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
Swing the Sword: Inside GSI's High-Risk Mission Work
GSI stands out as "the Navy SEALs of the mission world," going where it's hardest to reach with the gospel and facing daily persecution and risk to share God's word with unreached people groups in closed countries.
• Growing up in missionary families versus discovering missions as adults
• Learning multiple languages to effectively share the gospel
• The challenge of reaching people in places entirely hostile to Christianity
• Why language acquisition is critical—knowing 70% isn't enough
• The extensive training and preparation needed before field deployment
• Experiencing the privilege of sharing Christ with people who've never heard
• Presenting the Bible chronologically creates powerful "aha" moments
• A Central Asian church plant that grew to 55-60 believers
• How businesspeople can support missionaries running platform businesses
• The story of Lina, who was thrown out of her home for following Jesus
• Churches should maintain direct involvement rather than just "pay, pray, and get out of the way"
• Why missions in closed countries requires supernatural intervention
The task remaining includes over 7,000 unreached people groups. Whether you go, send, pray, fund, welcome, or mobilize – everyone can play a vital role in fulfilling the Great Commission.
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 through the men and women he has called to reach the unreached. Hello friends, welcome back to the Unreached Podcast. Dustin Elliott here, your host today, and we are wrapping up our summer series, as promised, with the three main mission partners of Bless. We have featured Ethnos360 and Steve the CEO. We have featured Pioneers and Steve and Nathan, ceo and Chief Admin Officer, and now we have our third and final of our main partners. This is GSI. We have Sean and Jay with us today. Sean and Jay are both on the international leadership team as well as the church relations team for GSI.
Speaker 1:I'm going to start out by just saying there's a phrase that's often used when talking about GSI, just for context for you, the listeners so a lot of unreached people groups have an open front door right. The country is perfectly willing to have Christians come in and bring business and bring the gospel and plant churches, but a lot of places don't have an open front door. As you know, a lot of countries and the leadership of those countries are against it. They're trying to run things and keep the power and control for themselves, and so you have to find kind of another way to get in. And so GSI is affectionately known as kind of the Navy SEALs of the mission world.
Speaker 1:These guys tend to go where it's hardest to get to and most dangerous and most risky. And I was joking with the guys before because I was like do y'all even like that comparison? Maybe the Navy SEALs are the GSI of the military. Maybe we flip it around, the point being you go where it's hard to go, you work where it's tough to work. Persecution and risk is everyday part of your lives, and so for the listeners, just know, a lot of what you're going to hear today is very secure. So you're going to hear pseudonyms, you're going to hear stories, but they're not going to be necessarily the exact people or exact locations, because we have to protect those folks and we are fired up to have these guys on today. So, sean and Jay, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a real privilege to be here, dustin, thank you. Thank you very much for having us.
Speaker 1:Okay, absolutely, that's Jay Jay. Why don't you give us a little background on you and then Sean will get a little background on you and kind of catch us up to speed? How'd you get to know the Lord, how'd you get involved in missions and how'd you get kind of where you are today?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I actually grew up in an Ethnos 360 family down in Bolivia, south America, so my parents and grandparents were part of that organization for many, many years. Wonderful, and that's how I came to know the Lord. I actually grew up in a tribal group out in the Amazon jungle, so that was where I came in and came to an awareness of the need of unreached people groups. And then, as my wife and I got married and moved out, we decided that we would go and work in a close country, and so we went out with GSI to a country in Central Asia and worked with a people group there for about 13, 14 years on the field before coming back to the US.
Speaker 1:Wow, okay, so you speak four languages, and then one of the four is the tribe where you grew up, right?
Speaker 2:And actually one of the four is the tribe, where we worked overseas.
Speaker 1:Okay. We spoke Spanish where I grew up, got it Okay, all right. Well, we had, you know, steve, with Ethnos on and he talked about how they served in South America, but the tribe they were in wasn't even aware that the nation they were in spoke Spanish. So, you know, can't be presumptuous and understand who's speaking what. And, sean, give us your background please, sir.
Speaker 4:Unlike Jay, I jokingly say that I speak one language American so I didn't grow up with the same cross-cultural experience that Jay did. In fact, I grew up in a non-Christian family, wrenching on hot rods and riding Harley Davidsons, and I actually came to know the Lord when a girlfriend of mine took me down to Waco, Texas, as a part of her youth group and I met a homeless guy who looked like Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top. He shared the gospel with me and the Lord transformed my heart and gave me eyes to see the goodness of who Jesus was and what He'd done to die for me on the cross. And so really after that, I didn't have any interest in missions at that point, but stumbled upon a guy who was recruiting people to give their lives to going overseas, and I began to see God's heart for the nations in the Scriptures and decided I wanted to give the rest of my life to that.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's fascinating. Let me go back to Jay real quick. So how did you meet your wife? Was that internationally or how did that happen, so we actually met?
Speaker 2:in college Both of us were attending NC State University and a mutual friend introduced us, specifically because she had interest in going overseas and was actually trying to become a missionary nurse, and so a friend of mine, knowing that that was my long-term goal as well was, like you have to meet this guy there can't be that many of these kind of people in the world and introduced us and we headed off and a few years later we were married.
Speaker 1:Okay, awesome. And Sean, did you meet your lady at Sturgis on a Harley Davidson, or how did y'all meet? It was not at Sturgis though it seems like it should have been.
Speaker 4:No, I ended up rather marrying a pastor's daughter and, yeah, married into a ministry family and met her in a church membership class of all places. All right, yes, of all places All right, and she walked in and I spotted her from across the room when she walked in the door and told my best friend, who was there with me, I'm going to go talk to her and the rest is history.
Speaker 1:You know we laugh with the singles ministries and the young adults ministries at church and this concept of kind of you catch what you fish for, right. You know you meet a girl at the membership class at a church that might be somebody that you want to align to. You know, meet a girl out on the town at a bar. You know, maybe not the same values, right? So you know, pay attention to where you're fishing.
Speaker 4:Right, what pond are you throwing your line in Exactly?
Speaker 1:Exactly. All right, jay. So back to you. Why don't you take us through kind of you met your wife, you get married, you know you want to go into a closed country, so take us through that process. How'd you get linked up? Let's do this. How'd you get linked up with GSI right? So for somebody listening that thinks they want to go into the field, they're getting to meet some different great sending organizations through this podcast kind of series here. How'd that happen for you?
