Of Missionaries & Tribes

So, last weekend was such an incredible experience!

We got to role play missionaries & tribal people. I was a missionary. I had a group of about 5 people. We got together previously discussing how we were going to reach the "tribe" & all that stuff.


I met my missionary group at the doors of a building & we prayed together before we had to go through “customs”. That was such an amazing experience itself! It looked JUST like the airport when I went to the Israel!

We stood in line for an hour waiting for each group to go through customs where we hand them our "passports and visas". People were already in character, like the the Graduate Interns/ They were all, “I need to see your passports.” We were given fake ones earlier. We each had to come up with a story about why we were coming into our country.

My groups story was that we were a band touring in India. (Even though we were secretly gonna preach the gospel to the Tribe!) But we really did bring instruments, & Caleb even made a band poster! Our name is “Texas Sky” haha!


Our Tribe was in India, so that’s where we were headed, but other secret missionaries were headed to Africa or China to “study plants” or “take pictures”. (We were all headed out in the Back 40 which is 400 acres of land. We were gonna camp out with a 'tribe'!) The airport people were asking us, “Do you have any Bibles on you?” (They knew we did. We were all just role playing to get the experience of missionaries) We smuggled them in. By the way, there were about 5 missionaries assigned to 5 Tribal people so it was a group of 10 that spent the whole weekend together.

So we were one of the last groups to go through security. We took off our shoes, etc. So the guy was like, “Thank you for flying with us.” Haha. Once we got out the door, we were automatically in India! Ready to preach the gospel to the Korwa Tribe. But there were people who were like, “Let me see your passports….A band huh? Interesting. What kind of music do you play?” We said ‘Folk’ and she said, “Wait here.”

So all of a sudden, there was this tribe dressed like a tribe, face painted and all, that was dancing and yelling in a made up language and once our guide came for us, the tribe came up to us and made us sit down. Then the “leader” of the tribe began to talk in a weird ‘language’ and we were like…oookaaay…whatever..!

So then they gave each Missionary Group 2 boxes of food for the whole weekend, and we had to walk ALLLL the way to the Back 40 which they so cleverly called the Back Forte (pronounced Bock Fortay) this weekend. So we walked forever and once we got close, we saw a ton of tents layed out everywhere. There’s a lot of land so they weren’t too close together. There were tribes already acting crazy, and some who were out picking flowers. They legitimetly looked like African tribal women picking flowers.

We were instructed to find our tribe on our own. So we spilt up and searched. Me & Kendra decided to walk all the way to the back and on our way, there were these guys with mud on their chests, holding spears, and running barefoot past us! I loved it!


When we approached another tribe, they were all talking in a weird tongue. So we found our tribe, they saw us and hid in their tents!

When all my group came with our stuff to our tribe, we weren’t sure if we should go up to them right away because that might scare them.

They were dressed so cool! The woman were wearing long skirts and had scarves over their heads. The real Korwa tribal woman are all tattooed up, so they had paint all over their arms that looked like tattoos. The men had painted faces and were really dirty. We were supposed to be in character so we had to really act like they were lost.

Kendra caught on right away about the language. She noticed they said “On” (pronounced like own) a lot so we took that as meaning “no”. So we figured out that they put the last letter in front. So when they would say “Come”, in the language it would be “Ecom”.
All of a sudden, the whole tribe said ‘ecom’ and took us in the woods down a trail. We weren’t sure what was happening, but we got to this place with a small body of dirty water. Us missionary girls were like, “uh-oh! They better not ask us to go in the water!” But they demonstrated what the men had to do in order to be accepted to live with them for a while. They had to stand in the water, ankle deep. Then the tribal leader brought two big rocks for them to stand on and dry off. One of the tribal women said to the leader, “Not the women,” or “Tno eth nwome”. So the women came to us, and made us wash our hands to “purify” us and we had to turn in a circle and sprinkle the water on us! So I guess we had peace!

 Then there was this one girl later in the day in the tribe who was sitting all alone. So I sat down next to her and said, “Ohell” (hello). I asked about God, or “Dgo” and she said they worship many gods. The sun, the trees, the ground, the plants, which are all “sacred”. I tried telling her in the language that we worship one god. She didn’t get it. I told her about Sjesu” (Jesus) (we pronounced it like Es-jay-soo) and that He created all those things. She said “Where is Jesus? I don’t see him.” I told her He’s in our hearts and she said, “That’s silly! He can’t fit in there!” So I began to see how hard it must be for REAL missionaries to tell the gospel to REAL tribes.

Then at 8, there was supposed worship for the missionaries only. The tribes obviously couldn't go because we were still role playing. So we all walked out to the hidden field and it was getting dark. We sat there, praising God. I was looking up at the stars. It was heavenly! I began thinking about the gospel and how it was starting to come alive to me. There were times I felt unworthy or just dry. But we were out there for a long time.

