Future Mission Trip

Well, I am a Public Relations major, and for that major I have to take an entry level course of Mass Communications. It is the one class that everyone hates. Not because it is hard, or that it requires a lot of work, because it doesn't. In fact, it is completely the opposite. So much so that it is a joke. Anyway, there is a point to this story, so stick with me. We were assigned to do a book report on a book at least 100 pages. Some of you guys in seminary are probably cringing wishing you had a book report like this, and the book only had to be 100 pages. So, I chose The Biography of Jim Elliot. I was kind of a slacker because it only has 128 pages. I had been reading things such as "All Things for Good"- by Thomas Watson, a brilliant puritan. So, this was going to be light reading. It was indeed very easy reading, and I flew through it in a few short hours. But, during the reading, God began to burden me for the unreached people groups. If you don't know the story of Jim (I refer to him in first person as if I knew him like I know Gavin) then you really do need to pick up one of his many bios. Basically, Jim surrendered to the mission field as a young man, went to Ecuador doing some humanitarian work such as building schools, air strips, and meeting the natives of the Auca tribe. In the process of doing all of this, the Auca tribe kills him and three of his buddies. After reading this, I proceeded to go to the International Mission Board's website and check what kind of trips they were offering and maybe I would find one that was to an unreached group. I did some research and prayer over the next week or so, then I finally found one to Senegal. Later that evening, I met with a good friend of mine Andrew Brown, who shares my passion for God's mission overseas. As we were talking, I told him to be praying for me, that I was praying about going to this unreached people group in Senegal...and that I wanted him to go with me. Since mid-October, Andrew and I have been praying with our families about the possibility of going to an unreached people group in West Africa. We are looking at the IMB with the trip to Senegal, and we are also exploring the option of going to Burkina Faso through Friends in Action (Andrew's previous employeer) and New Tribe Ministries. I will keep you updated as details come to the surface, but it would be a trip with the two of us, a translator, and a GPS to go to a couple of different unreached tribes in the designated country. Please be in prayer for us.