Truth Triumphant - Benjamin G. Wilkinson

From the twenty-seven grand divisions of the
church administration covering the Orient,
communications were sent in not only concerning
new religious developments, but also about events
of international importance. Thus in the year 1009,
Abdisho, metropolitan of Merv, the church director
in the powerful province of Khurasan, northeast
Persia, wrote to the patriarch John informing him
that two hundred thousand Turks and Mongolians
had embraced Christianity. He pointed out that the
conversion occurred because the king of the
Keraits, which people spread over the region
around Lake Baikal, Siberia, had been found
wandering in a high mountain where he had been
overtaken by a violent snowstorm. In his
hopelessness he considered himself lost, and
dreamed or thought he saw a giant appear to him in
vision, saying, “If you will accept Christ, I will
lead you to safety.” Having promised to become a
Christian and having returned safely to his
kingdom, he sought out Christian merchants who
were traveling among his tribes, and learned from
them the way of salvation.
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