In 2017 I found myself on a hillside overlooking a valley in the jungles of Papua New Guinea and I was both saddened and hopeful...saddened by the fact that not a single person in this tribe of over 50,000 people knew Christ and yet, I was equally hopeful because soon the missionaries who had been living amongst them were going to begin teaching them chronologically through the Bible.

As I stood on that hillside, all of a sudden these statistics I had heard for years started flooding in, statistics like over 40% of the world’s population (over 3 billion people) have yet to hear who Jesus is and over 500 tribes in Papua New Guinea alone making up over 5 million people are living without God’s Word in their language – statistics that were once just numbers, now had faces.

This tribe wasn’t the only one living without hope. This tribe wasn’t the only place without God’s glory on display.

Now, simultaneous to these statistics, was God’s Word pouring into my thought. Verses like...“the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few”... and Christ’s words of: “go therefore and make disciples of all nations” Then there was Romans 10: “all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” ...and the question of “How, then, can they call on the One they have not

believed in? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard?” The reality is they won’t. That verse goes on to say that “faith comes from hearing and hearing comes from the Word of God.”

We are called to be the Lord’s ambassadors. We are the instruments God wants to use to make Himself known. There is a great need. And at that moment I had a choice to either close my eyes, ears, and heart to the burden before me or to say, Here I am Lord, send me. From that moment, my life began a massive transition as I went into a season of training to be equipped to work cross-culturally to reach those who are currently living without the hope + the treasure of Christ that you and I have been gifted to know. In 2021 I moved to Papua New Guinea, I learned the National Language, Tok Pisin, and began understanding more of the culture of the country I know live in. Through many days and nights of prayer seeking the Lord on where and who He wanted me to serve amongst, He lead me to join an existing work in a tribe called Bisorio. In December 2023, I started building my house and I am now in the midst of learning the language of the Bisorios so I can come alongside them in discipling women and youth. With the help of God’s Spirit in me and the support from His Body – the Church – I pray God will make His name great.