Through talking with the man at our first homestay village, we found out firsthand how much fear these people live in. Being animists, they worship spirits. In order to please the spirits, they have to offer certain animal sacrifices for certain events. If there’s a wedding, a new home, or a birth, you sacrifice a bull and play happy music and have a party for the spirits. If there’s a death, depending on who it was, there are different animals you sacrifice. You also have to keep a running list of ancestors who have died to honor them at parties, otherwise they’ll be mad. When we asked what happens if you upset the spirits, he casually answered, “oh, they’ll probably kill you and your family. Or make you sick. Or ruin your business. It just depends.”
WHAT?!
How is that normal and said so casually? In a previous blog I talked about the Buddhist view of life, and how life=suffering. They’re constantly living in fear that if they die, their merits won’t outweigh their sin. It struck me how miserable life must be for the people who have to constantly live in fear. My heart sank on the drive up the mountain looking at the people passing by, just blips and a memory in my mind. Who is going to tell them the truth? When will they be out of the bondage of this constant fear they live in?
The sadness broke my heart even more. I’ve never smiled at a child, waved, made a funny face, and got nothing in return. A stone-cold stare of hopelessness in their eyes. It wasn’t any different for the adults either, if anything, it was worse. They’d literally glare at the foreign girls walking down the street. Such immense sadness these people live in, not knowing the joy of the Lord or His overwhelming love.
The third commonality between these villages was the poverty. Kids are literally in rags or just walking around naked, you can see their ribs and see the hunger in their eyes, and all I wanted to do was hug all of them and buy each one of them a meal. But deep down I knew it would only satisfy for a second, and the true hunger they had was for God. So we prayed, knowing it was the best thing we could do. The houses are made of tin sheets and stand on stilts to prevent flooding during rainy season.
The last part I’d like to tell you about only really applied to the last villages we went to, Village C and D. These two villages, along with any others on the mountain, are literally unreachable 6 months out of the year. Can you imagine? During rainy reason landslides are extremely common, and the dirt roads turn to mud, and no trucks or cars or motos can get up or down the mountain. Because of this, these people are stuck up in the mountain, and no one can reach them either. When I heard about unreached people groups, it made me sad to think these people didn’t know about Jesus. And that seemed to be a common theme all week, it made me sad. It wasn’t until I got back, went to a coffee shop, ordered a coffee, took out my laptop and my bible, that “it made me sad” hit me. I went all week, seeing these things, meeting the people, looking into their eyes, praying, but I never let myself feel it. It hurt too bad. And I cried, legitimately, in a coffee shop. Jesus wants every one of those people. He died for every one of those people, and He wants them to come back to Him. Who is going to tell them? Why do they have to live like they do? So many questions without answers, until you bring them to the Lord.
This all sounds really heavy, and probably really depressing. But there is a happy ending, because Jesus wins. The villages that live in darkness are His, and have now had the Holy Spirit brought there through prayer. God is preparing the people He’s going to send there. He’s preparing the hearts of those who will share the gospel, and those who will hear it as well. He’s going to win back these people, and all hope is not lost in Him.
The only way I got through that week in the village was through God. It was pretty amazing to hear His plans for the villages, and know that in some small way, we brought the kingdom where its never been before. And I’m learning it’s good to hurt, it makes us more like Him. He refines us in that pain and hurt to make us look more like He does, to feel like He feels, and to love like He loves.
This is only the tip of the iceberg in the emotions and experiences we had in the village. If I wrote it all down, it would seriously take up 5 pages (I wrote over 30 pages in my journal in 5 days…oops). If you’d like to know more or have specific questions, feel free to shoot me an email, I’d love to chat about it! Please keep these villages and the people in your prayers. The power of prayer is incredible, and is by far the best thing we can do to prepare the way to these unreached people groups.
God bless,
Jenna
