TRIBES OF THE EARTH

A hot Sunday morning…I was around 15, sitting on the grassy meadow surrounded by Dani tribesmen, my people. We were worshiping—melodic phrases sung out by a duet of two leaders, then affirmed resoundingly by whole congregation.

There were 500-700 here in the lower Ilaga Valley. Dark skinned, grass skirted women wearing bright bead necklaces, some nursing babies. Older children sitting quietly, some teasing each other. The men sat a little apart from the women, modest with gourds, bold pig tusks and flowers adorning their head nets. Most faces were painted black, some had red stripes. They looked fierce, these Dani warriors. But having burned their fetishes and followed the Lord in baptism, they had also burned bows and arrows to prove peaceful intent. They were literally my spiritual brothers.

I loved them all. I was so rich!

But in only a few weeks I would fly back to boarding school in Dalat, Viet-Nam. These Sundays were precious…I would miss the Danis. Already I was becoming less fluent in the language from months of separation. Several of my Dani girlfriends were married, so mostly it was just Romaine my sister and me who took late afternoon walks to the rushing creek across the fields from our home.

Around 25 years later I again sat on a grassy hillock, surrounded by Danis. I was long married, and Larry and I and our youngest son Jared were visiting Mom and Dad. We were flying back to the States from the Youth with a Mission base we had helped to establish in Penang, Malaysia.

We were only in the Ilaga Valley for a week, and it so happened that while we were there we attended the funeral of a Christian Dani man. We sat quietly among the groups of mourners, observing the core family standing apart, grieving aloud with friends. We had already expressed sympathy-- albeit poorly--since I had never learned to mourn loudly like the Dani's!

The body was being burnt on a funeral pyre—it was mostly consumed. I was somewhat culture shocked, but so grateful that this tribe -my Dani people -had turned to the Lord by the hundreds, even thousands, in the early 1960’s. This man’s body was dead, but his spirit was in Heaven. And the 25 churches throughout the valley were strong, mostly thriving. I was deeply thankful for my parents’ 30 years of ministry among these Western Dani's.

My son Nick recently gave me a booklet called Pray for the 31 - a prayer guide that highlights the world’s 31 largest unreached people groups.

Together these 31 groups have a total population of almost one billion, and less than 1/10th of 1% of them are Christian…they have no church planting movements. Less than 3% of all missionaries are sent to these groups, and less than 1% of all missions funding target these groups!*

I can hardly absorb this truth—that nearly a billion have not heard the truth of salvation in Jesus Christ in 2018. How have Christians through the ages missed reaching these large tribes? Each group in the booklet has a picture and statistics to help us pray daily, covering them all in one month.

Most nights Larry and I sit by the fire and intercede for one of these people groups. If you would like a copy of this prayer guide, visit GO31.ORG to order. You could even give them out for Christmas!