:30.78
Feruza
wanted to know. Yes, I wanted to know the end of the story. so I it was a read and then I went to Revelation.

00:25:34.39
Don
Yes.

00:25:37.63
Feruza
That was a little scary. But the end of it was such an amazing promise, like that if those who believe in Jesus will have eternal life, and they will stand before God, those who believe in Jesus will have eternity heaven with God.

00:25:46.86
Don
The

00:25:54.79
Feruza
And I just thought, That is really strange because Muslim heaven is seven layers and God sits in the highest of the the throne room.

00:26:06.43
Don
top layer, yeah.

00:26:06.49
Feruza
being Yeah, no, not top layer. He's outside of it.

00:26:10.14
Don
Above it, yeah.

00:26:10.97
Feruza
Yes, he's outside of it. And only the prophets and some very good people get to the top layer, but they never see God. They never see God.

00:26:17.53
Don
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

00:26:19.19
Feruza
But if those who believe in Jesus are... oh in the presence of God. And I just thought, how? How can this be? But I read, I kept reading the Old Testament and I just saw that even like in Psalms, in the Old Testament, David talks about being in the presence of God. I'm like, I want that, but how can I have it?

00:26:42.45
Feruza
It's not possible. And I was getting... a little angry with God for making news back like, look, these Americans get to be with you and these Russians obviously get to be with you and I am condemned to whatever layer, probably not even one of those seven layers of you know levels of heaven, I'm probably gonna go to hell because I'm not going to do enough good works.

00:27:04.54
Feruza
And so I was like, why did you make me Uzbek? And so instead of different, why did you make me? Why did you make me a woman? And now it was like, why did you make me an Uzbek? Because we thought that every people group are born into a religion and into a a certain way of of life.

00:27:22.94
Feruza
um But oh, I wanna say this. as or Leviticus is kind of in the beginning of the Old Testament. As I was reading the Bible, the beginning, and we get got to Leviticus, and you read the history, of course, of creation and how God chose Israel. And oh those who've read literature know how certain things work. And I

00:27:54.55
Feruza
And when I saw God chose Israel to show how to show his love and to show his way forward with people after Adam fell, it's like, oh, I understood I didn't that God was using Israel as a an example um

00:28:11.55
Don
Mm-hmm.

00:28:11.90
Feruza
of of how he works with humanity. um

00:28:16.05
Don
Mm-hmm.

00:28:17.21
Feruza
And he gave them Leviticus. And Leviticus is an incredible book. It set it shows us that laws are not about a do and don't.

00:28:29.02
Feruza
Laws are given so we would have a way to God. It it was an act of love. And that was the first time that I ever understood that God loves people.

00:28:41.82
Feruza
He didn't just kick them out of heaven and say, you do it your way. He said, I know you cannot do it. So I am going to give you a way. And gave them Leviticus.

00:28:51.67
Don
Give you instructions, yeah.

00:28:54.28
Feruza
And this, and it wasn't people finding a way, but God saying, okay, you try it your way now. And I knew that then,

00:29:04.95
Feruza
of reading my Islamic understanding was I will never make it to heaven and then reading Leviticus is like I will definitely not make into heaven because there are not enough animals in the whole world for the forgiveness of the sense of one person let alone all of humanity for all of time so was like Wow, how is Israel going to make it to heaven?

00:29:31.65
Feruza
They don't have enough animals to sacrifice. So nobody's going to make it to heaven. in Basically, in either religion, Islam or Christianity or Judaism,

00:29:44.83
Don
Judaism.

00:29:45.47
Feruza
um

00:29:45.59
Don
this is

00:29:47.63
Feruza
that's when I got to the New Testament. And that's when Jesus made sense.

00:29:52.88
Don
Okay.

00:29:52.95
Feruza
I knew that because there were not enough animals for the forgiveness of one person. I when I read Matthew and Luke and then Mark and John, that's when I realized, Oh, God had to make a way.

00:30:07.22
Don
Yeah.

00:30:09.47
Feruza
This is why Jesus had to come. Because it says that in Jill says that Jesus gave his life. He wasn't made to give it. Nobody took it. He gave his life so that all who believe in him would have e eternal on life.

00:30:26.27
Feruza
And that sacrifice would be enough for the forgiveness of sins of all of humanity, not just one person or one people group. And the Bible said he is a savior for everyone.

00:30:42.46
Feruza
And I still didn't understand that. So I I said, God, this is not fair. I am a Muslim and you make me do all of this and I still, I but will probably end up in in hell. Why did you make me Uzbek?

00:30:58.49
Feruza
Why do Americans get to go to heaven? Why do Russians get to get, and I have to do all of this and still probably end up in hell. And I, but I kept reading and I realized, oh,

00:31:11.74
Feruza
The Bible says all who believe in Jesus, though their sins will be forgiven. And I wanted this Jesus so much. um

00:31:19.85
Don
Yeah.

