| One week after graduating from college, I went overseas to work among an unreached people group (UPG) in the foothills of the Himalayas. I left for a two-year term and was allowed to extend that term for another year. In those three years, my small team strategized to get the gospel message to UPGs whom God had put on our hearts. We learned the language, trekked from village to village identifying needs of the people, and shared the Jesus Film. We hosted over 100 volunteers who came to work among our people and partnered with Asian missionaries for meaningful follow-up and discipleship. The work was stressful, exhilarating, not entirely legal, and formational beyond any other experience of my life.
The first Sunday after I returned from those life-changing three years, one of my pastors greeted me with enthusiasm, “We are so glad you are back! How was your trip?!” I knew what he meant, but I was still disappointed by his phrasing. I had been transformed. I had lived and worked in another world. I was a different person than when I had left. But to most of the people at my home church, I had been on a long trip, and they had not been part of it with me. |
