Go Beyond

Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo | 19 October 2015



Jesus shared a profound truth about the purpose of His incarnation while visiting in the home of Zacchaeus, a despised tax collector — “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10). Concern for the welfare of those who were separated from God compelled Jesus to empty Himself, take on the form of a servant, and leave the indescribable beauty of His home in order to enter into the dark realities of our homes (Phil. 2:7).

Before He ascended into heaven, Jesus charged His followers to take His message to all peoples, regardless of any hardships or difficulties associated with doing so. His plan was simple. His kingdom would grow at the speed of one transformed life touching another, like a small amount of leaven worked into a large amount of flour (Matthew 13:33).

The last command of Christ has not been repealed — it is still in effect. There are still thousands of people groups waiting to hear the good news about Jesus. Many of these peoples live in places that are difficult to reach, even in our day of high-speed everything. The hard reality is that many people have yet to hear the gospel because they happened to be born in tough geographical contexts.

Early this morning, a team of men from Kingsland and I ventured to one of the more difficult geographical contexts on the planet — a village on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Moving in the direction of the Taabwa tribe in this region was far from easy. Two-plus days of non-stop travel took us as far as the shores on the Tanzanian side of the vast lake that separates Tanzania from the DRC.

Once we reached our launching point, we slept for a few hours before loading our gear onto an old wooden boat. The twenty-plus mile journey across the narrowest part of the lake was hard. Five-foot waves tossed our boat and our stomachs for the four hours it took us to cross the lake. Along the way we stopped to clear immigration and waited an additional four hours for permission to continue our journey into the DRC.

Our final two-hour push took us along the shores of the now-calm lake where we could see the villages at the foot of the mountains along to shoreline — villages that can only reached by boat, adding yet one more layer of difficulty in reaching these people with the gospel. When we made the final turn to the village we had come so far to visit, we were greeted with great excitement. Very few, literally count-them-on-one-hand, foreigners have visited these villages.

After meeting the village leaders and receiving permission to camp among them, we headed back to the boat to off-load our gear. Surrounded by a crowd, I drew a map of the world in the sand and illustrated the distance we had travelled to come to their village. And then I asked if any of them had heard of Jesus. Not a single person said yes.

We journeyed far to share the good news with the people of this remote village — and we did so in obedience to the last command of Jesus. As I looked at all of the faces in the crowd I thought about something else — the danger of being lost with no one looking for you. I was glad that we had come so far to visit the people who live in this very remote place. After all, that is exactly what Jesus would want us to do, regardless of the difficulties.