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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.

Confession Time: I’m the type of person who hits the snooze button at least twice in the morning before actually making it out of bed. Okay, maybe even three times if I’m honest. When I wake up in the morning, it’s not always “Good Morning, Lord!” with a smile; it’s usually “Good Lord, it’s morning!”

So you can imagine how I felt when the sound of beating drums erupted in my bedroom. I jolted upright, so confused by what was happening. Then I remembered that I live in Central Eurasia, and it was the Ramadan season.

If you’re unfamiliar, Ramadan is celebrated by Muslims worldwide as a month of prayer and fasting. Hailed as one of the five pillars of Islam, adherents fast food and water from dawn until dusk. The fast begins each day with the sunrise, so an hour or so before the dawn, a drummer goes around awakening the neighborhood to eat a quick meal before the day begins.

Torn out of my peaceful slumber, I sat in confusion until I realized what was happening. Then, I got frustrated. Indignant even. Grumbling as I made my way to the window to close it, I remember thinking, “This is ridiculous. I shouldn’t be awake this early – especially against my will.” The drummer was awakening the people – people in the apartment below me, in the buildings next to me – and all I wanted to do was sleep in.

The Holy Spirit, in all his patience, took this occurrence to point something out in my heart.

Here these people were, being awakened to fast – to seek all month long, in hopes for miracles or thawab (spiritual rewards).

People going through their lives everyday without knowing the story of Jesus. People hungry for the Bread of Life and never encountering anyone to share it with them. And I just wanted to sleep in.

Wake Up

In that moment, I repented and prayed, “Oh God, awaken my heart to see the lost around me. Forgive me for “sleeping in” when there’s a world around me who desperately needs you. Help me to see the spiritual hunger around me and offer them Jesus.”

As Ramadan concludes this month, would you pray with us that God would continue to awaken hearts in Central Eurasia, in people who are so desperately seeking? Would you pray that The Lord of the Harvest would awaken hearts of believers in every country and burden them with a heart to serve among the unreached?

And would you pray that God awakens us to see the need, and like the sound of drums, awaken our hearts and quicken our spirits to pray for a world lost without Him.

Open up my eyes; I’m tired of sleeping in a world that’s dying to wake up. ­– Sleeping In, Nevertheless

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