Speaker 2:So I don't know how many of your listeners are aware of the relationship between Ethnos 360 and GSI, but there's a long mutual history there. Gsi actually came out of being the branch of Ethnos 360 that was targeting specifically closed countries, and so when we went to the training at the time it was still all one organization and so we had presentations from all of the different fields would come to us in the training and kind of try to recruit us to their field. And I recall very distinctly that there were people there from the country of over heard about this and were, you know, so motivated to hear the story that they were telling that they had actually walked for days to get into this area and and brought a letter to these missionaries saying you know, we hear that you're telling these people God's talk, who's going to come and tell it to us? And so this, this recruiter was there with that letter. Um, in our training center my wife and I just looked at each other like maybe we should go and tell them.
Speaker 2:And then a person from the field of Mozambique came and was telling a story about how they had a people group there that called themselves the forgotten of God, and he was saying who wants to go tell them that they're not forgotten by God?
Speaker 2:And so just story after story from these fields of all the huge needs and how could you not be motivated by that? One of our people that came to the training while we were there was actually from a field in Central Asia and told a story of how his family had been privileged to be part of a church plant there and how they were looking at a people group nearby. And as he talked and described the people group and the needs there, just both my wife and I looked at each other and we're like, yeah, that's got to be for us, and it was immediately apparent to us that that's where the Lord was taking us. And so we began our journey that ended up taking us there to Central Asia, learning the national language there for a few years and then eventually moving out to learn the minority language of this unreached language group in Central Asia.
Speaker 1:So you went in, knowing this is what you wanted to do, but not knowing where you wanted to go. You were open-handed, you know you were pitched to um shark tank style here here, go here, go here.
Speaker 2:Here's a letter, here's a, here's a need. Yeah, it's a great privilege to be in a place like that. I mean you, just you can't, you can't underestimate the, the power of the Holy spirit himself, when you get to hear the needs laid out before you and you've already committed to this task. But you're just saying, Lord, I want to go where you want me. Where is that? And praying over each and every option. And it's very heartbreaking because in many ways, you want to clone yourself 10 different times and go 10 different places, and so it's challenging to be on that end where you're like okay, I can only pick one of these 10 options and I've got to just make a choice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of the listeners can relate to that, because I think a lot of our hearts get dislocated to use a Chip Ingram term from his book but a lot of our hearts get dislocated for different ministries and different nonprofits and different people groups and we want to support them all but the resources are only what they are. So what year about was this? When you decided? When y'all went to the field, you said you were there 13 years. So was this like mid-2000s?
Speaker 2:2005, we went into training. In 2006, we went overseas. Do you have family? Yeah, I have a wife and two children. We have two sons. One was born right before we went to the field, so he was like six months old, I think, when we got there, and then the other one was born a first year on the field.
Speaker 1:Okay, so your kids then knew knew life more in the field than they knew life stateside right.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely they. They are 100% kids from from that part of the world. They they still think of themselves being from that part of the world and, and even though they're in college now, it's like exploring a brand new culture.
Speaker 1:Man, we were on Zoom the other night with some missionaries that we support and they were laughing. They were just talking about the things they didn't expect, right? And one of the things they didn't expect was that their kids, who were born there and grew up there, like the cuisine, the food in Southeast Asia is their comfort food, it's what they love. And they're back in America right now on respite and their daughter keeps saying like I want this to eat and we don't have it the same here, but that's her comfort food. And the other point that she made was everyone here speaks English. Everyone here speaks the same language and I understand it, but where she's used to being, there's different dialects and different languages and she's not used to being able to understand everybody.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have sitting on our counter right now. We have some cookies that we went and bought at the international market. Just because my boys were in town and they were, they had a hankering for these cookies that I don't enjoy at all, but they grew up eating, you know, for the time they were two, so you know they're very used to them and that's for them, like he said, their comfort food.
Speaker 1:Wow how about that, Sean? Let's come back to you. So what's it like for you with managing both church relationships who are, you know, the local church being the critical component in sending a missionary and supporting a missionary and praying for a missionary, and then they're going to partner with you. So you're managing those relationships, but then you're also managing the other side, if you will, of the kind of barbell approach. Talk about just that. You know, being in the middle of those relationships.
Speaker 4:Yeah, if I could rewind the tape just a little bit in terms of you asking Jay how he got exposed to GSI and how he came to know about that organization, my experience being a little different than him, mostly in the US, in recruitment and mobilization. I had formerly worked for an organization that partnered with probably 40 of the largest sending agencies in America, which gave me a real peek behind the curtain of what those agencies were doing, where they were working, what their church planning methodologies were and, to go back to the Navy SEALs illustration at the beginning, where we started their training, specifically what those major agencies were doing in terms of training. And so for me I came to learn about GSI really through sort of my college roommate who currently serves overseas with Ethnos and their church planting right now in the middle of translation work, and I was so impressed by Ethnos' pre-field training that I was starting to look around in the missions world for other organizations that were expecting that kind of pre-field training but that were also handing the authority to send workers back to the local church. And so, to answer your question, kind of one of my roles as a part of the church relations team and recruitment mobilization is to really help the church understand that the authority to send belongs to them and the pre-field training and the process of seeing them plant a church over a period of 15 to 20 years, that really belongs to them.
Speaker 4:But an agency in many ways, is there to help along the way.
Speaker 4:So part of my job is to really educate the church to say this is your authority to send, but we're here to help along the way. So part of my job is to really educate the church to say this is your authority to send, but we're here to help resource you with things like orthographies and, for our listeners who don't know that, that's the process of having to try to create an alphabet among a language group that doesn't have a written language, that they're going to need it in order to be taught all that Jesus commanded. So all those intricacies of phonetics, phonemics, phonics, orthographies, running a business, and so what really impressed me about GSI over the years of hearing about them from different organizations and the missions world that I was living in was really, again, just the pre-field training that they required, the long-term focus that they had to see a church planted and then them handing the authority back to the local church to send. So, again, my job is to really help the church understand that it's their authority to send and we're here to help resource them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that if you haven't heard of all the podcast episodes we've done, then you may not have heard this before, but you probably don't realize how many people groups out there don't have a written language. And so you go in, you learn the trade language, kind of the majority language of the area, where the different tribes with different dialects kind of can come together and trade no-transcript, and then eventually, once you've taught them to read and write, you've translated some scripture and now you're going into that translation where you're still working very much with the people in the tribe or in the people group that are involved in that process as well. Right, correct?
