November 27, 2024 • 32 mins
Ever wondered how a simple shoebox can transform lives and open doors to new faith communities across the globe? Join us as Clint and Amber Hudson share the powerful story of Operation Christmas Child's mission to reach the unreached. In this episode, you'll hear from special guest David Thompson, who explains how these humble gifts serve as keys to unlocking gospel outreach in remote places, sparking a chain reaction of hope and church planting. Through the lens of the Barra people group, witness firsthand the enthusiasm and profound change brought by these efforts, highlighting the importance of faith and compassion in underserved regions.
Travel with us to the heart of Namibia, where Pastor Razira's remarkable mission among the Himba people unfolds. Supported by Operation Christmas Child, Pastor Razira distributes solar-powered audio Bibles, bridging the gap with this storytelling culture. Despite challenges, see how his dedication and relationship-building transform this community, leading to the creation of the first church meeting under a symbolic tree. This narrative beautifully captures the spirit of connection and change, showing how faith can flourish even in the most remote corners of the world.
As we wrap up, be inspired by a touching story from a mission trip with Samaritan's Purse that exemplifies the power of generosity. A young girl's decision to share a rare treat—a giant lollipop—with her friends serves as a poignant metaphor for giving and community spirit. We invite you to consider your own role in God's mission, especially during the holiday season, and to explore ways to support meaningful causes. Reflect on your journey of faith and stay connected with us for future stories of transformation and hope.
Follow @unreachedpodcast on Instagram for more!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
In Revelation 7, john shares his vision of heaven,
with members from every tribe,tongue, people and language
standing in the throne roombefore the Lamb.
Yet today there are still over7,000 unreached people groups
around the world.
For the last six years, myfamily and friends have been on
a journey to find, vet and fundthe task remaining.
(00:28):
Come journey with us to theends of the earth as we share
the supernatural stories of Godat work for the men and women he
has called to reach theunreached.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Hey friends, welcome to a new episode, a special
episode of the Unreached podcast.
I'm Clint Hudson, your host forthis episode, and I'm joined by
someone on our team here atUnreached who you guys have not
had an opportunity to hear fromon the pod yet, and that is
Amber Hudson.
Amber is in charge of not onlyour social media but also all of
(01:03):
our story curation.
Is in charge of not only oursocial media but also all of our
story curation.
We tell a ton of stories hereat Unreached and she is the one
who makes sure that all thestories get filed away the right
way and that we can rememberand also get updates about what
happens.
So Amber's joining usspecifically because around this
time last year, during theholiday season, during the
Advent season, we had a guest onthe podcast, actually for four
(01:26):
full episodes from OperationChristmas Child, and OCC came on
to tell some stories, not onlyfrom all over the world, but
also stories of how shoeboxesare packed, stories of how the
journey of a shoebox happens,from the commitment of a church
being able to pack a shoebox allthe way to going into the hands
(01:47):
of kids and even past that, howchurches have been planted
because of the access that'sbeen given.
So here's what we're going todo today.
Amber has brought with her somespecial stories today from
Operation Christmas Child.
A few of these stories aremaybe rewrapped gifts.
It's just a condensed versionof some of these stories that
you may have heard in the past,but some of these stories are
brand new.
(02:07):
Yeah, and we're really excitedfor you guys to journey with us,
along with Operation ChristmasChild, to the ends of the earth
Absolutely so.
In this episode we're headed toGabon.
We're headed to the Himba tribe, which is a nomadic tribe in
Africa.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Namibia.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Namibia.
Thank you for that.
I probably wouldn't have evenpronounced that right if I tried
to read it myself, but we'regoing to start off with this.
So David Thompson joined us onthe podcast last year and he did
a great job of explaining thepurpose of the shoebox and why
the shoebox is impactful.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Absolutely.
I think maybe sometimes there'sa misconception about OCC and
what they do, because on thesurface it looks like just
you're filling a shoebox withsimple toys, simple gifts, some
notebooks, some pencils, thatkind of thing, and they take it
around the world and you seephotos of children receiving the
gifts and that in and of itselfis great.
But what OCC does is so muchmore than that and he explains
(03:07):
this so well.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
So here we go.
Here's a clip from our friend,david Thompson talking about how
the shoebox is key to gettingaccess to these unreached people
groups.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
The shoebox is the key, it's the door opener into
the community.
It's enables those 87, somethousand churches around the
world to be able to go to placeswith intentionality, with
prayer.
They have a plan and then theygo and engage the community and
we're always encouraging them togo to the ones that don't have
access to the gospel or wherethe poorest of the poor are
(03:39):
truly to live out the GoodSamaritan parable right To find
those that are in the ditches oflife in need.
Take it to kids in orphanages,take it to kids in hospitals,
often at the ends of the earth.
Then leverage that into thegreatest journey.
The greatest journey is ourdiscipleship program.
It's a 12-course, 12-lessonplan, often done over three
(04:01):
months, sometimes done in a moreconcentrated form.
This past year we had over fourand a half million this year
coming up.
We're praying for five millionand we really believe that the
Lord's going to do that.
You think about five millionkids being in a discipleship
program and they're praying forup to nine kids.
You're talking 45 million kidspotentially.
(04:23):
You know up to nine kids.
You're talking 45 million kidspotentially that there's going
to be this cascading rippleeffect that happens from every
time someone comes alongside ofus and resources us with that
gift box.
And then also the greatestjourney.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
So what I love about OCC is that they don't just go
into these remote places andsimply present the gifts and say
, here you go or meet somephysical needs and then leave.
But the discipleship piece isso critical and so important
that these children arepresented with the gospel
(04:55):
message and then they are walkedthrough a 12-week, what they
call the greatest journey.
That walks them through whatJesus has done for them and what
living Christ-like life lookslike.
And so then those kids havethat foundation of faith.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah, and so I think it's important for everyone to
just maybe remember in thisspace that these shoeboxers are
not just going across the streetin the US.
These shoeboxers are actuallygoing to peoples and places that
have never even heard of Jesusand do not have scriptures in
their own language, and so thisdiscipleship journey that they
(05:36):
get an opportunity to walkthrough this is the first time
that they've ever heard whatdiscipleship is this first time
they've ever heard the name ofJesus.
They don't have scriptures intheir own language, so they
don't know.
The end of the story, and oneof the cool stories that I
remember from this episode thatwe did last year, not only with
David Thompson, but with JoelHayslip, is Joel talked about
(05:58):
the Barra people group and theexcitement that they had when
the gospel was presented to themfor the very first time, so I
want you guys to check that outnow.
Speaker 6 (06:07):
Awesome.
