As Philip and I flip through our photos, our minds wander back to the challenges faced when we first came to work amongst the Great River People. Here are a few of our snapshots:

Past attempts had failed at entering a Muslim village. The doors had been closed. As we slid and bumped along the muddy roads, we prayed fervently that this trip would be different, that God’s hands would guide us to the precise place where He wanted us. All day, we stopped at different Muslim villages. All day, we had no sense of peace or direction. At last we stopped for the night at a guest house. As daylight lingered, we decided we might as well check out the remaining couple of villages. With feelings of frustration at the day’s outcome, we set off. As we arrived in the next Muslim village, a huge sense of rightness swept over us. A sense of peace gripped our hearts and propelled us to speak to the village chief. To make a long story short, God intervened, broke down the barriers and opened the doors.

Fast forward a few months. Hard, cold stares met our warm smiles. It wasn’t a secret that the religious teacher of our village did not appreciate our intrusion one bit. And now he had found a perfect opportunity to chastise Philip. “Why are you taking pictures!” he demanded. “Islam doesn’t allow pictures at weddings!”

Philip politely explained that the family had asked him to take some pictures. He promised they would not be shown to anyone else. With a scowl, the religious teacher grunted in resignation.

We have to smile to ourselves as we fast-forward to last month when this same teacher invited our student missionary to take pictures at his daughter’s wedding. The day after that, he asked him to take pictures of cows being sacrificed for a religious feast. Barriers broken down. Trust.

Oh yes, remember this one? “Christians are pork-eating, alcohol-drinking unbelievers!” The religious teacher for the women explained to the ladies sitting around. “And Molly is no different from the rest.” I sat among these ladies who had gathered to study and pray on Friday in the house of our good friends. I wondered if the teacher realized I could understand her.

“But Philip and Hope are different,” insisted our friends. “They have studied the Holy Book and follow what it says.”

The teacher turned to me. “Do you follow the four gospels? And do you follow Jesus?” After I assured her I did, she triumphantly said to the rest, “I told you so! The Christians who live in town say they follow the gospels and Jesus, too. They drink alcohol and eat pork. Greg and Molly believe the same things.”

“Do you drink alcohol and eat pork?” our friends asked me. I assured them we didn’t because God tells us in His Book that these things are bad for our health. I explained that some Christians only follow parts of God’s Book, but we try to follow all of it.

“We told you so!”our friends exclaimed triumphantly to the teacher.

She looked mystified. She was strangely without words and soon excused herself. What we didn’t know at the time was that our dearest friends in the village, who had defended us strongly in front of all of those ladies, had actually been some of our worst enemies when we first came. The village chief spilled the beans after we had become fast friends with this family. He told us that when we first came, this family was very adamant and zealous that we shouldn’t be there. They had actively tried to accomplish our demise by putting pressure on our landlord not to allow us to rent his house. Now this family contains our most trusted and closest friends in the village. Barriers broken down. More trust.

These are just a few snapshots that give us a tiny glimpse into how God is moving in the hearts of the Great River People. As we go through our photos, we come to times when we have had opportunity to share our faith, times when we have given Bibles to precious brothers and sisters. We see photos of some expressing their faith in Jesus, and we see times we have had opportunity to share the love of Jesus by helping people who were sick or in need. As we reminisce, our hearts are full. They overflow with gratitude to God who has allowed us to play a part in reaching these people for Him.

We have finished the first phase of the Great River People Project. We have spent many months learning the language and asking lots of questions. We have compiled the answers to these questions into a large book that gives an in-depth understanding of the Great River People’s cultural ways, worldview and beliefs. Along with John Kent, we have studied these materials carefully and used them to create a plan for strategically reaching the Great River People.

Here is another recent snapshot. In recent months, through lots of prayer, council and evaluation of our gifts, we have seen the Lord directing our path in a different direction. As we have wrestled with this new direction, we have asked God many times, “But how, Lord? If this is really Your direction in our lives, we know You wouldn’t have us leave this project without the next link in the chain. But no one is even thinking about coming to work here! You love these people infinitely. If this is really You leading us, we know You have a plan. But it looks impossible to us.”

One day, we were feeling particularly frustrated. It seemed unmistakable that God was leading us to minister in a different capacity, that He was calling us to a different line of work. But the situation looked totally impossible. Our minds lingered on our precious friends: Navee, who wants to be baptized and has been studying the Bible with us. Ali, who read the whole Bible in five weeks and his village in the hills that begs us to send someone to live there and teach their children English. Rom Lee, the 15-year-old boy whom we were able to help get open-heart surgery thanks to your generous donations, and the list goes on. How could we just leave them? We couldn’t! That would be impossible. How was God going to work it all out?

That very day, we received an email from our supervisor telling us about the Nicholaides family who had just been accepted as AFM missionaries to the Great River People Project! This family has a moving story of how the Lord put the burden of our people on their hearts. Their particular gifts could not have been more ideally picked. Jonathan is an elementary teacher (our entering wedge here is teaching English). He would love to write Bible studies, and he also has a passion for evangelism. We were speechless. Tears welled up in my eyes. We knew we could now go with confidence in the new direction God was calling us. Our people are safe in His hands.

And, oh, don’t forget this photo! God wasn’t done planning. He sent Joshua Hooker to our project as a student missionary. Joshua Hooker isn’t your average SM. He grew up in Cambodia with his AFM missionary parents and speaks Khmer fluently. He relates very easily and well within this cultural context. He has just finished college and wants to serve the Lord. Before he even knew we would be leaving, he expressed to us a couple times that he would like to stay on another year. This is just what is needed for the project to flow uninterrupted until the Nicholaides launch. As we phase out of the project, Joshua will continue teaching English and will maintain our house. He will keep the relationships warm and growing and continue to nurture the spiritual interests.

We stand amazed at God’s plans and His ways. The Great River People have been in His heart from the foundation of the world, and He knew just the young man and family that would be the perfect fit to continue on with the evangelizing phase of the project. Praise the Lord!

Let’s imagine that we can see a few more snapshots into the future. Here’s one: The Nicholaides family is here already! How could this happen so quickly? Thanks to our faithful team of people who have a passion for reaching the Great River People for Jesus, they didn’t have to spend months and months fundraising. Our support team has become theirs. After all, the most important thing for our supporters is reaching the Great River People for Christ, not supporting our family in particular. In fact, we, too, are staying on the team. We are now praying for the Nicholaides family and supporting them with our personal finances.

Indulge us just one, final imagined photo of the future: We are all in heaven, gathered on the sea of glass. We have all found each other, and there are many smiles and tears of joy. There are many Asians engulfed in the hugs of many others of all description. There is Ali warmly clasping the hand of a distinguished looking man who faithfully supported the project to its completion. And look, there is Miyah tearfully thanking Mrs. Nicholaides for sharing Jesus with her. And there is that dear grandmother who faithfully prayed over the Great River People hugging the very people she prayed for. There’s Greg and I exchanging stories with the village religious teacher. Look at the crowd! There are hundreds, no, thousands of the Great River People and those who supported the project, all mingling together. They are having a wonderful time getting to know each other and swapping stories about their journeys to heaven. Oh, look! Here comes Jesus! With one accord, everyone of us takes off our golden crowns and casts them at Jesus feet. Worthy, worthy is the Lamb who was slain!

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