While at Humana 2.0, I met a couple who had just returned from eastern Africa, having spent a little bit of time in one of the countries at the epicenter of some of humanities greatest crises. This couple were in their early 30s and had two children, both under 5 and intentionally moved to this unreached, closed country - for the rest of their lives. After selling virtually everything, all they owned was in eight suitcases. Through some health-related circumstances, they ended up coming home much earlier than intended.
While in the country, they:
- were one of ten Christian families in a city of almost 2M people.
- had electricity and water about 50% of the time.
- went to this locality because of a pull towards an unreached people group, a people group that have been untouched by the Gospel for literally thousands of years.
- had a member of the government's secret police follow them around and randomly pop in.
You can find quite a bit of church planting among the unchurched [blogsearch] and it is vital and needed. But the unreached - that is an altogether different reality. Although both are important, we need to keep a clear distinction between unchurched and unreached.
After sharing about my role with students, they shared two things in the context of not forgetting that one of our biggest impacts could be serving our missionary friends:
- handwritten notes are gold: write big so they can hang it on their wall.
- the candy bar you bring from the States: it has not been in transit for two years and they will love it.
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