A young couple moves to Uzbekistan to spread the gospel to an unreached people group, just a few years after the break-up of the USSR. Nobody prepared them for the challenges they had to overcome. Eric and Tamar travel with high hopes to Uzbekistan to spread God's Word. Despite years of preparation, they were hardly aware of the unprecedented challenges they would face. This book is unique among mission books. You are drawn into the adventures and setbacks, the doubts and highlights of the main characters. Their story shows how God leads and can be trusted in every situation. Even though He may seem absent at times, He goes on with His plan. For those preparing for mission work, this book provides indispensable tools. Experienced missionaries will identify with the experiences of the main characters with a smile and a tear. It is a gripping story that constantly makes you think. It offers the reader an honest account, without idealizations or obligatory happy ending. As a fifteen-year-old, the author already experienced a calling to missionary work. After training as an English teacher, he worked with his growing family in Central Asia in the late 1990s. Currently, Eric is an entrepreneur in the ICT industry, but he still spends many a free hour working to carrying out the Great Commission of Jesus.

During the latter decades of the 19th century, popular European fascination with the world beyond reached an all-time high. The British and French empires spanned the globe, and their colonial agents sent home exotic goods and stories. The Silk Route dates from this romantic period, in name if not in reality. In the century since its invention as a concept, the Silk Route has captured and captivated the Western imagination. It has given us images of fabled cities and exotic peoples. Religions of the Silk Route tells the story of how religions accompanied merchants and their goods along the overland Asian trade routes of pre-modern times. It is a story of continuous movement, encounters, mutual reactions and responses, adaptation and change. Beginning as early as the 8th century BCE, Israelite and Iranian traditions travelled eastwards in this way, and they were followed centuries later by the great missionary traditions of Buddhism, Christianity, Manichaeism, and Islam.

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • Far more than a history of the Silk Roads, this book is truly a revelatory new history of the world, promising to destabilize notions of where we come from and where we are headed next. "A rare book that makes you question your assumptions about the world.” —The Wall Street Journal From the Middle East and its political instability to China and its economic rise, the vast region stretching eastward from the Balkans across the steppe and South Asia has been thrust into the global spotlight in recent years. Frankopan teaches us that to understand what is at stake for the cities and nations built on these intricate trade routes, we must first understand their astounding pasts. Frankopan realigns our understanding of the world, pointing us eastward. It was on the Silk Roads that East and West first encountered each other through trade and conquest, leading to the spread of ideas, cultures and religions. From the rise and fall of empires to the spread of Buddhism and the advent of Christianity and Islam, right up to the great wars of the twentieth century—this book shows how the fate of the West has always been inextricably linked to the East. Also available: The New Silk Roads, a timely exploration of the dramatic and profound changes our world is undergoing right now—as seen from the perspective of the rising powers of the East.

The New York Times bestselling history of early Christianity in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East—from “one of America’s best scholars of religion” (The Economist). In this groundbreaking book, renowned scholar Philip Jenkins explores a vast and forgotten network of the world’s largest and most influential Christian churches that existed to the east of the Roman Empire. These churches and their leaders ruled the Middle East for centuries and became the chief administrators and academics in the new Muslim empire. The author recounts the shocking history of how these churches—those that had the closest link to Jesus and the early church—eventually died. Jenkins offers a new lens through which to view our world today, including the current conflicts in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. Without this lost history, we lack an important element for understanding our collective religious past. By understanding the forgotten catastrophe that befell Christianity, we can appreciate the surprising new births that are occurring in our own time, once again making Christianity a true world religion.

This volumes consists of selected papers from the 2004 conference of the Australasian Society for Inner Asian Studies. The papers cover topics relating to Ancient Chorasmia, Sogdia and China, Buddhist and Manichaean art, Middle Iranian manuscripts and Buddhist manuscripts from Afghanistan, Nestorian Christianity and contemporary Islam, Silk Road clowns and headcoverings of Central Asia. The collection highlights the range and depth of Australasian scholarship on Inner Asia and demonstrates that there are still many unexplored aspects of Silk Road Studies. Table of Contents: Part 1: Chorasmia, Sogdia and Uzbekistan: Alison V.G. Betts and V.N. Yagodin, Tash-k'irman-tepe Cult Complex: An Hypothesis for the Establishment of Fire Temples in Ancient Chorasmia - Dee Court, The Ordinary and the Extraordinary in Central Asian Headcoverings - Fiona Kidd, The Early Medieval Necropolis at Pap in the Ferghana Valley (Republic of Uzbekistan) - Michelle Negus-Cleary, Walls in the Desert: The Phenomenon of Central Asian Urbanism in the Kingdom of Ancient Chorasmia. Part 2: Christianity and Manichaeism: Samuel Lieu, Manichaean Art and Architecture Along the Silk Road - Vladimir Li?ak, Early Chinese Christianity in the Tang Empire: On the Crossroad of Two Cultures - Geoff Watson, The Ultimate Evangelical Away Game: British Missionary Endeavour in Central Asia c. 1830-1930. Part 3: Buddhism and Islam: Mark Allon, Recent Discoveries of Buddhist Manuscripts from Afghanistan and Pakistan and their Significance - Ken Parry, The Buddha as Colossus in Central Asia and China - Colin Mackerras, Religion in Contemporary Xinjiang. Part 4: Silk Road Exchanges: Holly Adams, Clowns on the Silk Road - Peter Edwell, Palmyrene Art, Architecture and Religion on the Euphrates: The Early Evidence for a Palmyrene Community at Dura Europos.

This gorgeously illustrated oversized book brings the history and cultures of the Silk Road alive -- from its beginnings to the present day -- covering more than 5000 years.

Travel writing.