To the Ends of the Earth

“But you will be my witnesses…to the ends of the earth.” I have always thought to myself, hmmm, I wonder what it would be like to go to the ends of the earth. Well, I think I have finally discovered what that is like. My team and I were on a research trip recently and we came upon a village that was faaaaar down a dirt road. When we pulled into the village we saw rows and rows of stick and mud buildings. Most of the buildings had thatched roofs, but a few of them were lucky enough to have corrugated steel for their roof. As soon as I stepped out of the truck I was immediately greeted by the smell and sound of the ocean. I could hear the waves crashing into the shore; at first I thought it was thunder because the waves were so loud. I could hear and smell the ocean, but could not see it. Instead, all that I could see where these stick and mud buildings and the people who called them home. As we started walking through the village, the ocean became louder and louder, I knew we were getting close. Eventually we made our way through the village to the ocean; I felt like I had reached the ends of the earth. There was literally nowhere to go but the ocean or to turn around and go back through the village. I walked down onto the beach and watched as the fishermen brought in their catch from the day. I watched as the children of the village filled little bags with sand to be used as weights on the nets. Everyone had a role; they knew what to do and how to do it.

It is really kind of cool to just sit in a village and watch the people do their daily tasks. They live such different lives from you and me, and yet, they are not really all that different. The Father has made them in His image, just as He made you and me and in His image. He loves them just as much as He loves you and me. I sit and wonder sometimes how it is that people can live in a village that is so far out there. When I think about all of the things that you can find in the city it amazes me how they are able to live so isolated from everything. There are a few people in the village that have a generator to run power and most everyone in Africa has a cell phone today, but I am always in awe of the people who make their homes from sticks and mud. I am also in awe that in the year 2014, there are still people who live on the ends of the earth who have never heard the Good News.

As I go into these villages that are so isolated, I am truly amazed that the Good News has not reached them. I was reading a book the other day and it was talking about where the Good News has and has not gotten. It was saying that it seems more and more the places that have yet to hear are the places that really are at the end of the earth. My desire is to go to those kinds of places. There are some places in West Africa where you have to walk for several hours just to get to the villages because there is no road for car or motorbike; I desire to go to those places. My heart is for the people in those hard to reach villages. I desire to make the terms Unengaged Unreached People Group and Unreached People Group obsolete. I serve an awesome Father and I know He desires for all to hear, otherwise He would not have said that we would be His witnesses to the ends of the earth. I get so excited at the idea that He would even let me go and share the Good News with those who literally are living on the ends of the earth.  

Faith and Rocks

So I am going to be real honest with you, I am not the greatest blog writer and so I am not sure how this whole blog thing is going to go. I had a blog a few years ago but I was not all that disciplined about posting so I took it down. My hope for this blog is to give you an idea of what my life is like here in West Africa. I also hope to give you an idea of what is going through my head and what is on my heart. I can’t guarantee that everything I post on here is will be happy and fun, because lets be honest, life is hard and it is not always happy and fun, but my hope is that with every post you read you will see how faithful our Father is, and how He is moving and working, even in the hardest of places. I think it is going to be a pretty wild ride, so hang on…here goes nothing!

I have been in West Africa for about 6 weeks now, and it has been non-stop since. There are days when I can’t believe that it is already the middle of May. I mean where did the time go? When I look back on the last 6 weeks I think about all of the awesome things the Father has done and how He has been moving. But there are some days when I get frustrated and only think about how things have not gone how I thought they would and forget how faithful He has been. I think that seems to be a tendency for a lot of us; we spend time looking back on how faithful the Father has been, but when something bad happens, we seem to forget all of that and only focus only on our frustrations. It seems like in life we spend too much time focusing on the negative, when we should just give in all to Him and know that He is faithful in every part of life. Now I know, that is soooo much easier said than done, but how many times in The Word does it talk about how faithful He is? Ok I don’t know the exact number, but I’m pretty sure it’s a lot.

When I first got to WA I started to read through the book of Joshua. I wanted to read through something that showed the Father’s faithfulness as well as what it looks like to have total trust in Him. And come on, if walking around a wall 7 times and yelling doesn’t take trust I don’t know what does! So I began reading Joshua and I got to chapter 4, where it talks about the 12 memorial stones. Joshua told one man from each of the 12 tribes to get a stone and they built an alter to the Father. This alter was to remind the people of Israel of all that the Father had done for them. When they had days full of frustration and sorrow, they could look at the memorial and be reminded of how faithful the Father had been to them. When I read this I was like, man that would be kind of cool, to have my own memorial made of stones, each stone representing a time when He has been faithful. So that is what I did, I looked back over the last 1½ years and started listing all of the ways the Father has been faithful. For those of you that don’t know, I started the application to come to WA over a year and a half ago. It was a long, and at times, frustrating process, but when I look back on it all, it is so easy to see how faithful He has been through it all. I could focus on how long the process was or on how things may be different than I originally thought they would be. I could focus on how hot it is here, or the fact that I don't have electricity 24 hours a day. I could focus on how frustrating the culture in WA can be or how I really wish I could just go get Taco Bell. But instead I am going focus on how faithful He has been to get me here and how He will be faithful to keep me here and to use me.

So while things in WA don’t always go as planned…ok really they rarely go as planned…on those days when I get so frustrated with everything, I will look at my pile of rocks and remember how faithful He has been and how He will continue to be faithful through it all. Who knew, a little pile of rocks could be such a simple reminder of something so great.