You know, I think of aparticular people group called
the Bada, and this is a peopleout in Madagascar, and there was
a pastor there.
He had already planted a bunchof churches and you know, he's
kind of nearing the end, I wouldsay, of his ministry.
But God spoke to him and saidno, there's a community of 15
(06:28):
villages that have never heardthe gospel.
And God called them to those 15villages and he'd heard about
these villages because thesevillages were notorious.
It's a group of villages thatare full of bandits, so even the
government won't go there.
They have no schools, they haveno medical.
There was a time there was adrought and so the government
(06:49):
was supplying food for everybody.
They refused the food and ranthe government out.
They want nothing to do withthe government.
This pastor said okay, I'mwilling to go.
How am I going to get in there?
And he began to just try tobuild relationships and one day
he was able to meet with thechief and he said chief, what
can I do to bless these villages?
(07:10):
And the chief said listen, wedon't want anything, government,
but our kids need schools.
If you can start privateschools.
So he did.
He started his first school 20,30, 40 kids.
He was able to start two, threeschools, but what he quickly
learned is that he cannot saythe name Jesus and he can't talk
about prayer.
It was these trigger points andthis violent people reacted
(07:35):
very violently whenever that wasbrought up, and so he didn't
know what to do.
He heard about OperationChristmas Child and so he
started calling them up and hesaid listen, I've got these 15
villages, thousands of kids.
I don't know how to share thegospel, can you help me?
And we said, oh, my goodness,we've got to be a part of this.
And so we started working withthem, got them the training that
(07:58):
they needed.
He brought in his teachers fromhis school, so 10, 12 people
got trained on how to useOperation Christmas Child and we
were able to send 2,500Operation Christmas Child
shoeboxes up to those 15villages.
So Pastor Soja took 2,500shoeboxes and we've got a
(08:18):
picture of him in the firstvillage several hundred kids.
He's holding up our gospelposters and he's smiling ear to
ear as he shares the gospel forthe very first time with this
people that he loves so dearly.
And he was able to go villageto village and he said in that
first village his team camearound and said don't say Jesus.
(08:41):
He said, no, no, this is mytime.
I've been waiting for thisopportunity.
And he said, over 75% of thatvillage raised their hands after
the gospel presentation and hewas in amazement.
They went to nine of the 15villages that year to share the
gospel and right now they're inthe middle of doing the greatest
journey discipleship with thosekids.
(09:03):
Another story that Baca andGabon.
I'm just thinking of this.
There's these villages out inthe middle of the jungle, again
never heard the gospel, nobodyhad taken the time to go out
there.
And this pastor had the passionto go out there.
They went out.
Same kind of story.
The shoeboxes just opened thedoor to this village, but what
(09:24):
was amazing was they wereexpecting 130, 150 kids.
Well, 150 kids came, and thenabout 400 adults, and they all
sat there and just listenedintently to the gospel message
and when they were done, so manyof them raised their hand.
I wonder how we would want moreof this.
And so the team was ready toleave and said hey, we've got
(09:45):
more, we're going to start thegreatest journey next week.
Come back, the typical thing.
And the village says no, youcan't leave, you stay right
there, you got to keep going.
And they made them go throughthe first lesson.
And when they were done thefirst lesson, hey, thanks
everybody.
And the whole village was stillsitting there.
I said, okay, we'll come backnext week.
No, no, you can't leave, keepgoing.
(10:07):
And they had to spend the wholeweekend in that village sharing
the greatest journey lessonsand what was beautiful is is
when you share the gospel at thechild's level.
The child understands, the momunderstands, the dad understands
, the grandma, who never went toschool, sits there and
(10:27):
understands.
And they come back and they sayyou know, even if they'd heard
something, now we understand.
We want to follow this, jesusChrist.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
I think one of the things that's impacted me the
most, as I've been able toproduce this podcast over the
last two years, is theunderstanding that I now have
that has corrected an inaccuratethought that I came in with.
I came in with an inaccuratethought that people groups were
unreached because they werecombative to the gospel.
(11:00):
They were unreached becausethey didn't want to have
anything to do with the gospel,and just what Joel said in his
comment just now in that clip itactually painted a picture of
two drastically different peoplegroups Now.
The first one in Madagascar.
They were combative to thegospel and to the government and
to any kind of outside helpwhatsoever, but Operation
(11:22):
Christmas Child helped open thatdoor, which is amazing.
But in the second one, in Gabon,it was such an incredible story
of there was a deep desire,there was a need, there was a
hunger.
There was a hunger that's agreat way to say.
They were so hungry as soon asthey got the boxes and that
opened the door.
But when they started tocommunicate the gospel, it was
like wait, we've been waitingfor this, we want this.
(11:44):
There's just hunger for this,and I think that's one of the
things that I've come tounderstand more of, as I've
heard so many impactful storieshere on the Unreached podcast
and specifically, I think now Iknow how to pray for different
people groups.
Some people groups you have topray for softened hearts, but
(12:05):
there are some people groupswhere you just have to pray that
somebody gets the access.
If they can get to them and openup the word and start
communicating the hope of thegospel.
They're just so hungry andthey're so ready for it.
So we have another clip that'sactually really similar to that,
but this one isn't from theperspective of our friends David
and Joel.
This is actually from a pastoron the ground.
(12:26):
His name is Pastor Razira andhe is from Namibia in Africa,
and this is his perspective ofthis entire process that we've
talked about so far.
So not only is he talking aboutthe help and the aid and the
access that Operation ChristmasChild helped to provide for him
and his church building movement, but he also talks about what
(12:48):
happens as this process startsto unfold.
So I can't wait for you tolisten in on the conversation
that we had with Pastor Razier.
Check this out.
Speaker 5 (12:58):
We were very, very happy.
We have now something that wecan take to our community which
is going to make them very happyand also to make them to accept
us also, because when it comesto accepting, when it comes to
accepting in Himba villages,it's also difficult because they
(13:18):
really have to know you and youhave to be like with them and
you have to go through theirshifts and headmen for them to
accept you.
And that is what we did.
I remember the first outreach.
We packed those boxes in thetruck and we hit the roots as we
(13:39):
were, were going, praying, sothat wherever we are going to
meet the people, they willaccept us and they will accept
the gospel that we are going topresent to them.
And we went down the hills, downthe rivers and the mountains
and we came to one village, thefirst village we came to.
(14:00):
They saw us, they started towave on us, they started to
shout and we reached to theheadman's house for the first
time in the Hinda in our lifeand we greeted people.
The headman was very happy.
He was very, very happy to seeus.
We introduced what we came forand we thank God that he touched
(14:22):
the heart of the hitman and heallowed us to see the people and
to meet the children.
