UNREACHED
In Revelation 7, John shares his vision of heaven with members from every tribe, tongue, people and language standing in the throne room before the Lamb.
Yet today there are still over 7,000 unreached people groups around the world.
For the last six years, my family and friends have been on a journey to find, vet and fund the task remaining.
Come journey with us to the ends of the earth as we share the supernatural stories of God at work through the men and women he has called to reach the UNREACHED.
UNREACHED
Unreached Unwrapped: Stories of God at work through Operation Christmas Child
Ever wondered how a simple shoebox can transform lives and open doors to new faith communities across the globe? Join us as Clint and Amber Hudson share the powerful story of Operation Christmas Child's mission to reach the unreached. In this episode, you'll hear from special guest David Thompson, who explains how these humble gifts serve as keys to unlocking gospel outreach in remote places, sparking a chain reaction of hope and church planting. Through the lens of the Barra people group, witness firsthand the enthusiasm and profound change brought by these efforts, highlighting the importance of faith and compassion in underserved regions.
Travel with us to the heart of Namibia, where Pastor Razira's remarkable mission among the Himba people unfolds. Supported by Operation Christmas Child, Pastor Razira distributes solar-powered audio Bibles, bridging the gap with this storytelling culture. Despite challenges, see how his dedication and relationship-building transform this community, leading to the creation of the first church meeting under a symbolic tree. This narrative beautifully captures the spirit of connection and change, showing how faith can flourish even in the most remote corners of the world.
As we wrap up, be inspired by a touching story from a mission trip with Samaritan's Purse that exemplifies the power of generosity. A young girl's decision to share a rare treat—a giant lollipop—with her friends serves as a poignant metaphor for giving and community spirit. We invite you to consider your own role in God's mission, especially during the holiday season, and to explore ways to support meaningful causes. Reflect on your journey of faith and stay connected with us for future stories of transformation and hope.
Follow @unreachedpodcast on Instagram for more!
In Revelation 7, john shares his vision of heaven, with members from every tribe, tongue, people and language standing in the throne room before the Lamb. Yet today there are still over 7,000 unreached people groups around the world. For the last six years, my family and friends have been on a journey to find, vet and fund the task remaining. Come journey with us to the ends of the earth as we share the supernatural stories of God at work for the men and women he has called to reach the unreached.
Speaker 2:Hey friends, welcome to a new episode, a special episode of the Unreached podcast. I'm Clint Hudson, your host for this episode, and I'm joined by someone on our team here at Unreached who you guys have not had an opportunity to hear from on the pod yet, and that is Amber Hudson. Amber is in charge of not only our social media but also all of our story curation. Is in charge of not only our social media but also all of our story curation. We tell a ton of stories here at Unreached and she is the one who makes sure that all the stories get filed away the right way and that we can remember and also get updates about what happens. So Amber's joining us specifically because around this time last year, during the holiday season, during the Advent season, we had a guest on the podcast, actually for four full episodes from Operation Christmas Child, and OCC came on to tell some stories, not only from all over the world, but also stories of how shoeboxes are packed, stories of how the journey of a shoebox happens, from the commitment of a church being able to pack a shoebox all the way to going into the hands of kids and even past that, how churches have been planted because of the access that's been given. So here's what we're going to do today.
Speaker 2:Amber has brought with her some special stories today from Operation Christmas Child. A few of these stories are maybe rewrapped gifts. It's just a condensed version of some of these stories that you may have heard in the past, but some of these stories are brand new. Yeah, and we're really excited for you guys to journey with us, along with Operation Christmas Child, to the ends of the earth Absolutely so. In this episode we're headed to Gabon. We're headed to the Himba tribe, which is a nomadic tribe in Africa.
Speaker 3:Namibia.
Speaker 2:Namibia. Thank you for that. I probably wouldn't have even pronounced that right if I tried to read it myself, but we're going to start off with this. So David Thompson joined us on the podcast last year and he did a great job of explaining the purpose of the shoebox and why the shoebox is impactful.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I think maybe sometimes there's a misconception about OCC and what they do, because on the surface it looks like just you're filling a shoebox with simple toys, simple gifts, some notebooks, some pencils, that kind of thing, and they take it around the world and you see photos of children receiving the gifts and that in and of itself is great. But what OCC does is so much more than that and he explains this so well.
