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 part 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 those who God has called to work here.

As a mom I often find that I have ridiculous expectations of my kids. I don’t want them to embarrass themselves or embarrass me for that matter. We have 3 incredibly outgoing kids. I actually prayed that my third child would be shy. She isn’t. Our #2 is exceptionally social.

Doing what we do, living where we do, traveling to the places that we do, our kids rarely feel uncomfortable in any situation. Our oldest can find anything he needs in any country that we are in using either the languages that he knows or methods he has learned to communicate with someone who doesn’t speak his language.

He is brave and courageous. Just like his dad.

Our number 2 can find a friend in any country that we are in whether she knows the language or not. I often times find myself encouraging our son’s independence and boldness but trying to manage or control our middle’s personality- mostly so that I am not humbled by it.

We had travelled to a place to rest for a few days together as a family en route home after a work conference. We didn’t speak the local language in this conservative religious country. My husband and I sat as our kids swam in the pool. Our middlest grabbed the youngest and said, “let’s go make some friends – we will try to make them understand us.“ I started yelling her name to get her to stop, but my husband pulled me back and reigned me in. “Just let her try…we have to let her try.” And so she did try. Hand in hand with her sister they approached two girls similar in ages. And she gave it her best shot. The local girls turned, walked away and actually left the pool area. I heard my #2 say to her little sister, “well, I guess they didn’t want to make new friends today.” And she jumped back in the pool to play with her sister, unfazed. And that was it. She tried.

Later the following day we visited another pool where there was a large group of women and girls doing aerobics. Nothing could stop my middlest. She surveyed the pool to see where she should presence herself. I watched as she found her place. And there she was, she chose the section of women who were covered from head to toe. For the next 30 minutes my daughter was there plopped right in the middle of the conservative ladies in the pool, the ones whose eyes were nearly the only thing visible.

I snapped a picture of her laughing with them…a good reminder to me. She is brave. She loves everyone. The young girls who don’t speak her language….and the women who swim in burkas. Thank you Lord for my #2. May I relinquish control. May I allow her to stretch me. May I allow her to grow and try and fail and grow some more… in bravery and in love.