Have you heard the expression “Boots on the Ground?” Well our Live Dead Missionaries are the boots on the Silk Road. Here we’d like to take a moment and allow one of them to share a snapshot of their life with you. Some names and details have been changed, but this is a true story from this colorful, vibrant, and sometimes surprising region.

I’ll never forget the look on her face as we told Carol that God loved her. It was the look of shock and disbelief mixed with a tinge of hope; although that hope was well protected. She believed in a Creator but the concept of a loving God was foreign to her and an idea she claimed to not believe and yet… yet as we told her God loved her, she softly whispered, “I hope so.” I believe it was this tiny bit of hope that kept her engaged as we shared about the love of God and how He loved the world so much that He sent His One and Only Son to do for us what we cannot do ourselves to be reconciled to Him.

It had been three weeks since I had been in my new country when we met and shared the good news with Halen and Carol. It was the first time for them hearing it in its fullness, and it was my first time sharing it here. Each week we go out to specifically share Christ, but since I cannot speak the language well enough to share yet, I have served as prayer support to those who can share in a way people understand. I was thrilled when God lead us to a few English-speaking University students and we were all able to share with them!

Halen and Carol were lounging on a blanket in the park where we were prayer walking. We had been praying for God to lead us to who He wanted us to share with. We walked and prayed. Walked and prayed. And then one of us spotted these ladies sitting on a blanket. As we walked over to them, they all looked up and smiled. Within minutes, we had all said hello, found out they spoke English, and we had accepted their invitation to sit down and join them for an afternoon snack.

Countless times I have witnessed this same friendly and hospitable nature of the people here. It is one of the many things that have endeared me to the people in this country the LORD has called me to.

We settled down beside these ladies and enjoyed chatting with and getting to know them. As the conversation flowed along, we asked about their beliefs and religion. I have found that it is very easy to get into spiritual conversations here. It is natural to talk about God in this culture. As we listened to them share about their beliefs, the door naturally opened for us to share about Jesus, Who we believed Him to be, and about the Bible. (To be continued…)

The rest of Halen and Carol’s story will be posted in next week’s LDSR blog.