Jessica Guinn Luke 10:2, “Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.”
On Good Friday, I read a simple little post by on Facebook from David Platt, the President of the International Mission Board and I have not been able to get away from it. It stated, “The pity of the cross is that 2.8 billion people still haven’t heard about it. God, help us to change this.”
2.8 billion. Billion. With a “B.”
In case you need to see that in actual digits, that’s 2,800,000,000 people.
That’s 2.8 billion mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters. They could be your relatives, but based on the likelihood of our readers, many of them are probably not. However, that doesn’t make their lives – their eternities—any less valuable.
Since this has been stirring in my heart all weekend, I began to do a little research. The International Mission Board has an affiliate website called peoplegroups.org that details every people group in the world. A people group is a collective faction where people are ethnically similar (language, location, cultural tendencies, etc.). Unreached groups are those who are less than 2% evangelical. The unengaged are those who have no churches, no Gospel being spread, no leading or plan toward advancing Christianity.
Now think of the people that you believe fall into each one of those categories. Where did your mind take you? Sub-Saharan Africa? Southeast Asia? Those would be great guesses as a great majority of those areas of the world are unreached; however, for the purposes of this study I wanted to focus on the two countries that we as New Desire do the most mission work, Honduras and the United States.
We’ve had many people ask, “Why Honduras?” Honduras is a beautiful country in Central America, yet it is laden with drugs, violence, and poverty. In Honduras there are 14 people groups, 6 of which are unreached and 1 is unengaged. That’s half of the people groups in the country who are less than 2% evangelized. With a total population of 7,794,750, a whopping 106,300 are either unreached on unengaged equaling a total of 73.3%.
I realize for many of you, this still doesn’t hit home. If you have never been on the mission field it is hard to comprehend the vastness of the task we have been called to. What you might find even more staggering are the number of those in our very own homeland.
In the United States, there are 507 different people groups, 184 of those are unreached and 113 of those are unengaged. Let’s run a few numbers… The total number of people in those unreached and unengaged people groups is roughly 20,264,380. When divided by a population of 327,076,580, that means 16.1% of our nation, a Christian nation, has not been evangelized.
Here’s what was the most staggering to me. In my home state of Alabama, there is an unengaged people group. The Southeastern Guerrero Mixto people emigrated from Mexico with a population of 17,000 and many of them settled in Montgomery, Alabama. They are in the heart of the Bible belt, yet they haven’t been reached with the Gospel and as of yet, there is no plan in place to do so.
There are unreached groups in Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Florida and well, you get the picture.
We have just wrapped up our Easter celebrations, but we should be celebrating every day. He’s alive today, just like He was on Easter Sunday. It’s time we start doing what we were commanded to do. Matthew 28:7 says, “And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.”
How can you help? There are lots of ways. First of all, pray. I encourage you to visit the International Mission Board’s site for the unreached at www.peoplegroups.org and take a look at the overwhelming numbers they have comprised. There are prayer cards available that can remind you daily to pray for these groups and what to pray for. Next, I challenge you to go. Go quickly and tell, just as the Bible says in Matthew 28. If you are worried that you don’t know the right words to say or you don’t know enough Scriptures to tell someone how to be saved, remember that all you are held responsible for telling are the things that you have seen for yourself (Matthew 28:6). Tell your story. Finally, give. If you are physically unable to go yourself, you can always give so that someone else can carry the message for you. You’re never more like God than when you’re giving. You may never know this side of Heaven how your donation enabled the Gospel to be spread one soul at a time.
We have Good News to bring. He’s alive!
2.8 billion eternities are counting on you. Let’s reach the unreached!
2016. International Mission Board/ www.peoplegroups.org
On Good Friday, I read a simple little post by on Facebook from David Platt, the President of the International Mission Board and I have not been able to get away from it. It stated, “The pity of the cross is that 2.8 billion people still haven’t heard about it. God, help us to change this.”
2.8 billion. Billion. With a “B.”
In case you need to see that in actual digits, that’s 2,800,000,000 people.
That’s 2.8 billion mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters. They could be your relatives, but based on the likelihood of our readers, many of them are probably not. However, that doesn’t make their lives – their eternities—any less valuable.
Since this has been stirring in my heart all weekend, I began to do a little research. The International Mission Board has an affiliate website called peoplegroups.org that details every people group in the world. A people group is a collective faction where people are ethnically similar (language, location, cultural tendencies, etc.). Unreached groups are those who are less than 2% evangelical. The unengaged are those who have no churches, no Gospel being spread, no leading or plan toward advancing Christianity.
Now think of the people that you believe fall into each one of those categories. Where did your mind take you? Sub-Saharan Africa? Southeast Asia? Those would be great guesses as a great majority of those areas of the world are unreached; however, for the purposes of this study I wanted to focus on the two countries that we as New Desire do the most mission work, Honduras and the United States.
We’ve had many people ask, “Why Honduras?” Honduras is a beautiful country in Central America, yet it is laden with drugs, violence, and poverty. In Honduras there are 14 people groups, 6 of which are unreached and 1 is unengaged. That’s half of the people groups in the country who are less than 2% evangelized. With a total population of 7,794,750, a whopping 106,300 are either unreached on unengaged equaling a total of 73.3%.
I realize for many of you, this still doesn’t hit home. If you have never been on the mission field it is hard to comprehend the vastness of the task we have been called to. What you might find even more staggering are the number of those in our very own homeland.
In the United States, there are 507 different people groups, 184 of those are unreached and 113 of those are unengaged. Let’s run a few numbers… The total number of people in those unreached and unengaged people groups is roughly 20,264,380. When divided by a population of 327,076,580, that means 16.1% of our nation, a Christian nation, has not been evangelized.
Here’s what was the most staggering to me. In my home state of Alabama, there is an unengaged people group. The Southeastern Guerrero Mixto people emigrated from Mexico with a population of 17,000 and many of them settled in Montgomery, Alabama. They are in the heart of the Bible belt, yet they haven’t been reached with the Gospel and as of yet, there is no plan in place to do so.
There are unreached groups in Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Florida and well, you get the picture.
We have just wrapped up our Easter celebrations, but we should be celebrating every day. He’s alive today, just like He was on Easter Sunday. It’s time we start doing what we were commanded to do. Matthew 28:7 says, “And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.”
How can you help? There are lots of ways. First of all, pray. I encourage you to visit the International Mission Board’s site for the unreached at www.peoplegroups.org and take a look at the overwhelming numbers they have comprised. There are prayer cards available that can remind you daily to pray for these groups and what to pray for. Next, I challenge you to go. Go quickly and tell, just as the Bible says in Matthew 28. If you are worried that you don’t know the right words to say or you don’t know enough Scriptures to tell someone how to be saved, remember that all you are held responsible for telling are the things that you have seen for yourself (Matthew 28:6). Tell your story. Finally, give. If you are physically unable to go yourself, you can always give so that someone else can carry the message for you. You’re never more like God than when you’re giving. You may never know this side of Heaven how your donation enabled the Gospel to be spread one soul at a time.
We have Good News to bring. He’s alive!
2.8 billion eternities are counting on you. Let’s reach the unreached!
2016. International Mission Board/ www.peoplegroups.org
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