Speaker 2:So here we go. Here's a clip from our friend, david Thompson talking about how the shoebox is key to getting access to these unreached people groups.
Speaker 4:The shoebox is the key, it's the door opener into the community. It's enables those 87, some thousand churches around the world to be able to go to places with intentionality, with prayer. They have a plan and then they go and engage the community and we're always encouraging them to go to the ones that don't have access to the gospel or where the poorest of the poor are truly to live out the Good Samaritan parable right To find those that are in the ditches of life in need. Take it to kids in orphanages, take it to kids in hospitals, often at the ends of the earth. Then leverage that into the greatest journey.
Speaker 4:The greatest journey is our discipleship program. It's a 12-course, 12-lesson plan, often done over three months, sometimes done in a more concentrated form. This past year we had over four and a half million this year coming up. We're praying for five million and we really believe that the Lord's going to do that. You think about five million kids being in a discipleship program and they're praying for up to nine kids. You're talking 45 million kids potentially. You know up to nine kids. You're talking 45 million kids potentially that there's going to be this cascading ripple effect that happens from every time someone comes alongside of us and resources us with that gift box. And then also the greatest journey.
Speaker 3:So what I love about OCC is that they don't just go into these remote places and simply present the gifts and say, here you go or meet some physical needs and then leave. But the discipleship piece is so critical and so important that these children are presented with the gospel message and then they are walked through a 12-week, what they call the greatest journey. That walks them through what Jesus has done for them and what living Christ-like life looks like. And so then those kids have that foundation of faith.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so I think it's important for everyone to just maybe remember in this space that these shoeboxers are not just going across the street in the US. These shoeboxers are actually going to peoples and places that have never even heard of Jesus and do not have scriptures in their own language, and so this discipleship journey that they get an opportunity to walk through this is the first time that they've ever heard what discipleship is this first time they've ever heard the name of Jesus. They don't have scriptures in their own language, so they don't know. The end of the story, and one of the cool stories that I remember from this episode that we did last year, not only with David Thompson, but with Joel Hayslip, is Joel talked about the Barra people group and the excitement that they had when the gospel was presented to them for the very first time, so I want you guys to check that out now.
Speaker 6:Awesome. You know, I think of a particular people group called the Bada, and this is a people out in Madagascar, and there was a pastor there. He had already planted a bunch of churches and you know, he's kind of nearing the end, I would say, of his ministry. But God spoke to him and said no, there's a community of 15 villages that have never heard the gospel. And God called them to those 15 villages and he'd heard about these villages because these villages were notorious. It's a group of villages that are full of bandits, so even the government won't go there. They have no schools, they have no medical.
Speaker 6:There was a time there was a drought and so the government was supplying food for everybody. They refused the food and ran the government out. They want nothing to do with the government. This pastor said okay, I'm willing to go. How am I going to get in there? And he began to just try to build relationships and one day he was able to meet with the chief and he said chief, what can I do to bless these villages? And the chief said listen, we don't want anything, government, but our kids need schools. If you can start private schools. So he did. He started his first school 20, 30, 40 kids. He was able to start two, three schools, but what he quickly learned is that he cannot say the name Jesus and he can't talk about prayer. It was these trigger points and this violent people reacted very violently whenever that was brought up, and so he didn't know what to do. He heard about Operation Christmas Child and so he started calling them up and he said listen, I've got these 15 villages, thousands of kids. I don't know how to share the gospel, can you help me? And we said, oh, my goodness, we've got to be a part of this. And so we started working with them, got them the training that they needed. He brought in his teachers from his school, so 10, 12 people got trained on how to use Operation Christmas Child and we were able to send 2,500 Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes up to those 15 villages. So Pastor Soja took 2,500 shoeboxes and we've got a picture of him in the first village several hundred kids. He's holding up our gospel posters and he's smiling ear to ear as he shares the gospel for the very first time with this people that he loves so dearly. And he was able to go village to village and he said in that first village his team came around and said don't say Jesus. He said, no, no, this is my time. I've been waiting for this opportunity. And he said, over 75% of that village raised their hands after the gospel presentation and he was in amazement. They went to nine of the 15 villages that year to share the gospel and right now they're in the middle of doing the greatest journey discipleship with those kids.
