Small squares of paper curled in the wind and tangled around Laura Baker’s feet. Thousands of scraps stuck in the grass and clung to the sides of a whitewashed furnace puffing sacrificial smoke.
The mountains heaved with Buddhist prayer papers.
All Baker wanted was for the rocks to cry out.
“It breaks my heart to physically see the people’s effort littered all over the mountain,” she said. “They’re so devoted to something false, when the Creator of these very mountains knows them by name.”
She does not take that lightly.
That is why she and Katie Barnes decided to leave their jobs in Alabama and spend six months in remote parts of the Himalayas as part of the International Mission Board’s Hands On program. And that is why the first thing they learned to say in the regional language is the name of the Most High God and the story of His Son.
“People up here probably wonder what our deal is,” Baker said with a smile. “We can’t carry on a lot of super basic conversations about everyday things, but then we get to telling the story of Jesus and use words like ‘forgiveness,’ ‘justification’ and ‘redemption.’”
Six months is too short to become a language whiz, she said, so they made a decision.
Learn the mountains. Learn the vital words. Then walk around and say them over and over.
“The first few times we were in the mountains we did a lot of hiking, sat in a lot of homes and drank a lot of tea,” Barnes said.
And did not see any response.
“I was frustrated. I thought, ‘We’re not doing anything,’” she said. “And then one of the guys with us said, ‘This is what we do. We drink tea for hours. We share when we can. And we pray.’”
That guy has shared among this people group as often as he can hike in for the past 12 years and has only seen three people come to faith in Jesus Christ.
But two of those three have been in the past eight months. And one of them wants to be baptized in his own village, in front of his family and community.
That man will be the first of that people group to be baptized.
“This is a hard place, but the walls are beginning to fall down and prayer is a huge part of that,” Barnes said. “We see now the importance of carrying His name wherever we go.”
She and Baker have shared the gospel story dozens upon dozens of times, with tents full of people. They have climbed peaks holding Buddhist monasteries just to ask God to break the spiritual bondage of the valleys below.
“To think that we are walking around in areas where we might be the first foreigners to pray in the name of Jesus — that’s so humbling,” Baker said. “We get to water the ground. His grace allows us to be part of the process.”
And as they stand on mountains with printed prayer papers piled high around their feet, they ask God to give the people eyes to see and ears to hear.
“The people throw these printed prayer papers in the air, hoping it will earn them peace,” Baker said. “Their hearts are like this furnace — whitewashed on the outside and black on the inside. We just want them to hear and know truth.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — Names have been changed for security reasons.
(IMB)
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