What will they Hear?

Driving through Mcpherson, KS on my way back from an Everywhere to Everywhere training event in Wichita, I pulled into a gas station to fill up for the drive back to South Dakota.  Mcpherson is a small midwestern town of around 13,000 people with a small Christian college, a strong economy and a lot of churches.

But there behind the counter was an olive skinned man whose heavy accent belied the reality that he was not born in the U.S.  With curiosity and expectation I asked where he was from and he told me his homeland was India.  

I inquired further, "So if you are from India, you speak both English and Hindi, but you also probably speak a third language as well, is that right?"

Surprised by my interest, he smiled and said, "Yes, I also speak Gujarati."

While he was telling me this and ringing up the sale, I pulled out my smartphone and opened the Jesus Film App.  Clicking on the "map" tab, I showed him the map of the world that opened up on the screen.  Zooming in on India, I tapped the little red flag that opened up a list of over 200 languages that are spoken there.  

I pointed at what looked like the language he had mentioned and he said, "Yes, that is it. That’s my language."

Ten seconds later the Jesus Film began playing in his native tongue - a language spoken by nearly 57 million people.  The man smiled then and nodding his head happily said, "Yes! Yes, that is my language."

The Gujarati people are an unreached people group at less than 1% evangelical Christian.  And there he was right behind the counter selling me gasoline and a coke as we listened to the beginning of the Jesus film in his native language.

But then he caught me off guard as he asked me a question.  

"Are you a Christian?"

"Yes," I replied, "I am a follower of Jesus."  I was giddy with anticipation, thinking that this was one of those God prepared moments, that perhaps he'd had a dream of Jesus and was going to ask me to tell him how to become a Christian.

It was indeed a God prepared moment, but the the lesson was to be for me.

Reaching beneath the counter and pulling out a magazine, the man said, "Another Christian was here a few days ago and gave me this."  He held out the magazine for me to see.  

It was a pamphlet from the Jehovah's Witnesses.

​The least reached from the world are here.  They are immigrating to our cities and towns. They are coming to our universities.  They are looking for friendship and hope and truth and if we don't reach them, someone else will.

If it’s not the Jehovah’s Witnesses, it’ll be the Mormons or the American dream or secular humanism or radical jihadists or atheists.

Someone at some time will reach them.

The only question is who it will be and with what message.  Let us not neglect God's call to reach the nations locally, nationally and globally.  

We all have a role to play in God's global purpose.

100 Largest Unreached People Groups

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