Background

  Ribbon Cutting ceremony at Tokmok Ak-Bata (in Kyrgyz, "Blessing") School

Elder Chia Shan Yang, a retired shipping broker and merchant marine captain founded Central Asia Sharing Aid (C.A.S.A.) in 2000.  He and his wife, Yuen Chen Yang, had previously served as missionaries to Kazakhstan.  It was during this period that Elder Yang felt led by God to start Christian schools.  He was reminded of becoming a believer himself through a missionary school in China.  He soon met another missionary with a similar vision.  They joined force and started Mercy Foundation of Kyrgyzstan.  C.A.S.A. is a major supporter of Mercy Foundation.

Mercy Foundation, a non-profit interdenominational Christian organization founded on May 11, 2001, is the first legally registered Christian Foundation established in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, with the full approval of the Religious Affairs, Justice and Education Departments.  Mercy Foundation's goal is to establish Christian charity projects, such as schools, orphanages, playgrounds, technical training centers, seminaries, churches, medical clinics, drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, and other projects, as God leads.  Mercy Foundation has been blessed with the cooperation and goodwill of the Kyrgyz government.

Our school and orphanage projects are dedicated to bring Central Asian Muslim children to Christ, uniting the efforts of foreign and domestic Christian organizations.  Some of our orphanage children formerly lived in city sewers and others came from abused and neglected backgrounds.  Many of the children in our schools come from poor families.  We also have a live-in school for the mentally and physically disabled children.  Our five schools and two orphanages serve about 1100 children, between the ages of 4 to 18, in Northern Kyrgyzstan.  We not only provide for the physical needs of the children, such as food, clothing, shelter, health care and education, but also for their spiritual needs, including Bible studies, prayer time and learning from Christian role models.

Mercy Foundation was founded in 1999 as a united effort between individual Christian organizations:  Central Asia Sharing Aid of Illinois, New Life Ministries of North Carolina and Good News Bible of Kyrgyzstan.  In addition, Mission of Mercy of Colorado, has been securing child sponsorships for the students and orphans of Mercy Foundation since 2000.

Mercy Foundation's newest project is the completion of a gymnasium building adjacent to the Tokmok School of Blessing in September 2004.   This multi-purpose facility will house a library, classrooms, and basketball courts available for various sport activities, in addition to church and evangelism activities. During this same time period, the Foundation will also complete a playground and adjacent evangelism-building project in Tokmok.  This project is collaboration between Mercy Foundation, Kids Around the World, Rockford First Assembly and C.A.S.A., all from Rockford, Illinois.  Dedication for both the gymnasium and the playground/evangelism facilities will take place in October of 2004.  The President of Kyrgyzstan, the regional governor and the mayor of Tokmok will all attend.

As requested by the regional Kyrgyz Governor, Mercy Foundation will start Christian grade schools in the Kyrgyz countryside in the near future.  The summer of 2004 saw the beginning of Christian summer camps for poor and homeless children in many of our Christian schools, taught by the voluntary efforts of our Christian school teachers.  The camps were extremely well attended and well received, and will continue in future summers.  We welcome church groups, including youth groups, to come on short-term missions trips to help us at these summer camps.

As God leads, Mercy Foundation will start new projects in other Central Asian countries, such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and go westward toward the Caucasus, Turkey and Macedonia, to recover the missionary work established by the Apostle Paul in the first Century. 

We claim the trust and promises in these verses from the Bible:

“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it”, found in Proverbs 22:6.  Our founder, C. S. Yang, became a Christian at a Christian school through the efforts of American missionaries serving in China.  That is why he and his wife are so passionate about reaching the children of Central Asia with the gospel of Jesus Christ through Christian education, while their hearts are still tender to receive Jesus.  As Jesus said in Mark 9:37, "Whomever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me."

It is our hope and prayer that the next generation of Central Asian Christians will come from our schools and bear fruit in changed lives and increased Christian witness in Central Asia.  Thank you for your prayer and financial support.