JOHANNES AVETARANIAN 

The first person to stay in Kashgar 1892 to work for the Swedish Mission was not a Swede but a Turk from Turkey: Johannes Avetaranian. Let us look at the life of this pioneer. He was born in Erzurum in Asia Minor 1861 in a Muslim family. His birth name was Muhammad Shukri. His father was a dervish. His mother, who was deaf, mute and blind, died when Muhammad Shukri was only 2 years old. At the age of 18 his father died.

Johannes supported himself as a schoolteacher and imam. He was very zealous in his spiritual search, studying the depths of Islam. At that time a Turkish soldier had returned to Turkey from imprisonment of war in Russia. In the prison the soldier had received a New Testament. Muhammad Shukri borrowed this New Testament and later on bought a copy of his own. He was reading it with growing interest. After some time he found the salvation he had been searching for. One day he openly confessed himself as a Christian. He spent a full year studying the Bible and also preaching his new-found faith. For this he was persecuted. During several years he had to flee for his life from one place to another. He came to Persia and then to Caucasus. In Tiflis he met an Armenian preacher, Abraham Amirkhanjanz, who became a great support to him. There he was baptised and took the name Johannes Avetaranian.

In Tiflis Avetaranian first met the Swedish missionary Hoijer A long lasting friendship started. They went together preaching in Armenia. In 1886 he went with Hoijer to Sweden and studied at the Mission School in Kristinehamn. He returned to Central Asia where he felt his calling was to be a witness for Christ.

When Hoijer 7 Dec l891 started his journey to explore the possibilities of starting mission work in Kashgar some Armenian Christians and Avetaranian travelled together with him. In the end of January l892 they reached Kashgar. When the others after only one week left Kashgar Avetaranian stayed on alone. At their departure Avetaranian received a memory verse from the prophet Isaiah: "Fear not for I am with you, be not dismayed for I am your God."

Avetaranian employed a couple of poor boys. After some time one of them became a Christian and was baptised. His name was Omer. He was also called Lazarus. But Avetaranian passed his time mostly in loneliness and isolation.

Avetaranian was the first evangelical preacher in this part of Central Asia. In the ordinary way of street preachers he went to the bazaars talking to people and preaching to them about Jesus Christ.

While waiting for the Swedish missionaries Avetaranian started to translate the New Testament to Eastern Turkish. During the two years and six months before the Swedes arrived he managed to translate the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Later he also translated the gospels of Mark and John so that all the four Gospels could be published 1898. The Kashgar citizen Mirza Abdul Kerim assisted him.

Avetaranian left Kashgar l897 thinking he would return soon. However he got employed by the German Orient Mission and was stationed in Bulgaria. He continued his translation work of the New Testament into Uighur. The Swedish linguist and missionary Raquette worked together with him for some time in Filippopel. There the whole New Testament in Uighur was printed for the first time. In 1914 it was ready for distribution. Soon before this Avetaranian wrote: "I thank God if He will let me live till the autumn, when the translation is likely to be ready. Then I can say: Lord, now you will let your servant depart in peace." He died in 1920 in Wiesbaden, Germany.

The name of Johannes Avetaranian will always be remembered in the history of the Swedish Mission in East Turkestan. 

IBRAHIM AKHON 

Ibrahim Akhon was born around 1900. As a young boy he came to the Swedish Mission in Kashgar. He was partly brought up by the Raquette family. He worked for them as a cook. He learnt quite a lot of Swedish by listening to their children but also from a Swedish cookery book. The other young Turkish (Uighur) boys held him in great respect as he could speak a language that they could not understand. When the Raquettes left for Sweden 1921 Ibrahim continued to work as a cook for other missionaries. He had been to Yarkend for a Bible course and was also a preacher.  

Ibrahim was married to Helema. 5th of December l932 their son Bilqus was born. Stina Martensson writes in her diary 9^th April l936: " Tonight we have had baptism when Ibrahim Akhond's wife Helema, Ismael and Honera have been baptised. It was such a blessed moment. In the faces of the men one could see how happy they were that their wives took this step."

Sigfrid Moen tells that Ibrahim Akhon was arrested and put into prison because of his Christian faith. "He just disappeared and we saw him never again. Most probably he suffered the death of a martyr as so many others of the Christian men." This happened l938.