A friend and I sank animatedly into conversation at a recent Christmas party before even removing our thick jackets. While others milled around with disposable cups of wassail, we discussed her sudden opportunity to move to an unreached nation.
Considering there are an estimated 3.37 billion, with a B, unreached? This isn’t small.
Editor’s note: David and Rebecca, regular readers of Go. Serve. Love and self-proclaimed ordinary people, recently contacted us with some crazy-cool news. Together-ready, waiting for God’s direction–they recently became global workers in North Africa, one of the least-reached regions of the world.
And all in a span of about six weeks.
Confession: I’ve never been that trendy of a person. (Maybe you could have guessed that from my regrettable personal trends in the last post?) I have never actually been cool. I have just been a person cool people liked.
But missions trends, see, aren’t on par with whether you listen to Maroon 5 or wear maroon skinny jeans.
I don’t know about you, but I do have regrets over some trends in which I was a willing participant.
They include teased bangs. Polka dots. Crispy, overgelled, permed hair. Tight-rolled jeans. White eyeliner.
Do you remember your first exposure to global work? At the risk of dating myself, mine involved slideshows, prayer cards for your fridge, and talk about jungles, huts, canoes, and a Peace Child. In third grade, I told Mom I wanted to go to Japan as a missionary.
The great news? Along with our speed-of-light world, missions has changed, too. Missions trends reflect that as a Church, we’re learning from our mistakes (like missions that whiffs of colonialism or cultural appropriation; check out Does Christianity destroy culture?).
As we recently wrote, according to the Joshua Project, the world’s population of Muslims is estimated at over 1.8 billion. (With a “B.”) That’s 23.9% of the globe. Out of 3,734 people groups, 3,191 (85.5%) remain unreached with the love and hope of Jesus. Yet a brilliant, beautiful church in the Middle East grows steadily.
And more Muslims have turned to follow Jesus in the past 15 years than in the previous 1400 years combined.
With Ramadan upon us, could we as God’s people lift up the church in the Middle East?
Fact: According to the Joshua Project, the world’s population of Muslims is estimated at over 1.8 billion. (With a “B.”) That’s 23.9% of the globe. Out of 3,734 people groups, 3,191 (85.5%) remain unreached with the love and hope of Jesus.
Which means that currently, they will never hear of it.
Yet PrayerCast reports that more Muslims have turned to follow Jesus in the past 15 years than in the previous 1400 years combined.
This week brought the alarming news of even more persecution of our Chinese brothers and sisters; The Guardian reports that alongside jailing pastors and closing churches, the Chinese government is releasing a new version of Scripture to establish a “correct understanding” of the text.
Whaaaat?
Photo credit: https://www.imb.org/image/indian-orphanage/
Go. Serve. Love and its parent organization, Mission Data International, showed up a week and a half ago at Urbana 2019.
Urbana’s an Intervarsity-sponsored “catalytic event bringing together a diverse mix of college and graduate students, faculty, recent graduates, pastors, church and ministry leaders, missions organizations and schools.”
The William Carey Library has compiled this free daily prayer guide for the largest unreached people groups in the world. Download it here–and consider this free printable infographic for unreached people groups while you’re at it!
Craig Thompson challenges “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well”, “If it’s important to you, then it’s important to God” and other phrases he’s put in perspective in his time on the field. Great words here.