This month my team and I have a special assignment. Usually we partner with one ministry in each country and we work with them throughout the duration of the month. This month we are on the Unsung Hero’s Campaign. This basically means that we are traveling throughout the country of Thailand looking for new ministries that Adventures In Missions could potentially partner with by sending World Race teams to them in the future.
Knowing that moving throughout the country of Thailand would involve lots of public transportation, the girls on my team and I made the decision to leave our bigger trekking packs in Bangkok and just take our day packs to live out of for the month.
By the time I had packed my laptop, big camera, and sleeping pad, my pack was pretty much full. I managed to squeeze in an extra set of clothes and a few other things in the pockets. Although sometimes I wish I had something from my larger pack, it has been surprisingly glorious not to be weighted down with things. I have enjoyed the simplicity of it all.
This morning as I was reading my Bible, I came across a passage that took me down memory lane. My junior year of college, I was living in Papua, Indonesia for a semester completing my student teaching at Hillcrest International School.
One day, I had the opportunity to meet the family of an Indonesian friend.We left the town of Sentani early in the morning and caught a bus heading into the countryside. After a bumpy journey, the bus finally stopped in the middle of nowhere and we crawled out from inbetween the massive bunches of bananas where we were wedged. As the bus roared off into the distance, we began to climb a mountain trail that led into the hutan (jungle).
After a good hike, we came to a small ponduk standing alone in a jungle clearing where we were met by Ami’s Mother, Father, and younger siblings. As we were introduced, we learned that Ami’s Dad was a pastor who traveled from village to village to share the love of the Lord with others. I vividly remember looking around the open-sided shelter which was covered with a banana leaf thatch, and noticing the lack of possessions. A couple of cooking utensils and a machete for cutting brush were on a bench, but not much else was in sight. What I did notice, however, was an undeniable joy that radiated out of the very beings of Ami’s family. I was intrigued because rarely had I seen such joy in people. These people possessed a joy that came directly from the Lord.
I spent the day exploring the jungle, looking at the garden of banana trees, and playing in the river with Ami and her siblings.
Even though a language barrier existed, the joy they had was so evident. As we walked back down the trail that evening, I began to reflect. These people had so little yet again had so much. They had something that I desired. James 2:30 says, “Has God not chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith?” I think that when one has a faith in the Lord in which a realization is created that He is the one that provides for all their needs, a freedom from worry is created. When combined with finding ones identity in the love of the Lord, a joy is discovered that trumps happiness found in anything else.
I was, and continue to be, challenged in my faith walk with the Lord because of my dear friends deep in the jungle of Indonesia. They taught me what it looks like to dwell in the love of the Lord and to have full reliance in Him. This is a lesson I still reflect on often.
