This story comes directly from one of our workers on the field in Central Eurasia. To read more stories like this, check out the “Boots on the Ground Stories at the LiveDead Silk Road Blog.
I had met a young woman.
Her heart incredibly open to a friendship with me. She had been in my home before. Finally, we made plans for her to come to my house the next day to help me bake.
I asked the Lord what he wanted for my friend …what I needed to say or do. I heard over and over in my head a phrase that means (in my second language) “tell me your story.” I didn’t know what would come of it but I knew I wanted to obey.
She came the next day, she sat at my table and the first thing I asked her to do was to tell me her story.
For hours, she told me her story.
She told me about the time her father left when she was young.
She told me about the brothel that her mother managed out of their home.
She told me how she was verbally and physically abused as a young girl.
She told me how she, as a child, help deliver her own mother’s stillborn baby.
She told me that she became pregnant before she was even married, and how she was swiftly married off to the father of the baby then used as a slave by her new in-laws.
She told me how she gave birth to a baby who didn’t breathe for the first moments, and that she watched as those gathered around her beat the child till it squealed.
And she told me about how she’s living now, as a woman who has decided that prostitution for money is better than having no money at all. As a woman who has no idea that she has worth.
We wept together as she recalled the tragedies that have marked her life. She ended her story by telling me that there had never been blessing on her life.
I sat there during those four hours thanking the Lord over and over for His clear word to me. For His guidance and His direction and the way that He spoke to me so clearly. Because I followed the Lord’s leading, her life was an open book to me.
I want to listen better and obey always.
Because here’s the best part: the next day when my friend came over, after she had told me her story, it was my turn to tell her His story. That day as we read and spoke about Jesus there was great joy and laughter.
She believes His story. Her heart is open and she is beginning to walk with Jesus.
Now, her life is one with blessing.