Speaker 6:Another story that Baca and Gabon. I'm just thinking of this. There's these villages out in the middle of the jungle, again never heard the gospel, nobody had taken the time to go out there. And this pastor had the passion to go out there. They went out. Same kind of story.
Speaker 6:The shoeboxes just opened the door to this village, but what was amazing was they were expecting 130, 150 kids. Well, 150 kids came, and then about 400 adults, and they all sat there and just listened intently to the gospel message and when they were done, so many of them raised their hand. I wonder how we would want more of this. And so the team was ready to leave and said hey, we've got more, we're going to start the greatest journey next week. Come back, the typical thing.
Speaker 6:And the village says no, you can't leave, you stay right there, you got to keep going. And they made them go through the first lesson. And when they were done the first lesson, hey, thanks everybody. And the whole village was still sitting there. I said, okay, we'll come back next week. No, no, you can't leave, keep going. And they had to spend the whole weekend in that village sharing the greatest journey lessons and what was beautiful is is when you share the gospel at the child's level. The child understands, the mom understands, the dad understands, the grandma, who never went to school, sits there and understands. And they come back and they say you know, even if they'd heard something, now we understand. We want to follow this, jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:I think one of the things that's impacted me the most, as I've been able to produce this podcast over the last two years, is the understanding that I now have that has corrected an inaccurate thought that I came in with. I came in with an inaccurate thought that people groups were unreached because they were combative to the gospel. They were unreached because they didn't want to have anything to do with the gospel, and just what Joel said in his comment just now in that clip it actually painted a picture of two drastically different people groups Now. The first one in Madagascar. They were combative to the gospel and to the government and to any kind of outside help whatsoever, but Operation Christmas Child helped open that door, which is amazing.
Speaker 2:But in the second one, in Gabon, it was such an incredible story of there was a deep desire, there was a need, there was a hunger. There was a hunger that's a great way to say. They were so hungry as soon as they got the boxes and that opened the door. But when they started to communicate the gospel, it was like wait, we've been waiting for this, we want this. There's just hunger for this, and I think that's one of the things that I've come to understand more of, as I've heard so many impactful stories here on the Unreached podcast and specifically, I think now I know how to pray for different people groups. Some people groups you have to pray for softened hearts, but there are some people groups where you just have to pray that somebody gets the access.
Speaker 2:If they can get to them and open up the word and start communicating the hope of the gospel. They're just so hungry and they're so ready for it. So we have another clip that's actually really similar to that, but this one isn't from the perspective of our friends David and Joel. This is actually from a pastor on the ground. His name is Pastor Razira and he is from Namibia in Africa, and this is his perspective of this entire process that we've talked about so far. So not only is he talking about the help and the aid and the access that Operation Christmas Child helped to provide for him and his church building movement, but he also talks about what happens as this process starts to unfold. So I can't wait for you to listen in on the conversation that we had with Pastor Razier. Check this out.
Speaker 5:We were very, very happy. We have now something that we can take to our community which is going to make them very happy and also to make them to accept us also, because when it comes to accepting, when it comes to accepting in Himba villages, it's also difficult because they really have to know you and you have to be like with them and you have to go through their shifts and headmen for them to accept you. And that is what we did. I remember the first outreach. We packed those boxes in the truck and we hit the roots as we were, were going, praying, so that wherever we are going to meet the people, they will accept us and they will accept the gospel that we are going to present to them.
Speaker 5:And we went down the hills, down the rivers and the mountains and we came to one village, the first village we came to. They saw us, they started to wave on us, they started to shout and we reached to the headman's house for the first time in the Hinda in our life and we greeted people. The headman was very happy. He was very, very happy to see us. We introduced what we came for and we thank God that he touched the heart of the hitman and he allowed us to see the people and to meet the children.