We went to a particular placewhere we are going to have our
outreach event for the first dayand children started to gather
to come to the place and it wasvery, very interesting because
in these villages you couldhardly see people coming because
(14:44):
it's not an open space, a lotof trees covering the area and
you have to see them under thetrees coming and you see the
dust that is rising there andpeople are coming, children and
women of the village and alsomen.
They arrived at the place.
We really we were very, veryencouraged that God has opened
(15:08):
this door for our church for thefirst time to reach out to
Himba village, and that was theexperience during that moment
was the experience during thatmoment, so I I remember hearing
this for the first time in hisdescription of the people coming
from the nearby villages withthe, the dust rising.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
You could see them coming and running, children
running and women running.
I mean, it's just that's justamazing.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
What, what a beautiful picture.
So pastor razier is talking,talking about an indigenous
people group that's in Namibia.
Specifically they're called theHimba, and the Himba they're a
nomadic tribe, so they don'treally have material possessions
, they don't have specific landwhere they live or even homes or
anything like that.
(15:53):
They have mud huts.
So to be able to reach thatgroup of people is already in
and of itself a difficult thing.
But he had built a relationalequity with the headman.
That's what he was talkingabout.
The headman.
He said that he had beenpraying for them and he had been
praying that god would open adoor.
But he said in that clip was socool that god softened their
(16:14):
hearts and he gave them, hegranted them, access to come in
and what's even more incredibleabout this culture is they're a
storytelling culture.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
They don't have anything written down.
And so what OCC did, partneringwith Pastor Rosira, they ended
up getting these audio deviceswith the Bible translated on
them.
Books of the Bible translatedon these audio devices that
would charge in the sun.
Bible translated on these audiodevices that would charge in
the sun.
And so, as they began to sharethe gospel, as these churches
(16:43):
began to grow, it was groups ofpeople sitting outside around
these devices listening toscripture.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
That's so cool.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Isn't that amazing.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Like, like to think that that right now, in this
exact moment, that there arepeople, a nomadic people group,
out in the desert sitting aroundan audio device listening to
the story of the gospel.
That is so cool, that's amazing.
Pastor Razira had theopportunity not only to be able
(17:15):
to bring the gospel and to havethose audio devices, but they
said to him we want you, we wantto do this all the time, we
want to have a place wherepeople can come and meet.
And so they actually offeredhim an opportunity to be able to
build a church.
This is a nomadic communitythat does not have buildings,
but it was important enough tothem to be able to build a
(17:36):
church.
So check out this clip where hetalks about.
They offered him a tree.
They're like here's a tree, youcan build a building over here,
this is where we're going tomeet.
Check this out.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
During that first outreach event, after we
finished the outreach, theelderly people of us and the
headman in the outreach theelderly people of us and the
headman in the village he calledme and said look, what you
didn't hear is for the firsttime here.
But now we want this to happenalways.
(18:08):
We want you to come and tell usabout God.
You were free to come.
We are going to give you aplace.
It was during that same time.
They showed us a tree where wecan, if we are coming that side,
so we can use that tree as achurch.
It's a class for teaching thechildren and that was a very
(18:31):
important thing to us becausethat was a long-awaited moment
that this will be the firstchurch among hinders with our
program, and we were veryexcited and we praised God for
that.
We thanked God for that and westarted to use this trade as we
were following up to teach thechildren and we get the children
(18:53):
through 12 lessons of theseprograms.
And now one thing that we needto understand is they were not
church in this village.
That is their first church.
They don't have any experienceof how a church is happening or
what is going to happen in thechurch.
While we are teaching thechildren the discipleship
program, parents were alsocoming in the church While we
(19:14):
are teaching the children thediscipleship program.
Parents were also coming to theclass and we didn't send them
away.
It was fine.
They were coming with theirchildren, they were listening
and we also allow them toparticipate with skin questions
and they ask questions.
And as they asked questions, ifwe come to a place where we
(19:35):
want to lead children to Christ,children also were led to
Christ.
They also raised their handsand accepted the Lord Jesus
Christ.
It was during these discipleshiplessons where parents accepted
the Lord Jesus Christ.
They came to understand theimportance of church, the
importance of prayer, and theystarted to give us their prayer
(19:55):
requests.
Then we have prayed with themfaithfully.
We started to hear good stories, good testimonies from the
parents who were sick, able toheal, and the parents who were
having some problems and theirproblems now were solved through
prayers.
And they started to believethat this is just because of
(20:16):
prayer, because they had been inthose problems and sicknesses a
long time.
But when church comes intotheir village, they started to
see difference.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
That's incredible the Himba people who would worship
their ancestors and pray totheir ancestors, and they were
still sick and still struggling.
And then the gospel is broughtin and they start praying to God
and he heals them, he answerstheir prayers.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
I think one of the things that's amazing that we've
seen over the course of thispodcast and Pastor Razira does
such a great job of this hedidn't set himself up as the
pastor or the main communicator.
He actually gave the gospel,presented the gospel and then
allowed the people that werealready established as leaders
to be indigenous leaders andcommunicators of the gospel in
(21:09):
this new church.
Now he did say that they wouldcome back.
So he would come back and hewould have other people that
worked with him come back to beable to teach the gospel.
So there's this great walkingalongside of this movement of
discipleship.
That happens, but because theyare learning scriptures together
, they're actually growing as acommunity, as a people group.
(21:30):
And so one thing that's so coolthis this is one of my favorite
stories of last year, becausewe've already heard, you know
the Himba people.
They are a nomadic people.
They had the gospel come inbecause of OCC.
They had a tree where theycould start meeting.
They ended up having a church.
So then what?
Then you think, okay, maybe thechurch is going to grow right
there.
Instead, all of the indigenousleaders decided that they were
(21:53):
going to go and take the gospelto other himba tribes around
namibia and beyond.
So check out this clip.
This is amazing pastors.
They are talking about thehimba people going to the ends
of the earth and how.
Speaker 5 (22:08):
How many himba pastors there are now, which is
so cool what we are reallytrying to teach the religious
new churches is to start nowgetting into the nearby villages
, to start a church to tell thestory about God, and that is
(22:28):
what we are encouraging them todo, so that they can see the
pictures of the gospel to go tothe end of the world.
And we had a training in 2022where we gathered like 32 Himba
pastors together so that we cancome and strategize how we are
(22:51):
going to reach all the villagesfor the gospel.
And it was during that meeting,our training, we gave them
opportunity to see what villagesdo they think they will go and
tell the story about God andstart another church, because we
don't want us now to go toevery village.
We want them to understand thatit is their responsibility to
(23:16):
take the gospel to their Himbapeople.
