Growing up around missions, I always thought I knew exactly what it was like. Your youth group organizes a week or so long trip to Arizona, or Pittsburgh, or the Dominican Republic, you get to hang out with your friends the whole time, do a little bit of work, play with some kids, maybe get a picture or two with a baby of a different color for your social media page, and then come back home feeling great about yourself for doing the Lord’s work.
Sound familiar at all?
This was my view of missions for THE LONGEST.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve come to realize how much of a bubble I’ve been in. I am forever grateful to have grown up the way I did and to live in a country where I can freely express my personal opinions and beliefs. To be frank, living in America, I saw the lives of unreached people wrapped up in a pretty bow and dropped right in front of me. That was the extent of my understanding on missions. No one told me about just how harsh of a reality the world actually is.
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of people in America that do not know Jesus, and their spiritual eternity is just as important as mine. I absolutely believe we should be working to reach these people; but it simply can’t stop there.
What no one tells you about missions and ministry is that it is LIFE. Life is ministry, and ministry is life. It doesn’t start when you step off a bus and stop when you get back on. It’s present in your friendships, at the grocery store, and just about anywhere else you can think of. It’s not a week long vacation with a little bit of work and a conversation here and there about Jesus; and the sad thing is, this is what most people’s view on what missions in America looks like.
I was shocked this week to learn that in the world, there are 17,073 different people groups with their own distinct languages. Out of that 17,073, around 7,000 of them are unreached by the Gospel. This means that these 7,000 have no access, no presence, no knowledge of the name of Jesus.
This is absolutely unacceptable to me as a Christian. I took growing up in a Christian bubble for granted for so long. Now that I’m beginning to step out a bit, it makes me so upset to learn that although this is the reality of the world we live in, few churches are making efforts to reach these people. I am blessed to be working with an organization that is making these people a priority. The World Race takes people like you and me all over the world to share the restoration of Jesus, and in my case, we will be working mainly in the 10/40 window. This is the area between 10 and 40 degrees latitude that contains about 97% of the unreached people groups mentioned above. This window alone contains over 3 billion unreached people. That is almost half of the world’s current population!!
What if I told you that 95% of people in the 10/40 window are unreached by the Gospel?
What if I told you that there were only approximately 13,000 missionary workers in the entire 10/40 window?
What if I told you that for every $100 given to missions in a traditional tithe, that only $1 is used toward reaching the unreached people groups in the world?
What if I told you that as a result of this, we as Christians are responsible for every person that dies without knowing Jesus was an option for them?
This is what no one tells you about missions.
This is the harsh reality that burdens me every day.
It’s time to wake up guys. We’ve been stagnant for too long. If you have been saved by Jesus, praise the Lord! The battle between heaven and hell is over for you. You know where you are going when you die, but what about these other 3 billion people? What will you do with the remainder of your life now that you know what you know?
If you are interested in donating/tithing toward DIRECTLY helping these unreached people groups, please, let’s talk. If you want to take action right now, scroll up and click that donate button for a tax-deductible donation. I want so badly to go into these places and love on them like Jesus has loved on me, but I can’t do it without your help. This isn’t a vacation, this is life and death. We’re not in it for the social media likes, we’re in it to make heaven crowded!