00:31:20.51
Feruza
Just the forgiveness of sins, but the eternal life in the presence of God. and But I just it's like, this is not for me.

00:31:31.39
Feruza
How can how can I be?

00:31:31.86
Don
Yeah.

00:31:35.91
Feruza
Because I'm Muslim. I believe 100 percent in my in my heart. that Muhammad was the last prophet and that Islam was a true religion. But I had seen my friends praying in their language in English and in Russian, and I just thought, you know what?

00:31:45.04
Don
Yeah.

00:31:52.63
Feruza
If God can understand them, then he can understand Uzbek. So I asked God, I said, God, Jesus says of those who believe in him, their sins will, if one believes in him, then his sins will be forgiven and that person will end up with you.

00:31:57.42
Don
Okay.

00:32:12.06
Feruza
But Muhammad says that he's the last prophet and we need to do all of these laws and we we have to follow the laws and that he's the last prophet. But if Jesus is for everyone and if Jesus is telling the truth, then Muhammad cannot be telling the truth.

00:32:29.21
Feruza
But if Muhammad is telling the truth, then if Jesus is he who says he is, then Muhammad is lying. But if Muhammad is telling the truth, then Jesus is lying because there cannot be two truths about this one thing about you, about eternity, about death and sin.

00:32:49.05
Feruza
ah Who's telling the truth? And God said, who says, I am the truth. I am the life. I am the way. Jesus does.

00:33:00.99
Feruza
Jesus said that he is the truth. He is the way he is the life. But Muhammad says that he would show the way, he would show life, and he would show truth, but he's gone, he's dead.

00:33:13.75
Feruza
But Jesus is not. Even Islam says that Jesus will usher in the judgment. He will be you will bring the judgment day.

00:33:19.87
Don
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

00:33:22.81
Feruza
And I just, wow, this is incredible. And I, again, I wanted to be forgiven. I had understood that sin cannot be just swept under the rug.

00:33:35.51
Feruza
that in order to be in the presence of God, one needs the forgiveness of sins. So, but I was afraid that I would be without family. I mean, I having grown up with a bunch of family, like I knew that if I believed in Jesus, my family would really not like it. And my friends would probably leave me. I had told my dad that I was reading the Injil. And he said, of course you can read the Injil. That's great.

00:34:06.43
Feruza
But if you become a Christian, I will kill you. Don't become a Christian. And I had said, of course I won't become a Christian, Dad. That's silly. So here I am reading all of this and thinking, Jesus is telling the truth.

00:34:23.51
Feruza
And I think I need to follow him. I need to, I believe what he's saying.

00:34:28.97
Don
Mm-hmm.

00:34:29.08
Feruza
But what am I going to do with that family?

00:34:29.11
Don
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

00:34:32.28
Feruza
And God brought to my mind again, the the words from the Bible. He said, there's no one in this whole world who has lost a house, a mother or a father or brother or sister who has not been given a hundredfold in the world to come and in this world, along with persecution.

00:34:53.88
Feruza
So God was answering all of these questions that I was asking from his word. He says his word is truth. His word is alive. And I talked to him in Uzbek, and he answered all of these questions.

00:35:09.02
Feruza
in

00:35:09.46
Don
Was that your first time you prayed in Uzbek at that occasion?

00:35:13.91
Feruza
Yes, I the first time that I talked with God. Before, and we we do the blessings, but they're usually wishes. May God do this. May God do this. but you do And if you talk to God directly, it would be like, oh, God, why did you do this? But this is the first time that I was having conversations with God.

00:35:34.75
Feruza
in Uzbek knowing that he answers yeah so I just I i would just now I tell it people if you have anything in your heart you have beef with god you go talk to him not other people because everyone has his own opinion everyone will tell you what they think

00:35:35.03
Don
And he answered.

00:36:01.24
Feruza
But God is the only one who speaks for himself.

00:36:01.32
Don
Right.

00:36:04.38
Feruza
And he his word, he's left us his word. So we know what's true. If you hear something, you think it's from God, go and and see if his word confirms it.

00:36:14.71
Feruza
And everything he said to me about who he is, about his love for everyone in the world, and for who we are, everything was confirmed through reading the Bible.

00:36:26.20
Feruza
And so I just thought, Not everyone, these Russians have an easy way and the Americans have an easy way to God. And I'm Uzbek. Why do I have this hard way? And why did God give me this knowledge, sweet knowledge that those who believe in in Jesus can be with him?

00:36:46.55
Feruza
Yet I can't have that. Why? And so I said, why God? And God brought to my mind a verse from Titus. It's Titus 2.11.

