People Really Are Going

Sometimes I forget that there really are people, like you and me, who are in tribes right now working to learn a language that's barely known, creating a written language, teaching Bible stories to ears who have never, ever heard the name of Jesus. Sometimes I forget all of this when I live in comfortable America... even when I live at a Bible/Mission school that is sending out new missionaries all throughout the year to reach these people. Sometimes a speaker comes here to NTBI and reminds me though that there really are people going. Not enough. Never enough. But there are SOME people going.

Yesterday and today a man named Tim shared with us during orientation. He spent time as a missionary in the South Pacific, and he worked in a tribe, lived with men who wore gourds as their only clothing, dodged bow and arrows, and witnessed the salvation of people who had never previously even known that Jesus Christ existed. It's hard for me to wrap my mind around the idea that this man standing in front of me had done all of this. He looked like me and you. He talked like me and you.

Even more so, it's hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that there are thousands of people groups who never heard the gospel, and many of these who have never ever heard the name of Jesus Christ. I grew up in America. Even though I know many non-Christians, these people still all KNOW the name Jesus Christ and know the basic story of the Bible. It is literally impossible for me to grasp that there are people who know none of this.

This is why we are passionate about what New Tribes does. First, they go to people groups (and build friendships there) who have no written language and give them the gift of allowing their language to be put on paper (which allows for the preservation of a language, for better health, for better education... for so many things... I wrote my senior paper on this subject in college). But then, even more importantly they give them the Bible in their language. This is such a privilege that we take for granted often because we have so many copies of the Bible in America.

There's a video called Awayo that NTM has. Tim spent time with the tribe that Awayo is from. It's a video I've seen a number of times, but I think the story became more real when I met a man who actually knew Awayo. Awayo is a real man with a story; he just lives half-way around the world. I'll post it below incase you would like to watch it.