We came up with 94 villagesfrom the groups that we think
they would want to take thegospel to these 94 villages, and
that was the outcome of thistraining.
All these pastors have beentrained how to use the material,
(23:42):
the MP3 player, which issonar-powered to listen to the
stories and also to help otherpeople to listen to their
stories, to go to the newvillages, to help the new
villages to listen to theirstory about God, and that was
now the outcome we had.
That was very, very interestingand we thank God for that,
because it's only because of theHoly Spirit, because of prayers
(24:04):
, that things like that willhappen.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
It's so amazing.
That's Ephesians 4, justfleshed out right there.
And he gave the apostles, theprophets, the evangelists, the
shepherds and the teachers toequip the saints for the work of
the ministry, for building upthe body of Christ.
That's exactly what PastorAzira went in with.
The intention of doing is toequip the saints to now do the
(24:29):
work of the ministry.
So what started as a shoeboxgift and an open door and a head
man that was had their heartsoftened by god, has now become
an indigenous movement of thegospel and it's so incredible
that they were presented withthe gospel and they immediately
(24:50):
said this needs to be shared.
The great commission justclicked with them immediately.
This is not just for me, thisis not just for our village.
We need to share this.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
So, speaking of, needs to be shared.
I have my own personal storyfrom when I had the opportunity
to travel to Malawi in Africawith Operation Christmas Child.
So I got the opportunity to goand lead worship for a group of
leaders from the states whowanted to go and get a different
perspective, a little bit moreof a close-up look at the work
(25:22):
that God was doing in Africa.
And part of the journey was notonly leading worship and having
some prayer times and meetingall the indigenous leaders and
stuff, but we also took a bunchof shoeboxes with us being all
the indigenous leaders and stuff, but we also took a bunch of
shoe boxes with us.
We went to a village wherethere was this open air building
and the closer that we got tothe building we could see it off
(25:44):
in the distance, but the closerthat we got, the louder that we
could hear the singing.
So these kids are in there,they know what's about to come,
they know they're about to get agift and it's just like this
joyful, joyous singing at thetop of their lungs.
It's the most beautiful thingI've ever heard.
So we get out of the van, wetake all of these boxes, these
shoe boxes and these gifts, westart to unpack them.
(26:07):
They're all stacked up in thefront.
We get an opportunity tocommunicate the gospel.
I think I actually even playeda Phil Wickham song.
I think I played the song thisis amazing grace, and they don't
speak English, but like theywere dancing with me and going
crazy and that was like thecoolest thing ever.
So we're passing out.
We get to the point where we'repassing out the gifts and each
of the kids would come and theywould get one of the boxes and
(26:27):
they would open it up.
A lot of times the kid wouldwait until they, like their
little friend group, would openit up together.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
That's precious.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
So specifically, there was this one box.
I will never forget this.
You're not supposed to includefood or candy or anything in the
boxes, Correct?
So I already told my friends atOCC I'm telling this story.
It is what it is.
But if you're packing boxes,don't put food or candy in there
.
But this is what happened in myexperience.
So the kid opens up a box it'sa young girl, maybe around the
(26:56):
age of nine or 10.
And she opens up the box andthere's this giant lollipop, one
of those multiple colors.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
The big circular ones .
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Yeah, the big circular ones that have all the
different colors, like you'dfind at a general store or
something like that.
This huge lollipop and likeshe's never seen one of these in
her entire life.
There's no, no, no chance.
Yeah, let alone maybe a suckeror a candy of any kind, but
definitely not one like this big.
So I mean, her eyes are justhuge.
I bet there's like this likemoment of everybody else that's
(27:27):
around when they see it.
So she takes this lollipop andshe's showing it to her friends,
and then she gets it and sheslams it on the ground, on the
floor and breaks it into 20 or30 pieces and she starts handing
it out to her friends, becausethey had never been able to see
(27:51):
one of these before.
This is the only chance theywould ever be able to get a
sucker like this.
So, instead of keeping it forherself, she broke it into
pieces and she handed it out.
And so I'm thinking about, likethe Hema people, and I'm
thinking about the proclamationof the gospel in Ephesians 4 and
all these different things thatwe're talking about today.
The gospel is something that isso beautiful and so
(28:11):
transformative, but it'ssomething to be shared.
It's something to be shared.
It's something that is to beshared, and so how, how
beautiful of a picture that thislittle girl got, something that
was so good, just like the goodnews, got something that was so
good, and, instead of keepingit to her, so she broke it up
and she passed it out so thateverybody can taste and see how
(28:34):
good it was.
It's beautiful, and so I'llnever forget that story.
It was so impactful, and I'm sothankful to Operation Christmas
Child and Samaritan's Purse forgiving me an opportunity to go
and serve on this trip so that Icould get these images in my
mind, on this side of eternity,of what it's like to actually
proclaim the gospel and to sharethe gospel with people.
(28:55):
And so, guys, you've heard meand Dustin both say on this
podcast so many times like howcould you not want to give your
life to something like this?
And so my encouragement to youtoday is just simple During this
holiday season, during thisChristmas season, after you hear
this episode, look foropportunities to be able to give
your life away.
Look for opportunities to beable to partner with mission
(29:16):
organizations that we'vefeatured here on this podcast.
There are so many ways that youcan get involved in.
As Dustin says, get in the game.
There's no excuse and there'sabsolutely nothing nothing that
you can give your life to.
That's as impactful and asvaluable as the proclamation and
(29:36):
the sharing of the gospel.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
So, amber, thanks so much for bringing some stories
to us today.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Thanks, for having me .
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Yeah, what a privilege to be able to tell
some stories from our friends atOperation Christmas Child.
We're going to do this one moretime, so we have another one in
two weeks for you, anotherepisode where we're going to
share some more incrediblestories from our friends at OCC.
You do not want to miss this.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Absolutely.
Do not miss it.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Yeah, we got some awesome stories to share and
also a brand new story thatnobody's ever heard before that
we cannot wait to share with youguys.
Amber, would you mind prayingfor us on the way out?
Speaker 3 (30:05):
Absolutely, god.
What a big God you are.
I pray that, as we take thesestories in, take them to heart,
god, that you would just openour eyes to how much you love
everyone on this planet, thatyou sent your son Jesus that
none should perish.
God so loved the world that hegave his only son that whoever
(30:29):
believed in him would not perishbut would have everlasting life
.
And I thank you so much forpeople like Pastor Razira who go
into these villages, speak thename of Jesus, so that these
people can now experience lifewith you on this side of
eternity as well as the rest ofeternity.
God, we're so grateful.
Lord, we pray that you wouldopen our hearts and open our
(30:52):
eyes to opportunities to sharethe gift that we've been given
what a beautiful gift that wedid not earn of our salvation.
