Why we do this

Our entire purpose in coming literally to the other side of the world was to concentrate on finding some of the 700,000 Lingao people here of whichever than 1% know Christ.

We went back to Duowen and quickly found ourselves in trouble as we sort of stumbled upon a military base. Soldiers came running out and we 5 Americans just froze. One soldier told us we needed to turn around in no uncertain terms and a police cruiser followed us back down the mountain into town. From here it seemed like one dead end after another.

We decided to catch the bus and go back to a town we had struck out in earlier in the week as far as finding Lingao. We got there and brought some fruit for lunch (good thing I had a Clif bar for breakfast). We sat down in the street to eat our fruit and a Chinese man came up and gave us 3 cigarettes and tossed some money on the ground (he must have thought we were poor and homeless). After our fruit lunch we headed off into the country side.

We had walked a few miles and were a bit discouraged. The sun was beating down on us and we were hungry, tired, and hot. We pushed on a bit further and left the road to travel on a dirt path about 3 feet wide. We'd been in the path for about 3/4 mile when we heard many voices.

We can upon a house were one large extended family of about 15 Lingao people were just finishing lunch. They invited us in for tea and fed us MORE FRUIT! They were so sweet and friendly and would have given us the shirts off their back.

Katie, Whitney's friend and our translator asked and she was told they'd lived there 50+ years and no Westerner had eer been to their home. She asked if the knew any Buddhist stories and they said no. She then asked for permission to tell one of our stories. The patriarch shushed the family and Katie took off. She told them Ll about Christ. The patriarch said he had never heard that story and that a great peace came over him as she told the story.

We were able to give them a bible in the Lingao tongue as well as a Jesus film in their language. By the time we'd left a family member had already watched part of the movie. Michael prayed a blessing over their house and asked that all of them would come to faith in Christ. Pray that this patriarch accepts Christ because if he does his family of 15 likely will too.

No one had ever told them the story! Hard for us to comprehend with churches on every corner. But if we hasn't come who would have? How many more of this family would have died without ever hearing the story? This was not a "convenient time" to come for many of us and it was certainly expensive in the monetary cost, the vacation time used, the appointments missed, etc... But if not us WHO? If not now WHEN? How many more Lingao must die eternally lost before we take His commission seriously to go to the ends of the earth? That my friends is WHY WE DO THIS! See you soon ...

Challenge to leaders... Challenge to all

Today I composed an email and sent it to our ministry team as well as several in leadership positions and below are those basic thoughts. Today we went to a village / town called Duowen. As we rode we past some small villages on the bus and even in the larger town of Duowen I kept being impressed by thoughts or shall I say questions that I couldn't escape.

As we passed several of the villages and then walked literally all day among the townspeople, many of which had never seen a "westerner" in real life much less one that took the time to walk their streets, speak to their children, eat the things they eat, and smile as so many took our pictures from cell phones, pointed, and generally smiled back. The first question I could not escape is "If a person is born there, raised there, stays there, and dies there what chance do they have of hearing the gospel?" If the Word of God is true (and we all would agree that it is) that means Jesus really IS the ONLY way to the Father. Then these faces I looked at and eyes I looked into ... Most of them are hopelessly lost. Have you ever had the experience of driving down the road and you thought you knew where you were and where you were going only to find out that you had been headed in the wrong direction? You were lost and you didn't even know you were lost. Things passed you by and you continued on your way only to find that you'd been headed the wrong way ... and maybe you even found out "too late" ... Maybe you missed an appointment or something. The people here are lost and life is passing them by and they are headed in the direction. They think their life is taking them along only to one day reach the end and realize they have been hopelessly lost, didn't know it, but many of them will find that out too late.

That leads me to the second question and here's where it got pretty personal for me. As we rode back from Duowen today I was listening to music on my new iPhone 5 (I know eat your heart out) and had randomly chosen one of my Christian playlists of various artists. The song "Legacy" by Nicole Nordeman came on. I had already been wrestling with the thought what am I doing with my life. Is life about living from the first to the fifteenth and from the fifteenth to the end of the month? Is it simply about hoping you have more money than you do month? Is there more than just praying the sermon is both finished by the time the next worship service begins and that its at least as good as the sermon the week before? Does it consist simply of the pursuit of earthly desires and the "noble" desire to provide for your children better than you had it at their age? I wrestled with the idea of legacy ... The thought of what kind of "spiritual footprint" am I leaving. It's great to pastor a growing church and receive accolades in the association and convention for a "job well done". It's wonderful to be a successful money manager, hospital executive, retired teacher, bank executive, counselor, insurance agent, church staff member, or successful mother or father to your children... All of these are good, even great things to desire to be and achieve but is that all there is? What kind of legacy are you and I leaving spiritually? I'd encourage you to YouTube the song and listen to it but I want to include the lyrics here for you:

"I don't mind if you've got something nice to say about me and I enjoy an accolade like the rest. You could take my picture and hang it in a gallery of all who's who and so-n-so's that used to be the best at such'n'such ... it wouldn't matter much.
"I won't lie, it feels alright to see your name in lights. We all need an 'Atta boy' or 'Atta girl' but in the end I'd like to hang my hat on more besides the temporary trappings of this world.

"I want to leave a legacy. How will they remember me? Did I choose to love? Did I point to You enough to make a mark on things? I want to leave an offering a child of mercy and grace who
blessed your name unapologetically ... and leave that kind of legacy.

"I don't have to look too far or too long awhile to make a lengthly list of all that I enjoy. It's in accumulating trinket and a treasure pile where moth and rust, thieves and such will soon enough destroy.

"Not well traveled, not well read, not well-to-do or well bred ... Just want to hear instead, 'Well Done' good and faithful one..."

What about you? What legacy are you leaving? Please .. PLEASE do not read this and think I'm saying that any of you are not leaving a rich spiritual legacy... In my estimation probably many of you ARE... But Nicole's words ... "How will they remember me? Did I choose to love? Did I point to You enough to make a mark on things? I want to leave an offering a child of mercy and grace who
blessed your name unapologetically ... and leave that kind of legacy."

Did I point to You enough? Wow ... Did I? Did you? Am I? Are you? Time is short and the clock of life is wound but once. We only get one crack at this! But you know if you woke up and are reading this that means its still not too late. The Lord has given you a beautiful blank canvas called "today" and when you reach the end of the day and look back on what once was a blank canvas of a day filled with hope, time, promise... My prayer for you is to be able to say I did my best today to leave a legacy.

Know that I love each of you and have a unique relationship with each of you I'm sending this to. Each of you are spiritual leaders in the church and are looked up to by so many. Lets live in such a way that if those following after us were to examine closely what decisions drove our life, what creeds we lived by, that they would know as Nicole says that we were children of mercy and grace and blessed His name unapologetically. Lets live in such a way that those we touch, that we interact with daily be it on a mission trip, across the office, or in our neighborhood would know the love of God simply because it had been extended to them by the life we lived before them; by the mercy and grace we showed them.

Bro T