Speaker 5:We went to a particular place where we are going to have our outreach event for the first day and children started to gather to come to the place and it was very, very interesting because in these villages you could hardly see people coming because it's not an open space, a lot of trees covering the area and you have to see them under the trees coming and you see the dust that is rising there and people are coming, children and women of the village and also men. They arrived at the place. We really we were very, very encouraged that God has opened this door for our church for the first time to reach out to Himba village, and that was the experience during that moment was the experience during that moment, so I I remember hearing this for the first time in his description of the people coming from the nearby villages with the, the dust rising.
Speaker 3:You could see them coming and running, children running and women running. I mean, it's just that's just amazing.
Speaker 2:What, what a beautiful picture. So pastor razier is talking, talking about an indigenous people group that's in Namibia. Specifically they're called the Himba, and the Himba they're a nomadic tribe, so they don't really have material possessions, they don't have specific land where they live or even homes or anything like that. They have mud huts. So to be able to reach that group of people is already in and of itself a difficult thing. But he had built a relational equity with the headman. That's what he was talking about. The headman. He said that he had been praying for them and he had been praying that god would open a door. But he said in that clip was so cool that god softened their hearts and he gave them, he granted them, access to come in and what's even more incredible about this culture is they're a storytelling culture.
Speaker 3:They don't have anything written down. And so what OCC did, partnering with Pastor Rosira, they ended up getting these audio devices with the Bible translated on them. Books of the Bible translated on these audio devices that would charge in the sun. Bible translated on these audio devices that would charge in the sun. And so, as they began to share the gospel, as these churches began to grow, it was groups of people sitting outside around these devices listening to scripture.
Speaker 2:That's so cool.
Speaker 3:Isn't that amazing.
Speaker 2:Like, like to think that that right now, in this exact moment, that there are people, a nomadic people group, out in the desert sitting around an audio device listening to the story of the gospel. That is so cool, that's amazing. Pastor Razira had the opportunity not only to be able to bring the gospel and to have those audio devices, but they said to him we want you, we want to do this all the time, we want to have a place where people can come and meet. And so they actually offered him an opportunity to be able to build a church. This is a nomadic community that does not have buildings, but it was important enough to them to be able to build a church. So check out this clip where he talks about. They offered him a tree. They're like here's a tree, you can build a building over here, this is where we're going to meet. Check this out.
Speaker 5:During that first outreach event, after we finished the outreach, the elderly people of us and the headman in the outreach the elderly people of us and the headman in the village he called me and said look, what you didn't hear is for the first time here. But now we want this to happen always. We want you to come and tell us about God. You were free to come. We are going to give you a place. It was during that same time. They showed us a tree where we can, if we are coming that side, so we can use that tree as a church. It's a class for teaching the children and that was a very important thing to us because that was a long-awaited moment that this will be the first church among hinders with our program, and we were very excited and we praised God for that. We thanked God for that and we started to use this trade as we were following up to teach the children and we get the children through 12 lessons of these programs. And now one thing that we need to understand is they were not church in this village. That is their first church. They don't have any experience of how a church is happening or what is going to happen in the church.
Speaker 5:While we are teaching the children the discipleship program, parents were also coming in the church While we are teaching the children the discipleship program. Parents were also coming to the class and we didn't send them away. It was fine. They were coming with their children, they were listening and we also allow them to participate with skin questions and they ask questions. And as they asked questions, if we come to a place where we want to lead children to Christ, children also were led to Christ. They also raised their hands and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 5:It was during these discipleship lessons where parents accepted the Lord Jesus Christ. They came to understand the importance of church, the importance of prayer, and they started to give us their prayer requests. Then we have prayed with them faithfully. We started to hear good stories, good testimonies from the parents who were sick, able to heal, and the parents who were having some problems and their problems now were solved through prayers. And they started to believe that this is just because of prayer, because they had been in those problems and sicknesses a long time. But when church comes into their village, they started to see difference.
Speaker 3:That's incredible the Himba people who would worship their ancestors and pray to their ancestors, and they were still sick and still struggling. And then the gospel is brought in and they start praying to God and he heals them, he answers their prayers.