 Then all of a sudden someone yells, “The Government!” So the music stops and everyone begins to run! I lost my group, so I was running in the dark, not sure where to go. All of a sudden, a car comes (the “Government”) and so me and two other girls hid in the woods. We were there for about 10 minutes and every time the car would pass by, we had to duck into the leaves. It was sooo cool! We heard tribes passing by with flashlights, and for a second I was freaked out. We finally got out, and I had to walk allll the way back to my tribe in the dark, alone, with a poor flashlight. The people stopped me and asked to see my passport but I was soon on my way.

When I got there, Nicole (from my missionary group) told me she was worried, but that I has missed the tribe sacrificing  a baby. (A fake one obviously) I can’t believe I missed that! She said the tribe girl Kelsie REALLY cried! But Nicole I guess had told them in their language “God still loves you.” “Dgo lstil slov uyo.”

Then at 10, we ALL had to go to the auditorium (an 18 minute WALK!) to watch a movie. Some Graduate Intern in a tribe walked with me and Jonathan and in his easy language (he added ‘ing’ to every first letter) kept asking who Jesus was, why we worship him, etc. I found it so difficult to not only explain it, but even understand it myself. Why do I worship Jesus?


The movie was "Ee-tow", an old documentary about missionaries converting MANY people in a real tribe. It showed real footage of a missionary talking rapidly in their language about Jesus to a lot of people, and when he told them they can be free from sin and guilt, they ALL literally jumped up, started dancing and shouting and jumping up and down because they were so excited! It was REAL to them! And I cried! It showed them really sobbing and weeping because they realized their family who died previously never knew Jesus. There was a part when converted tribes put on a play for other villages about the crucifixion.

During this whole 30 minute documentary, I had a ripping headache. And my stomach hurt. I told my group when the movie was over that I might have to go back to the dorms. But Nicole prayed over me and I truly believed that God would heal me. So when we walked out of the building, I am not lying—the headache WAS GONE!!! I was so excited because it was totally gone! We were halfway to our tribe and I couldn’t get over how the Lord truly healed me!

That night, while 2 of the 3 tribal girls went to bed, but the rest of us stayed up, started a fire, and roasted jumbo marshmallows.

Later the next day, we took one of the tribal women we were talking about Jesus to, to the hammock we set up. In the language, we were talking about Sjesu (Jesus). It was easier this time to explain about his love & sacrifice. She began to cry! She said, “That’s a lot of love.” Nicole told her that it’s worth it to tell people. And in language, I told Kelsie as if she didn’t already know: “YOU were worth it.” I almost cried too.

Then the tribe took a walk and during that time, our “band” decided we would practice for our “tour”. It was fun! When the tribe came a back, we surprised them and said, “Follow us!” They didn’t know where we were taking them but we took them to the place they took us with the water. We had them all sit down & each of us missionaries took turns sharing the message of the whole gospel in their language. Caleb & jonathan started by saying we are sinners. But they progressed to how we need to cleanse ourselves from sin. Earlier, the tribe men had painted their god on the missionary guys’ arms. So the guys demonstrated what they must do. The missionary guys in my group went ankle deep in the water and washed off the “tattoo”. Then they painted a cross on their arms. While they were doing this, I explained how Jesus died on the cross as a sacrifice. Caleb said how he was the last sacrifice & we aren’t supposed to do that to babies, haha.


When the guys were done, Micha, the Tribal leader asked a lot of questions and we provided answers. Hard questions like, “WHY did Jesus die. WHO killed him. If it’s wrong to sacrifice babies, was it wrong to sacrifice Jesus?” After 10 minutes of this, Caleb finally asked them, “Do you understand?” “Yes,” They replied. “Are you ready?” And they looked at us and nodded. And then as if they knew what they must do as an act of their belief, they began to take off their socks and shoes to get ready to go in the water and wash off the god tattoo! This humble act alone caused me to cry real tears! They went in & washed the gods from their arms.

The women however, didn’t have to go in. They just scratched away their tattoos and me & Nicole painted a cross on their arms and said a word to them that described them. “Captivating.” “Gorgeous.” “Beautiful.” When they were all done, I said in the language, “You women are princesses. You men are warriors for Jesus.” After all this, we started just talking regular since they were now "converted".

The rest of the day, we enjoyed each other’s’ company. We went all around the Back Forte “touring” with our band! Guitars, voices, tamborines. We sang songs to the tribes. It was fun!  Later on we were sitting in the middle of the dirt road and a guy from a different missionary group joined us. All of a sudden the government comes in the truck and asks him (Isaias) “What were you?” And he says, “A missionary” And the government says, “Excuse me? You aren’t allowed to preach the gospel here!” And he says to the guys in the truck with him, “Put him in the truck!” And all of a sudden Isaias books it and runs! And one of the guys gets out and runs after him! Haha, he was chasing him! It was hilarious.

That’s basically what happened until it was over. I loved so much this weekend. It taught me so much. That it is hard reaching people. Especially with the language barrier. But if I can cry when saved people pretend to get saved, imagine what it’s like to actually see a REAL tribe or even people here in the U.S have a revelation of Jesus, see their NEED for Christ! I bet I’d ball like a baby!