My Burden for the Truly Unreached

Listen to John Piper read about My Burden in this video, which shows one of the “Truly Unreached” cities of western China.

No Comparison

After spending my early years as a Christian in the States involved in tons of personal evangelism, and now after having spent many years living in some of the most Gospel-deprived regions on earth, I am frustrated by the amount of Gospel preaching that takes place in the West compared* to the complete ignorance of the Gospel that exists all around me over here.

Let me try to explain myself a little better. Although it seems that the laborers are so few even in the West, it is impossible to compare the amount of Gospel-knowledge available to the average American (for instance) with the utter lack of the Gospel found in certain areas around the world.

I happen to live in one of those places. In brief, within a few hundred miles of where I am sitting right now (Gansu, China), there are millions of Tibetan Buddhists (Amdo, Tu) and Chinese Muslims (Hui, Dongxiang, Salar, Bonan) scattered throughout thousands of towns and villages.

Nothing True About Jesus

The vast majority of these people have never heard anything true about Christianity, and (with the exception of just a handful) the villages have never, in the history of mankind, been visited by a minister of the Gospel.

The lack of the Gospel in this place is overwhelming and I truly believe that more people will be called by God to serve in these far flung corners of the world if only they have the chance to hear about the need and are shown that they can do something about it.

I simply want to encourage the Western Church to wake up and realize that dozens of regions around the world are still completely devoid of the Gospel AND most of these places are difficult places for even “native missionaries” to work. 

Native Missionaries?

For instance, the vast majority of Chinese Christians are located in the eastern half of the country and their culture is radically different from that of the Tibetans and Chinese Muslims. Foreign missionaries often do a better job of befriending these unreached peoples than do the Chinese, especially with the ethnocentrism that exists and the wars that the minorities have sometimes fought with the ruling Chinese.

It will take cross-cultural missionaries (nationality is irrelevant) to be sent to go and learn these languages and share the Gospel with these lost peoples.

I hope I have explained my burden clearly. For God’s glory, we want to see more laborers raised up to reach these forgotten millions with the Gospel!

*William Borden lamented over 100 years ago that there were 500 times more Gospel preachers in the US than in China. That number probably hasn’t changed much.