Speaker 2:I think one of the things that's amazing that we've seen over the course of this podcast and Pastor Razira does such a great job of this he didn't set himself up as the pastor or the main communicator.
Speaker 2:He actually gave the gospel, presented the gospel and then allowed the people that were already established as leaders to be indigenous leaders and communicators of the gospel in this new church. Now he did say that they would come back. So he would come back and he would have other people that worked with him come back to be able to teach the gospel. So there's this great walking alongside of this movement of discipleship. That happens, but because they are learning scriptures together, they're actually growing as a community, as a people group. And so one thing that's so cool this this is one of my favorite stories of last year, because we've already heard, you know the Himba people.
Speaker 2:They are a nomadic people. They had the gospel come in because of OCC. They had a tree where they could start meeting. They ended up having a church. So then what? Then you think, okay, maybe the church is going to grow right there. Instead, all of the indigenous leaders decided that they were going to go and take the gospel to other himba tribes around namibia and beyond. So check out this clip. This is amazing pastors. They are talking about the himba people going to the ends of the earth and how.
Speaker 5:How many himba pastors there are now, which is so cool what we are really trying to teach the religious new churches is to start now getting into the nearby villages, to start a church to tell the story about God, and that is what we are encouraging them to do, so that they can see the pictures of the gospel to go to the end of the world.
Speaker 5:And we had a training in 2022 where we gathered like 32 Himba pastors together so that we can come and strategize how we are going to reach all the villages for the gospel.
Speaker 5:And it was during that meeting, our training, we gave them opportunity to see what villages do they think they will go and tell the story about God and start another church, because we don't want us now to go to every village. We want them to understand that it is their responsibility to take the gospel to their Himba people. We came up with 94 villages from the groups that we think they would want to take the gospel to these 94 villages, and that was the outcome of this training. All these pastors have been trained how to use the material, the MP3 player, which is sonar-powered to listen to the stories and also to help other people to listen to their stories, to go to the new villages, to help the new villages to listen to their story about God, and that was now the outcome we had. That was very, very interesting and we thank God for that, because it's only because of the Holy Spirit, because of prayers, that things like that will happen.
Speaker 3:It's so amazing. That's Ephesians 4, just fleshed out right there. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and the teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ. That's exactly what Pastor Azira went in with. The intention of doing is to equip the saints to now do the work of the ministry.
Speaker 3:So what started as a shoebox gift and an open door and a head man that was had their heart softened by god, has now become an indigenous movement of the gospel and it's so incredible that they were presented with the gospel and they immediately said this needs to be shared. The great commission just clicked with them immediately. This is not just for me, this is not just for our village. We need to share this.
Speaker 2:So, speaking of, needs to be shared. I have my own personal story from when I had the opportunity to travel to Malawi in Africa with Operation Christmas Child. So I got the opportunity to go and lead worship for a group of leaders from the states who wanted to go and get a different perspective, a little bit more of a close-up look at the work that God was doing in Africa. And part of the journey was not only leading worship and having some prayer times and meeting all the indigenous leaders and stuff, but we also took a bunch of shoeboxes with us being all the indigenous leaders and stuff, but we also took a bunch of shoe boxes with us. We went to a village where there was this open air building and the closer that we got to the building we could see it off in the distance, but the closer that we got, the louder that we could hear the singing. So these kids are in there, they know what's about to come, they know they're about to get a gift and it's just like this joyful, joyous singing at the top of their lungs. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever heard.
Speaker 2:So we get out of the van, we take all of these boxes, these shoe boxes and these gifts, we start to unpack them. They're all stacked up in the front. We get an opportunity to communicate the gospel. I think I actually even played a Phil Wickham song. I think I played the song this is amazing grace, and they don't speak English, but like they were dancing with me and going crazy and that was like the coolest thing ever. So we're passing out. We get to the point where we're passing out the gifts and each of the kids would come and they would get one of the boxes and they would open it up. A lot of times the kid would wait until they, like their little friend group, would open it up together.
Speaker 3:That's precious.
