A Testimony to All Nations
Wellspring Team and Our Translator Team
“How much do you really love Jesus?” This was a question posed to our group by an indigenous believer while he told us his testimony. He had given up his community and family and much more to follow Jesus. He had recently suffered imprisonment, painful punishments, and was whipped for following Jesus. After telling his story, this was his question to us, “How much do you really love Jesus?” Was Jesus our hope in all circumstances? Was Jesus who we would look to if we endured the pain and suffering our indigenous brother endured? Our brother encouraged us that if we don’t love Christ and look to Him in all things we would not endure as he had. His story was one of many we heard on our short-term mission trip to Colombia. These testimonies remind me of Matthew 24:9-14, where Jesus tells us that we will face suffering for following him.
9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
Our friend’s testimony encourages us to not let our love for Christ or our love for one another grow cold, but that we need to stand firm to the end. His story is a testimony to us of Christ’s faithfulness and the Spirit’s empowerment in hard circumstances, but it also reminds us of another story that isn’t just a testimony to us, but is a testimony to all nations! That is the story of the Gospel. That story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is ultimately the source of how our indigenous brother was, and how we have been, radically changed. The Gospel is a testimony to God’s immeasurable greatness. Testifying to this story and how it changed his life is ultimately why he suffered, and this story is why we travel to remote places. We go to share the life changing story of the Gospel.
That’s why we took a team of ten a couple weeks ago to Colombia. We wanted to take part in proclaiming the Gospel as a testimony to all nations. This was our first trip as a church for our college ministry and our broader church family. I am so thankful the Lord was present and orchestrated so many amazing things. God profoundly changed us and the communities that we traveled to serve. I don’t have room to share every story, but there are some key stories I hope encourage you.
Sharing the Gospel with a woman in a window
However, before we get into specific stories, a helpful place to start I think are some overview numbers. In the airport, I had a moment to pray with God and ask him to work on the trip before we got to Colombia. I felt like I was asking the Lord for a lot, but I prayed in faith that the Lord would have 10 people make decisions to follow Jesus during our trip. While praying, I felt the Lord say to me “Do you think I am so small?” Clearly, God can do much more than we can ask or imagine! So, guess what! The Lord answered my prayer and during our trip we saw 10 people make decisions to follow Jesus from our outreach efforts! Praise the Lord! However, I feel like the Lord made clear to me that this is but the tip of the iceberg of what He is doing. Do we really think He is so small? We shared the Gospel 78 times as a team. We shared other teachings from the Scriptures in many more conversations outside of the 78. We taught in midweek house church meetings. We taught in and brought food to villages that were 3-4 hour hikes away in the mountains. We preached the Word on Sunday in a small church there. We played with and loved the children there as Christ would; they cried as we left! We prayed with, worshiped with, and shared Scripture with a woman who was sick and dying and her family. She died a few short days later, but we were able to be the voice of Jesus calling her to him. Do we really think that God is so small that He can’t multiply those 10 into 30 or that the seeds planted can’t sprout up to 100? God’s Word never returns void, and He always accomplishes His purposes through our efforts! So, as we are back, we wait and pray in excitement to see and hear all that God will continue to do!
So, that’s a broad overview, but here are two specific stories to encourage you from our trip. The first illustrates God’s work in the people we went to serve. The second illustrates God’s work in our hearts as we participated in God’s work in Colombia.
Sharing the Gospel with Mingo
The first story is about a man named Mingo. Two members of our team encountered Mingo in a remote town, literally the last town that there is a road to drive on, before you start hiking into the mountains to other villages. They were about to wrap up their evangelism efforts for the day and go eat lunch, however they felt like they needed to have another conversation. Then one of our local guides from the local church there, started talking to Mingo as he was about to go down an alleyway. They learned he was from an unreached people group, which are only around 3% Christian. His village was a 14 hour hike away, but he was in town on business. As they talked with Mingo they continued to dive deeper into spiritual matters. They shared the Gospel with him, and he was very receptive. Naturally, the two members of our team wanted to make sure that Mingo really understood what they were talking about and that he really did want to repent and believe in the Gospel. So, they continued to press in and confirm that Mingo really did want to follow Jesus and tell God that in prayer. So, they confirmed and prayed with Mingo. After this, our friend and fellow believer happened to walked by, while our team was sharing with Mingo. Our friend was also from the same unreached people group (He was the only believer from that people group we knew, this is the same brother who posed the question at the beginning of this post, “How much do you really love Jesus?”) Our friend was able to confirm as well with Mingo in their native tongue that Mingo really did repent and believe in the Gospel and was genuine in his desire to follow Jesus! Mingo at one point said, “I’ve been looking for the people who are looking for God.” The Scriptures ring true, “If you seek him, you will find him!” Our team continued to share and encourage Mingo to be discipled by Christians in town, but our team was discouraged as he lived so far away! They said goodbye to Mingo and trusted the Lord to take care of him, not thinking they would hear from him again. However, a few days later Mingo showed up through a crazy connection at our local guide’s house which is 40min away by car. Mingo was going to be in town for a week and wanted to learn more about the Bible and what it meant to follow Jesus! Praise the Lord for this new brother in Christ and that the local church there could continue to shepherd this fledgling believer!
