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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.

“And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.” Matthew 10:7-8

I live in the Land of Restrictions, a place where the workers are experts at being as “shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” Those who are not so shrewd and innocent find the door of reentry into the nation firmly closed. If we want to stay, we live within the boundaries.

When I lived in the Land of Freedom, I came up with many reasons to keep Jesus to myself: bad timing, a fear of offending people, a desire to say the “right” words… the usual excuses. Here, in the Land of Restrictions, my excuses have multiplied: my reentry could be blocked, I could cause problems for the other workers here, I could put local believers in danger, and I could even become the next target for extremists.

Living in the Land of Restrictions gives me a whole list of valid reasons to keep Jesus to myself.

And yet, the command hasn’t changed. “As you go, preach…”

Lord, forgive me for making excuses. Who am I to withhold, when I have been given all? Help me to freely give. Who am I to presume that personal safety and a visa are more important than obedience? Forgive me for walking through this harvest field, with seed trapped in my clenched fist. Show me how to be shrewd, innocent, wise, and bold.

The Reality

It doesn’t get any easier to share the Gospel once you assume the title of Missionary. If anything, it is exponentially more difficult in Central Eurasia. There is constant tension between freely giving and being shrewd.

I ask that, as you pray for us, don’t just pray for our safety. Pray also for wisdom, discernment, and especially boldness. Pray that we will obey the command to go and tell, even when the telling seems risky.

Pray that as we walk across this rocky, hard soil and water it with tears of intercession, we will obey the Holy Spirit when He points to a spot and says, “Open your hand; plant seed here.”

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