Speaker 2:So specifically, there was this one box. I will never forget this. You're not supposed to include food or candy or anything in the boxes, Correct? So I already told my friends at OCC I'm telling this story. It is what it is. But if you're packing boxes, don't put food or candy in there. But this is what happened in my experience. So the kid opens up a box it's a young girl, maybe around the age of nine or 10. And she opens up the box and there's this giant lollipop, one of those multiple colors.
Speaker 3:The big circular ones.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the big circular ones that have all the different colors, like you'd find at a general store or something like that.
Speaker 2:This huge lollipop and like she's never seen one of these in her entire life. There's no, no, no chance. Yeah, let alone maybe a sucker or a candy of any kind, but definitely not one like this big. So I mean, her eyes are just huge. I bet there's like this like moment of everybody else that's around when they see it. So she takes this lollipop and she's showing it to her friends, and then she gets it and she slams it on the ground, on the floor and breaks it into 20 or 30 pieces and she starts handing it out to her friends, because they had never been able to see one of these before. This is the only chance they would ever be able to get a sucker like this. So, instead of keeping it for herself, she broke it into pieces and she handed it out.
Speaker 2:And so I'm thinking about, like the Hema people, and I'm thinking about the proclamation of the gospel in Ephesians 4 and all these different things that we're talking about today. The gospel is something that is so beautiful and so transformative, but it's something to be shared. It's something to be shared. It's something that is to be shared, and so how, how beautiful of a picture that this little girl got, something that was so good, just like the good news, got something that was so good, and, instead of keeping it to her, so she broke it up and she passed it out so that everybody can taste and see how good it was. It's beautiful, and so I'll never forget that story. It was so impactful, and I'm so thankful to Operation Christmas Child and Samaritan's Purse for giving me an opportunity to go and serve on this trip so that I could get these images in my mind, on this side of eternity, of what it's like to actually proclaim the gospel and to share the gospel with people.
Speaker 2:And so, guys, you've heard me and Dustin both say on this podcast so many times like how could you not want to give your life to something like this? And so my encouragement to you today is just simple During this holiday season, during this Christmas season, after you hear this episode, look for opportunities to be able to give your life away. Look for opportunities to be able to partner with mission organizations that we've featured here on this podcast. There are so many ways that you can get involved in. As Dustin says, get in the game. There's no excuse and there's absolutely nothing nothing that you can give your life to. That's as impactful and as valuable as the proclamation and the sharing of the gospel.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:So, amber, thanks so much for bringing some stories to us today.
Speaker 3:Thanks, for having me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what a privilege to be able to tell some stories from our friends at Operation Christmas Child. We're going to do this one more time, so we have another one in two weeks for you, another episode where we're going to share some more incredible stories from our friends at OCC. You do not want to miss this.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Do not miss it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we got some awesome stories to share and also a brand new story that nobody's ever heard before that we cannot wait to share with you guys. Amber, would you mind praying for us on the way out?
Speaker 3:Absolutely, god. What a big God you are. I pray that, as we take these stories in, take them to heart, god, that you would just open our eyes to how much you love everyone on this planet, that you sent your son Jesus that none should perish. God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believed in him would not perish but would have everlasting life. And I thank you so much for people like Pastor Razira who go into these villages, speak the name of Jesus, so that these people can now experience life with you on this side of eternity as well as the rest of eternity. God, we're so grateful. Lord, we pray that you would open our hearts and open our eyes to opportunities to share the gift that we've been given what a beautiful gift that we did not earn of our salvation. And there is a world out there that is lost and hurt and dying and desperate, and so I pray that you would prick our hearts. God, show us those opportunities to break our sucker and hand it out. We thank you for Jesus, amen.
Speaker 2:Amen.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to Unreached. Our sincere desire is that what you've heard today will cause you to see the mission of God differently and your role in it more clearly. If this adds value for you and we hope it does would you please rate and review the podcast wherever you listen. Also, share with your family, your friends, your church, your life group, small group, dgroup, wherever you do life, and if you want to connect with us, find us on Instagram at unreachedpodcast, or email us at unreachedpodcast at gmailcom.
