The tribe I lived with wasn’t any ordinary tribe. They were head hunters…
When I arrived in India I expected to be living in the city surrounded by noise and dust. Instead our bus veers off the main road and goes up a hill until we are in a quiet and serene village. Our first night we walk up to the colorful bongala or the meal tent and our host welcomes us with a fried chicken dinner. As the dinner progresses he becomes quite serious and with a sense of pride he begins to tell the story of tribe. Three generations ago a 22 year old man from Wales decided to go to India to share the gospel of John to the natives that lived in the mountains of east India. Everyone warned him against it because these people were known as head hunters. They had once beheaded 300 British soldiers that tried to over rule them and strip them of their freedom,. But this young man from Wales felt God pull on his heart to go… and so he went. He ended up spending 5 days in the jungle with the natives and gave them the gospel of John in their own native language and taught them all about salvation and Jesus. By the time he left a lot of the tribe had accepted the Lord. In just 5 days this young 22 year old had changed the direction of entire tribe of people. The elders of the tribe became pastors and taught the younger generations about the Lord and soon christianity had spread to neighboring tribes. One of the elders had a son named Rochunga who made it his life mission to translate the entire bible in his tribe’s language. Rochunga set of as a young child and hiked through the jungle until he reached a school where he learned English and then where he later taught. And through the power of God he was able to go to America where he studied and worked as hard as he could until he finally translated the entire bible in his native language and sent back the copies for his people to read. Rochunga married a wonderful woman from his tribe and together they started Bibles for the World that has translated the Bible in thousands of different languages. Together they have traveled across the world handing out copies of the Bible to all tribes and nations and never missing an opportunity to share their salvation along the way. (They even brought an African king to the Lord on one of their journeys). Rochunga died in 2015 and his son took over Bibles for the World, and occasionally hosted world race squads like my squad! Yes Rochunga’s son is my host! And Rochungas wife is still alive and she loves telling us the stories of her tribe. “From head hunters to heart hunters” she always says. And it couldn’t be more true. These people love powerfully and they share God’s love so well. They’re searching for broken hearts because they know the One that heals and restores. Instead of bringing death they share life, and life eternal.
