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The police avoid the Roma neighborhoods in this former Soviet country. So, believers meet there.

A child kicks a soccer ball outside while neighbors drift through the street. Inside, people arrive one by one. Nobody carries notes or printed materials. These draw unwanted attention.

Joanne* had been brought there for one reason: to tell stories. You weren’t supposed to be a tourist in this area, not at her age. And you certainly weren’t supposed to share the gospel. None of this was what a woman ought to be doing with her retirement.

But then, most people would not build an underground church strategy around Joanne. She is not a seminary professor or a celebrity speaker. She is a grandmother from Texas and a cross-cultural worker with TMS Global.

“When I was 11 years old, I came to know Jesus,” Joanne said. “And I decided to become a missionary – as we called it then – in China, behind the Bamboo Curtain.”

For 46 years, that call lay dormant. Joanne grew up, got married, raised kids, and led women’s Bible studies.

Then God opened the first door.

She boarded her first flight to China at 57 years old. “I actually went to teach homiletics because the Bible was my thing,” Joanne said. “But as I began to be transported further and further underground, I realized that the way I taught the Bible was too literate even though these were highly educated people.”

Joanne changed her approach. She learned stories by heart, told them, and asked questions. Then another unexpected door opened. While attending a TMS Global event, Joanne met a cross-cultural worker serving along the Silk Road. The worker invited her to come and see what God was doing there. Joanne said yes.

One invitation led to another. “You need to meet my sister.” Then someone knew an uncle she needed to connect with.

Before long, more doors opened, and in her sixties, Joanne found herself moving through underground networks stretching across Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, North Africa, and Central Asia.

One night, waiting for darkness so they could move safely, a father asked Joanne to tell a story to his family. His teenage daughter had been struggling with life in a Christian family in a place where Christianity was punishable by law.

So Joanne told the story of Jesus calming the storm. Afterward, she asked a question: “What do you think Jesus was feeling when He rebuked the winds and waves?”

The daughter, who had been sitting quietly behind her mother, suddenly leaned forward. “He was angry. And I know exactly why.”

Everyone looked at her.

The girl told a story about climbing rocks outside her house after her parents warned her not to. She fell and badly cut her hand.

“My parents helped me first,” she said. “They stopped the bleeding. They made sure I was okay.”

Then she paused.

“And afterward they got angry.”

Then she said something Joanne says she will never forget: “Jesus is acting like a really good father, angry at the things that can hurt His children.”

Years later, she still tears up talking about moments like that.

Most people Joanne meets know nothing about the Bible. Some have heard about Christians. Very few have actually encountered Jesus.

So Joanne skips the argument and goes straight to the story, following it with a simple question: “What do you think about Him?”

She listens as Muslim women say things like, “He is kind. He is loving. He is forgiving.”

Through the story, Jesus simply steps off the pages of Scripture and into their reality.

“You hold on to things you discover for yourself,” Joanne said. “I told the story to one devoutly Islamic woman. When I left her home, I just said, ‘Will you tell that story to a few other people?’ ‘NO!’ she said. ‘I’m going to tell that story to everyone I know.’”

Is she following Jesus now? Joanne doesn’t know. She only knows the woman wanted to tell the story to everyone she knew.

Because friends like you support TMS Global, people like Joanne can keep carrying stories into places where believers gather quietly and carefully.

“God’s Word is powerful,” Joanne said. “It changes hearts.”

And when that happens, people aren’t arguing their religion. They’re responding to Jesus.

*Names and identifying facts have been changed to maintain security. All images are representative illustrations to protect the identities of workers and local believers.