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Backpacking Girls Reach to the Ends of the Earth
February 28, 2006

When most Christian workers arrive in a new location, their first order of business is to buy a map and find their way around. Whitney* didn’t have that option. There was no map. But armed with a GPS device and a sense of God-given adventure, she and her teammates are changing that.

Whitney’s team represents the necessary first phase of reaching some of China’s most unreached minority people groups. Their assignment is to find villages belonging to a specific minority, allowing other Christians to return to these previously unknown villages.

At first glance, these three journeyman girls appear to be your average Starbucks-sipping, suburbia-dwelling college grads. But anyone eavesdropping on their conversation would quickly realize they are anything but average (although they do appreciate a good cup of Starbucks when they can find it). Typical dinner table banter ranges from the technical aspects of which zero-degree sleeping bag is better at keeping the frostbite at bay, to now-comical stories (that weren’t so comical at the time) from their experiences of trekking to “the ends of the earth.”

When looking for new villages, these backpackers usually start in one city and hike towards another on foot, moving along less-traveled roads in an attempt to discover new places. When they find an unknown village, they map it. That way, when other Christians come back, they know where to find it. With few exceptions, they are the first people to ever speak the name of Jesus to those they meet.

During their two years in China, the girls are searching for a people group that typically lives in villages on remote mountain tops, secluded from many other peoples because of their long history as a warrior tribe.

Such extreme conditions scare many away from the job, but for Whitney it was a perfect fit. She knows God has given her the desire for this kind of work. “I always had the heart for unreached peoples, especially those harder to get to,” she said “If I’m willing to go, and others aren’t, then why shouldn’t I go?”

Whitney says the best part of the job is finding a village of her people group and knowing that they now have a door to hear the gospel. After they leave, others can come back to follow up with the people who are interested in knowing more.

The team, who didn’t know each other before working on the field, had to learn each other’s limits and strengths and weaknesses along the way. Working in such tight quarters, they face obvious challenges, but have learned to work as a team. Each person carries their own weight and responsibility, from collecting firewood during a hike to planning team logistics along the way.

The girls always plan carefully and take safety precautions before they travel, but sometimes the unexpected still happens. One hike was scheduled to be three days, but the distance turned out to be much longer than they anticipated.

After eight days, they were still far from home and were running low on food and water. Knowing that it would take them several days to hike back down the mountain side, the girls were praying about what to do when they came to an excavated rock face. It didn’t take long to decide that the risk of sliding down the rockslide was a better option than running out of food and water days from home. Covered in rock and grime, the girls arrived home unscathed and already planning their next journey.

After another weekend backpacking trip, the exhausted trio finally began their way downhill. Before they had traveled 100 feet, they stopped when they heard the sound of falling rocks. Turning around, they were shocked to see two large rocks headed straight for their heads. The source of the flying rocks? Monkeys.

“Our people always talk about how they are afraid of the monkeys because they hit people with things, and we always thought, ‘No way!’” said Whitney. “Needless to say, I don’t care if we never see a monkey again.” 

Flying rocks and long hikes are all in a day’s work for these journeymen as they carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. Is God calling you to an extreme journey of your own? Contact gochina@imb.org for information on current positions in East Asia.

*name changed

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