Something To Think About Change, 7/15

From 1968-1971 I was a student at Appalachian Bible Institute.  While there I was a part of what we called "Prayer Bands."  P. B. were gatherings of students who met for the purpose of praying for missionary efforts around the world.  I was involved in group that prayed for the work of the Lord on the Island of New Guinea.  Today the Island is divided in half.  The Western half is part of Indonesia and is known as Papua.  The Eastern half is the independent nation of Papua New Guinea.    The region is incredibly rugged.  Though essentially on the equator it has mountains high enough that they are perpetually covered in snow.  The peaks and valleys have kept people isolated for centuries.  Hundreds of different tribes with hundreds of different languages populate the landscape. Some of the missionaries for whom we prayed in P. B. were the 20th Century equivalent of David Livingston.  The story of one of those pioneers is memorialized in the movie Peace Child.  I never met Richardson, but I did know another missionary who hiked into the rugged country carrying the Good News.  In fact before I came to Covington VA, the Covington Bible Church took an offering to purchase hiking boots for Austin Lockhart.  He was the first white man that many of the villagers he met had ever seen.  Two names that came up in our discussions about the needs and dangers there, were Stan Dale and Phil Masters.  The two were killed taking the word of Christ to the region. Last month it was my privilege, to meet some enthusiastic followers of Christ from Papua.  A couple of them speak English, so I was able to talk to them.  It was an awesome experience. I'll tell you more tomorrow, but here is a group of people who have gone from killing missionaries to being missionaries within my lifetime.  It is a radical transformation.  It's the kind of thing God specializes in.  I once heard a definition of a missionary.  "A missionary is someone who goes to a place where people don't want him to come, and stays until they don't want him to leave." Stay tuned. It's Something to Think About.   To find out more about CBC at our website. God's Story in His Own Words. a message composed of nothing but Scripture that presents the flow of Divine Revelation from "In the beginning," to the final "Amen." You can find the Good News that changed these people's lives here.