Below is a true Boots on the Road story highlighting one of the many unreached people groups along the Silk Road. This story is excerpted from the book, Live Dead Together: A Practice in Group Abiding. Order the book and find other Live Dead resources here.

Murad and I sat on a bench along the shore of the Caspian Sea, taking in the aroma of its salty blue water mingled with the freshly brewed Azerchai that gently warms our hands. As we talk about the meaning of life, I enjoy the scenery but notice that his mind is occupied with places beyond what our eyes can see in this present moment.

Murad is a bright young man who has recently graduated from a local university but is struggling to find a job. He has to depend on the income of his family members and can’t collect enough money to marry his fiancé. After the drop in the world oil prices, the local currency devalued and many businesses closed, leaving the young people with little hope to join the ranks of the workforce. Overwhelmed by all this, he, and many other young Azerbaijani men like him, is anxious to leave his country and keeps asking me for advice on how to do that. He is convinced that the prosperity of the West will fill him with hope and give him the joy that he is looking for.

Please pray with us that Murad and the young people of Azerbaijan would be awakened to the real reason their hearts are restless and without hope. Pray that they would start pursuing the Giver of Life and become the light to their nation.