And there is a world out therethat is lost and hurt and dying
and desperate, and so I praythat you would prick our hearts.
God, show us thoseopportunities to break our
(31:15):
sucker and hand it out.
We thank you for Jesus, amen.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Thank you for listening to Unreached.
Our sincere desire is that whatyou've heard today will cause
you to see the mission of Goddifferently and your role in it
more clearly.
If this adds value for you andwe hope it does would you please
rate and review the podcastwherever you listen.
Also, share with your family,your friends, your church, your
life group, small group, dgroup,wherever you do life, and if
(31:45):
you want to connect with us,find us on Instagram at
unreachedpodcast, or email us atunreachedpodcast at gmailcom.
In Revelation 7, john shares his vision of heaven,
with members from every tribe,tongue, people and language
standing in the throne roombefore the Lamb.
Yet today there are still over7,000 unreached people groups
around the world.
For the last six years, myfamily and friends have been on
a journey to find, vet and fundthe task remaining.
(00:28):
Come journey with us to theends of the earth as we share
the supernatural stories of Godat work for the men and women he
has called to reach theunreached.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Hey friends, welcome to a new episode, a special
episode of the Unreached podcast.
I'm Clint Hudson, your host forthis episode, and I'm joined by
someone on our team here atUnreached who you guys have not
had an opportunity to hear fromon the pod yet, and that is
Amber Hudson.
Amber is in charge of not onlyour social media but also all of
(01:03):
our story curation.
Is in charge of not only oursocial media but also all of our
story curation.
We tell a ton of stories hereat Unreached and she is the one
who makes sure that all thestories get filed away the right
way and that we can rememberand also get updates about what
happens.
So Amber's joining usspecifically because around this
time last year, during theholiday season, during the
Advent season, we had a guest onthe podcast, actually for four
(01:26):
full episodes from OperationChristmas Child, and OCC came on
to tell some stories, not onlyfrom all over the world, but
also stories of how shoeboxesare packed, stories of how the
journey of a shoebox happens,from the commitment of a church
being able to pack a shoebox allthe way to going into the hands
(01:47):
of kids and even past that, howchurches have been planted
because of the access that'sbeen given.
So here's what we're going todo today.
Amber has brought with her somespecial stories today from
Operation Christmas Child.
A few of these stories aremaybe rewrapped gifts.
It's just a condensed versionof some of these stories that
you may have heard in the past,but some of these stories are
brand new.
(02:07):
Yeah, and we're really excitedfor you guys to journey with us,
along with Operation ChristmasChild, to the ends of the earth
Absolutely so.
In this episode we're headed toGabon.
We're headed to the Himba tribe, which is a nomadic tribe in
Africa.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Namibia.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Namibia.
Thank you for that.
I probably wouldn't have evenpronounced that right if I tried
to read it myself, but we'regoing to start off with this.
So David Thompson joined us onthe podcast last year and he did
a great job of explaining thepurpose of the shoebox and why
the shoebox is impactful.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Absolutely.
I think maybe sometimes there'sa misconception about OCC and
what they do, because on thesurface it looks like just
you're filling a shoebox withsimple toys, simple gifts, some
notebooks, some pencils, thatkind of thing, and they take it
around the world and you seephotos of children receiving the
gifts and that in and of itselfis great.
But what OCC does is so muchmore than that and he explains
(03:07):
this so well.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
So here we go.
Here's a clip from our friend,david Thompson talking about how
the shoebox is key to gettingaccess to these unreached people
groups.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
The shoebox is the key, it's the door opener into
the community.
It's enables those 87, somethousand churches around the
world to be able to go to placeswith intentionality, with
prayer.
They have a plan and then theygo and engage the community and
we're always encouraging them togo to the ones that don't have
access to the gospel or wherethe poorest of the poor are
(03:39):
truly to live out the GoodSamaritan parable right To find
those that are in the ditches oflife in need.
Take it to kids in orphanages,take it to kids in hospitals,
often at the ends of the earth.
Then leverage that into thegreatest journey.
The greatest journey is ourdiscipleship program.
It's a 12-course, 12-lessonplan, often done over three
(04:01):
months, sometimes done in a moreconcentrated form.
This past year we had over fourand a half million this year
coming up.
We're praying for five millionand we really believe that the
Lord's going to do that.
You think about five millionkids being in a discipleship
program and they're praying forup to nine kids.
You're talking 45 million kidspotentially.
(04:23):
You know up to nine kids.
You're talking 45 million kidspotentially that there's going
to be this cascading rippleeffect that happens from every
time someone comes alongside ofus and resources us with that
gift box.
And then also the greatestjourney.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
So what I love about OCC is that they don't just go
into these remote places andsimply present the gifts and say
, here you go or meet somephysical needs and then leave.
But the discipleship piece isso critical and so important
that these children arepresented with the gospel
(04:55):
message and then they are walkedthrough a 12-week, what they
call the greatest journey.
That walks them through whatJesus has done for them and what
living Christ-like life lookslike.
And so then those kids havethat foundation of faith.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah, and so I think it's important for everyone to
just maybe remember in thisspace that these shoeboxers are
not just going across the streetin the US.
These shoeboxers are actuallygoing to peoples and places that
have never even heard of Jesusand do not have scriptures in
their own language, and so thisdiscipleship journey that they
(05:36):
get an opportunity to walkthrough this is the first time
that they've ever heard whatdiscipleship is this first time
they've ever heard the name ofJesus.
They don't have scriptures intheir own language, so they
don't know.
The end of the story, and oneof the cool stories that I
remember from this episode thatwe did last year, not only with
David Thompson, but with JoelHayslip, is Joel talked about
(05:58):
the Barra people group and theexcitement that they had when
the gospel was presented to themfor the very first time, so I
want you guys to check that outnow.
Speaker 6 (06:07):
Awesome.
You know, I think of aparticular people group called
the Bada, and this is a peopleout in Madagascar, and there was
a pastor there.
He had already planted a bunchof churches and you know, he's
kind of nearing the end, I wouldsay, of his ministry.
But God spoke to him and saidno, there's a community of 15
(06:28):
villages that have never heardthe gospel.
And God called them to those 15villages and he'd heard about
these villages because thesevillages were notorious.
It's a group of villages thatare full of bandits, so even the
government won't go there.
They have no schools, they haveno medical.
There was a time there was adrought and so the government
(06:49):
was supplying food for everybody.
They refused the food and ranthe government out.
They want nothing to do withthe government.
This pastor said okay, I'mwilling to go.
How am I going to get in there?
And he began to just try tobuild relationships and one day
he was able to meet with thechief and he said chief, what
can I do to bless these villages?
