Worthy is the Lamb [PNG]

This post has been swirling around in the back of my brain for the last couple of weeks, but I've just been very unmotivated to blog. Thankfully, I have been motivated to do "nesting" things- things to prepare for the new baby that will be in our lives soon. I finally decided I better sit down and write this blog post before I have a baby and am too tired to do so.

Last sunday (a week and a half ago), we sang a song at church called "I Will Rise" by Chris Tomlin. There's a part we sang that really got to me. First, I must put a disclaimer- when I searched the lyrics to get the exact words, this part doesn't show up. So apparently, either there are some added, alternative lyrics to the church worship version, or our church just added in this part. Either way, there was a part we sang that went, "I hear the song of every tribe and tongue, 'Worthy is the Lamb.'" And I got choked up some. I cared about every tribe and tongue before- I mean, Ben and I have been heading down this path -- the path to work with unreached tribal people -- for several years now. But it's different now that I have faces and names in my head. 

To be honest, I didn't love the Pei people. There were a lot of things that drove me crazy about them - the way that I couldn't understand anything they said, the way that they grabbed my child, the way that they were dirty and had lice and ringworm, the way that they would be really loud late at night and early in the morning, the way that they would follow Sophie and I around... there were many things that made it hard for me to just naturally feel love toward them (I don't know how humanitarians do it). But I do love Jesus, and my love for him caused me to care about the souls of the Pei people. With how remote they are, they have never had missionaries among them, and they are far from civilzation (town) which would be far too expensive for them to take trips to (reminder: it was an hour plane ride for us and a 2 hour boat ride- it would be days on a boat for them, and then days of walking- which would be a lot of money). So all that to say, they have never heard the gospel. They have never heard that 2000 years ago, a man named Jesus came to this earth and died on a cross to save them from their sins. It's hard for me to wrap my mind around, because I've heard this and read this since I was a young girl. I have hundreds of Bibles and books about the Bible at my fingertips. But they don't even have a written alphabet, let alone a Bible.

The Pei people live in so much fear right now because of tribal beliefs that rule their lives and play an effect into every decision they make. Ben and I spent a very short amount of time in the tribe but still saw how the Pei people lived in fear. One night, Ben stayed up talking with one of the men from Pei. Through interpretation, he was able to learn that this man was sharing about his family, and he shared that his two brothers had died because someone had put a curse on them. The tribal people don't associate death with things like malaria and sickness. Instead, they blame it on witchdoctors and curses. Another thing Ben learned while we were in the tribe happened while he was out with the men cutting down trees in the jungle. The jungle was frustrating to walk through since it was swampy and some trees were covered in thorns. One time, the men heard a bird call and refused to take the short way out of the jungle and instead insisted on a long way. Ben learned that this was because the Pei people associated this bird's call as a warning about danger. They believed this bird was a friend of their tribe who would give them warning when necessary, and the people would therefore alter their previous decisions when they heard this particular bird. Ben was mostly bummed that this meant they had to travel longer in the jungle. 

We only lived among the Pei people for a very short time, and yet we could see just in that short time that they lived in fear. So you see, the thought of these people living free of these beliefs that bind them is thrilling to me. And I believe that that freedom will come through learning about God as the almighty Creator and his son Jesus as our almighty Savior. When they put their trust in him, they will no longer have to fear someone putting a curse on them or a bird chirping in the jungle. And even more thrilling is the thought of being in heaven, falling on our knees before Jesus, and singing "worthy is the lamb" alongside the Pei people.

**If you want to read more on my thoughts about why it's necessary for the people of Pei to HEAR the gospel before being saved, you can read an old post of mine here.