Cole visited LDSR this spring with a group of Chi Alpha students. Some of his favorite things to do are hiking and camping, listening to worship music, and road trips. His favorite place in the world to be is anywhere he can find mountains. 

When I first began telling people that I was going to Central Eurasia, the most common question I would get was “Is it safe there?” Now that I am here and am experiencing this wonderful country for the first time, the beautiful reality of this place is that there are few places I have ever felt more at home. While my skin color may be lighter, my food preference a bit different, and my faith in Jesus something that is not shared by nearly 100% of the country, my safety and sense of belonging has yet to concern me.

The culture here is the most hospitable I have ever experienced. I am here spending time with university students and after only our first night together; they have already taken me in as family. My new friends always insist on paying for my meals, and they are willing to miss the bus and walk two hours home if it means they get to spend more time with me. One young man, who I have connected really well with, told me that I am his “brother from another mother. We are like twins.”

What Breaks My Heart

Love and kindness flows freely among these people, yet they do not know Jesus and stand condemned to hell until they acknowledge Him as their savior. This is a reality that breaks my heart to the core. Good people, some of the most enjoyable I have ever met, have been deceived by Islam and are on a path toward an eternity apart from their Creator.

For many of them, my teammates and I were the first Christians they had ever met. They have hardly been given a chance to see a true picture of Jesus and choose to follow Him.

The Gospel has been missing from their country for hundreds of years, an absence that has led to a nationwide hardening of hearts towards Christ’s message.

How can we be ok with this? How can the church let millions of people just like these friends of mine die without ever hearing the Gospel? How can we stand idle on the sidelines and watch an insufficient number of missionaries try to save an entire nation of unreached people? These experiences have already begun to deepen my sense of urgency to seek and save the lost.

Central Eurasia needs the Gospel. The world needs the Gospel.

It’s time for us to answer the call of Matthew 28 and go.