(07:10):
And the chief said listen, wedon't want anything, government,
but our kids need schools.
If you can start privateschools.
So he did.
He started his first school 20,30, 40 kids.
He was able to start two, threeschools, but what he quickly
learned is that he cannot saythe name Jesus and he can't talk
about prayer.
It was these trigger points andthis violent people reacted
(07:35):
very violently whenever that wasbrought up, and so he didn't
know what to do.
He heard about OperationChristmas Child and so he
started calling them up and hesaid listen, I've got these 15
villages, thousands of kids.
I don't know how to share thegospel, can you help me?
And we said, oh, my goodness,we've got to be a part of this.
And so we started working withthem, got them the training that
(07:58):
they needed.
He brought in his teachers fromhis school, so 10, 12 people
got trained on how to useOperation Christmas Child and we
were able to send 2,500Operation Christmas Child
shoeboxes up to those 15villages.
So Pastor Soja took 2,500shoeboxes and we've got a
(08:18):
picture of him in the firstvillage several hundred kids.
He's holding up our gospelposters and he's smiling ear to
ear as he shares the gospel forthe very first time with this
people that he loves so dearly.
And he was able to go villageto village and he said in that
first village his team camearound and said don't say Jesus.
(08:41):
He said, no, no, this is mytime.
I've been waiting for thisopportunity.
And he said, over 75% of thatvillage raised their hands after
the gospel presentation and hewas in amazement.
They went to nine of the 15villages that year to share the
gospel and right now they're inthe middle of doing the greatest
journey discipleship with thosekids.
(09:03):
Another story that Baca andGabon.
I'm just thinking of this.
There's these villages out inthe middle of the jungle, again
never heard the gospel, nobodyhad taken the time to go out
there.
And this pastor had the passionto go out there.
They went out.
Same kind of story.
The shoeboxes just opened thedoor to this village, but what
(09:24):
was amazing was they wereexpecting 130, 150 kids.
Well, 150 kids came, and thenabout 400 adults, and they all
sat there and just listenedintently to the gospel message
and when they were done, so manyof them raised their hand.
I wonder how we would want moreof this.
And so the team was ready toleave and said hey, we've got
(09:45):
more, we're going to start thegreatest journey next week.
Come back, the typical thing.
And the village says no, youcan't leave, you stay right
there, you got to keep going.
And they made them go throughthe first lesson.
And when they were done thefirst lesson, hey, thanks
everybody.
And the whole village was stillsitting there.
I said, okay, we'll come backnext week.
No, no, you can't leave, keepgoing.
(10:07):
And they had to spend the wholeweekend in that village sharing
the greatest journey lessonsand what was beautiful is is
when you share the gospel at thechild's level.
The child understands, the momunderstands, the dad understands
, the grandma, who never went toschool, sits there and
(10:27):
understands.
And they come back and they sayyou know, even if they'd heard
something, now we understand.
We want to follow this, jesusChrist.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
I think one of the things that's impacted me the
most, as I've been able toproduce this podcast over the
last two years, is theunderstanding that I now have
that has corrected an inaccuratethought that I came in with.
I came in with an inaccuratethought that people groups were
unreached because they werecombative to the gospel.
(11:00):
They were unreached becausethey didn't want to have
anything to do with the gospel,and just what Joel said in his
comment just now in that clip itactually painted a picture of
two drastically different peoplegroups Now.
The first one in Madagascar.
They were combative to thegospel and to the government and
to any kind of outside helpwhatsoever, but Operation
(11:22):
Christmas Child helped open thatdoor, which is amazing.
But in the second one, in Gabon,it was such an incredible story
of there was a deep desire,there was a need, there was a
hunger.
There was a hunger that's agreat way to say.
They were so hungry as soon asthey got the boxes and that
opened the door.
But when they started tocommunicate the gospel, it was
like wait, we've been waitingfor this, we want this.
(11:44):
There's just hunger for this,and I think that's one of the
things that I've come tounderstand more of, as I've
heard so many impactful storieshere on the Unreached podcast
and specifically, I think now Iknow how to pray for different
people groups.
Some people groups you have topray for softened hearts, but
(12:05):
there are some people groupswhere you just have to pray that
somebody gets the access.
If they can get to them and openup the word and start
communicating the hope of thegospel.
They're just so hungry andthey're so ready for it.
So we have another clip that'sactually really similar to that,
but this one isn't from theperspective of our friends David
and Joel.
This is actually from a pastoron the ground.
(12:26):
His name is Pastor Razira andhe is from Namibia in Africa,
and this is his perspective ofthis entire process that we've
talked about so far.
So not only is he talking aboutthe help and the aid and the
access that Operation ChristmasChild helped to provide for him
and his church building movement, but he also talks about what
(12:48):
happens as this process startsto unfold.
So I can't wait for you tolisten in on the conversation
that we had with Pastor Razier.
Check this out.
Speaker 5 (12:58):
We were very, very happy.
We have now something that wecan take to our community which
is going to make them very happyand also to make them to accept
us also, because when it comesto accepting, when it comes to
accepting in Himba villages,it's also difficult because they
(13:18):
really have to know you and youhave to be like with them and
you have to go through theirshifts and headmen for them to
accept you.
And that is what we did.
I remember the first outreach.
We packed those boxes in thetruck and we hit the roots as we
(13:39):
were, were going, praying, sothat wherever we are going to
meet the people, they willaccept us and they will accept
the gospel that we are going topresent to them.
And we went down the hills, downthe rivers and the mountains
and we came to one village, thefirst village we came to.
(14:00):
They saw us, they started towave on us, they started to
shout and we reached to theheadman's house for the first
time in the Hinda in our lifeand we greeted people.
The headman was very happy.
He was very, very happy to seeus.
We introduced what we came forand we thank God that he touched
(14:22):
the heart of the hitman and heallowed us to see the people and
to meet the children.
We went to a particular placewhere we are going to have our
outreach event for the first dayand children started to gather
to come to the place and it wasvery, very interesting because
in these villages you couldhardly see people coming because
(14:44):
it's not an open space, a lotof trees covering the area and
you have to see them under thetrees coming and you see the
dust that is rising there andpeople are coming, children and
women of the village and alsomen.
They arrived at the place.
We really we were very, veryencouraged that God has opened
(15:08):
this door for our church for thefirst time to reach out to
Himba village, and that was theexperience during that moment
was the experience during thatmoment, so I I remember hearing
this for the first time in hisdescription of the people coming
from the nearby villages withthe, the dust rising.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
You could see them coming and running, children
running and women running.
I mean, it's just that's justamazing.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
What, what a beautiful picture.
