The Last Canoe Ride (Philippians 3:8)

I read through Philippians this morning for my devotions, and one of the rather familiar verses triggered a memory from my trip to PNG. I shared this memory with David Sitton, the president of To Every Tribe, after I got back from New Guinea. He encouraged me to share this story with people when I talk about my trip. So far, I've shared this story with a lot of people in person, but I haven't posted anything about it on my blogs. It really is a neat story of God drawing me closer to Himself. So, here goes:

My trip to Papua New Guinea was absolutely amazing! It was really a privilege to have God work in and through me. My trip was amazing, but not because I had fun the whole time. There were some fun aspects, and I really did enjoy the trip, but eventually all the fun went away. Life is really hard in New Guinea. The food is monotonous, the area where we were at was 6-10 hours away from civilization, I had more responsibilities than I've ever had in my life, I had to mediate big problems between people in the "church" on Chambri, I was lonely, I was hit with culture stress pretty bad, and I had to deal with a lot spiritual warfare. And that's about half of the major stuff!

But, after all the romanticism was stripped away, God enabled me to see why I was truly there. I remember that point in the trip very distinctly. It was one of the last few days that I had in New Guinea. I was on my journey from Chambri to Wewak, which we ended up breaking into 2 days. The morning of the second day we woke up up at 4 am. Even though I was still pretty groggy, I realized that it was raining pretty hard. We decided to gather our things and wait until the rain subsided. We only had to wait about 15 minutes before it let up. We grabbed all of our baggage and made our way to the canoe, trying not to slip in the mud. I was tired, and ready to be on my way home.

We got in the canoe and started heading down the Sepik River. It was actually a bit chilly for that climate, so I put on my long sleeve shirt and tried to relax. Then, it started to rain again! We had a 25 horse on the back of our large canoe, so we had a little bit of wind whipping around us too. I pulled out my poncho and put it on, tucking in all the corners and edges so that I was almost completely enclosed. I was sitting with my knees up against my chest and my arms wrapped around my legs, trying to stay warm and dry. As my head rested on my knees I thought "Wow, this isn't any fun at all! Do I really want to do this with the rest of my life?"

By the grace of God, after all the fun and romanticism was burned away, a hard core of resolve to serve God no matter what was left in my heart. I spent about half an hour praying to God. It was one of the best times of prayer I've had in my entire life. I prayed about whether New Guinea was the place for me or not, among other things. I decided right then and there that I wasn't going to choose a place because it felt right or it was fun. The gifts that God has given me seem to be equipping me for work in a place like New Guinea. With that in mind, I decided to continue onwards with my ministry in New Guinea, whether it was fun or not. It's not about me having fun. It's not about me having adventures. It's about God and His glorification. It's about spreading His glory to those who have yet to hear the gospel.

That's why I choose to go to the hard places. That's why I refuse to back down even when the going gets rough. That's why I want to serve God full-time in missions. And this resolve is not something that I could have possibly come up with on my own, nor is it something I can stick to on my own. I am a sinful creature, and I will continue to sin. God has done this work in me, for His glory alone.

So, what about you? Have you thought about whether or not your life is glorifying to God? Do you realize that we are vessels created for His glory? Are you willing to suffer for the sake of Christ? Are you willing to die to yourself and live for Christ?

Let us strive to glorify God with every moment of our lives!


"More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ" -Philippians 3:8