Speaker 4:And again I mean there are some technicalities to what Jay has done and what GSI is focused on. So, as somebody who's in recruitment and mobilization in some ways, my job is to try to help simplify those technicalities so that you know, the mom who's staying at home changing diapers and doing dishes can understand what the mission of God is and what it's going to take to see churches planted among these unreached language groups. So it's, how do we take those technical concepts and make them transferable to the local church so that the whole church can be involved in the work of sending, so that the whole church can understand what is the task that their workers is focused on? And you even elaborated on some of those technicalities, dustin, in terms of the trade language, the minority language and many other things that we could talk about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Jay, you can probably speak to this, but we've learned through the 50 or so episodes we've done on the podcast. Now we always talk about and the Bible's translated to English as the heart, the heart posture, a softened heart replacing the heart, but some people, groups, think of the stomach, some think of the liver, some groups don't have a word for grace or love or some of the most important words that you need to effectively convey the posture of God and the posture of Jesus and the whole kind of the point of the story right, saved by grace, through faith. And so what did you encounter, jay, or what have you encountered in terms of the nuance of different languages and how you work through that?
Speaker 2:So this is actually a challenging thing, dustin, for a lot of monolingual people to really understand. I think that the people that speak one language have a concept that linguistics is a binary option Either you speak a language fluently or you don't, that it's zero or one. And the truth is that language learning, just like many other things, is a spectrum where you start at zero, and a person who has spoken that language since birth might be at 100. And you have to recognize, as someone who's moving into a country in adulthood, you're never going to reach 100. So the question then becomes what level do you need to reach in order to explain very challenging worldview-level concepts to someone from a different culture? And so, do I need to get to 80? Is it okay if I get to 70? You know where? At that point am I able to say okay, now I can talk to you about the Word of God, because I think many people travel to other countries and it's very easy to do Duolingo for a little while. Or, you know, even study in a university there for six months and get to the point where you can go to the market and you can say give me two kilograms of tomatoes. Or you can tell the bus driver you know, hey, stop at the next corner. But that is a massive gap between that level of language and the ability to say Jesus Christ is the propitiation for your sins and then explain what that means. And so when you are learning a new language, you are working into that level.
Speaker 2:And I actually think that one of the biggest problems we have in missions today is a lack of accountability in language levels. I've often joked with people that you could solve many of the problems in world missions if every church that sent out a missionary required that missionary to get a language check in the level that they are, you know, to see what level they speak, the language they're ministering in. And then the pastor heard a recording of someone speaking English at that level. Because I think we think, oh, you know, someone is over there and they send me back a report that says hey, I've been studying for a year and I just got a report that says I'm, you know, progressing high Well as a pastor or as a supporter. How are you supposed to evaluate what that means?
Speaker 2:You don't have any concept, not having learned a language yourself. It's like great, you know, go preach the gospel. You know, go plant churches, and it's actually very, very challenging to learn a language to that level. It requires most. For most people, it requires a couple of years of study, and so for us, we spent two years learning the national language in the capital city. Then we moved out to this remote village area. Now we have to running a business while we're there, because now we can't have a visa from a university anymore, and so now we're running a business full-time while we're also studying this language. That took four years in our case before we reached the level that we could actually preach the gospel.
Speaker 4:Just to simplify it, jay, to your point. One of the things that I'm trying to do when I'm teaching at church is when we're talking about what percentage of proficiency is enough, I'll often throw up something like John 3.16 on the screen, a verse that everybody knows, and I'll say, hey, listen, let's say that you only knew 70% of John 3.16. Which 70% are you willing to keep and which 70 percent are you willing to punt on? So the 30 percent that you don't know, is that the word God that you're willing to give up? Is that the word forgiveness that you're willing to give up To your point, dustin? Is that the word love, which may not even exist in the context, the cultural context or linguistic context that you're in? And at that moment it's like, oh, I thought, by knowing 70 percent, that was a C, but a C is enough for you to totally misunderstand the 30 percent that's most important in John 3.16, and that's where the aha moment takes place of. This is why language and language consulting and language checks is so important for gospel ministry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, clint and I are both nodding at each other.
Speaker 1:The light just went off for us too, and you know Clint's a worship pastor and I just think of, like, try writing a worship song where you can only use 70% of the words, although a lot of people sing where you can't understand 30% of the words anyway. All right, moving on, moving on. So I think, if I'm a listener and I'm hearing this, one thing that I'm starting to understand about GSI is a real, true commitment to excellence. You really want to develop your people to a place where they can convey the gospel clearly and effectively, and I know several missionaries that we've interviewed, even on the podcast, have said that the people for years have been begging them essentially to tell them the good news. Tell us the good news, tell us why you're here. And they have to say I can't tell you yet. I can't tell you yet. I have to get to the place where I can fully have that conversation, I can field your questions and I can effectively present the gospel to where it will be clear. Is that right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think in many of our cases where GSI works, because we're in closed countries, we're not, unfortunately, seeing very many people that are saying please tell me, you know, you're going into areas where everybody is a Muslim, everybody is a Buddhist, everybody's a Hindu.
Speaker 2:You know, whatever language, whatever worldview they have, they're very content with that worldview. They have no, they see no need to change it and they actually are actively opposed to changing it. And this is one of the things that makes world work in closed countries so challenging, because you're going into a place where, kind of all the forces are aligned against you. The government does not want you to be there doing what you're doing. The people themselves do not want to hear the message that you're bringing, and so you've got all these extra challenges on top of all the challenges of you know just being in a place that isn't yours, learning a new language and a culture. You know communicating the gospel, planting a church, raising up elders, doing all these kinds of things.
Speaker 2:Now you've added in this external hostility towards what you're trying to do, which is why I often say that I believe that the task of planting churches in unreached language groups is actually the most challenging job in the world, and I don't say that like kind of facetiously or ingesting. I mean that literally. I think it's harder than brain surgery. I think it's harder than you know literally anything AI, research, anything you could think of. That would be the most complex and challenging task in the world today. I think that this particular task that we're talking about is more so, and I actually believe that there's a great freedom once you understand that this task is not doable by a human person, is not doable by a human person.
Speaker 2:No doubt I actually think it's one of the greatest beauties in the world is to be a part of missions, because missions is where we get to see what God is doing in the world and not what we're doing in the world. And I think that's such a beautiful picture when we can say, hey, I'm going to go do something that actually cannot be done by a human person. I have a picture that I show to churches of this Valley in a central Asian Muslim country and it's one of our workers was doing a survey of this particular people group and he got to the top of this, this mountain pass and he looks down and there's this Valley and it's like 800 people live in this Valley and they speak a totally different language than he does. Um, he's just spent three years learning the national language and now he's here, you know, trying to reach this particular people group, and you just look at it. You think everyone in that valley would probably kill you if they knew why you were there.
