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.

This morning my husband and I spoke of a friend we work with on the Silk Road. Like us, home in America. They were home for the birth of a child. Now they were struggling. Not wanting to return after having been with family, realizing all she is missing out on.

My husband says, “I don’t want to go back either.”  It’s a real and raw thing. The pain of leaving our home on the Silk Road was quickly remedied by delicious American food, time with family, clean running water, the ease of Life in America. And now, with 5 months until our return to the Silk Road, we list all the challenges we will face there. The filthy water, the sickness our bodies will endure as a result, the challenges in the kitchen, the amount of time it takes to accomplish one task, and the dread of the cold winters in a house ill-suited for such weather.

I don’t really want to go back either.

Actually, I cried buckets at Christmas-time, realizing how different it would be next year. And as we sit and talk and share how we really feel about moving back, we don’t even have to confirm out loud what we already know. We will go back.  Because it isn’t just about how we feel or the many sacrifices we will make in going.

It’s about God, who has made the Silk Road the place where we belong.  Because on the other side of that list of challenges we list the thousands of ways God meets us, helps us, places us and perfectly carries us through them all.

We don’t want to go back. But we will.
And will choose to love it. And He will use it.