REACH WHERE YOU ARE – A letter from the CEO and President
“Narun” lives in a small village of about 70-80 people in a remote part of Pakistan. His village is Hindu. The people of the village are essentially “tenant” farmers. They farm the land for the landowner. In exchange the landowner allows them space to live, their village, and an extremely meager wage, about $2.00 a day. The people in the village have no access to medical or dental care. Their diet is limited. Clean water is rare. Most of the adults are illiterate.
But many of these people have great hope because they have placed their faith in Jesus. They work hard. They dress well, considering their resources. They love bright colors. Their children are being educated in hopes the next generation will fare better socially and economically.
Christians are reaching out to help them. Clean water wells are being dug. Primary education teachers provided. Audio Bibles for those who cannot read. Churches are forming. Indigenous pastors are leading and ministering and serving. Narun is one such pastor.
These villages are still predominantly Hindu. The population of Christians who were formerly Hindu has grown to 25-30 percent in some villages (Hindu background believers or HBB’s). The Christian community ministers to the entire village in an effort to express the love of Jesus. Most of these HBB’s will never escape the poverty in which they live. But they will spend eternity in heaven. As will all those they reach with the Good News of Jesus. What could possibly be more important!
In Mark 4:19, Jesus described well the response of our age to the Good News of Jesus. “The worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.” Wealth and prosperity are indeed deceitful. So many live in comfort taking no thought for the future. James wrote, “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:13-14).
We would do well to turn our attention to Narun and the church he leads. To focus on those around us who have not yet come to a saving knowledge of Jesus. To heed the words of Paul to young Timothy, “godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Timothy 6:6). Martyred missionary Jim Elliot said it this way, ‘He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”
Pray for Narun and the HBB’s of Pakistan and neighboring countries. And reach where you are.
Charles
Something Greater
Nepal is best known for the highest mountain peak on earth, Mount Everest at over 29,000 feet (8848.86 m). This year over 1000 people will crowd the mountain between the beginning of April and the end of May in an effort to reach the summit. It is a dangerous endeavor. Over 200 frozen bodies litter the mountain. Climbers prepare for years honing their skills on smaller mountains before they undertake Everest. The cost to try is from $40,000 to $100,000 to spend two months in below-freezing temperatures and a few brief minutes at the summit, if you are successful.
Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit first in 1953. In a Forbes interview, Hillary said, “Clients are spending a large sum of money just to trek up our route, mainly so they can go back home and boast about it more.” Climbing is a welcome industry in Nepal that attracts adventurers looking to accomplish something “greater.”
What is not particularly welcome in Nepal is a testimony of the power of Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, in whose name salvation resides. Over 80% of the country is Hindu. Less than 2% is Christian.
Imagine believers gathered in a pastor’s home to pray, study, and sing. When suddenly local Hindu extremists surround the house, shouting abusively, demanding the Christians cease their worship, finally torching the home and burning it to the ground. What do you do? You move to a relative’s house where you continue to, quietly and humbly, pray, study, and sing while rebuilding the pastor’s home. You stay the course knowing that God is at work. You live daily prepared to respond to any who would ask “why?’ (1 Peter 3:15).
Christ calls us all to live as our Nepalese brothers and sisters on the frontline of Satan’s attack against His Church. Resolute. Confident in Christ. Given fully to God, all we have, all we own, all we are. Knowing we need look no further. We have found the Greatest. We boast in Christ alone.
