In 2001, three American families headed to rural Montana to live five months as though it were the year 1883. They had to build their own log cabins, raise their own livestock and live off the land. They experienced numerous trials and obstacles such as sickness, hunger and deprivation.

As Cindi and I watched the PBS documentary of their story, Frontier House, we were fascinated and challenged, wondering if we could survive in a similar situation. The thing that stood out to us the most was how little these three families worked together. Though they were all in the same situation and living relatively close to one another, they all seemed to have a fend-for-yourself mentality and little sympathy for one another. I wonder how different their experience would have been if instead of competing against one another they had tried to work together as a team.

This summer, we have been learning about the importance of building strong, healthy teams. We have seen more clearly that our success in the mission field will be largely dependent upon the strength of our team. In order to have a healthy team, every member must shift from thinking individually to thinking as a team. In the mission field, if we have a do-it-myself mentality and not acknowledge our need of teammates, we could fall into the same trap as the three families in Frontier House.

1 Corinthians 12:21 says, “And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet I have no need of you.” We need our teammates, we need our donors, we need our prayer warriors. We all need to work together to accomplish the common goal of reaching Thai Buddhists. Please pray that we can build a strong, healthy team.

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