Go Beyond

The Sundarbans | Bay of Bengal | 21 July 2013

You will not necessarily find the ends of the earth marked on any map. However, you will find it located at the opposite end of the last command of Jesus to take the good news of the kingdom to all creation. The ends of the earth may indeed be in a remote location on the planet that looks like what you might expect the ends of the earth to look like. Or it may be in a bustling urban setting or located just across the street from where you live. Regardless of where it is, Jesus charged His followers to make the journey from where they are to where people are waiting to hear the news that through Christ sins can be forgiven and the kingdom of God is now available to all.

This morning, the guys on our team made the three-plus-hour journey from Kolkata to the eastern coast of the subcontinent where the Ganges River meets the Bay of Bengal. The distance we traveled was not long — the traffic just made the going slow and tedious. When we arrived we waited a few minutes for the boat that will be our taxi for the next couple of days. Two hours later we arrived at our destination and settled into our accommodations. The Sundarbans look more like what you might expect the ends of the earth to look like. Life is definitely hard for the people who call this place home.

This afternoon we had an enjoyable time with young children who came to hear our Bible stories. Our guys acted out and then explained three Bible stories from Luke 15 about things that were lost and then found. Doyle then shared his personal story of being found by Jesus. We followed up by doing a craft related to the story and had a great time with the kids. Our boys then played games with the younger children and engaged in a soccer match with a curious group of teenage boys that had watched and listened to the Bible stories from a distance.

Watching our guys take ownership of every aspect of our daily ministry initiatives is refreshing. They are doing a fantastic job of telling stories that are familiar to us but new for our listeners. And, they are taking the initiative to interact with anyone who will listen. After the soccer game they took the time to share with our new friends why we have come so far to visit them. Their home in the Sundarbans represents the ends of the earth for us, the place where Jesus commissioned us to go.

We pray that our time here will enable us to plant a mustard seed. As Jesus shared in the parables of the kingdom in Matthew 13, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it is grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches” (Matt. 13:31-32). While the kingdom of heaven often starts small in many places, it always has the potential to grow large. May that indeed be the case in the Sundarbans.

Thanks again for following our journey. Please pray for our guys and for Kay and our girls as they continue their work with the victims of human trafficking in Kolkata. Kay has posted updates at our Go Beyond Kolkata blog. And remember that you can see more photos and videos of our students in action on my Instagram account @omarcgarcia.

PS | Please visit our Go Beyond Tanzania blog for the latest on out team serving in the African bush.