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 ...