BEIJING (BP)–Christian workers in China are forging new pathways into communities and people groups that have never before heard of the loving Savior. Young, healthy prayer walkers from Tennessee recently entered a remote village in China that had not had contact with the outside world for more than 50 years.
The team had already prayer walked several other villages when they decided to brave the bus ride required to enter the mountainous village that was elevated 2000 meters up from the main road. Traveling on a road so rugged that it was almost impassable, the group arrived at their destination late in the afternoon. They soon discovered that there wasn’t a place large enough to pitch their tent. But since it was too late to turn back, they began to work on an alternate plan.
Soon they secured permission to sleep at a small government operated health clinic. There, amidst the soiled linens and rickety beds, they dropped their backpacks. An official arrived shortly thereafter to tell them that they were not to leave the clinic without supervision. They were then subjected to several hours of questioning, after which they were escorted to a village restaurant where they were closely supervised throughout supper.
It was during the supper that one of the village elders asked them, “Are you part of that other group?” The team leader who was able to communicate in Chinese said, “What other group?” The elder explained that he was referring to the “group” that had crashed their plane there more than 50 years earlier. He went on to explain that although they refused to allow the foreigners to salvage the airplane, they had let them depart the community unharmed.
“Reality hit my volunteer team,” reported the long-term Christian worker.
“They realized that they had never been into such a remote area of the world — a place that had not had outside visitors in five decades, and then only because of a plane crash.”
Early the next morning, the group was escorted to the lone bus that connected the village with the main road. But they left many gospel tapes and copies of the “Jesus Film” behind. He reflected on the brief village sojourn, “We prayed over the area as best we could under ‘clinic arrest’.”
Only the Lord knows what impact that prayer, and the materials will make in the life of the village.”
The unreached people group worker went on to say, “You can find this village at the crossroads of your prayer map. It is located at the edge of where lostness remains and where I am called to serve.”
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