Imagine with me for a moment. A people group still living with no electricity, no running water, dirt roads and bamboo houses. A village in the middle of the jungle,
over 300 people with no education. Christianity was introduced about 20 years ago. Only three people in the entire village can read, with one pastor and one bible. This is the scenario I found myself sitting in the middle of one afternoon. I was sitting against the wall of a home hearing this situation and it really sinking in for the first time. These people can’t read. The idea of who God is has come from the little bit of teaching they have received from the local pastor who himself is still learning what it means to be a Christian.
As we sat down with Apon, we began to ask her questions to try and figure out a little more about what she knew. When asked who Jesus was she replied, ” He is God”. With uneasiness in the way she answered, I felt we needed to ask more. I asked her if she knew about the life of Jesus. Again she replied with “He is God.” It was then that I felt strongly we needed to share the entire gospel with her. My teammate Leigh began to share the entire story of the gospel with the women in the room. After finishing we began to find out more and more about what they understood. I asked if they could read, thinking we could bring back some bibles from town. That was quickly shut down when they replied that no one knew how to read. All they knew is what they learned from church and basically that was that Jesus was God and that’s all they knew. They had never heard to gospel. They had no clue what it really means to be a Christian. They had no clue the amount of love that Christ has for them.
As we began to pray over them God began to tug at my heart in several ways. I knew that He was bigger than an education. I knew He could reveal himself to these people without them being able to read. He is going to raise up a group of people who really have faith, who really have to relay completely on Him to reveal himself. A community that has to learn to be intimate with their father in a way that most of us can’t understand because we don’t know how to listen for H
is voice. In order for these people to know Him and have a deep relationship with Him, God himself has to be apart of the community being raised up. They really can’t do it on their own. They are starting from scratch. A place a lot of us could benefit from going back to.
While praying over these woman I was convicted myself. I take for granite the ability to pick up the Bible and read about my father at any moment of any day. I can read for hours. I have that ability, yet sometimes I struggle to spend ten minutes in the word. This woman taught me something. They taught me what a true hunger for God is. What true faith is. All they know is Jesus is God and they are willing to follow. They don’t ask Him to prove himself; they just ask to know Him more.
Pray that their hearts will be open and that God will reveal more of Himself to them. Pray for understanding of what it means to have a relationship with Christ and an understanding of who He is. Our God is much bigger than an education.
