Piercing the Darkness

In 1995 my wife and I were serving in Asia, focusing on the Usan*, a large unreached people group of about 7 million people who lived in Asia. When we first received information about the Usan we noticed all zeros, which indicated there were no known Christians, no churches, no Bibles in their heart language, no media, or any other ways for them to hear about Jesus.

Randy, a good friend from seminary was serving as the prayer coordinator for a large mission organization. He contacted me about a prayer walk through the places where the Usan lived. I told him that almost all the Usan areas were totally closed to visitors. We could do a “prayer journey” on a train, but probably couldn’t get off the train to interact with the people.

We intentionally got a train compartment for the four of us so we could pray during the night as we passed through various Usan areas. However, when we got to our compartment loud music was playing and we could hardly hear each other. After about an hour I was so frustrated with the loud music that I blurted out, “Lord, please make the music stop!” It stopped suddenly and never came on again during the entire trip.

As we began our prayer journey Randy told me he had brought bread and juice to do the Lord’s Supper somewhere along the way. That opportunity came when we were able to get off the train in a prefectural capital where many Usan lived. A lady from Canada, LO, had been living in that city for several years and helped us get the Jesus film into the Usan language.

LO had found a couple of Usan young men who were studying in the main capital of that province. Few Usan had more than a sixth-grade education. For these two men to be working on their master’s degrees was amazing. What was more amazing is they had become followers of Jesus and agreed to help get the Jesus film into their heart language. LT had been the main one who continued with the project and we had prayed for him for about three years, but we had never met LT. Connecting with local believers was often risky, as it would likely compromise them as followers of Jesus.

When we arrived in the city, I had no idea if LO was still there. We had no cell phones, email, or way to contact her ahead of time. We went to the school and were delighted to find her. She invited us back for dinner. When we arrived, she said she had a surprise for us. In walked LT. So special after all the times we had prayed for him to finally meet him.

After dinner, Randy leaned over and said he felt this was the place for us to have the Lord’s Supper. We had the bread and juice but nothing to serve it in. LO offered some local Usan lacquerware cups and bowls which were perfect. Normally these are used to drink “white lightning”, the homebrew so popular in that part of the world.

Randy did not know much about LT so went into much detail about the reason we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. As we began to take the bread LT began to weep. He said he had never had the Lord’s Supper before. There were almost no other believers for him to fellowship with or learn from so this was especially significant. He then said he wanted to take this as a representative for all his Usan people.

After we all took the bread and then the juice we gathered around and prayed for LT and for all the Usan people who had yet to hear about a loving Lord and the One who died for their sins. We also prayed for him to be able to finish the Jesus film well. There were great concerns about the translation as there are so many words that may not be easy to translate into another language. For example, what if they used the word witch doctor or shaman for God or for Jesus.

Fast forward to 2018. Our friends Mike & Rob made a trip to that part of the world and visited the largest city in the Usan area. A house church leader in the city took them to the top of a mountain overlooking a key Usan area in the valley below. From that mountaintop, they prayed over the Usan homeland and claimed the Usan and other unreached people for the Lord.

The leaders reported that there are now at least 1600 Usan believers, which is still a small percentage of the 7 million Usan population but is a huge testimony to God’s faithfulness through the past 25 years.

How special to go from a list of unreached people groups with all zeros (meaning no known Christians, churches, Bibles, Jesus film, or other ways to hear the Gospel) to a group of hot-hearted Usan believers praying for their own people and other unreached people groups to come into the Kingdom.

God has definitely penetrated the darkness in that part of the world and has begun a movement of passionate worshippers.

· Usan- Name changed for security reasons

Larry Phillips serves as Executive Director of GlobalGrace.