00:36:58.80
Feruza
It says, now for the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. And I just thought, I'm all people. And the grace of God that offers salvation has appeared to all people.

00:37:14.77
Feruza
That's when I realized, yeah, that, oh, this includes me.

00:37:14.100
Don
That includes me. Wow.

00:37:19.21
Feruza
So it was June 14th, 1994 is when I asked God to forgive my sins and to include me in his family. And I asked Jesus to to be my Lord and my savior.

00:37:34.30
Feruza
He did.

00:37:35.51
Don
So we don't have time for you to tell the whole story, but you told me about finally telling your dad after your two sisters had come to faith and you were the older sister, but you tell that very briefly because we need to move on, but, and then what's happened with your family since, right, in terms of faith?

00:37:53.56
Feruza
yeah

00:37:56.95
Feruza
Yeah, so um when once you know yourself, you have this experience, when you believe in Jesus, the joy that he promises and the peace he promises floods your heart.

00:38:08.35
Feruza
And that peace and that joy has stayed with me despite difficulties that in life that I have had that we all encounter. The joy and peace that Jesus offers is still in my heart.

00:38:20.09
Feruza
And so, of course, I shared this with my two sisters and my brother. Within six months, they had... become followers of Jesus. And so I thought, oh no, dad is going to kill them.

00:38:29.29
Don
Yeah. Yeah.

00:38:33.63
Feruza
i have to tell my dad. So I was afraid. I said, God, I have to tell them, but what am I going to do? And God said, I have not given you a spirit of fear. I've given you a spirit of power, love, and sound mind. Go tell your dad and I will speak through you.

00:38:53.53
Feruza
I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. I will be with you. And I just thought, okay, I guess I have to go tell my dad. And so I did He was so angry. For four hours, he said, you become Russian. Go change your name to Natasha. You can wear your mini skirts. You can sleep around. like, God, but that's not in it the holy life that God, Jesus leads us to. That's not the way to live. And he did. He was not.

00:39:24.89
Feruza
He did not like it. He said, I'm going to have a funeral for you. I'm going to have call your your grandpa. We can't live with the shame you betrayed our family, our religion, our people, our culture.

00:39:36.57
Feruza
um I had prayed that he wouldn't kick me out of the house, but he said, I'm going to, you need to leave. I can't live with this. So I said, okay. And so as I was putting my coat on, he said, Feruza, wait a minute.

00:39:48.11
Feruza
Nope, we can't live with this. I'm going to kill you. You wait here. going to go get my knife. Okay, was two in the morning and was 18.

00:39:58.81
Feruza
um I didn't know what to do. it was like, okay, I waited. He came and he said, he gave me he brought his knife and he held it against my stomach and he said, Feruza, if I kill you now, will this Jesus save you?

00:40:12.74
Feruza
And I said, I don't know, Dad. I don't know if he'll save me, but I do know this. If I die now, I will go to heaven. I will see him face to face.

00:40:24.12
Feruza
But if I do not, I will serve him with my life, all my life. He had never hurt anyone who wasn't afraid of death.

00:40:33.14
Don
Hmm.

00:40:33.37
Feruza
And so I told him, death is not the end, Dad. that Death is a door. The eternal life Jesus offers begins here, but I get to spend all of it with him. And so Obviously, he didn't kill me He said, you have to come home every weekend and I will brainwash you back into Islam, basically.

00:40:55.19
Feruza
And I said, yes. So God answered my prayer. Not only did my father not kill me, but he told me I had to go back. So that gave me the opportunity to disciple my two sisters and my brother.

00:41:10.05
Don
Wow. And you said that now some of your siblings are in ministry. Almost everyone's a Christian.

00:41:17.28
Feruza
Yeah, almost. Yeah, yeah.

00:41:18.94
Don
Your mother was a Christian.

00:41:18.100
Feruza
Yeah, my mom became a follower of Jesus in 2002.

00:41:25.11
Feruza
My siblings, their spouses, my nephews and nieces. So it's God used this one little desire to know him in the heart of the little girl who was asking for a purpose to save many, many in my family.

00:41:44.92
Don
Praise God.

00:41:45.21
Feruza
And to circle back to that prayer that I prayed when I was eight years old, I asked God, why?

00:41:50.97
Don
Wow.

00:41:52.83
Feruza
And God answered. He had heard that prayer. He hears us, whether we believe in Jesus or not.

00:41:56.07
Don
Yeah.

00:41:59.20
Feruza
He's the creator.

00:42:00.84
Don
Yeah, he knows our prayer.

00:42:00.89
Feruza
He heard the prayer.

00:42:01.100
Don
Mm-hmm.

