Our team spent the summer in a remote village in Central Asia. A worker family is currently building a home there, and is planning to move and live among this people who generally have a very negative view of Americans. Our team was able to spend the summer praying over this location, as well as trying to help break down cultural barriers in preparation for this family to make this village their home.

This summer I think I experienced one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but not in the way you would expect. Yes, it was hard to adjust to squatty potties and different food and headscarves. We had our share of interesting experiences: cooking meals, making tea, doing laundry by hand, harvesting eggs, milking a cow, collecting chicks, taking care of kids, showering in cold water, mending holes in people’s clothes, planning English lessons, playing sports, and learning how to make Russian food from Russian women without being able to speak Russian.

But the hardest thing about this summer was the level of complete trust I had to place in the Father for every little thing. We spent a month living with people in a culture we didn’t understand who spoke a language we didn’t speak. In the midst of this situation, we tried to build relationships and love people with just our actions and prayer. I’ve always struggled in my prayer life. In fact, if you asked me what my weakest area of spiritual discipline is, I’d probably say prayer. It was hard being in an environment where the only thing I could do was pray. The knowledge that I couldn’t even talk to someone was a huge area of pride that I struggled to surrender. I didn’t have the language to share the gospel, so I had to completely depend on the power of prayer and trust that, in his time, Father would bring those prayers to fruition.

There were times when I became discouraged by the fact that I was living amongst a people who had never heard the gospel, while I was stuck in the kitchen washing dishes or in a school teaching the months of the year. However, God taught me so much about how those acts of service and the prayers we were able to pray are the foundation of the work He is doing and will continue to do in that village. We had the unbelievable privilege of praying over streets and houses that have never been prayed over before, of begging God to reveal himself to people who don’t even know He exists.

It was so good to be able to encourage each other as a team that there is power in prayer, and that like James 5:16 says, “the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” Father taught me so much over that month about how He is sovereign, and that nothing I do determines whether someone comes to know him or not. Nothing I say will ever convince someone to accept Christ, so it doesn’t matter if I’m able to speak the language or not. Any favor I have with people is because the Father has given it. Any relationship I’m able to build is because of his grace, not my people skills. As hard as that was, and is, to truly accept, there is so much freedom in knowing that my only task is to be obedient, have joy in the work that I am allowed to be a part of, and trust that it is God who produces the fruit.