The Gold Mines

Exhausted, yet alive! We made it back from the gold mines yesterday and Im grateful for some much needed rest this beautiful Sunday afternoon. We were gone for nearly two weeks and not one of those days were we without Gods gracious and protecting hands heavily upon us.


I just got back from church with Ba Ten and we were able to share with the rest of the members about our trip; how God provided for every one of our needs and how He also gave us the opportunity to minister to a non-believer named Ba Yado, who accompanied us on this expedition. I was able to take tons of pictures and video 11 of the 13 days before my battery died, so Ive been looking back through them trying to process everything that went on; everything from the drugs and prostitutes, to the late night conversations about God and our beliefs.


Im nowhere close to collecting all my thoughts yet, but am in awe of God and now have a new and deeper understanding of the lives of hundreds of the Aukan men, and the work they are a part of in the gold mines.


I originally thought Id be going with Ba Ten to do boat work in the gold mines, which he had mentioned a month or so ago. But with two days left before we headed out, he came and met with me and Charles and layed the whole trip out for me. I found out we would be trekking to the furthest parts of the gold mines and then we would be cutting a new trail even deeper into parts of the virgin jungle where people have never been, in search of new creeks and land to start mining. It didn’t sound too bad…


So after a 2 and a half hour boat ride up the river, a 2 hour ride on a 4 wheeler into the gold mines, 8 nights of sleep, 45 more minutes on a four wheeler, miles upon miles of hiking and cutting, after making two jungle huts along the way to sleep in, and after eating one too many bowls of rice, we finally made it to “THE POINT”.


“THE POINT” is now the hot topic to talk about among Ba Ten and his fellow mates in the gold mines. Supposedly this is going to be the “big find”, which Im sure every guy out there says when he finds a new area to start working. The land we found is said to be full of potentially profitable gold mining.


We spent most of the first half of the trip just trying to find “THE POINT”. Ba Ten, Ba Yado and I woke up early every morning. I began with prayer time in the hammock, followed by a quite time by the fire reading through the Scriptures searching for a word for my heart and also something to share with these two men. After sharing and talking and then praying together, everyday we headed out with our machetes and necessary supplies and we cut and cut and cut and cut, until we found “THE POINT”.


I learned how to make quick and easy jungle huts, that are usually made for only a night or two of rest. I learned a lot of the bird calls which we heard all day long everyday. I learned a lot about how the gold mining works. And learned that the black spider monkeys are pretty nasty animals to come across in the jungle. I realized this when I started seeing 9-10 foot long sticks being thrown down at us from the tree tops as we cut into their “homeland”. Too bad for the monkies, Ba Ten carried his shot gun with him:)


So we found ourselves not only wnjoying these monkies, but enjoying tons of jungle birds, jungle turtles, armadillo type animals and a red howler monkey, which was the hardest to kill. Everything I ate tasted great. Unfortunately, after two weeks of eating all these animals, including some rotten stuff they brought along with them, and drinking water from creeks and holes in the ground, I returned home with a stomach turned upside down. Thank the Lord though, today Im feeling much better and now only have a few rashes and bumps to heal up and Ill back to good as new.


Aside from this trip being an incredible adventure, I had tons of time to think and pray and ponder over a lot of things on my heart as we ventured through the jungle 5-6 hours each day. I spent great time with the Lord, got to grow in my relationship with Ba Ten, but was also extremely grateful for Ba Yado’s presence.


One of the many things God taught me on this trip was that a lot of the Aukan men, that are so hard to reach, are always on the go. Ba Yado himself told me he doesnt like to be in one place to long; here, then there... Thats how he likes to work andlive. I might not ever find these kind of men coming to me at my home to hear a Bible story. But, by meeting them where they are (eg. the gold mines) God can open up opportunities to share not only Bible stories, but also opportunities to simply share who God is and what He means to me.


From day 1, after hearing I was a believer, Ba Yado drilled my with questions. Questions concerning the Bible, concerning my beliefs, my morals and my relationship with God. As usual with most of the men, he found it quite unusual that I wasn’t married yet and/or didn’t have a “friend”. But I got to share a lot with him about why.


After only a few days, Ba Yado started coming and standing with Ba Ten and I as we prayed over the days work before heading out. He also saw me reading the Bible every morning and one day told me when I found something good, to tell him:) Of course its all good, so I began sharing a little bit with him. Ba Yado, is far from becoming a believer right now, but I saw that God was working on his heart. He smokes a lot of drugs and drinks a lot and has had too many partners to count, but before parting ways at the end of the trip, he told me to be praying for him. Not to just stop smoking, but Ba Yado actually asked me to be praying that one day he would become a believer. That’s not something you here many lost Aukan men say around here.


As I mentioned in January, 1 Thessalonians 2:8 is my focus verse this year: “We loved you so much, that we were delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.”


God showed me on this trip that with many of these people, it is a must to begin to share your life with them and to let them share their life with you, in order to be able to get to the point to share the Gospel.


The other big reminder God gave me was that our lives are very often one of the tools God uses to begin a work in someone’s heart; to even get a lost person to the point where they might just want to hear more about this Jesus. Just like many love to read their Bible to learn more about God, many of the lost people around us are “reading” our lives each and every day.


I hope and pray this life God has given me be a “book worth reading”.


Thank you for your prayers. To God be the glory!