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.

My friend named Sarah and I met two years ago, and from the day we met, she had a certain curiosity in her heart about Jesus. Sarah lives in a different part of the country then I do, and in the months following our initial meeting, we began to have conversations over the phone about the bible and who God is. Even though she was curious,  Sarah was identified culturally as a Muslim and told me once that she could never accept Jesus as Lord- it would “go against her religion”.

One day last summer, Sarah called me and had an urgent prayer request: “I want to see Jesus in a dream. Will you pray for me?”. After a day of prayer, I received another phone call from her with the exciting news that she had seen Jesus in her dream. When I asked her why she had suddenly desired this, she told me “I have prayed for years to see Muhammad, and he has done nothing for me. But the day after I prayed to see Jesus, he showed up. In my dream, he was light and he was peace”.

Since then, we have been calling every now and then. Just a few weeks ago, while we were speaking on the phone, she excitedly told me, “I have been praying a lot more. For myself, for my family, even for my enemies. I think we need to start praying together”.

Thrilled by her suggestion, I agreed that we should start praying together regularly. We began making plans to start and she interjected: “I have to tell you something. I want to change religions. I am ready to become a Christian”.

I was stunned! Almost exactly two years ago, I sat across the table from Sarah in a crowded coffee shop and asked her if she wanted to follow Jesus. She had very adamantly said “no” and explained she could never do something so offensive to the religion that she was brought up in.

The Lord has worked a miracle in her heart, and she now sees Jesus as Lord, king, and loving father. That weekend she told me, “I have followed Allah for 21 years, and he has done nothing for me. In just two years, Jesus has done so much for me. I know following him is the best decision I can ever make”. 

Last week, I travelled to her city and spent the week with this new sister in Christ for the purpose of discipleship in the very first stages of her walk with Christ. In the week that I was there, Sarah shared with her two closest friends of her decision to follow Jesus and was baptized. For Sarah, these were huge steps – in the village she is in, following Jesus comes with a huge cost. A local who leaves their faith to become a believer can, lose a job, be disowned from their family, or even be killed. I was encouraged and so inspired last week by the faith of this week-old believer that had counted the cost and decided Jesus is worth it.