Speaker 2:And I've got to, you know, go there, learn this very challenging language. And then I've got to move into that valley and learn another language and I've got to run some sort of business and I've got to come up with some sort of reason for them to just let me live among them. I've got to have some sort of business that I've got to be operating. I'm going to be minus 30 degrees outside in the winter. I'm going to be heating my house with coal, I'm going to be hauling water from the well. I've got all these massive challenges. And then to realize that, on top of all that, no one actually wants me here, no one wants to hear the gospel, and it can feel very demoralizing, very like God, why have you brought me to this place and asked me to be involved in this ministry? And I actually think that's where God is telling us hey, this is what it means to step out of the boat.
Speaker 2:You know, we see over and over and over in Scripture that God chooses broken, flawed, limited people to accomplish things that only he can accomplish. And the reason why he chooses those broken, flawed, limited people is because he gets the glory when that happens. Right, no one would have been impressed with God if Israel also had some giant guy that went down and took out Goliath. They would have been impressed with God if Israel also had some giant guy that went down and took out Goliath, they would have been impressed with that guy. Why does God choose, you know, the teenage shepherd boy who can't even wear armor? Because when that guy kills a giant, you know David tells us it's so that all the world will know that there's a God in Israel. It's like that's why God chooses these broken and flawed and limited people, because when he does something through us, it's something that none of us can take credit for.
Speaker 2:When you get to stand among people that are worshiping the God of the Bible, from a people group that just years before were intensely hostile to that, there's a privilege to that. That's like nothing else in the world. You realize I got to step out of the, the boat and I got to walk on water. And when we come back and we tell these stories, you know to people like you guys that are like I didn't get to be a part of that. I didn't, you know, tell me what it's like. The point of the story is not man. Look at that guy, he's a Navy SEAL. He's really cool. The point of the story is I got to be a part of something that only God could do. Let's get excited about that and that's kind of what fires me up about being involved in missions is that all of the church is invited into that place where we get to be a part of God doing something that only he can do, that we can't do.
Speaker 4:I would add to that that it's not only something that humans can't do, but what drives me and motivates me is it's fail-proof. I mean, revelation 7-9 tells us that this is going to happen, and so even for the missionaries, who might not be a part of seeing the church plant completed, you know, I'm reminded of Jesus's words in John, chapter 4, to the disciples. He says you know, you reap off of what someone else sowed. The harvest that you're taking is off the work of the prophets that came before you. And so not only is it a task that humans can't do by themselves, but the end is sure, like we get to see the end of the story. So there's hope in the fight, there's hope in the battle, there's hope in the suffering, to know, at the end of the day, like it's fail-proof.
Speaker 1:I don't know that. That would qualify as the greatest recruitment speech of all time, but it's a heck of a halftime speech. It's a heck of a halftime speech, right, they're all against us. And the thing is and I think the listeners know this you and God make a majority in every situation. You're looking at that 800 people and you're not alone there. And you're not alone there because of that triple-braided cord, ecclesiastes, right, and you're there with a team most likely, right, there's more than one of you there and you're not going to accomplish it all. And we say this a lot like when you get an at-bat.
Speaker 1:One of the guys in my D group, you know, he was just talking about how the pool guy came over and he had a cross necklace and they started talking and what's that about? And he prayed with the guy brought, invited him to church and get, you know, guys out of in and out of jail and all these different things are happening. And I said, man, I'm just proud of you for taking a swing Like you got in that bat. You took a swing, you took a swing and you are a key step in his journey, right. So God worked through you in that moment.
Speaker 1:And when you put yourself in the position that Jay is in and others are in, you're putting yourself in a position where you're going to get swings every day Not that we all don't we all do, we can always bring up Jesus in any conversation but you're putting yourself in a position where you're going to get more swings. And then you're also in a position, if you're in the field, in a place that's closed like this, where you're constantly relying on God, constantly relying on Him to protect you, to guide your path, to order your steps, right, you're there at peace because that's where he's called you to be and that's where he is using you. I mean, even look at, kind of, how we set up the intro and outro of the podcast, right. These are the stories of God at work through the men and women he's called to reach the unreached. This is not the stories of men and women at work on their own right.
Speaker 2:That's exactly right, dustin, and I appreciate the analogy of swinging. I often talk about people swinging their sword and I actually think this is one of the areas where missions can be a real inspiration in this area for those of us that don't go overseas. So if you're here in the US and you're listening to these stories about, you know incredible things that God is doing overseas. I hope that what that inspires you to do is get out and swing your sword where you are, because I think I used to come back from the field all the time and you know you come back every four years and go to your church and and it's you know you could just immediately see who was swinging their sword and who was not. Because the people that are swinging their sword, you know it's like soldiers in a battle I'm just imagining, like in world war II. You know a gathering of soldiers. You know somewhere in a safe country where you know one guy has been working, you know fighting against the Nazis in Germany and another one has been fighting against Japan, and even though that's not my battle, they're fighting in a hill. That's not my hill and they're fighting a different enemy. It's like I'm interested to know how the war is going over there. What lessons are you learning, what things are you seeing and how's it going? Because when I finish my battle over here, we might have to come over there and join you guys.
Speaker 2:And so there's this mutual like hey, we're all swinging our swords and so when I would come back, I would immediately be able to see who was engaged in the battle in their hill, because they would be interested in the battle in my hill. They'd be like, hey, tell me about. You know what's life like over there in Central Asia? What's going on with those Chong people? You told me to pray for a guy whose name starts with A. I've been lifting him up before the Lord every day. You know what's his full name. I want to write it down so I can pray for him. And then immediately I want to hear about you know, hey, I know you guys adopted a special needs child two years ago. You know how's that going? I know it's been really challenging. Like, walk me through it. I want to hear about how it's going Because I think there's this mutual like interest that soldiers have in the battle.
Speaker 2:It's just, but you can tell that when there's a guy whose sword is just leaning up against the barracks wall and he's playing video games in the barracks. Like the enemy is not interested in that guy. It's not, he's not a threat and so he doesn't really care about the battle, anybody's battle, whether it's on the hill next to him or the hill a thousand miles away, and so it's. I think the missions have this unique way of drawing us into this where it's like like, oh man, you know, I'm hearing about the battle in a more clear way. It's like you're going up against the forces of evil in a way that's really perceptive to me and then that awakens me to oh man, I've got to do that same battle every day where I am.
