Just living can be very harsh here. I think it is difficult for the average Westerner to comprehend how difficult everyday life can be for people. Some places are extra harsh though.

There is one particular country we want to reach in the Sahel region that I have been learning about recently. I have been blessed to have several conversations with people who have lived there. Hopefully, I will be able to go there to visit next year to survey the area. Our plan is for future missionaries from our school to establish missions work there.

Life is hard. When you don’t know Jesus, it’s even harder. If you don’t know Jesus and you live in a bruising environment, it can be beyond crushing. What happens after decades of living in a difficult and harsh reality? Well, it depends if you knew Jesus or not.

Life without Jesus in the Sahel

I think about the lady in the desert in the Sahel. I have been told hard things about their lives…. My heart goes out to them for what they endure in hardship with the extra burden of being a woman. Many of these women are part of “unreached” people groups meaning that less than 2% of her tribe is evangelical Christian. (Compare that to America where it is 26%+ evangelical Christian.)

That means she is unlikely to have anyone ever share the Gospel with her. VERY unlikely indeed. No one to tell her that Jesus loves her and she has a Father in Heaven who wants to invite her home.

I think about the woman in the Sahelian village far from conveniences that we take for granted. How can she go from a harsh life just to die and go to an even harsher *eternal* place of unending cruelty? Her life was already cruel. It’s beyond a tragedy.

Who will go and reach her?

The unreached are unreached for a reason… They may be extra resistant and difficult culturally. They may be in unstable or violent areas. They may be in areas that are difficult to reach or live in… 

Dry. 

Arid. 

Lack of water. 

Lack of communications networks. 

Difficult to get supplies to. 

Distant from towns. 

In the mountains. 

Sometimes in areas of civil unrest.

And more. 

More than Dreams and Visions

Yes we would love for all of those people to have a supernatural dream or an angel visit them. It would make things easier. A lot cleaner and convenient for us. Something like that happens and then… BOOM… they all are converted instantly! Praise the Lord! The reality though is that we have to be the hands and the feet of Jesus to go. No short cuts.

We have to be willing to suffer to go to difficult places. To do without. Because people live there. 

And they NEED Jesus. If they have nothing else in this life, they must have HIM.

A life that elevates prosperity and blessing unduly will not go to places like that. God wants to bless us but sometimes we must follow the example of Him who laid down his extravagant rights, privileges, and royalty to condescend Himself towards the earth. To go lower. To touch us and to save us.

By His grace we can do it. 

Righting an Imbalance

This is one reason we focus on the unreached. To go to Gospel “deserts” as it were. Those who have the least access to the Gospel receive the least amount of workers. The places with abundant access to the Gospel continue to receive the most workers. 

It makes no sense. It’s imbalanced. Yet, we want to do our small part to train and send workers to where the need is. No one picked where they were born. We continue on because the blood of Jesus is also for them even in the the distant and harsh places.