Did You Know?

by Leisa McDonald, Associate Director of Global Outreach

Did you know? This is a phrase that often precedes information that is unusual and/or insightful. For instance, did you know that August routinely has the highest percentage of births or Lady Liberty wears a size 879 shoe?!? These are fun facts that don’t prompt much action, but do increase our knowledge. I am an avid reader and love to learn new things. As I am getting older, I am also learning how much about the world I do not know or have yet to learn!

It has prompted me to ask questions like, “What don’t I know about this topic?” Or, “What am I missing?” Our country is quite rich in history and of course world history covers not just a few hundred years, but centuries! Even when it comes to faith and how the church interacts with world history, there is much that we’ve likely missed because we simply don’t ask the question, “What don’t I know?” More importantly the question, “What don’t I know that God would want me to know?”

This leads me to a different set of “did you know” questions. Did you know that of the world’s 7.75 billion population, over 40% of people have yet to hear the gospel? Did you know that of the 16,000 people groups in the world, roughly 7,000 are unreached (meaning less than 2% of their population is evangelical Christian)? Did you know that for every 30 missionaries sent by churches, only one is sent to the 7,000 people groups who are considered unreached?

While this set of information increases our knowledge and awareness, I hope it also raises some red flags and alarms! Unlike fun facts, these insights should challenge us and motivate us to take action. Maybe you are curious about Central Christian Church and our role in sending out workers or supporting missionaries? Maybe you are asking the question, “God, what do you want me to do with this information?” You might even be thinking, “Why should I care?”

You might be aware that we specifically chose the N.A.M.E. (North Africa Middle East) Region so that we are training, sending and supporting workers to share the Gospel in some of the least reached places in the world. Tunisia, Libya, South Sudan, Syria and even Israel/Palestine, have extremely low numbers of evangelical Christians available to even share the good news of Jesus with their neighbors.

In our Global Outreach mission statement (and on our t-shirts), you see the words, “Raise/Reconcile/Restore.” In this statement, we use the term raise to indicate growing a group of people aimed at the task of reconciling unreached people groups in the N.A.M.E. region. In our peacemaking work, raise also indicates increasing our awareness to situations or circumstances of injustices. In either situation, the word is a verb that implies action on our ends.

Given our technology capabilities, access to travel and language translation ability, it is truly an injustice that so many people groups have yet to hear about Jesus. What is your raised awareness leading you to do? Not sure? Here are some thoughts:

· Commit to praying for the hearts of the people in one the countries in the N.A.M.E. Region: Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria or Iraq.

· Write a letter of encouragement to one of our workers living in these places and either email to matt.nutter@centralaz.com or mail to the Mesa Campus attn: Matt Nutter.

· Get involved with a Syrian family living locally and help their children through our tutoring program. This support is greatly needed and is a perfect way to build a relationship with a family!

· Financially support the work of sharing the gospel through Central or an organization like Finishing the Task.

What does God want you to know about His creation, His kingdom and His people? What is He raising you up to do? How can you join Him the work He is doing?

No matter the answers to these questions and the actions you choose to take, we pray that you move you closer to what God is doing in the world. That you engage in loving beyond the walls of your home to people who need to know the gospel and the hope it brings!