Speaker 1:By the way, I just want the listeners to hear me say this when we have Light the World and we bring you guys over from overseas all to Austin and we do a big night of worship and Christmas and celebration and we raise money and support the work, when you see these missionaries who've never met each other, when you see them get in the green room, the way you interact with each other is awesome. It's like two MVPs of a league meeting each other. And you see, I'm going to use a very slang term here, but game recognize game. Right, you see it. You see each other, you have an appreciation for each other, respect for each other, your blood, sweat and tears out on the battlefield together. And you're going to have to give me a second here. You're getting me on a soapbox because you said you kept saying swing the sword, swing the sword.
Speaker 1:Now, the concept of a sword is throughout the Bible, right? You see it all the way back in Genesis, in the Garden of Eden, and then Ephesians 6. If the listeners, if you're not spending a little more time in Ephesians 6, but the whole armor of God, I want to read this because the sword is not just a metaphorical weapon. Okay, so let me read Ephesians 6, and then I'm going to come back to the guys and talk about what is the sword right? So from 10 to 18, a final word be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then, after the battle, you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then, after the battle, you will be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness For shoes. Put on the peace that comes from the good news so that you will be fully prepared. In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Put on salvation as your helmet.
Speaker 1:And here we go. Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Pray in the Spirit at all times, on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere. What is your sword? Your sword is the word of God. So if you're not in your Bible daily, if you're not memorizing scripture and committing it to memory of your brain and your heart, then when you're on the battlefield and you reach for your sword, are your words going to be the Word of God or are they going to be related to the Word of God? Are you going to speak that language in that language group at an 80 or a 90 and truly convey it clearly? Or are you going to know 70% of what the Bible says and kind of maybe move the needle, but not really?
Speaker 4:You know, dustin, to Jay's point. You know in so many ways the battle is mutually informing. I think that oftentimes when local churches start to catch a vision to see the nation's reach for the gospel, there's sometimes confused members who fear that if we focus our attention on these unreached language groups, then what about the needs right here? And so those sort of become in-house debates among churches. But I think the reality of what Jay's talking about, with the battle being mutually informing between you know us being on the German front, and you being on, you know, the Japanese front, is that what I've seen in mobilization and recruitment is that as local churches get a vision to see the nations reached, that mutual informing lifts the morale and the courage and the zeal for the home church to reach out to their local community, like it spurs them on to pick up their sword and swing it, you know, with their coworker or a lost family member, and so they're not at odds at each other.
Speaker 1:Yeah that's well said.
Speaker 4:They're actually serving one another. So, as we want to see churches planted among unreached language groups, churches should never fear that that's at odds with us reaching out to our neighbors. In fact, it should encourage us and spur us on to do that very thing.
Speaker 1:That's really well said. And then that concept to another one of Jay's points, of kind of seeing another soldier, someone that's also been swinging the sword. And then this you know, after the battle you will be standing firm. You know to know the feeling of taking part in moving a people group from completely unaware to walking with Christ, to a healthy, disciple-making, indigenous-led church and the Bible in their heart language. And then standing firm, jay, what's it like to stand firm after that work is done?
Speaker 2:So I'll go back a little bit, dustin, if you'll indulge me, because I want your listeners to hear just what the privilege is like to be the first person to share the gospel with a people group that's never heard it before. I actually think this is one of the—it probably will never be matched in my life in terms of the privilege, because there's something about you know, all of us have been engaged, hopefully, in evangelism where we are. But if you're in America and you're in a culture you know that already has heard the gospel many, many times, a lot of times you're scattering seed on a place that's had seed thrown on it over and over and over again, and so you're just, you know, every once in a while you'll get one seed that'll bounce the right way and land in good soil and you're like, wow, this is so cool. But most you know you just see a lot of seeds that land on hard packed ground that's already had seed cast on it before. And the interesting thing is the challenge of getting to an unreached people group is off the scale. Like just getting there and getting to the place where you speak the language well enough and you can share it with them is very, very challenging. But when you've made that journey and you've climbed up three mountain ranges and you're way back in, you know, hacked your way through the jungle and you're back in there, a lot of times you're scattering seed on a place where no one's ever thrown seed before. Yeah right, and sometimes the Holy Spirit has just prepared it in a unique way and you get to be a part of something that's utterly amazing.
Speaker 2:So in our case, when we finally reached the level of language that we needed to to be able to begin translating Bible lessons into this language, we began and we were trying to gather the Chong people and we were very, very discouraged. We were like you know, there's just no spiritual interest here. We've been in the field for eight years. We know believers you know what are we doing here? Like this has been such a tremendous sacrifice. Our kids are struggling, we're struggling. You know this business is falling apart. We're being, you know, stolen from by the mafia and interrogated by the government, and you know it just felt like this is never going to happen. You know who are we kidding?
Speaker 2:And we finally convinced three people that were, like you know, friends of friends to come in and listen to these. You know we were talking about like we want to share with you God's story, and we finally convinced these people to come and they sit down and we go through lesson number one and all we do is we just open Genesis 1, and we read it and we talk about it. You know, god made everything in the world and he said that it was good. And then we just ask them this question at the end of the night. You know, when you look around the world, does it seem like it's good? And they were like you know, no, it actually seems pretty terrible, like I'm, you know, as more I think about it. There's all this disease and sickness and death, and, you know, there's all these problems and good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people. It doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 2:And so they were like well, why? Why did God say it was good? We're like well, you got to come back next week, you know, and this began this process. That's like the greatest privilege in my life, because you're throwing seeds in a place it's never been. And so they come back in Genesis 3, and it's like okay, let's read Genesis 3 tonight. And it's like now I see why the world is so messed up. Adam and Eve sinned and they brought this curse of sin and death. But God promises one day one of Eve's descendants is going to come and crush the head of that serpent and set you free from that curse. And they're like who is it? Because they don't know the spoilers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the. That's the thing about going to an unreached language group. They don't.
Speaker 1:They don't know the story y'all bringing him over here when's he get here, when's the plane?
