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Aiigul is a twenty-two year old Bashkirka who grew up in a Muslim home. In her late teens, she turned to the Lord in repentance and became the only believer in her household. Soon, the Holy Spirit used her to win her mother, two brothers, and two younger sisters to Christ, leaving only her dad still clinging to the Muslim traditions. |
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But perhaps the most difficult belief for westerners to comprehend is the Russian and Bashkir belief that wind causes sickness. If you go to the mall, the post office, or one of the trade centers here, you will discover a large building with several adjacent entrances, all of which are locked save one. Hundreds of people are streaming in and out of the building, all through the same door frame, squeezing by each other belly to belly. It is a fire marshal’s nightmare! But from the local’s perspective, unlocking the other doors could lead to draft and thus sickness. Similarly, if you have a meeting at an academic institution on a warm day, then expect to sweat profusely, because your host with a doctor’s degree will not open the window out of fear of sickness. You may reason all you can, but the professor will insist that his superstition is a proven scientific fact. Moreover, it is common to see Russian and Bashkir children in coats, hats, and mittens year round, even in the summer, as their overprotective parents try to shield them from the illness bearing wind. |
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Pray that the Russian and Bashkir people
will turn from superstition to our awesome God. |
Today, although her immediate family is an oasis of Christian belief,
relations with extended family are somewhat more strained. Just over a
month ago, for example, Aiigul’s grandmother died. Consequently, Aiigul
and her family recently went to the 40 day anniversary
commemoration of her grandmother’s death for no other reason than to keep
the peace with kin. The Muslim Bashkirs believe that if family members
don’t remember a dead relative on the 3, 7, 14, 21,
day after their death, then the soul of the deceased will not depart this
earth and will haunt them to their graves. Had Aiigul’s family not gone to
the commemoration, the Muslim community could have caused
problems for them. Still, Aiigul is not one to let an opportunity go to
waste as three more family members were won to Christ at the 40 day
commemoration. Praise God! 
Some
times, the Bashkirs' folk Islam merges with Russian mythology and
results in even more bizarre practices. Bashkirs, for example, will often
fear garbage left out in one’s entry way because they believe that evil
spirits live in the trash. They will also shield babies from the prying
eyes of foreigners in order to avoid what they call “the evil eye”.