Worker Profile: Nathan and Anya Stan (and J. and D.)

Service location: Central Asia
Service program: tranSend
Serving since: 2023
(Names changed)

Assignment:
As eastern Europeans, we have seen many people from the West coming to our communities and helping us in so many ways since our early teen years. We lived in a country transitioning from communism to democracy, and the needs were many (both spiritual and economical). Inspired by their example, we realized that it is now our generation’s turn to serve others in areas where the gospel is almost unknown. We are glad to follow God’s calling and to partner with VMMissions in this calling.

Now we are part of the Launch Team in one of the post-Soviet countries in Central Asia. The long-term goal is to be involved in Business for Transformation, to use our professions in order to have an authentic role here. And having an authentic role will help us to develop new and deep relationships and show the love of the Lord among the people of the biggest ethnic group in the area we are located. We are currently involved in language and culture acquisition. We learned that this is one of three pillars for “tentmakers,” and we hope to make good progress in this area. Nathan works in software engineering and Anya is a dentist.

Biggest challenge:
Our biggest challenge has been to get to know this place, and the many small, practical steps we as a family need to take. Twenty years ago, I (Nathan) began to feel a burning in my heart for this kind of work. It has been a long journey to receive clear guidance and actually move our family to Central Asia. The biggest challenge now is the difficulty to have real communication with the locals, but we try to improve every day. Our teachers encourage us that we have made progress, and in two months we can already have basic conversations that help us survive. Another challenge is bringing up our daughters with calm and wisdom, especially in these times of transition.

Biggest joy:
Our biggest joy is to take every day as a new experience and to know God’s presence with us as we interact with our language teachers. One of them is watching us very carefully and we learned that the messenger is the message. Because our host country has restrictions about sharing the good news with words, we hope to demonstrate it without words at this stage. May God help us do so! For now, we feel the connection with one of the language teachers deepening, which is good for both sides.

A typical day:
During the week, after personal prayer time we have breakfast and then head to our daughters’ preschool. While they are there, we have language classes for 2 or 3 hours. After some play time in the park, we head home and usually review our language lesson. We often cook at home, but sometimes we try local food in town. Nathan explores the city whenever he can to learn about local life. Some evenings we have team meetings, trainings, and opportunities to make connections. Weekends are more relaxed; we try to spend as much time as possible outside with our daughters. On Sundays, we join a home fellowship with other workers in the morning and in the evenings join a bigger international fellowship.