“They are all dead. All of them.” The boy’s eyes welled up with tears as he sat cross-legged on the cold concrete in the makeshift refugee camp. He had staggered across the border carrying his injured grandmother on his back, his only remaining relative who had escaped the ethnic cleansing in their country. Slowly, between sobs, his heart-wrenching story emerged, and it changed me forever.

He was just 12 years old when soldiers stormed the home village. While the women desperately rushed to hide their children in their homes and barns, the soldiers rounded up all the men and forced them to stand in a line. From behind a well, as his grandmother clutched him tightly, this boy heard the gunshots and watched his father fall dead with all the other men. The boy tried to run to his father, but his grandmother held him and covered his mouth to muffle his cries. They escaped into the forest as the soldiers began to search the buildings for the remaining villagers. From the cover of trees they saw his mother and baby sister killed with one bullet.

As dozens of children told me their similar stories, my eight-year-old mind was overwhelmed with the magnitude of what these Balkan people had experienced. It was nearly impossible to comprehend such anguish. My young heart became forever entwined with theirs, and from that day forward a strong bond was forged.

From age 7 to 19, I grew up working with my family at an AFM project in a neighboring country. I wasn’t the only AFM missionary kid in the country, though. A few hours away from our city, another AFM family with a daughter my age worked for the same purpose—to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to unreached people.

You may remember Sara’s story from this magazine. She and her younger sister found a calling to work with an underprivileged people group in their city. While they were only children, they raised funds and opened a literacy center for young women to share the endless love of our Father in heaven.

God drew Sara and me together with a common calling—a deep burden for the unreached. But it wasn’t until after we were married in 2011 that God revealed the specific purpose for which He had been uniquely preparing us all along. He was calling us to that same group of Balkan Muslims who had suffered through genocide.

Having both grown up in a neighboring country that has a very similar culture and speaks another dialect of the same Balkan language, Sara and I have the tools to reach this people group more quickly and effectively than someone starting from scratch. Most importantly, God has given us a love and compassion for these people and a history with them that has bound our hearts to theirs.

God has called us to return “home” to the mission field. Please pray for the Muslims of the Balkans, that God will prepare their hearts for the message of hope we will bring. Please prayerfully consider pledging monthly support for the Balkan Muslim project so that these precious people don’t have to wait any longer to receive the healing from Jesus they so desperately need.

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