Speaker 2:when's the plane exactly? So so we're like you know, hey, you got to come back next week, right? So we read their story after story and they're constantly waiting. And what this did was it drove so much interest because these three guys who were kind of half interested are all of a sudden going back and telling their sister about it. And one of them comes and he goes hey, I told my sister about these stories and she wants to come here. And then that sister went and told her coworker and it's like, hey, that lady wants to come and hear these stories Because, you know, she just was like drawn by it. I was telling her you know what the Bible said, and and I want to come hear it. And so pretty soon we were filling up our living room and all of a sudden we're, we're packed, and we got to, we got to split and you know, hey, you guys, we're going to keep going on Tuesdays and you new guys, we'll start over next Thursday and we'll meet you on Thursdays. And we, group after group after group, for this brief little season, the Holy spirit was just working and these guys were everybody that showed up.
Speaker 2:You know, is it. Is it seth? Is it, uh, noah? Is it this guy? Is it that guy? They're waiting for this one that's going to set them free from this curse. And we get to the story of abraham, and it's like they get this big promise about how, through your descendants, all the families on the earth are going to be blessed. And they're like oh, this is definitely the guy. And then isaac is born in this crazy miraculous way. And they're like here he is, this is the person who's going to set us free. And then what happens? God says, hey, go, take abram isaac up and sacrifice him. And they're like no, you know they're, they're mad, they're like what is god doing?
Speaker 2:you know that's, that's the guy that's gonna, you know, make the world right again. And but what happens? A ram dies in his place. We get to Passover. A lamb, an innocent lamb, dies on behalf of you know, to keep them from God's curse. And we just stress this over and over again. We're going through the whole Old Testament and the lamb dies on the behalf of the sinners. The innocent lamb dies.
Speaker 2:And I'll never forget when we got to the passage where we finally got to Jesus and John the Baptist meets Jesus. Do you remember what he says when he first sees him? He looks up and he says behold the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. And one of the ladies in the back shouted out he's going to die. And I thought to myself oh, my word, this is happening. They're getting this story because in all of scripture there's only one purpose for a lamb. A lamb comes, an innocent lamb to die on behalf of sinners. Over and, over and over again, we've seen this in the story and they were recognizing what John meant when he said that Jesus was the lamb of God and they were ready, when Jesus died on the cross, to say, okay, I want to accept that sacrifice for myself.
Speaker 2:And we didn't see this repeated again. It wasn't something that happened over and over again, but for this brief, maybe five, six months in our ministry we saw a tremendous outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We saw a number of these people come to know the Lord and we were able to raise up a church in what felt like a very short amount of time, after years and years and years of laying groundwork, of learning language, of running business, of struggling through visas, of all these things that we had gone through. Our teammates all left. We were there all by ourselves.
Speaker 2:After many, many years of all of that happening, all of a sudden the Holy Spirit was poured out. We got to throw seeds on a field that we turned out. The spirit had irrigated and plowed for us and we're just throwing seeds and everywhere we're looking, the seeds are coming up, it's landing on good soil and we saw about 55, 60 people come to know the Lord in a very short little period of time and we had a church where there wasn't one before. And it was just this time in my life when I don't think it'll ever be repeated again, but it was such a privilege to be a part of that and what the Lord did there, and yeah, how did you sleep at night?
Speaker 1:Like how hard was it not to skip ahead in the story.
Speaker 2:It was actually really, really hard, because the weird thing is, because of Central Asia's long and complicated history with the Russian Empire, they have a perception that they know who Jesus is. They've heard his name before. So it wasn't that they were totally ignorant of the story, but they had it from a totally different concept. The only perception they had of Jesus was that's who. When the czars sent, you know, those Russian troops in here to take over our land and enslave our people and steal our natural resources, they were carrying the banner that has a cross on it.
Speaker 2:You know, they always had a priest out front, and so they just knew Jesus as he's the Russian God. That's who he is. He's that those white people that came here to steal us and and oppress us and enslave us. That's their god. So for them, that's who jesus was, and for them to hear him as a concept. That was totally flipping the script, where it was like, no, he's not just the god of these outsiders that oppressed us, he's God.
Speaker 1:You know, what stands out to me. It stands out to me and it's causing all sorts of mixed emotions in me right now is how few people get to experience the story of the Bible in that way for the first time. When you live in America or the West and you're popping in and out of church and you go to a wedding and you go to a funeral and this and that, and then you finally start going and you know they're in Galatians, right, they're way ahead in the story, and you know you start to get it all, but you're getting it from a different vantage. I mean to hear it, to have it presented for the first time ever from Genesis through, and be on pins and needles for six months. Who's this character? Who's this character? Who's this character? Is this the one? Is this the one? Is this the one?
Speaker 1:And then to get there, that is such a beautiful thing. It just makes me start thinking like, how do we recreate that? How do we do that differently in the west? And I don't know that we can, but man that to get to that point and see 55, 60 people and see that church, jay, I'm, I'm just, I've got goosebumps.
Speaker 1:Man, like that's, you say you won't recreate that in your life, but but you know you're going to help others recreate it through the leadership of GSI. You're going to, you're going to live through it vicariously and that's what a lot of us do. I mean, it looks like you and I are close to the same age. You go from kind of being, you know, the star player on the field, running your business and getting your clients and doing your things, to more of the front office right where you're mentoring and you're raising up others and you're empowering them to do the work. And I think that's part of the beautiful role of being a part of the church is that your roles change. You're not always doing the same thing. You know, at some point you're learning, then you're playing, then you're coaching.
Speaker 2:Yeah, actually, you know, the funny thing is I actually think that this task is one that we have handed over to missions agencies as churches for far too long. I think that there's a weird thing that happened maybe in the 1700s, 1800s when, like William Carey and Adam and Adam Judson and these guys are being sent out In the churches back in those days were kind of reawakened to the concept of missions, and so they're putting guys on boats, you know, and they're going nine months away, you know, to go to Burma or whatever, and you just think how are we supposed to keep that guy accountable to the task that we sent him out? What are we supposed to do if he gets off course, if he starts doing you know, if he falls into sin? And so they invented these things called you know missions agencies, or at the time you these things called you know missions agencies, or at the time, you know mission societies, and they would appoint you know a leader to go over there and kind of, you know rule over the other missionaries and you know direct their ministries, and I think that that was probably wise at the time.
Speaker 2:But I think that we've sort of inherited a lot of inertia from that time period where the church has said for far too long, let's just hand this to an agency and then do the what one of my friends at Uptrend collected called pay pray and get out of the way Like let's just, you know, we, we pray for these people, we send them money, but other than that, they work for the mission agency.
