Middle of Nowhere

I recenlty made a trip out to a friend's village. We drove 9 hours on mountain roads to get there. I'm guessing we covered about 70 miles as the crow flies, about 350km on our odometer. Our driver told us it took us 3 hours to travel 30km on one stretch. That's how bad these roads are - switchbacks up and down one mountain, then up and down another until we arrived at a big river. When we got close to the river, we got out of the car and hiked down to it, crossed it on rafts (and foot bridges like the one pictured here), then hiked up another mountain to get to her village. This was the most efficient way to get to her home.

If this bridge looks scary to you, try coming across it with no warning and no alternative. I was terrified. Two men had to hold my hands to lead me across.

It amazed me as we drove, hiked, and paddled how remote this village was. And this is only one of hundreds of villages in this county that sits amid steep mountains and rugged terrain. And this county is only one of hundreds in this enormous mountain range.

Switchbacks on the rougher part of the trip.

Five households make up this village. My friend's father, three of his brothers, and his uncle. Most of the inhabitants are uneducated and extremely poor. In fact, in the entire time I spent there, I was able to have only one or two conversations. Only a few of the more privileged men spoke the language I've spent the last 2 years learning. None of the women spoke it at all, they only knew their local dialects of the tribal language.

I'll be honest. I cried that afternoon. I'd gone all that way in hopes of being able to tell these remote people about Jesus (I was there on Christmas Eve, so it would have been easy to get the conversation started). But after a few hours, I realized that I'd be lucky if I would be able to ask for a glass of water and be understood. Verbal communication was not going to happen.

I was overwhelmed by the enormity of the task of reaching the unreached peoples of the world with the gospel. Just to travel around this small region and be able to communicate, I would need to learn about 10 different languages - a total of about 80 dialects. It's a totally impossible task for humans to reach these remote corners of the mountains with the Good News.

But God showed me something amazing. In this 5 home village in the middle of nowhere, he has already brought a few people to himself. My friend for one, who I met in the city. She believed after I was able to share the gospel with her a few times. But also several of her cousins have believed. I don't know how they learned about Jesus, but they follow him.

It may be impossible for mere humans to communicate the gospel to all the unreached peoples of the world, but the task is not beyond God's reach. He is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine. And he does so according to his power that is at work within us. So while we may be powerles to accomplish the task, his power in us is sufficient. Somehow, he will reach the unreached until representatives from every nation, tribe, people and language surround his throne in worship.

Please pray for the People Groups of the world who have not yet heard the gospel.