00:42:03.35
Feruza
he heard the prayer of an eight-year-old, and he answered it. Ten years later, he said, Feruza, this is your purpose. It is to know me. It's to honor me, to glorify me with everything you do whatever it is if it's housework then it's housework if it is doing a teaching then it's teaching whatever you do say and think and speak you need to honor me that is your purpose so I accepted it. I'm like yes thank you not he did not only did he save me my soul But he in he showed me that he hears us always and that he answers our prayers.

00:42:29.74
Don
Thank

00:42:42.85
Feruza
And sometimes he's so far, he's answered my prayers with a yes sometimes, with a no, with a wait. But I now know because of his word to to accept his answers. When he says no, like, okay, God. Often people will say, oh, God didn't answer that prayer. And say, yes, he did.

00:43:02.100
Feruza
He said no. And you need to accept it. um

00:43:06.84
Don
Yeah.

00:43:07.32
Feruza
Because we accept the yeses so easily and so fast. And the no's is hard. But he does.

00:43:17.95
Don
So let me shift a little bit. You made reference very briefly at the beginning of our conversation that you're a translation consultant.

00:43:28.63
Feruza
Yeah.

00:43:28.92
Don
And you've been doing this for a long time.

00:43:31.25
Feruza
Mm-hmm.

00:43:32.15
Don
We don't have a lot of time, but can you tell very briefly how you got into translation? Then you've got a Uzbek Bible to show us. Let's just still hear the story.

00:43:41.45
Feruza
Yes, here it is.

00:43:43.58
Don
Yes.

00:43:45.27
Feruza
So, yeah, this is a whole Bible.

00:43:45.50
Don
Wow.

00:43:48.25
Feruza
When I started reading the Bible in 1993, didn't have a Bible

00:43:55.48
Don
You had just the New Testament.

00:43:55.61
Feruza
and we had the new testament had come out in 94 but we I didn't know that it existed so that's why I read it in English and in Russian so I yes I be after I became a follower of Jesus in 1994 a friend of mine said Feruza can you come and help us with something and so I said

00:44:22.30
Feruza
Yeah, so I started helping them evaluate. we They were in the process, it turned out, of choosing translators for the Old Testament Translation Project. So I started oh I started evaluating these translations and I said, yeah, this is good. That's not good. I'm a very opinionated person.

00:44:45.08
Feruza
if I was. and two And they said, would you help us? And I said, sure. So I started helping and I overheard a friend say couple months later, this co-worker said, oh yeah, Feruza's translating the Bible and I terrified me. What do you mean I'm translating the Bible?

00:45:03.35
Feruza
She said, well, you are. I'm like, no, I'm not. And she said, this is for your people, Feruza. You need to do it. God has given you the gift. I'm like, nope. She said, go home and pray about it. So I went home and I said, God, nope, I'm not doing this.

00:45:20.35
Feruza
And he said, Feruza, how do you know me? And I said, I'm reading the Bible. And he said, well, how will your people know me? Like, oh, they're so smart. They know Russian and some know even know English. And he said, okay, how many?

00:45:39.64
Feruza
And at the time, there were about 24 million Uzbeks, I think, and 80% knew Russian, didn't. twenty percent maybe didn't And he said, how about them? How will they know me? 20% of 24 million is a lot of people.

00:45:53.98
Feruza
And I yeah I said, well, choose from one of them. And he said, no, I choose you. And I said, yeah, but I'm afraid.

00:46:04.77
Feruza
I'm afraid that all the curse, if I do anything, if I change even a word, all the curses in Revelation will be on my head because it says, um, If you adding a letter or taking away will bring curses on. and I And I said, I can't do that. People will point at me and say, you changed the Bible.

00:46:24.06
Feruza
um And he said, Feruza, I've kept my word safe for thousands of years. Do you think you mere human being can change my word? You go do your job and I will keep doing mine.

00:46:38.52
Feruza
And so...

00:46:38.65
Don
I'll look after my word.

00:46:40.22
Feruza
Yeah. He said, I will keep my words safe. No human is able to change my words. So I went back to my friend and told her that this is what I'm supposed to be doing.

00:46:50.66
Feruza
I was 18, 19. And I had nothing but what had God had given me knowledge of Uzbek and Russian and English. And they said, oh, we see potential.

00:47:03.11
Feruza
We will train you and we will help you learn how to do it. They had a lot of training. We ended up with a team of

00:47:08.96
Don
Yeah. Yeah.

00:47:10.97
Feruza
six people and one consultant who would come and check our work at translation consultants. So I started translating the Bible with this one, two ladies at the time, and then our team grew. And by 2000, joined in 94, there were six people, three expats and three local people. And we started translating the Old Testament.

