by Scott and Andrea Sward, EFM Great Commission Mobilizers

I want to tell you a story.

One night, deep in the jungle and off a bumpy trail, in a small village of tribal people, smoke curled up into the dark sky as a dying man had a dream. He was an old, sick man. His face was thin and worn from illness. He had been born into this jungle and had grown up in its trees. He had witnessed the slow transformation of a land once filled with wild, roaming elephants into a war zone of guns and starvation. After the guns left, the jungle people were forgotten again and left to sink into deeper and deeper poverty while the world around them rushed forward into development.

Somewhere during those years, new stories made their way into his village, stories about a God this man had never heard of before. He was captivated, at least for a time. But as his sickness worsened and this new God did not bring immediate healing to his body, his hope began to fade. Now he was sick, and he was dying.

His family gathered around him beneath their stilted wooden house. Fires burned for warmth, and the smoke rose to ward off evil spirits. Voices filled the night, loud and constant, in an effort to “prove” to those unseen spirits that there was nothing here worth lingering over.

In his dream, this old, dying man clutched a small booklet, the very one Scott had gone over with him earlier that evening. Scott had been summoned to the Kavet village just hours before with the message that this man, Joon, was dying. Even more striking, though Joon could no longer recognize his own family or remember their names, he kept repeating Scott’s name clearly, over and over again. How could Scott refuse that call?

When Scott arrived, he took out a small booklet filled with pictures and once again explained to Joon our sin and Jesus’ forgiveness upon our confession of our need for him. He showed Joon a picture in the booklet, a simple image of a cross bridging the gap between man and God. This man, so dear to Jesus, began tracing that cross with his finger over and over again, and at last a look of peace came over his face.

Later that night, he fell asleep and dreamed. In his dream, while holding tightly to the booklet, he saw his parents, long since gone, approaching him. They reached out their hands, but their faces were not kind. Their anger made it clear that they intended to take the booklet from him, not out of any desire to understand. Joon pulled the booklet closer to his chest. As they came nearer, he hid it beneath his shirt and turned away from their grasping hands.

In the gray light of early morning, his family found him sitting still, propped up in bed and turned to the side, the booklet tucked under his shirt, his hands folded protectively over it. When Scott departed later that morning, Joon remained there, holding the promises of Jesus close to his heart.

How we rejoice that even in a small, remote tribe in the jungles of Cambodia and Laos, God is at work in people’s lives. We are moved yet again by his heart for all the unreached people groups in our world. How many Joons are there, dying, restless, reaching for Jesus? And even more sobering, how many parents of how many Joons never had the opportunity to hear his name?

Would you pray with us this month for the many millions around the world who are still waiting to hear the name of Jesus in their villages?

Written by Andrea Sward, shared by Scott & Andrea Sward

The post May 2026 | Prayer Letter first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.