Speaker 2:And I actually think that one of the things the Lord is calling us to is to recognize that actually in in today's world, if we were starting the modern missions movement, we wouldn't invent an agency that stood in between the church and the workers on the field. We would say, hey, the church can just pick up and be on a Zoom call with somebody in Tajikistan or China or Laos in five minutes. So there's no reason why the church can't still maintain a measure of authority in the lives and ministries of those workers overseas. And I think when we do that, we start to see the beauty of what you're talking about. We start to see like the whole church awakening to say this is actually our task. This isn't something we commission somebody else we give a certain percentage of our budget to and we get to say that's not ours anymore. But we as a church can be a part of this conversation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's yeah. Well, that just brings back to Sean's point right of how one informs the other and how they kind of work together in support of each other. And you know, it makes me think, too, like there's a huge opportunity to remove this inertia and to empower more churches to take an active role, instead of this pay, pray and get out of the way model and same guys with every individual that's a member of the church that's sitting out in the pews. Your job is not to pay, pray and get out of the way for the church to do the work either. Right, your job is Monday to Saturday, not just Sunday morning.
Speaker 1:And the opportunity for everyone to play a role in the task remaining and in the Great Commission whether you're sending or you're going or you're praying, or you're funding or you're welcoming or you're mobilizing it's there, and it may be a spectrum for you where at certain seasons of life you do more or you do it different, but to both of your points, I think the opportunity here is for everyone to take a step forward into the task remaining, to challenge the status quo of your church, your local church, and what they're doing now, and be a part of seeing some change, in taking a more active role.
Speaker 1:And hey, you know, sean Cooper, with GSI, is ready to talk to you about it and talk to you about how to engage, how to shift. What are other churches doing? How can it be done? Well, and you know, let's humble ourselves and admit we don't have it all right. You know the task remaining is not done. You know there's thousands of people groups left to be reached, there's hundreds of languages still waiting for the Bible to be translated and with the technology we have today and the new methods and the things that we featured on the podcast recently, like Seed Bible and Apologistai, like it's here, the time is here, right, I mean, let's get after it.
Speaker 4:You know, dustin, as you talk about folks playing a different role, I often think of. You know, sort of my role as somebody who's been in recruitment and mobilization for a decade and a half really is kind of like Philip. You know, there in John chapter one, where you know he says to Nathaniel come and see. Philip is saying to Nathaniel hey, come and see. And I feel like so much of my role in recruitment and mobilization is to go to local churches and to say, hey, come and see what God has done to see a church planted in these unreached language groups and how God might be able to use you to do something like he did through Jay, broken and flawed as he is. You know, come and see what God's done, come and see what God will do. Come and see what God's gonna do to see this task finished.
Speaker 4:So you know, if you're listening, don't be ashamed to think of yourself as someone in the shoes of Philip. You know, calling Nathaniel to come and see, to come and see. Or Ananias to be the one who you know went and was the bridge to Saul. You know those sort of forgotten characters that get overlooked. You can play a part in God's, you know his greater purpose. Whether you're the Paul you know, or whether you're the Ananias.
Speaker 2:I think that there's a role in missions today that is not exercised by the church very often that possibly people are unaware of. But I actually think that, because most of the unreached language groups that are left in the world are in closed countries, almost all missionaries that go to those people if you're going to live there long enough to learn their language and, you know, proclaim the gospel to them, you're going to have to run some sort of business. And I'll just say flat out for you guys, so that you understand most missionaries are terrible at business. Live for decades in this place and swap mosquitoes and learn languages and communicate cross-culturally is almost exactly polar opposite to the kind of skill set that makes you a good businessman. And so we actually have noticed over and over again at GSI that one of the greatest ways the church can be involved is I guarantee most churches have a dozen guys sitting there that are gifted businessmen that aren't even aware that they could have a significant role to play in the ministry of someone on the other side of the world who's trying to go into an unreached language group.
Speaker 2:In our particular situation, we were running a business that involved processing a certain kind of agricultural product and I knew nothing about it. You know, it's like every time I come to my office. It was like a nightmare. You know, I've got to decide what should the price of my product be this week? Should I, you know, buy this new shower or not? It costs $30,000. It would improve my yields by 1%, you know, is that worth the investment? Is there good ROI? Like, I'm just terrible at all of that kind of stuff. And so we actually had a guy from our church who used to be the CFO of I can't remember if it was Verizon or Sprint, but he would get on a call with me once a week to just walk me through. Hey, here's the decisions that you need to make. Here's what I'm thinking. Here's some pricing guidelines. Don't sell if the price goes over. You know this, all these kinds of things.
Speaker 2:You know, just like these little decisions that we had no clue and that allowed our church to get this new way of being involved in our ministry, where that guy, because of the fact that we're talking, you know, every week now he's going back to the rest of the church and saying, hey, you know, did you know that this thing is going on? And it wasn't always business. You know, because our conversations were just good. He's not interested in the business just for the sake of the business. You know, we didn't move all the way over there to become millionaires. We moved over there because we wanted to see a church established. So he's bringing that news back to the rest of the body, you know, sharing it excitedly in his men's group and, you know, to the elders on the Sunday morning and it's like all of a sudden this was just feeding into the ability the church had to participate in what we were doing on the other side of the world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's great. So globalswitchboardio is where you can go in as a business person or missionary or anyone anyone. If you're good at sewing, you can go in and you can build a profile and say this is what I'm good at. And then churches and sending organizations and companies that are running all over the world will have their profiles and somebody will say I need somebody that's good at this, and then you'll get connected to them and it'll say, hey, let's have an intro call, and it'll set up a Zoom and you'll have a one-hour intro call and then you can do exactly what Jay just said. We've featured this story a couple of times and people that have met through Switchboard I've been connected to people on Switchboard. Clint's been connected. It is so, so cool. So the tech is out there right now to support this. Okay, Jay, give us a story and then pick one of the languages you speak, Pray us out in that one and then translate it to English for us.
