A national partner in Southeast Asia has a heart so burdened for the unreached that he will pray for God to use anything—even a natural disaster—to open doors to sharing the gospel.
Long has been a believer for nearly 40 years, and has spent much of his life multiplying disciples in his country. He learned about an unengaged unreached people group in the northern region of his country with a population of more than 1 million people. An unengaged unreached people group has less than 2% Evangelical Christians in its population and has no active church planting strategy underway. This particular people group in Long’s country had a Christian population of less than 1%. Long desired to reach these people, but he did not speak the local language. He hoped to meet a believer in this people group who spoke the country’s national language.
Earlier this year, a typhoon devastated the northern region of the country. Hundreds of people were killed, and many buildings were destroyed. In the midst of this devastation, Long prayed that God would use this natural disaster to help him meet a believer from the unengaged unreached people group.
As Long scrolled through Facebook one day, he saw a post from someone whose house was swept away by the typhoon. To Long’s amazement, the man was from the unengaged unreached people group, and he was asking for Christians to help him.
Long reached out to the man, named Bao, who is a believer and said he was looking for supplies to rebuild his house. The next Sunday, Long went to his church and asked the members to donate money and materials for Bao. He also reached out to churches near where the typhoon devastation occurred. Together, the churches gathered money, building materials, blankets, and jackets for not just Bao but for his whole community.
Long has kept in touch with Bao, who has connected him with more believers from his unengaged unreached people group. Soon, Long plans to conduct the first church planting training among this people group.
Please pray for the gospel to spread among this people group and that many would put their faith in Jesus.
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