By the SEND Siberia team — February is also known in Buryatia, Russia as Sagaalgan or “White Month.” The Buryat holiday of Sagaalgan marks the first new moon of spring (falling sometime between January and the middle of March). Buryats believe that it is a time of cleansing oneself from evil, impurity, bad karma, and bad luck. There are many rituals that are practised—everything from a thorough cleaning of one’s home to symbolically rubbing dough over your body and then throwing it in a fire at the temple. They also eat white food to represent a clean start to the year.
Although this holiday is intertwined with Buddhist and Shamanistic practices, there are actually a lot of ways this holiday can be used to share Christ and how He makes all things new and clean.
Every year, we hold a White Party. We make pozi, a Buryat traditional dish, and everyone brings white food (white cookies, sour cream and cottage cheese, yogurt, etc).
One year, we printed out a picture with a verse (Isaiah 1:18
) about God cleansing us from sin and making us white as snow.
We hadn’t really planned to use the verse to share the gospel. But nearing the end of our time, the conversation just happened! God brought us a Buryat girl who is a Christian and she shared her testimony. Another girl opened up and asked some very good questions.
We also had a great conversation about God and the Bible! One girl expressed a desire to read the Bible and we were able to give one to her. We are so excited to see how God is working! It wasn’t because we had a great plan or led a great discussion—it was all God! Please pray for God’s work to continue in the hearts of those who heard His truth. Please pray that they will know Jesus!
Watch a powerful video testimony of a Buryat believer.
