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…but we hope this post engages your heart. Today we would like to extend an invitation to you. -The Editors

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It’s raining today in my city on the Silk Road. The water leaves a sheen across the ground. The gray of the waves blends with the cloudy sky that hangs low over us.

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I sit in a crowded coffee shop, surrounded by people. Some chat with friends, others pour over class notes, still others stare into the din beyond the window: cars, pedestrians, taxis and buses pulsing around each other in a continuous flow.

It’s probably that none of them know Jesus. Most of them have never had the opportunity. Most never will.

Unless we do something.

It’s heartbreaking to look at these faces, to see their smiles and the light in their eyes and to know that they will never meet my Savior. It makes me want to stand up and start shouting the good news, but without time, without the knowledge of their language and culture to properly communicate, it would make little impact.

Can you feel it? Can you feel the anguish of the Father as He gazes across the Silk Road and sees His children so far from His heart? Where are His servants? Who will go to bring the lost sheep home?

They will remain lost unless the good news is brought to them. Today the Church at large remains ignorant and insensitive to the lost parts of our world. It is costly to consider the lost, because it means we must consider sacrificing in order to reach them.

The Task is Great

Along the Silk Road there are over 700 unreached people groups. This means entire communities are living without a single representation of the Truth. Less than 10% of these communities have even been engaged. Not only are there no local believers, there is no one who has even tried to share the gospel with them.

On human strength and in human understanding reaching these millions is an impossible task. It is hopeless.

Yet God does not give up hope for His lost sheep. He called us all while we were yet sinners, and today He calls out to the lost of the Silk Road. He yearns for them, and He is paving the way for the good news to reach them.

Today, I have something to ask of you.

Would you help reach the lost peoples of the Silk Road?

Would you become their ADVOCATE?

I am not asking you to join me, or a brand, or a program. I am asking you to join the living and all-powerful God who is already moving along the Silk Road.

Will you come to His throne and join with the prayers of the saints that workers will be raised up? That the physical and supernatural worlds will be shaken with the glory of God? That eyes will be opened and lives will be saved?

Will you share your experience with others? Join together with your friends to pray, or write a blogpost sharing the plight of those along the Silk Road?

Will you ask God where He would have you go deeper? Will you seek to find if He has appointed a place for you along the Silk Road, to come and share face-to-face with His lost sheep?

Will you ADVOCATE for the people of the Silk Road? In a world filled with distractions and preoccupations will you take a stand to say that the lost matter? Will you draw the attention of your community to this stark need and encourage them to engage?

Join the Move of God

I wish so much I could bring you to this coffee shop today and have you sit in the empty chair across from me. I wish we could gaze out at these faces together, that you could see the tears in my eyes and hear the lump in my throat as I wonder who will come to share the hope of the gospel with them, as I despair at the fact that I can’t possibly intersect with them all, as I agonize over the knowledge that there are millions more like them spread across expansive and dangerous terrain.

Instead I lift my prayers to the one who ADVOCATES for us all in heaven. I beg and plead with Him that today when you read these words, they become something more to you. I pray that when you hear about the Silk Road, something becomes unglued inside of you and drives you to do something more.

The Silk Road isn’t the only place in the world with lost people, but the task here is huge. The workers are few. The history is dark and complex.

You can play a part in a new page of the story of redemption that God is writing for the Silk Road. You can start to LIVE|DEAD wherever you are. You can make an eternal difference in the lives of people you may never meet.

I pray that the beautiful souls in this coffee shop join us soon in the Kingdom of God. That one day as we worship around the throne of grace they would have the opportunity to whisper:

“Thank you for being my ADVOCATE.”

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