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 part 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 and those who God has called to work here.

I recently found an apartment in my new city to rent, but now we are trying to work out getting all the utilities and other documents necessary for living here. Unfortunately, it has not been easy. We keep being sent from office to office in circles.

Yesterday, we had to go to the immigration office. You see, the reason we have been given a hard time is because this area along the Silk Road has been hit with the refugee crisis that has swept the Middle East. The supply is much less than the demand here.

I stood and sat in waiting areas filled with Iraqis, Iranians, Syrians and Somalis who all came to my host country seeking a better life. In two ways, it felt just like being home. In the waiting areas, my nose was met with the familiar smells of the Somali mall in my hometown in the States and my ears heard the sounds of Somali again. I felt like I was back in the Somali mall drinking tea with the shop ladies. My heart was happy. A precious elderly Somali lady stood next to me and dropped all her papers. I picked them up for her. She thanked me in Arabic, and I answered in Arabic, quickly followed by asking her name in Somali. Her face lit up!

A kind someone was speaking her heart language in a place where many people are only a number waiting to be called.

I wish I knew more Somali to be able to communicate that God sees her and knows her by name.

The second way I felt at home as I sat in a hot, crowded, noisy waiting room, was I knew I was sitting in a small picture of heaven. I’m not sure if heaven will be hot, but I do know that Scripture promises that it will be filled with the noise of praise from every language that surrounded me. I sat there and interceded for each person I saw with the weight of the knowledge that they most likely had never had anyone pray for them before, especially not a prayer that they would know Jesus.

Would you join me in praying for all these beautiful unreached people groups that are in my new home?