So pastor razier is talking,talking about an indigenous
people group that's in Namibia.
Specifically they're called theHimba, and the Himba they're a
nomadic tribe, so they don'treally have material possessions
, they don't have specific landwhere they live or even homes or
anything like that.
(15:53):
They have mud huts.
So to be able to reach thatgroup of people is already in
and of itself a difficult thing.
But he had built a relationalequity with the headman.
That's what he was talkingabout.
The headman.
He said that he had beenpraying for them and he had been
praying that god would open adoor.
But he said in that clip was socool that god softened their
(16:14):
hearts and he gave them, hegranted them, access to come in
and what's even more incredibleabout this culture is they're a
storytelling culture.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
They don't have anything written down.
And so what OCC did, partneringwith Pastor Rosira, they ended
up getting these audio deviceswith the Bible translated on
them.
Books of the Bible translatedon these audio devices that
would charge in the sun.
Bible translated on these audiodevices that would charge in
the sun.
And so, as they began to sharethe gospel, as these churches
(16:43):
began to grow, it was groups ofpeople sitting outside around
these devices listening toscripture.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
That's so cool.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Isn't that amazing.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Like, like to think that that right now, in this
exact moment, that there arepeople, a nomadic people group,
out in the desert sitting aroundan audio device listening to
the story of the gospel.
That is so cool, that's amazing.
Pastor Razira had theopportunity not only to be able
(17:15):
to bring the gospel and to havethose audio devices, but they
said to him we want you, we wantto do this all the time, we
want to have a place wherepeople can come and meet.
And so they actually offeredhim an opportunity to be able to
build a church.
This is a nomadic communitythat does not have buildings,
but it was important enough tothem to be able to build a
(17:36):
church.
So check out this clip where hetalks about.
They offered him a tree.
They're like here's a tree, youcan build a building over here,
this is where we're going tomeet.
Check this out.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
During that first outreach event, after we
finished the outreach, theelderly people of us and the
headman in the outreach theelderly people of us and the
headman in the village he calledme and said look, what you
didn't hear is for the firsttime here.
But now we want this to happenalways.
(18:08):
We want you to come and tell usabout God.
You were free to come.
We are going to give you aplace.
It was during that same time.
They showed us a tree where wecan, if we are coming that side,
so we can use that tree as achurch.
It's a class for teaching thechildren and that was a very
(18:31):
important thing to us becausethat was a long-awaited moment
that this will be the firstchurch among hinders with our
program, and we were veryexcited and we praised God for
that.
We thanked God for that and westarted to use this trade as we
were following up to teach thechildren and we get the children
(18:53):
through 12 lessons of theseprograms.
And now one thing that we needto understand is they were not
church in this village.
That is their first church.
They don't have any experienceof how a church is happening or
what is going to happen in thechurch.
While we are teaching thechildren the discipleship
program, parents were alsocoming in the church While we
(19:14):
are teaching the children thediscipleship program.
Parents were also coming to theclass and we didn't send them
away.
It was fine.
They were coming with theirchildren, they were listening
and we also allow them toparticipate with skin questions
and they ask questions.
And as they asked questions, ifwe come to a place where we
(19:35):
want to lead children to Christ,children also were led to
Christ.
They also raised their handsand accepted the Lord Jesus
Christ.
It was during these discipleshiplessons where parents accepted
the Lord Jesus Christ.
They came to understand theimportance of church, the
importance of prayer, and theystarted to give us their prayer
(19:55):
requests.
Then we have prayed with themfaithfully.
We started to hear good stories, good testimonies from the
parents who were sick, able toheal, and the parents who were
having some problems and theirproblems now were solved through
prayers.
And they started to believethat this is just because of
(20:16):
prayer, because they had been inthose problems and sicknesses a
long time.
But when church comes intotheir village, they started to
see difference.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
That's incredible the Himba people who would worship
their ancestors and pray totheir ancestors, and they were
still sick and still struggling.
And then the gospel is broughtin and they start praying to God
and he heals them, he answerstheir prayers.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
I think one of the things that's amazing that we've
seen over the course of thispodcast and Pastor Razira does
such a great job of this hedidn't set himself up as the
pastor or the main communicator.
He actually gave the gospel,presented the gospel and then
allowed the people that werealready established as leaders
to be indigenous leaders andcommunicators of the gospel in
(21:09):
this new church.
Now he did say that they wouldcome back.
So he would come back and hewould have other people that
worked with him come back to beable to teach the gospel.
So there's this great walkingalongside of this movement of
discipleship.
That happens, but because theyare learning scriptures together
, they're actually growing as acommunity, as a people group.
(21:30):
And so one thing that's so coolthis this is one of my favorite
stories of last year, becausewe've already heard, you know
the Himba people.
They are a nomadic people.
They had the gospel come inbecause of OCC.
They had a tree where theycould start meeting.
They ended up having a church.
So then what?
Then you think, okay, maybe thechurch is going to grow right
there.
Instead, all of the indigenousleaders decided that they were
(21:53):
going to go and take the gospelto other himba tribes around
namibia and beyond.
So check out this clip.
This is amazing pastors.
They are talking about thehimba people going to the ends
of the earth and how.
Speaker 5 (22:08):
How many himba pastors there are now, which is
so cool what we are reallytrying to teach the religious
new churches is to start nowgetting into the nearby villages
, to start a church to tell thestory about God, and that is
(22:28):
what we are encouraging them todo, so that they can see the
pictures of the gospel to go tothe end of the world.
And we had a training in 2022where we gathered like 32 Himba
pastors together so that we cancome and strategize how we are
(22:51):
going to reach all the villagesfor the gospel.
And it was during that meeting,our training, we gave them
opportunity to see what villagesdo they think they will go and
tell the story about God andstart another church, because we
don't want us now to go toevery village.
We want them to understand thatit is their responsibility to
(23:16):
take the gospel to their Himbapeople.
We came up with 94 villagesfrom the groups that we think
they would want to take thegospel to these 94 villages, and
that was the outcome of thistraining.
All these pastors have beentrained how to use the material,
(23:42):
the MP3 player, which issonar-powered to listen to the
stories and also to help otherpeople to listen to their
stories, to go to the newvillages, to help the new
villages to listen to theirstory about God, and that was
now the outcome we had.
That was very, very interestingand we thank God for that,
because it's only because of theHoly Spirit, because of prayers
(24:04):
, that things like that willhappen.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
It's so amazing.
That's Ephesians 4, justfleshed out right there.
And he gave the apostles, theprophets, the evangelists, the
shepherds and the teachers toequip the saints for the work of
the ministry, for building upthe body of Christ.
That's exactly what PastorAzira went in with.
