When is a picture worth a trip to Mecca? When you’re that girl with the unforgettable green eyes, staring out at the world from the cover of the June, 1985 cover of _National Geographic_. Photographer Steve McCurry captured her fiery-eyed image back in 1984, but then lost track of her. I guess one might say that she became sort of ‘unreached’ (in more ways than one). When he heard that her refugee camp in Peshawar, Pakistan, was about to close, he decided to try one more time. Through a rare chain of events, he found her again, 17 years later. Her name was Sharbat Gula. As a way of saying thanks, McCurry sponsored education for her 3 children, as well as fulfilling her lifelong dream of making a pilgrimage to Mecca. The photographer had rediscovered his subject.
As I thought about this story, I considered the fact that we, too, are in the business of face-matching. Except, instead of trying to rediscover someone’s past, we’re usually focused the other way, in an effort to help folks like Sharbat come face to face with their future. And instead of helping them with a pilgrimage to Mecca, our colleagues and we are trying to hook them up with a trip to an eternal hope… one that will provide everlasting fulfillment.
In McCurry’s case, Sharbat Gula didn’t necessarily want to be found. In fact, she didn’t even know she was lost. Such is the case of most of the 2.72 billion people living among 6,873 unreached people groups living in the world today. Truth is, most of them would consider it an intrusion if they knew why we were seeking them. But seek them we must. It’s a mandate that originates not only with their lostness, but with the creator of their eyes and the originator of their souls – God Himself. Even if they don’t want to be “found”, the maker of all those fiery eyes wants to see them snatched from an eternal fire with much more fierce heat.
Want to learn more about Sharbat Gula? Check out the NPR interview recap at:
http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2002/mar/girl/
Want to learn more about unreached peoples? Browse to:
And please — don’t give up until you “find” the people group for which you’re searching.
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