Ends of the Earth -- the greatest concentration of lostness...
Over 2000 years ago, Christ cast the vision for His followers – “Go ye therefore...” (Matt. 28:19, KJV). Yet today, there remain vast harvest fields completely untouched by the Gospel.
When Christ asked his followers to be his witnesses “in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth,” (Acts 1:8 HCSB) He was asking them to be witnesses not only in all of the places where Jesus himself had walked, but also to those places He had not yet been, the ends of the earth. Today, the ends of the earth still exist.
There are vast tracts where the "feet" of Jesus have never reached. There are hundreds of people groups who have never heard His name. These hundreds of millions of people are living and dying with no access to the Gospel.
While South Asia as a whole has the greatest concentration of lostness on earth, a portion of the population is classified as unreached and unengaged. The Ends of the Earth is comprised of peoples who have never heard the Good News of Jesus Christ and have no evangelical witness working among them. Unless more harvesters are sent to reach them, they will never know about the Savior who gave His life to give them freedom from death.
Our mission is that ALL people will have the opportunity to hear the Truth, but we cannot do it alone. Over 400 million hearts are crying out in hopelessness in the midst of spiritual darkness. How will you respond?
Chaturtha of India
Pray for the Chaturtha of India:
The Chaturtha live mainly in the state of Maharashtra in southern India. They are strictly vegetarian, avoiding underground stems and roots. They follow four variations of Jainism, and women play a significant part both in religious and cultural leadership. Their traditional occupation is agriculture, but many Chaturthas are also active in business and industry. They have a generally high literacy rate.
My name is Jina*. I live with my husband and three children in the city of Pune.
Before I had children, I worked as a teacher at a secondary school. But now I stay home to take care of my children and my home and manage the family finances while my husband works at the hospital.
We are very devout Jains. I make sure that my family goes to the temple every day to worship, strictly observes the religious fasts and only eats acceptable foods.
We believe it is wrong to eat meat or anything that has been dug up from the earth, because it needlessly takes the life of these animals and plants.
It is my hope that in guiding my family to live respectfully and honor the spiritual nature of all life, we will attain freedom from karma, called Moksha. Attaining Moksha requires intense self-discipline and respect for all life.
*Jina is a fictional character whose story is based on research and anthropological profiles of the Chaturtha.
Pray for UUPG’s
“The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9, NASB)
Reaching South Asia with the Gospel is a God-sized task, and He invites you to participate with Him through prayer. The Ends of the Earth is filled with millions of people who need your intercession — Unengaged Unreached People Groups.
To be most effective in your prayer, learn about the specific needs of the South Asia’s UUPGs or pray for specific UUPGs by name.
Reaching the UUPG’s in South Asia
The seven countries of South Asia contain more unengaged unreached people groups (UUPGs) than all other parts of the world combined. In fact, three-fourths of all the world’s UUPGs are in South Asia. People group researchers in recent years have documented about 345 UUPGs with a population of more than 100,000. Today that number stands at 177! A UUPG is classified as a people group with less than 2 percent Christian population and no evangelical work among them. This means that most of these people have never had any exposure to the Gospel and even now have no one working among them to bring them the Good News. Southern Baptists are putting special emphasis on reaching these people groups in South Asia with the Gospel.