00:47:34.49
Feruza
I learned Hebrew a couple of years after that. And then Greek a few years later went

00:47:40.09
Don
did you Did you learn Hebrew and Greek in Uzbekistan?

00:47:43.93
Feruza
I came to this US, I got married, my husband's American. So I was able to get a visa and come to the US for two months in 98 and learn Hebrew, and did the intensive Hebrew. And then in 2003, we came to the US for one year and I did a year of Greek studies.

00:48:03.51
Feruza
So I did I did a Master of Biblical Languages Gordon-Conwell and We did a little survey with the emerging church. I think when I became a follower of Jesus in 94, there were a hundred of us in Uzbekistan. And by 2003, there were 2000 or 3000.

00:48:27.23
Feruza
We did a little survey and people asked us, they told us that yes, we would like the Injil to match the style of the Old Testament that we had done.

00:48:37.55
Feruza
It's a more dynamic translation.

00:48:39.87
Don
So by this point you had published the Old Testament or it was just finished?

00:48:44.69
Feruza
No, we didn't publish. We finished it. We didn't publish the Old Testament, but we did publish the Tawrat and then Daniel is Samuel and Kings and then Psalms separately.

00:48:55.69
Feruza
So we published books, on Proverbs and 96. That was the very first one. But people wanted the Old Testament. They wanted the Bible in Uzbek.

00:49:04.93
Don
Right.

00:49:07.24
Feruza
So we whatever we finished, we would just, in increments, we would publish it. People would have access to it.

00:49:12.73
Don
Okay.

00:49:15.11
Feruza
And when we finished in 2014, along the way, we were doing footnotes and glossary and pictures. and It's a study Bible, basically.

00:49:27.03
Feruza
We have over 7,000 footnotes

00:49:30.43
Don
wow

00:49:31.30
Feruza
like, yeah, 700 glossary entries over maps and tables. So we finished the actual translation part in 2014.

00:49:43.96
Feruza
exactly 10 years ago, 2016, this Bible was published. This is one of the very first ones that I got to hope. And I cherish it because it's God's word, my language, all of it.

00:49:57.54
Don
Wow.

00:50:01.52
Don
Congratulations. Amazing.

00:50:03.48
Feruza
Thank you.

00:50:03.58
Don
Yes. and and And now you've been back in the States for some time and you're working on a doctorate in languages and translation, but you're spending most of your time translating, helping translators.

00:50:13.25
Feruza
Yeah.

00:50:19.32
Don
Tell us a bit about that.

00:50:20.73
Feruza
Yeah. Um, so I, we actually moved to the States, um, 11 years ago. in 2009 and it wasn't by choice.

00:50:31.62
Feruza
My husband had committed to working in Uzbekistan what we thought for a lifetime. I never wanted to.

00:50:38.46
Feruza
who respect

00:50:38.43
Don
You said 11 years and ago. Do you mean 2015? Or was it years

00:50:42.52
Feruza
I'm sorry, 16. Yeah, yeah. 2010. Was a nine. Oh my goodness. Time goes by so fast.

00:50:51.02
Don
That's how long I've been in this town. We moved here in 2009. 17 ago.

00:50:54.34
Feruza
Okay, yes, 17 years ago. oh my goodness. So it wasn't by choice. It was in Uzbekistan, many, many foreigners couldn't get visas from 2005 to 2008. So we had applied for a visa, but my husband was denied a visa. So we had to leave. We had three days to leave Uzbekistan.

00:51:19.48
Don
Wow. Mm-hmm.

00:51:20.32
Feruza
when our kids were eight, nine and 10 at the time. So can you can imagine the heartbreak. mean, I had never wanted to leave Uzbekistan. That was my home. that was That's where my family is. So we moved to Kyrgyzstan for a year and then we moved to the States and everyone thought that if we moved to the States, I would show up and die. Nobody ever imagined that I could live, I could thrive in the US.

00:51:47.26
Feruza
um My personality, you may think, oh, she's Americanized, but that's how I am. God made me this way. And even in Uzbekistan, people will tell you, those who know me from when I was little and later, God made me this way.

00:52:01.69
Feruza
Very opinionated and expressive and bold. That's God's gift to me.

00:52:11.77
Don
bold Yes. Yes.

00:52:12.41
Feruza
Yes, and outspoken.

00:52:13.05
Don
Yes.

00:52:14.25
Feruza
But yeah, when we moved here, it was, it was hard. I mean, I have, like I said, the joy and the peace of the Lord has never left me, but I feel like I spent five years crying. Driving. I have never driven so much in my whole life.

00:52:32.73
Feruza
We took public transportation in Uzbekistan. All of a sudden I had to drive my kids who were nine, 10 and 12. When we moved here, we were in Kyrgyzstan. We spent a year in Kyrgyzstan. Um, and was like, what is happening in my life?

