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.

You never know where a conversation will lead. You never know when a seed will finally sprout. Yesterday, I was chatting with a friend about an English club run by a native believer. My friend was telling me about a man who has been coming for several months now and how they are about to begin studying the Bible together. I kept thinking that this name was familiar, but I couldn’t place it. I have helped at this club some in the past so assumed it was someone I met there.

Then as we talked, I figured it out. I met this man not at the English club, but at my home! He installed the AC in our apartment last summer. I had talked with him quite a bit over those next couple months and even connected him to the English club as a way to keep the connection and broaden his number of contacts with believers. But he never showed any interest in Jesus or in religion of any type. Now this man I have prayed for by name is about to begin studying scriptures with another “worker!”

While we always want to be the one to lead someone to Jesus, it is often the case that we are just one link in a chain.

Among Central Eurasians, our experience shows that it is the fifth time someone hears the Gospel from five different people before they accept Jesus. That means we are most likely a link in a chain by sowing seed for the first time or by watering seed from a previous encounter.

We praise God for this man moving closer to Jesus. We praise God for other faithful brothers and sisters in Christ who are yet another link in the chain of this man’s life. No matter who plants or who waters, it is God who gives the growth.

Don’t be discouraged if you share the Gospel but the person doesn’t accept Jesus. Keep sharing and keep praying! Maybe you are planting, maybe you are watering. I know we all want to harvest. But in the end, it is the Lord who brings the growth; it is our Lord who draws men and women to himself.