Four from our team hiking up the mountain
Our second story is about how the Lord changed our hearts, and it has to do with…well…rice. When we arrived at our location the first day of our trip, we joined a prayer service at the local church we would be working with that week. One of the lay preachers shared a devotion on Galatians 6:2, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” He said that Jesus had really been laying this on his heart to share and meditate on. We readily took his teaching and encouragement; however we didn’t realize God was going to give us a real life picture of what this looked like the next day. We selected four from our team to go up to a remote village which was a hard 4 hour hike away. The four had to be ready to leave for the hike at 5am sharp the next morning. They were to bring small bags of supplies to the village, share the Gospel, and encourage believers there with stories from the Scriptures (this village’s people only have one book of the Bible translated in their language). These four from our team, some members of the local church we partnered with, our local guides, and our translators traveled the next morning as far as they could by car. Then they started hiking. As they walked past the last store before the mountains, one member of our team was spurred on by deep love and compassion and bought two large bags of rice that he knew were much needed by the villages they would be visiting. Our local guides, who knew how hard the hike was ahead, kept saying, “No! That’s too much weight! Don’t do it!” However, our teammate who bought the rice looked at them in the eye and said, “It doesn’t matter the weight, I will carry it!” So, our teammate started off with the large bag of rice in his backpack. One of the translators wanted to carry the other bag. So, they began their ascent up the mountain. They hiked for an hour, and they got to a spot where you could see the tallest peaks in Colombia. Our friend and dear brother who bought the rice was starting to get tired, when another translator announced, “We are now about to start climbing the mountain!” Our friend’s heart sank; he thought they were almost there and were already climbing the mountain, but they hadn’t really started yet! So, on they went and started the steep ascent! As they went, our local guides asked if our team wanted to take the shortcut. Without hesitation our team responded something like, “Yes of course! Why would we want to take the longer way?” However, our team didn’t realize that the “shortcut” was climbing essentially straight up the mountain, instead of taking the easier sloping switchbacks up the mountain. The “shortcut” was a much harder hike. As they pressed on rest of our team continually asked our teammate who bought the rice, “Will you share the weight?” He resisted and resisted until he couldn’t hike anymore. The rice bag contained 15 smaller bags within it of rice, so finally our friend broke it apart and shared his burden with the team. This allowed them to continue up the mountain, share Christ, and minister to some of the most isolated people in Colombia. His example also taught us a lot about what it looks like to bear one another’s burdens as Christians. In reflecting on this story some key truths stuck out to me.
We don’t get to choose which burdens our brothers and sisters need help with, even burdens that they’ve been warned against.
It takes humility to give up our burdens, even when we feel guilty giving them up.
We often don’t need to put our burden on just one person, we can split it up.
We need to be willing and even encourage our brothers and sisters to let us bear their burdens.
There’s obviously more we could say, but this lesson and example the Lord provided continued to encourage and teach us for the rest of the trip. We hope it will continue to guide us and our church at home as we seek to obey Galatians 6:2 and fulfill the law of Christ.
This short post can’t encompass all that God did on our trip, but I hope it encourages all those in the church who weren’t able to go. I hope the questions offered throughout this post challenge you as you continue to follow Jesus. I’ve listed them below for your own reflection. Besides, who knows? Maybe God is calling you next to preach the Gospel and be a testimony to all the nations! May God bless you and keep you as you follow him.
How much do you really love Jesus?
Do you really think God is so small?
Will you help carry your brother or sister’s burden?
Will you give up your burdens so your church family can carry it?
Visiting with some new indigenous friends and learning about their culture