00:52:47.50
Feruza
What is my life? What am I doing here? I never wanted to live here. Culture is so different than mine. Um, well, uh, the churches here, there are a couple churches and there's some women who are incredible.

00:52:54.98
Don
Yeah, no kidding.

00:53:02.95
Feruza
They adopted me into their friend group, but it's different. It's still different. So I just kept you just I don't I was so sad. I just was focused on my kids and I would translate, but that was it.

00:53:16.95
Feruza
I just said, God, I am so angry. I'm so disappointed. with I was disappointed with God because I had thought I am one of the very first believers in Uzbekistan and I am translating the Bible.

00:53:24.70
Don
Yeah. Right.

00:53:32.48
Feruza
I'll be teaching the Bible. My desire was to teach, to entrain remember my I was gonna be a Muslim teacher, but then God sent me and I was like, this is what I want to do. And I had been leading Bible studies. I had been training and what am I doing here? What am I doing in the US?

00:53:51.51
Feruza
So it took a long time. I think it was five years of this struggling with God and crying and trying to get the kids to adapt.

00:53:57.03
Don
wrestling

00:54:02.19
Feruza
They were born and raised in Uzbekistan to adapt to being in the US.

00:54:05.15
Don
yeah

00:54:07.10
Feruza
but Finally, God said, Feruza, I am God wherever you are, and you are mine wherever you are, and your life's purpose is to glorify me wherever you are and whatever you do.

00:54:22.65
Feruza
And if I was going to accept God's goodness and mercy and grace in Uzbekistan, I knew that I had to accept it here and be content with the life that he'd given me.

00:54:31.42
Don
Yeah.

00:54:34.78
Feruza
um It was hard. I think one of the hard things was being content in this place that was so wealthy.

00:54:45.91
Feruza
There's so much. It is easy to learn contentment when you don't have much to rely on God. But to rely on God when you have so much as hard, you forget that God is there providing everything.

00:55:00.67
Feruza
So one of the things that I had to learn was when Paul says, I've learned to be content in the in poverty and I've learned to be content in the plenty. So these 17 years is my time of learning to be content in the plenty, to rely on God when I have much.

00:55:16.97
Don
Wow. Wow.

00:55:21.56
Feruza
And I have. Because God has opened doors for me. Once I said, okay, after five or seven years, okay, God, I will be content.

00:55:33.85
Feruza
I will follow you wherever I am. That's when some doors have opened and God showed me that I can be useful, not just in Uzbekistan, but I can glorify him here and I can be beneficial to those who are in the U.S. who want to serve Muslims who are coming here who want to serve refugees and immigrants from all backgrounds, because my background from the Soviet Union, having grown up in that type of society of both Muslim and Soviet, had prepared me to help the church here to learn how to minister to immigrants and refugees here.

00:56:16.70
Don
And we're getting near the end here, but can you tell a little bit about the actual translation work you're doing in consulting? It sounds quite amazing.

00:56:26.87
Feruza
Yes, yes. the have So I was asked to become a translation consultant in 2014 as we finished. In 26, I was, I said, me, a consultant? All of the consultants that I knew were Westerners. There were no local consultants, national consultants in all of the former Soviet Union area.

00:56:51.42
Feruza
And so I said, me, Uzbek? And they said, of course, you, God has prepared you for this. We will train you. So, and consultants are really, in my mind, they're amazingly wise and smart people.

00:57:06.27
Feruza
They're like, how am I ever going to be that? And God said, again, I've prepared you for this. So I started training in 2016 and I was certified by SIL in 2018, beginning of 2018.

00:57:12.54
Don
I'm to

00:57:21.38
Feruza
And I was assigned to Eurasia. That's the area most of the Soviet Union, no well Eurasia. And I was assigned to a group that serves the territory of the so Soviet Union, former Soviet Union. And the consultant, what we do is the main job is to check the translated text a team of translators, whether it's one translator and one exegete translation advisor, usually that's an expat, they will translate and my job is to go and check their translation and compare it to Hebrew or Greek or Aramaic, some parts of the Old Testament, and make sure that it's accurate.

00:58:02.55
Feruza
And also part of my job is to train translators and to train teams in not just translation studies, but theology sometimes and software and other things. But the main thing is to make sure that the Word of God is being translated accurately, clearly, in an acceptable way.

00:58:21.82
Feruza
and I got the training to do that, and I was one of the very first national translators, what we call mother tongue translators, to be certified as a consultant in the former Soviet Union.

00:58:36.92
Don
And you're involved now in several different language projects?

00:58:42.46
Feruza
Yes. Yeah. I work in Central Asia, in the Caspian, senior of the Caspian Sea in the Caucasus region with some minority languages.