Speaker 2:I was thinking of. You know different stories, but the one that I personally find the most compelling is the story of a young girl who I'm going to call Lina. Lina is a Chon person, so she grew up in a very, very challenging environment. So the Chon people historically lived kind of on the steppe, the plains of Central Asia, herding goats and sheep. They usually live in yurts, or Mongolians call them gers, these mobile kind of tents that you can pack up and move every time your sheep eat everything. Within a half day's walk you pack up your yurt and you move it down the valley and you set it up again. And so you know just a very challenging environment to grow up in, very, very cold, very, very harsh, and a very challenging environment to grow up in Very, very cold, very, very harsh, and a culture that is animistic in its practice, even if they would describe themselves as Buddhist, and so I don't know if your listeners are aware of, kind of what it means to be an animist, but functionally speaking, it's basically the belief system that there are some sort of spiritual forces that control my life and I need to make those spirits happy, the belief system that there are some sort of spiritual forces that control my life and I, I need to make those spirits happy, and so I go to the shaman, I go to the witch doctor or I go to the buddhist mama and I do something, and that will theoretically make the spirits happy, and then then good things will happen to me. The problem with this belief system is that well one, it's not true, it's directly from the enemy, but functionally it doesn't work, because it doesn't matter how many times you go to the shaman and he tells you, you know, sacrifice a reindeer and make sure that it falls so that the feet are pointing towards the rising sun, and then your aunt will be cured of cancer. Well, you do it, and then your aunt dies anyway. And so after a while, what begins to dominate your life is this fear, because you never know, as an animistic person, if you've done enough to please the spirits. You know, did I kill? Should I kill two reindeer? Should I give the shaman an extra bottle of vodka so that he can, you know, chant for even longer to the spirits? You know, I never know if I've done enough to get the things that I want.
Speaker 2:And so, uh, lena's parents were, her father, especially, was an alcoholic. Because of this extreme fear, this just extremely challenging environment she's growing up in where they're scared all the time that something bad is going to happen to them because they haven't pleased the spirits. But they don't. There's no way to know that. Oh, I've finally done enough for the spirits to be happy with me.
Speaker 2:So Lena grows up in this environment. Her father is extremely controlling, drunk, beats her mom beats her, and she's seeking for something. And she had a classmate that was the daughter of one of the guys that got saved pretty early on in our ministry. That daughter invites Lena to come with her to these Bible lessons that we're doing and at first she doesn't really want to come. She comes and sits in on a few just because she wants to get out of her house. Basically she's not looking for anything spiritual, she just doesn't want to be around her dad. And she's there.
Speaker 2:And the way she tells her testimony is beautiful because she says first I resisted the stories, then I started listening to them and then I fell in love with them. So these stories that work through the Old Testament of who God is, what he's doing, what he's promising to send, and then finally Jesus actually arriving and she just falls totally in love with Jesus. And she's a little girl she's probably like 16 years old when I first meet her, when we're going through these stories, and I used to have to drive because the bus lines would stop running at a certain time in the evening and so you know, if we went too late it was like, you know, everybody's got to get a ride home, so they'd all pile into my little station wagon. I'm like dropping them off. You know that was all the people that were trying to get to the Bible study and I remember her very distinctly because she would always ask to be dropped off at least two blocks away from her house, that she did not want her dad to know she was going to this. And so you know, I'm dropping her off a couple blocks and she walks and sneaks in and pretends she's just been out doing you know whatever. I don't know what story she told her dad, um, but when, when jesus, she finally hears the story of jesus's death, burial and resurrection, she comes to know the lord and she's just full of joy and she goes back and she tells her parents hey, I'm going to be baptized as a christian. And this is just instant.
Speaker 2:You know, excommunication from any chun function, right like the chun people are like very proud of the fact that we have never been dominated by any of these empires that you know have come over and oppressed us. We, we stand strong in our resistance. And for you to join our enemies that's that's what they're perceiving, this resistance. And for you to join our enemies that's what they're perceiving this, as you know. For you to say that you're going to go join the God of those people that oppressed us, like how could you do that? It's part of our ethnic identity is that we are opposed to Christianity.
Speaker 2:And so her dad immediately tells her she has to leave the house. It's one in the morning and it's minus 30 degrees outside, you know, and it's like get out, leave the house. It's one in the morning and it's minus 30 degrees outside, you know, and it's like get out of my house. You're not my daughter anymore, I don't want to speak to you.
Speaker 2:So she gets out, she calls one of the other believers, you know, they take her in and she's living with them for a few months, and a few months later we were actually back in the US, they had a baptism service, and so she was one of the people that was baptized, and so I asked one of the elders of the church. I said, what was it like baptizing Lena? Because it must've been kind of bittersweet for her, because baptism is the moment where you're making a public profession of faith. There's no more going back on this. I can't pretend that. I just, you know, I was questioning and now I'm back in the fold. Now I've, I've publicly identified myself with Christ and her family will never speak to her again.
Speaker 2:You, her, nobody that she and people won't work with you. If you're a christian, like you're, you're probably cutting yourself off from a job, from your family. And I said it must have been kind of bittersweet for her in that moment, knowing all that she was giving up. And the elder guy guy says he looks at me, he goes jay, I've never seen anything like it before. She was like a bride on her wedding day. She was so infused with the joy of the lord because, despite all that she's giving up, she's found something greater. You know she's exchanging everything that she owns to go buy a field, but she knows in that field there's a treasure that far outshines everything.
Speaker 2:She gave up the body good reference. And I just think that that's that's the story of the chun people and the ministry there is that it's not that you, you know, the Lord has taken away their hardships and made it just so that everything worked out great and it's been super easy for the new believers, but it's been that they've seen a greater joy than everything they had to sacrifice and that they continue to do that and that just has been such an encouragement and inspiration for me in my own walk with Christ. Just to say, you know, what am I giving up? Okay, it's worth it. You know, christ is worth whatever I have to give up. It's not a question of you know. Oh, I don't know, I wanted to be more comfortable, or I wanted to have more money, or I wanted to have more stability in my life. It's like whatever I have to give up if I get Christ to the other side of it, it's totally worth it.
Speaker 4:JM reminded of Paul's words where he says having nothing, yet possessing everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a fantastic story. Prayers up for Lena for sure. Just beautiful man, would you pray for the listeners first in Russian and then translate for us in English on our way out?
Speaker 3:everywhere, lord, so that they understand that you are ready to help them when they are ready to serve you, and so that they see your glory in everything they do. Lord, I ask that you do all this in the name of your Son, lord Jesus, amen.
Speaker 2:And I just pray that my brothers and sisters would be able to understand that, wherever they are, that they can serve the Lord and that they can see His glory in how they serve Him.
Speaker 1:Amen, amen. Thanks for being with us, sean Jay, gsi Listeners, check them out and we'll be back with you soon. We've got a guest coming up. That is a significant part of what I would call the rising tide that lifts all boats. What their work does informs all of the mission's work around the world, so stay tuned, we've got some fun stuff coming. Thank you for listening to Unreached. Some fun stuff coming. 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, d group 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. You.
