God´s Open Door: Children in Tajikistan

Ariel* and Sarah* are Reflejo missionaries from South America. With their two-year-old, AJ*, they arrived in Tajikistan in early 2024. When they first arrived, another missionary lent them his home atop a mountain as they looked for a more permanent place. “This isn’t so bad,” they thought as they looked at the snowy winter outside from a toasty living room.

Suddenly, there was a power outage because of a storm. Shortly after, Ariel and Sarah heard a thud followed by crying. They ran over to AJ, and saw he’d fallen and chipped his tooth. They immediately called their team leader, a doctor who lived next door, to come and help. He told them what they already knew: he needed to go down to a clinic in the city. Then he told them something they didn’t know: the roads down the mountain were slick because of the snow, and proper transportation wouldn’t be available for another four or five hours.

Over the next few weeks, things didn’t get much better for AJ. Because he didn’t speak Tajik, local kids often bullied him. Ariel and Sarah began to wonder if being there was the best thing for their son. Could God use all these hardships for His glory? On top of that, Ariel and Sarah were having difficulty learning the language and needed to find local people to practice with.

One day, while AJ was riding his bike, some kids approached him. Concerned that they may try to pick on AJ, Sarah began to walk over, but by the time she got there, all the kids were playing with his straight hair because it was different from their curls. The kids asked Sarah where their family was from. After hearing they were from Argentina, they all started to get excited and talk about Messi, the Argentinian soccer player.
This group of kids wasted no time in asking Sarah if she could teach them English. Many even went home and brought their moms to meet her and ask if she could teach them, since Sarah is a teacher by trade. Sarah knew the moms would mistrust anything free, but they also couldn’t afford to have private English tutors for their children. Suddenly, she had an idea. “I’ll teach your children English, but instead of paying them, for every hour I teach them, you need to teach me an hour of Tajik since I am trying to learn your language. Deal?”
All the moms giggled nervously. They’d never been asked to teach anything and they didn’t know if they had much to offer. Eventually, they sheepishly agreed. One mom even volunteered to open her home to all the students and moms to meet for classes. Over the next few months, Sarah taught English regularly and both she and Ariel learned Tajik from various families. Gradually, the families they worked with began to open up to them and welcome them into their lives.
In November, Sarah and Ariel shared with the families that AJ’s 3rd birthday was coming up, but because they didn’t have any family in the country, they weren’t sure if they would be able to have a proper party. Immediately, all the parents in the group responded: “But we are your family. We will help.”

They expected maybe 10 or 15 people to show up to the party, and because of poor weather, maybe even fewer. But early in the day, moms began trickling in to begin cooking and organizing the house for a party, and by the time all the kids and parents had arrived, there were close to 40 people! Ariel was able to organize activities and games with the kids and even built a piñata to teach them all about Argentinian culture. He reflected on this: “Just like we receive their culture, they accepted ours and it was a beautiful image of coming together in friendship.”
During the party, Sarah was able to share with all the parents that AJ was a miracle of God because she’d been told she couldn’t conceive. Other missionaries from the team, who had come for the party, were also able to publicly pray over AJ—giving thanks to God for his life and asking for a blessing over him. After the party, the teammates mentioned that they were surprised Ariel and Sarah already had so many meaningful friendships—even though they’d been on the field only a short time.

Now, Ariel and Sarah look back and see how God miraculously used AJ to open doors to the community. Because of him, the English classes began and his birthday led to an opportunity to begin sharing stories with their friends—of God’s provision in their lives. “We can’t wait for Christmas now,” said Ariel, “We’ll be able to share the Nativity story very soon.”

*Pseudonyms used to protect the identity of the missionaries and local people.