00:58:53.10
Feruza
They're translating the New Testament and some of the Old Testament books.

00:58:53.62
Don
Yeah.

00:58:57.30
Feruza
And I travel about

00:59:02.04
Feruza
Every two months, I would say. So six times, seven times a year to go spend time with my teens and help them to translate well.

00:59:13.24
Don
So in my home Bible study in our church, we've got several SIL people and they're translation consultants now because... they're my age and older.

00:59:17.91
Feruza
Yeah.

00:59:25.68
Feruza
Yeah.

00:59:27.51
Don
What is it about translating that that excites you? Because obviously for you, it was reading the Word of God, that but you now you're helping people in different cultures, different languages learn to translate. What is your vision? What is your passion about translating?

00:59:43.96
Feruza
Well, as I mentioned, I read the Bible in English and in Russian. that Those who are not Russian, I'm bilingual, I grew up speaking, but it's still not my heart language. And Uzbek is the language my mother sang the lullabies in. That's what evokes emotions that are so different. and So when I got the Uzbek Bible, finally, and I was reading it as we were translating, finally when I got it, when I read the Bible in my language, I communed with God in a way that I could do it. I could not in any other language.

01:00:19.13
Feruza
And there's so many people who live in so in such places that they don't know any other language, but they're one language. And I believe God wants them to know that he loves them.

01:00:33.05
Feruza
that he sent Jesus to save them from the oppression of of the evil that we see every day, oppression of sin. And they want he wants them to have hope.

01:00:44.83
Feruza
And the best way that you can hear about this hope that we get from Jesus is in our heart language. And so God gave me this gift of knowing languages and training people and showed me the beauty and the value of hearing about him in our own language.

01:01:03.33
Feruza
And so let me just tell you a quick story.

01:01:04.23
Don
Yeah.

01:01:06.43
Feruza
I believe that yeah every language has a as ways of expressing things in a way that no other language can. And one of the one of my favorite ways of saying praise God now is I want to hug God.

01:01:25.47
Feruza
And that comes from a language that I was working with. This is a people group who live in the Pamir Mountains. Many, many of them don't know even the national language.

01:01:36.79
Feruza
So they speak their tribal language. And I can say that because they themselves call themselves a tribe. It's their tribal language. And we were translating Ruth, and I saw this said something about the side of God. I want to be on the side of God. And I said, what do you mean the side of God?

01:01:55.45
Feruza
Does that mean you want to die? and they said, oh, no. These women are here and Naomi has got her grandson and they're saying, we praise God for the blessing that you have now. And they're saying they want to hug God.

01:02:13.69
Feruza
What do you mean hug God? And they said, they're so happy with the blessing that Naomi has. This is how you say, I want to I praise God. I want to hug God. Okay.

01:02:25.47
Don
I love it

01:02:26.81
Feruza
And now I just, whenever something beautiful, good happens in my life, usually like, I want to hug God. It has such a beautiful picture.

01:02:34.75
Don
it.

01:02:36.74
Feruza
And this is why I think we should be translating the Bible into all the languages of the world is because God has created every human being in his own image to show up all his beauty that no one else can.

01:02:48.31
Don
Mm-hmm.

01:02:50.83
Feruza
But languages also do the same thing.

01:02:53.75
Feruza
There are ways of knowing God in every language that one language could not express.

01:02:57.06
Don
In new ways. Yeah.

01:03:01.09
Feruza
So we can't all learn all languages, but hopefully maybe in heaven we will. But I think it's so beautiful that God has given us so many languages in every language speaks to that, to the heart of the person who speaks it.

01:03:22.49
Feruza
And another, what one more thing is, In our language, we say, I love you, not often, but when we do say it, we say, I see you good.

01:03:36.38
Feruza
And I think,

01:03:41.53
Feruza
wow, what an incredible thought for every human being to hear God say to each one in their own language, I see you good.

01:03:54.26
Feruza
I... When I first thought about it, God sees me good in my own language. That's when I knew God knew me and accepted me.

01:04:05.95
Feruza
He sees me good. So however you say I love you in your language, when you hear that God sees you good, he loves you.

01:04:16.03
Don
Amen.

01:04:16.18
Feruza
That's when you know that he has a way for you to know him. That's an opening. of a way to him.

01:04:26.62
Feruza
That's why I want to I want to keep doing this translation work as long as God gives me breath because I want everyone to hear God say, I see you good and and know that they can have a place with him through Jesus.

01:04:42.07
Don
One more question about translation and then one other question will wind up. But you commented in our previous conversation that some people are happy to sort of get, well, get a proverb and get a mark and get maybe some Psalms and and we're good.

01:04:59.86
Don
And you say, no, no, we need the whole Bible.

