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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.

“Jesus, lead me where my trust is without borders…”

 Sound familiar?

 As overplayed as this song has become, I still remember the first time I listened to those lyrics. That night, I bowed down on my bamboo prayer mat and prayed the song again and again.

I meant every word. Indeed, I have prayed these kinds of prayers for over a decade; they are a constant refrain in my soul.

God, I will go wherever You call me.

Before I left for the field, I could practically predict the expression of confused disbelief and fear that crossed a person’s face when I told them where I was going. “Do you know what happens there?” “Are your parents ok with this?” “Aren’t you scared?” Every time the questions arose, I smiled at the opportunity to share about The One Whose Call is Border-less.

It is easy to set up iron bars around our faith. We build our own prisons made of innocent materials, like comfort, safety, and feasibility. Fear may be the cell door, but in reality, Jesus broke the lock long ago. He is calling us out. In response to His voice, we step outside our prisons of fear and doubt. We breathe in the free air and notice God working in unimaginable ways around us. Indeed, He has been working miracles all along, but now we can see His hand moving. We can participate in the work with joy and trust Him with the results. However, that’s just the first step.

A trust without borders is tested in the laboratory of impossibility and hardship.

One day, I asked a local leader about our church planting efforts here. He told me that MBBs (Muslim background believers) sometimes have had to go into hiding to protect themselves from their families. Abuse, sometimes death, is the expected punishment for causing such dishonor to the family. In addition, spiritual warfare, discrimination, and resistance constantly challenge these efforts. Somewhere in between the all-too-familiar stories, he sighed, “There is always danger.”

Even so, our brothers and sisters persevere. They encounter challenges at every turn yet continue to hope for the miraculous. I prayed, “Jesus, lead me where my trust is without borders,” and Jesus led me here.

In this place, my brothers and sisters show me what it looks like to have boundless trust.

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