Yesterday was the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. According to their website, the focus is “a global day of intercession for persecuted Christians worldwide. Its primary focus is the work of intercessory prayer and citizen action on behalf of persecuted communities of the Christian faith. We also encourage prayer for the souls of the oppressors, the nations that promote persecution, and those who ignore it.”

I met the woman pictured above while in China this past June. At the time, she was 98 years old and had never, in her entire life, seen a foreigner. To her knowledge, her family had been in that particular village for approximately 300 years and during that time, no foreigner had ever set foot in or even near her village; we were the first. She had never heard the name “Jesus,” did not know what “the Gospel” was and did not understand what she needed to “be saved” from.

During our entire visit to this village and this home in particular, I could not think of anything other than Paul’s words in Romans 10:13-15:

It is so easy, especially for those of us in America to lack a true comprehension of the idea of an “Unreached People Group” (UPG). The International Mission Board defines an unreached peole group as a “people group in which the number of evangelical Christians totals less than 2 percent of the population.” Less than 2 percent of the population. This is even difficult for us to imagine in a culture where the average family has at least two Bibles in their home. These are people with little or no access to the Gospel. The site continues: “According to the Global Research Department, there are nearly 6,500 unreached people groups in the world today, whose combined population is approximately 3.4 billion.”

I challenge your church to adopt an unreached people group. Send short-term workers, send long-term workers, send Bibles, contract out for a Bible translation into their language if there is not one, or what about a version of the Jesus film?

Our church’s purpose statement is that We Exist To Equip God’s People To Delight In His Glory And Declare That Glory To The Nations! It is not enough if our people live outwardly pleasing lives. If their hearts are not delighting in God, then most likely, they are not declaring His glory. The Christian life does not end at salvation; it begins at salvation. It is not something that can be believed yet not shared. When truly understood and lived, we cannot help but share it.

There is a strong connection between unreached people groups and persecution, with the majority of persecution taking place where the Gospel has least taken root. We must not only strive to spread the Gospel, but also to end persecution. Is Jesus’ last command the first concern of your church?

Visit the IDOP website.
Visit the Voice of the Martyrs website.
Read Tortured For Christ by Richard Wurmbrand.
Read the article What Is An Unreached People Group?
Read God’s Heart For The Nations by Jeff Lewis.
Read Answers To Objections To Going Into Missions by John Piper.
Visit the website peoplegroups.org.
Visit the website adoptapeople.org.