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Dustin has left a deep impression on Missionaries serving across Live|Dead with his dedication to God as he has come to serve alongside us for his summer missions trips. Now, he is a student in Texas who pours into his small group, loves his God and is newly engaged to a fantastic woman.

During the fall of 2012, through a ministry group on a Texas university campus, God got ahold of me and radically changed my worldview. The words “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…” began to resonate in my soul and two simple letters burned in my mind: G-O. Having no idea what to expect, I joined a team doing a summer ministry trip to Central Eurasia.

We spent time with some students and drove around the beautiful country encouraging the believers thinly spread across the nation. It was wonderful seeing their eyes light up, feeling their love and hospitality, hearing their beautiful stories of coming to love Jesus. They didn’t speak of “conversion,” but of a new relationship that changed their lives. It was also humbling to hear their stories of persecution, and to catch a glimpse of what it really means for them to Live Dead. That summer, I realized I needed to devote my life to sharing the Gospel, whether overseas or stateside. I spent my sophomore year as a small group leader on my university campus not only sharing the Gospel but my life with other university students because they were dear to God and to me.

I went back for more

The following summer I told leadership, “Send me where you need me, I just want to go,” and I found myself in northern Africa for a month. In that time, I was able to see from personal experience what it meant to Live Dead. We spent our time learning the language and about local beliefs, and then we would go out and minister to local university students – in just the same way I would on my university campus in Texas. It was amazing how similar it was, except now we had language and culture boundaries to deal with. It was the most beautiful, stretching experience. In ministering to those following Islam, I began to realize how difficult it is and just how much the enemy has their minds in bondage. It was described to us by the worker we were with as banging your head into a wall waiting for a crack. He described it so well too: in one instance a friend and I became very close to a student who spoke very good English and through a natural hunger he had for knowledge we were able to share the gospel with him multiple times, using stories he believed from the Bible. No matter how many times we shared or how simple we put it he was unable to grasp what we were saying – it was so foreign to him! On the last night we spent with him we were again sharing with him and a friend he invited along, but this time he was helping us to explain what we meant to his friend! We were able to see the crack!

Through our time there we practiced abiding in Jesus – spending extravagant time with Him in prayer, study and worship. We knew we needed His power to complete the tasks He had for us. We could not live on yesterday’s bread. The whole fight was won through prayer; going out and meeting people was only collecting the spoils.

How do I live|dead?

These past two summers have been the most rewarding summers, they taught me so much and really opened my eyes to the world God sees, the broken, dead, and lost. Just how much He grieves over His Prodigal children. You may be asking yourself “How do I live dead, How do I do my part in the mission of God?” The same way I had to do it in Africa, the same way I have to do it now on my university campus and the same way workers have to do it all over the world: abide in Jesus. Spend extravagant time with Him. Seek Him in prayer, study and worship. Out time your time with Jesus comes living sacrificially for him – maybe giving up a meal out per week to support a missionary; out of abiding with Jesus we learn to pray for missionaries, and for the Unreached People Groups of the world.

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