Archive · 2009 · From the print edition of Sunday 16 August 2009, Vol. 17, No. 5,142
CultureA white horse at the Hippodrome
Nathan Isabekov rode into the State Hippodrome on a white horse last night to preach to a crowd that filled most of its seats.
TALAS — The televangelist Nathan Isabekov rode into the Irad State Hippodrome on a white horse last night, at the start of the largest revival meeting yet held by his Faithful and True Church. The Hippodrome said about 20,000 people attended.
Mr. Isabekov, who settled in Talas in 1999 and built his church's 6,000-seat auditorium on the road to Kara-Bulak, circled the track once at a walk, with the crowd on its feet, before dismounting at a stage built on the finish line. Behind him a choir sang worship songs to the komuz. He preached on Revelation 19:11, the rider "called Faithful and True", whom Iradi devotion identifies with the White Rider of Janyl's vision.
"The Rider is coming, and he is coming on a horse, and the horse is white," he told the crowd. "The Americans did not teach you that. Your grandmothers did." The meeting was broadcast on Faithful and True TV.
Not everyone was pleased. A priest of the Syro-Iradi Catholic Church, who attended, said the evening had been "a good show and a poor catechism". Outside the gates, sellers of horse-milk kymyz said they had sold out by nine.