One thing I love about being on the mission field is meeting like minded people. I was blessed to meet Jim, an Aussie who has a heart for the tribal people. He visited the areas we went out to last year and felt the calling to return. He has teamed up with one of the local pastors and will travel around to the villages for a little over a week working on some construction projects. So even though he has a short time here, it will be full of walking the mountains and putting up walls and laying foundations.
He knows just as well as everyone else that reaching these people will be a long term project that begins with building relationships as well as homes. The pastors that travel to these areas will be the ones that will reach these people for long term, because they are so unsure of foreigners and visitors. You need to be “one of them” to have a voice among them. They love seeing the white man, and I was able to go to a couple of areas that have never seen a white man, but they will not take anything I say seriously. The ones to change and transform them will be the people that give their lives up for them.
Jim has caught this vision, and so his top priority on this return trip is to just poor into one of the lead pastors. In the midst of helping with a few of the construction projects, Jim is spending every moment with one of these pastors and encouraging him every step of the way. He is pouring into this man and hearing his vision and offering his connections and help to make this man’s dreams happen. I was so excited to just sit among them and talk about future ideas and dreams for these places. It’s a huge project that will take many years, but these people are committed to it and god bring men like Jim around to keep them going.
I’ve always wanted to make the trip to Australia. Who knows, I may have my chance…
