This is a cry from the heart of George Verwer, the founder of the organization I work for. I’d love to see people respond to him personally with a pledge to help!
My great burden and vision
Most people know that I am involved in many aspects of God's work and also know how much I esteem all agencies and churches that are part of God's great global force. What I share below comes from my heart with a lot of thought from a life-time of ministry.
On my last trip to India as I interviewed many people and did some homework, I realized that despite all kinds of fantastic ministries, including mass evangelism, radio, TV, film shows, literature, etc., that still many hundreds of millions HAVE NEVER HEARD OR READ THE GOSPEL (including having seen a Gospel Film.) Also, many groups have moved into holistic ministry like the schools we have among the Dalits which involves a huge amount of time and money. Tremendous evangelism and church planting is done side-by-side and we thank the Lord for results.
The Dalits may soon be the most reached mega-group in India, but in fact with 250,000,000, what percentage of them do we reach with at least something of the Message, knowing that many do not read? We are told there is somewhere around 300 million 'Other Backward Castes' (OBC), maybe more, and I wonder how many have not yet had one chance to hear of or know the saving grace of Christ? This is from someone who believes that one chance to hear of Jesus is not enough.
There are over 150 million Muslims in India. Maybe if we are optimistic, a few million (that's a lot of people) have been to a gospel film show or have a New Testament or Gospel. What if it were even 20 million? That's 130 million to go! Do you get my point?
I am not up-to-date on China, but with all the growth there no one would question that hundreds of millions have never heard.
I recently noticed huge steps forward to get the Bible or parts of it in every language. Some of these languages represent a very small number of people, good, I believe in it. It's great to read that many extra millions of dollars are now given or pledged to this. This makes it more difficult for me to understand how there are hundreds of millions (some would say a billion) all around us whose languages we have already translated (NTs, tracts, DVDs, booklets, CDs, etc.), and yet we still have not given anything to them. IT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE TO ME. Maybe some of you who get this can help me out.
The claim by one group or network that we will soon lead another billion to Jesus is, I believe, misleading but with certain parts of the world having massive church growth, who knows. The truth is that that will only have a small effect on the hundreds of millions who are more resistant to the Gospel or live away from the areas where this response is taking place. For example, will Dalit converts in India reach Brahmans?
In closing, my plea is that we would pray more for the reaching of these unreached hundreds of millions with the message of salvation. Would you pray for the release of funds for this kind of ministry? Financial breakthroughs will enable us to give more evangelistic tools to thousands of workers who are asking for them. Money is not the main thing, but when it is the main thing, and in my ministry it often is, then let's somehow find it! It will not be one agency or church that makes this happen, but a massive grass-roots movement (already going on) in which people even in the midst of other ministry want to reach the millions around them. We need to make every effort to teach each believer in every new church that they should be reaching out to all the lost around them - this would be a gigantic step forward.
I am going to give more time to this and if any of you know anyone, anywhere that has a heartbeat for this kind of thing, I would love to talk with them personally, especially if they have funds that can help move us forward.
I have a $300,000 Matching Fund and part of it can be used to fulfill the vision I have so poorly tried to outline above. If you have even read this far I am thankful and would love to hear from you.
Yours for everyone on planet earth,
