We're currently at $5,200 for support raised, and trusting God for the rest! We are very thankful for everybody who has given of their prayers and finances.
We have been reading a great book about short-term missions called, Serving With Eyes Wide Open, which is about cultural awareness on the mission field. We wanted to share some stuff from it with you.
A main focus of the book is to get us to step outside of our Western mindset, and to be learners in a new culture instead of wanting to take the helm and do it all ourselves.
Here's some really encouraging statistics the book gives:
> On average 178,000 people are converted to Christianity each day.
> When China became closed to missionaries in 1950, there were reportedly 1 million Christians. Today's estimates are nearing 100,000,000.
> In Indonesia, the largest Islamic country in the world, at least 1 million people convert to Christianity each year.
> More people have come to know the Lord in Iran in the past 10 years than in the previous 1,000 years combined.
> 40% of Africa is said to be "Christian" today.
> None of the 50 largest churches in the world are found in North America. Among the largest are in South Korea, Ivory Coast, Chile, and Nigeria.
Some of these statistics could be questionable and not 100% accurate, but it shows that God is at work throughout the world.
Statistics show that Christianity is the fastest growing religion in the world! Another statistic says that for every 1 convert to Islam, there are 4 converts to Christianity. This is awesome! It is easy to become discouraged as we see the hardness of peoples' hearts around us, but God is expanding His kingdom. I hope you find this as encouraging as we have.
No comments:
Post a Comment