SfK BAM Field Trip 2025 - Osh, Kyrgyzstan (September 2025)

After spending four nights in Bishkek, we flew to Osh over the Tenshan Mountains. The flight time was not long, but it would have taken us 12 hours or so if we had decided to travel by car because of the mountainous and winding roads. We were greeted at the airport by Kostya, who wears several hats in Osh. But first, we went to a local franchise restaurant, called Navat, to eat lunch and meet with Eric and another local staff Samuel. Eric is a software developer and will run a business entity, Dutch Nature will form as a joint venture. He is also serving at a local church with Kostya. His passion for God was apparently.

Kostya took us to a Royal Breed site. Royal Breed is another Dutch Nature entity that specializes in growing and selling layer chickens to farmers. Kostya is responsible for running the Royal Breed operations in Osh. Royal Breed sold more than 100,000 chickens a month earlier this year. But this sale flooded the market with too many chickens, and the egg price tanked. So they temporarily stopped growing and selling layers. He was working on automating the feeding process at one of three chicken farm houses. 

Another hat that Kostya was wearing was leading Aslan Business. Under this business umbrella, he is trying to do several projects. One of them is building and selling prefab houses. He has already built several of them, and they were displayed. Kostya was a general contractor and a developer in the State of Washington. He is a Russian American and was called to do meaningful work for the Lord, and came to Kyrgyzstan a few years ago. Thanks to his construction background, it was easy for him to buy the skeletons of containers and convert them into houses and other usable units. 

Another usable unit, which Kostya developed out of the container skeletons, was a sales point. This mobile sales point can be placed anywhere a piece of land is available and can be moved if the location does not work out for whatever reason. We visited one of them to see the exterior, and we would come back the following day to meet the operator. The sign means Aslan, where the letters include a cross shape by design.

We invited Kostya and his wife to dinner. We had a great fellowship listening to their faith journey. We blessed them with a prayer.

The following day, we met with Sung Jung, a Korean American, who came from Virginia. He has been leading Dutch Nature Impact, a non-profit organization that helps local pastors to start their own businesses. Sung was also offering coaching and mentoring for the local pastors.  After mutual introduction, he first took us to Solomon Mountain, where all religions left a legacy. We spent a good amount of time at the museum, where ancient rock paintings and inscriptions were preserved. The city view was panoramic. 

We were able to pray for Osh at the top. The city of Osh was losing many young Christians who were leaving for jobs elsewhere, such as Russia, Korea, Bishkek, and Almaty. We asked for God's intervention and His special grace upon the city and the churches. 

We went to meet the operator of a sales point, Timulan. This young pastor is meeting a lot of people through this business unit and develops contacts for a meaningful relationship over time. He was doing it very well. 

We also visited a Kyrgyz handicraft shop. A young local pastor, Naket, was the owner-operator of this business. We bought souvenirs and prayed for him. 

At the Royal Breed site, we also met with Joseph and Maria from Hong Kong. They were running a solar panel installation business called On and On. Their life journey was also inspiring.

For dinner, we invited Sung and his wife Heidi to a Korean restaurant. The ambiance and the food wre both very good. We enjoyed our time together. We thanked Sung for his time spent with us.

For two days, we had our breakfast at Brio Cafe. It is owned and operated by a young Kyrgyz local pastor. But he was out of town while we were visiting Osh. Our breakfast was wonderful and we thoroughly enjoyed each meal and coffee.

We stayed at a guesthouse, Sun Valley, owned and operated by a local pastor, Elmurat. We spent some time together before we left. 

We returned to Bishkek after the two-night visit to Osh. Osh is on the Silk Road route coming from Bukhara and Samarkand in Uzbekistan. I sensed that Osh could develop rapidly as part of China's One Belt One Road project. We will see. - Jeffrey