Along some of today’s most remote stretches of the old Silk Road, long forgotten mulberry trees hunch over like tired old men, stiff and worn by the passage of time. Standing beside one, it's easy to imagine those who carved out this path in search of a precious treasure. The ancient trading routes across Central Asia were paved with the blood of adventurers and dreamers, noble emissaries and crooked tradesmen.
The Silk Road connected the markets of East Asia with those in the Middle East, the Mediterranean and Europe. It was never a single thread stretched taut across the Central Asian steppe like an early superhighway. It was always a loose network of routes—like a braided stream—a flow stitching major trading centers together.
The Silk Road dwindled in significance when merchants discovered and began using sea routes to shuttle goods between East Asia and Europe. Yet the old land routes remained open well into the twentieth century. It is still possible to find old men and women in the Pamir mountains who remember when camel caravans laden with goods from East Asia wound their way through precarious mountain passes between Western China and Afghanistan.
For two thousand years the Silk Road has been the crossroads of many faiths. Buddhist, Nestorian, Manichaean and Islamic missionaries and merchants all actively sought to plant their faith in Central Asian hearts. Silk, spices and precious stones were never the only things that moved along the Silk Road—faith found a place alongside commerce. Monastaries were often built beside caravanserais. Mosques are still at home in the center of the busiest bazaars and shopping centers.
Today the dominant agent of change in the region is international trade and the re-opening of Silk Road markets from China to Turkey. The routes once traveled by plodding camel caravans are now paved with asphalt and choked with traffic—trucks loaded with electronics from China, cotton from Uzbekistan, tea from Turkey. The modern manifestation of the Silk Road may look different from its historical incarnation, but the thread is the same.
Along the Silk Road grew out of a desire to draw back the curtain obscuring the peoples of the region and their rich cultures.
It was inspired by a deep conviction that every people group,
and the cultures that define them,
bear the signature of the Creator.
The culmination of the project was a 172-page book, Along the Silk Road. The photography and stories in the book cover life today along the old Silk Road routes from Kashgar, China to Istanbul, Turkey. The accompanying study guide, A Journey through Scripture, is available to download and is designed to help small groups examine the issues that emerge from the stories in the book through the lens of Scripture.
Video travel diaries feature the reflections of Christian photographers, videographers and writers who traveled several segments of the old Silk Road routes, visiting ancient sites and modern cities, interviewing Christians and Muslims. Photo galleries within the interactive map are a window into homes, byways and bazaars...and the beauty of the peoples who call Central Asia home. The traveling exhibition was intended to help people experience the cultures of Central Asia in an interactive way.
Discover how God is moving along this ancient route and ask Him to show you the next step. Consider these AVENUES FOR SERVICE:
| IMB | imb.org |
| Frontiers | frontiers.org |
| International Teams | iteams.org |
| Interserve Intnl | interserve.org |
| Joshua Project | joshuaproject.net |
| MTW, PCA | mtw.org |
| Navigators | www.navigators.org/us/ |
| Operation Mobilization | om.org |
| Pioneers | pioneers.org |
| WEC International | wec-int.org |
| YWAM | ywam.org |
HUMANITARIAN AID ORGANIZATIONS
| Baptist Global Response | baptistglobalresponse.com |
| Samaritan's Purse | samaritanspurse.org |
PRESERVING THE LINGUISTIC HERITAGE OF THE SILK ROAD
| SIL | sil.org |