The intention of doing is toequip the saints to now do the
(24:29):
work of the ministry.
So what started as a shoeboxgift and an open door and a head
man that was had their heartsoftened by god, has now become
an indigenous movement of thegospel and it's so incredible
that they were presented withthe gospel and they immediately
(24:50):
said this needs to be shared.
The great commission justclicked with them immediately.
This is not just for me, thisis not just for our village.
We need to share this.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
So, speaking of, needs to be shared.
I have my own personal storyfrom when I had the opportunity
to travel to Malawi in Africawith Operation Christmas Child.
So I got the opportunity to goand lead worship for a group of
leaders from the states whowanted to go and get a different
perspective, a little bit moreof a close-up look at the work
(25:22):
that God was doing in Africa.
And part of the journey was notonly leading worship and having
some prayer times and meetingall the indigenous leaders and
stuff, but we also took a bunchof shoeboxes with us being all
the indigenous leaders and stuff, but we also took a bunch of
shoe boxes with us.
We went to a village wherethere was this open air building
and the closer that we got tothe building we could see it off
(25:44):
in the distance, but the closerthat we got, the louder that we
could hear the singing.
So these kids are in there,they know what's about to come,
they know they're about to get agift and it's just like this
joyful, joyous singing at thetop of their lungs.
It's the most beautiful thingI've ever heard.
So we get out of the van, wetake all of these boxes, these
shoe boxes and these gifts, westart to unpack them.
(26:07):
They're all stacked up in thefront.
We get an opportunity tocommunicate the gospel.
I think I actually even playeda Phil Wickham song.
I think I played the song thisis amazing grace, and they don't
speak English, but like theywere dancing with me and going
crazy and that was like thecoolest thing ever.
So we're passing out.
We get to the point where we'repassing out the gifts and each
of the kids would come and theywould get one of the boxes and
(26:27):
they would open it up.
A lot of times the kid wouldwait until they, like their
little friend group, would openit up together.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
That's precious.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
So specifically, there was this one box.
I will never forget this.
You're not supposed to includefood or candy or anything in the
boxes, Correct?
So I already told my friends atOCC I'm telling this story.
It is what it is.
But if you're packing boxes,don't put food or candy in there
.
But this is what happened in myexperience.
So the kid opens up a box it'sa young girl, maybe around the
(26:56):
age of nine or 10.
And she opens up the box andthere's this giant lollipop, one
of those multiple colors.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
The big circular ones .
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Yeah, the big circular ones that have all the
different colors, like you'dfind at a general store or
something like that.
This huge lollipop and likeshe's never seen one of these in
her entire life.
There's no, no, no chance.
Yeah, let alone maybe a suckeror a candy of any kind, but
definitely not one like this big.
So I mean, her eyes are justhuge.
I bet there's like this likemoment of everybody else that's
(27:27):
around when they see it.
So she takes this lollipop andshe's showing it to her friends,
and then she gets it and sheslams it on the ground, on the
floor and breaks it into 20 or30 pieces and she starts handing
it out to her friends, becausethey had never been able to see
(27:51):
one of these before.
This is the only chance theywould ever be able to get a
sucker like this.
So, instead of keeping it forherself, she broke it into
pieces and she handed it out.
And so I'm thinking about, likethe Hema people, and I'm
thinking about the proclamationof the gospel in Ephesians 4 and
all these different things thatwe're talking about today.
The gospel is something that isso beautiful and so
(28:11):
transformative, but it'ssomething to be shared.
It's something to be shared.
It's something that is to beshared, and so how, how
beautiful of a picture that thislittle girl got, something that
was so good, just like the goodnews, got something that was so
good, and, instead of keepingit to her, so she broke it up
and she passed it out so thateverybody can taste and see how
(28:34):
good it was.
It's beautiful, and so I'llnever forget that story.
It was so impactful, and I'm sothankful to Operation Christmas
Child and Samaritan's Purse forgiving me an opportunity to go
and serve on this trip so that Icould get these images in my
mind, on this side of eternity,of what it's like to actually
proclaim the gospel and to sharethe gospel with people.
(28:55):
And so, guys, you've heard meand Dustin both say on this
podcast so many times like howcould you not want to give your
life to something like this?
And so my encouragement to youtoday is just simple During this
holiday season, during thisChristmas season, after you hear
this episode, look foropportunities to be able to give
your life away.
Look for opportunities to beable to partner with mission
(29:16):
organizations that we'vefeatured here on this podcast.
There are so many ways that youcan get involved in.
As Dustin says, get in the game.
There's no excuse and there'sabsolutely nothing nothing that
you can give your life to.
That's as impactful and asvaluable as the proclamation and
(29:36):
the sharing of the gospel.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
So, amber, thanks so much for bringing some stories
to us today.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Thanks, for having me .
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Yeah, what a privilege to be able to tell
some stories from our friends atOperation Christmas Child.
We're going to do this one moretime, so we have another one in
two weeks for you, anotherepisode where we're going to
share some more incrediblestories from our friends at OCC.
You do not want to miss this.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Absolutely.
Do not miss it.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Yeah, we got some awesome stories to share and
also a brand new story thatnobody's ever heard before that
we cannot wait to share with youguys.
Amber, would you mind prayingfor us on the way out?
Speaker 3 (30:05):
Absolutely, god.
What a big God you are.
I pray that, as we take thesestories in, take them to heart,
god, that you would just openour eyes to how much you love
everyone on this planet, thatyou sent your son Jesus that
none should perish.
God so loved the world that hegave his only son that whoever
(30:29):
believed in him would not perishbut would have everlasting life
.
And I thank you so much forpeople like Pastor Razira who go
into these villages, speak thename of Jesus, so that these
people can now experience lifewith you on this side of
eternity as well as the rest ofeternity.
God, we're so grateful.
Lord, we pray that you wouldopen our hearts and open our
(30:52):
eyes to opportunities to sharethe gift that we've been given
what a beautiful gift that wedid not earn of our salvation.
And there is a world out therethat is lost and hurt and dying
and desperate, and so I praythat you would prick our hearts.
God, show us thoseopportunities to break our
(31:15):
sucker and hand it out.
We thank you for Jesus, amen.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Thank you for listening to Unreached.
Our sincere desire is that whatyou've heard today will cause
you to see the mission of Goddifferently and your role in it
more clearly.
If this adds value for you andwe hope it does would you please
rate and review the podcastwherever you listen.
Also, share with your family,your friends, your church, your
life group, small group, dgroup,wherever you do life, and if
(31:45):
you want to connect with us,find us on Instagram at
unreachedpodcast, or email us atunreachedpodcast at gmailcom.
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