[column width=”1/6″ title=”” title_type=”single” animation=”none” implicit=”true”]

[/column]

[column width=”2/3″ last=”true” title=”” title_type=”single” animation=”none” implicit=”true”]

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.

There are a lot of things about the life of a missionary that no one ever sees. Mostly we share the good stories. Stories about how God is moving, about people who respond to the gospel, about miracles and healing. Sometimes we tell stories of sacrifices made, but there is always something good to share that happened as a result. People say that we are brave, strong, persistent and diligent.

The stories that often go untold are the stories of pain, hardships faced, rejection, broken relationships, grief and loss. Often there isn’t a great result to the story, at least not that we’ve seen yet, and so it doesn’t do much to inspire in a newsletter or on social media. But these are the stories of real life and real mission work.

There is the young family that lost their baby from a heart condition when she was only a few months old. Or the woman who lost her husband from cancer after they had worked together in the country they loved for several years. There are the singles who struggle with loneliness, searching for something to fill the void that they feel. Or the marriages and families that are strained in ways they haven’t been pulled on before.

Those who have experienced the death of a child or of a spouse have faced the accusations of those who wonder if perhaps this all would have been prevented had they stayed in the States. For many, the young singles are simply on an adventure, waiting to settle down and take life seriously. Often have I been asked the question, “Do you even want to get married?” The families that chose to uproot themselves from their settled lives weren’t thinking of their children enough, and now they’re struggling. These are often the perceptions. And sometimes it’s hard not to believe they might be true.

I wonder if I would have stayed in the U.S. with good job, good salary and stable life if things would have been better for me. Maybe I would be healthier emotionally or physically. Maybe I would have met someone who I loved and wanted to marry. It would have been easier. I wouldn’t have to experience the loss of leaving family, friends and a stable life behind. I wouldn’t experience the loss of co-workers leaving the field for various reasons. I wouldn’t build deep relationships only to experience loss again so quickly when someone transitions.

So why do we stay? Sometimes I wonder… and then I realize that this life God has called me to is now a part of who I am. To abandon it would be to abandon a piece of myself. I could do it. I could live my life with a huge piece broken off. I could be happy. I could be settled. But I would always feel the emptiness. I would always sense that gaping hole.

I am ruined for anything but this life now. Even when it hurts I must stand up, brush off the dirt and bind up my wounds. This is what God has called me to. There is a fire inside me that cannot be quenched – that those who don’t know Him would hear and truly see. It is for this purpose that I can push through the pain and the difficult moments knowing that, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matt 5:4).

[/column]