01:05:00.76
Feruza
Yeah.

01:05:02.54
Don
Can you just tell them about what that means for you?

01:05:04.60
Feruza
Yeah. So, yes, I got to know God from reading the whole Bible because God's plan, God's love, the plan of redemption and love is expressed from Genesis.

01:05:22.15
Feruza
genesis And so to have you have the Old Testament as a foundation of the New Testament. Without the Old Testament, Jesus does not make sense.

01:05:32.52
Don
Yeah.

01:05:32.60
Feruza
It took so long for me to understand why Jesus had to come. If I didn't have the Old Testament, I would not understand. I mean, God opens, gives us revelation. But if we don't have the whole word, we will not be able to worship God wholly.

01:05:49.85
Feruza
I tell people, sometimes we get this, oh, this this language group has the gospel. Let's just give them psalms so they know how to worship. like How about I take away 60 books of your Bible?

01:06:03.35
Feruza
How will you worship God? How will you get to know him without the full Bible? So yes, it's going to take a long time.

01:06:09.36
Don
Amen.

01:06:11.44
Feruza
Yes, it's going to take a lot of money. Yes, it's going to take a lot of resources. of people, human lives, but every person deserves to worship God in their own language with the whole word.

01:06:26.78
Don
Amen. One last question, which I like to ask most people we interview on Reflexio podcast is, what would you say to your 20-year-old self or to someone who's just sort of starting out life and thinking, what does God have for me? What what does he want of me?

01:06:46.70
Don
Any sort of encouragement or word, even looking back at your own 20-year-old self?

01:06:55.16
Feruza
Yeah, I guess I would say talk to God. Keep talking to God.

01:07:02.87
Don
Yeah.

01:07:02.100
Feruza
He will hear you. He will answer you. And talk to those who say that they know God through Jesus because they have the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit will speak through them.

01:07:18.75
Feruza
And two, when you talk to God, make sure that those words you're hearing are being confirmed by the Word of God. You have access to the Word of God.

01:07:30.81
Feruza
Do not follow the words of men. Follow the Word of God. Because He has revealed Himself and His will for the world and for you through His Word.

01:07:41.72
Feruza
People will disappoint you. Even the people of God will disappoint you. But do not judge God by His people. They are still Sinners who are saved by grace, but they're sinners.

01:07:57.24
Feruza
But God God, and he will prove himself to you. So listen to God. Do not judge God by his people.

01:08:05.99
Don
Yeah, so important. Well, thank you, Feruza. It's been a delight to talk to you. And I pray a blessing on your ongoing ministry. In the show notes, we'll have some information if people want to follow up and hear more about what you're doing.

01:08:15.80
Feruza
Thank you.

01:08:21.22
Feruza
Yeah.

01:08:22.09
Don
They can do that.

01:08:24.25
Feruza
Yeah, thank you for having me.

01:08:26.09
Feruza
It's a such an honor for me to share about what God has done and what he's going to do. And I look forward to heaven when we will be able to fellowship with all who know him without the limit of time and space and distance. That was one of the best parts of heaven is being in the presence of God and with his people.

01:08:49.84
Don
Amen. One last question I realized.

01:08:52.38
Feruza
Yeah.

01:08:52.89
Don
In Uzbekistan, how is the church doing now?

01:08:55.05
Feruza
Yeah.

01:08:56.22
Don
Has it been through some rough times? Is it flourishing?

01:08:59.83
Feruza
It is incredible. and god The church has gone and it's going through quite, you know, in the heart it's hard to be a follower of Jesus in a majority Muslim society.

01:09:11.86
Feruza
But when I was, I mentioned when I became a follower of Jesus, there were about a hundred of us. And now they say there are about 10,000 or 15,000 believers in Jesus.

01:09:22
Feruza
The church is growing. the church is doing really well. But if you, if God puts them on your heart, please pray because There's a lot of societal persecution. People will still see you following Jesus as a betrayer of their culture and people and family. So there's a lot of persecution for the church, but they are going strong.

01:09:47
Feruza
Satan wants to break them, but they cannot because we belong to God. He cannot. We belong to God and the church is flourishing.

01:09:58
Don
Praise God. That's great.

01:10:00.60
Feruza
Yeah.

01:10:00
Don
Well, God bless you, my sister, and thank you for this conversation.

01:10:02
Feruza
Thank you. Thank you, Don. God bless you too.

01:10.08
Don
Well, that was a very inspiring conversation with Feruza. It was amazing to hear her story and how God called her to himself and equipped her even as a child and a teenager for this special work of translation and then helping other translations in Eurasia. I trust that you will let people know about Reflexio and share and give thumbs up and make comments through each episode and share this with your friends. There are more people around the world and hear these remarkable stories of God's servants around the world.

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