Burial Insurance

“For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.” Hebrews 3:14, NAS.

Tribal people in our country are very poor. Many of them live their entire lives in bamboo huts with little to call their own. Recently at a training program for tribal pastors and evangelists, I noticed something strange during a tea break. Several long hollowed out tree trunks were stored under the old church building. I asked the pastor about their purpose. He explained that in their tribe older people often make preparations for their death by making their own caskets ahead of time. The caskets are stored under the church until needed. It’s the tribe's own form of burial insurance.

I thought how wise it was to make preparations for the inevitable transition from this life to the next. Then it struck me that these men and women represented the greatest hope for their people group being truly prepared for eternity. Many tribal people are still trapped in the rituals and fear that mark the religious experience of many animistic peoples in the Pacific Rim. They have yet to hear that Jesus is greater than the spirits they fear. Only He is able to give them a future in this life and an abiding hope for eternity.

*an excerpt from the newsletter of a Last Frontier Missionary serving in the Pacific Rim.

Pray that:

God will equip, strengthen, and guide these pastors and evangelists to reach the lost with the Gospel.

The Holy Spirit will prepare the hearts of tribal men and women to hear and receive the Gospel.

Rapidly multiplying groups of believers will become established among the more than 140,000 members of these tribal groups.

Pacific Rim is a region of the International Mission Board, SBC.