31st October, 2005

MAURICE ANTONELLI

The recent Asian tsunamis focused world attention on Asia. Nearly all of the people affected were non-Christians, and the great majority were unevangelized (particularly those in Aceh, Indonesia). Compassion was stirred like never before, and enormous amounts of money have been raised.

While not denying the enormous need represented by the tsunami crisis, I would like to take at least one reality-check to point out what many have probably been waiting for me to point out: more unevangelized people die every month than did in one day in December 2004, and get far less attention.

On 26th December last year, perhaps as many as 400,000 people died, many of whom had never heard the Gospel. Every month, on average, one million unevangelized people die just of natural causes.

This is the general state of affairs in 'World A' [the part of the world with people groups that are less than half evangelized]. Some 13 million people die every year, unevangelized, and this is on the most conservative estimate of "unevangelized" possible. (If you broaden your definition of who is unevangelized, then the number of deaths is even higher.)

Josef Stalin once said, "A single death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic." I have firsthand experience with this: it is difficult to get your arms around the idea of 200,000 plus dead in a day, let alone one million dying every month of every year. What can we do in the face of this enormous problem that the unreached are dying faster than we are reaching them?

The tsunami crisis led to an outpouring of funds. Yet let me suggest that money is not the important factor in solving the problem of world evangelization. Neither do I think prayer is the most important factor. Both of these are surely critical, yet I think the most important thing needed is the sacrificial commitment of individual lives.

What is most needed, in the words of one friend of mine, is "for people to get off their duffs and get out here". All else follows from the commitment to serve and bless the unreached. In Asia alone there are 2,245 'World A' peoples (groups that are less than half evangelized). Every one of them needs more workers. You could be one of those.

Workers going to the field attract funds for their support. Workers going to the field send prayer requests back for intercessors to pray for. Workers going to the field can even encourage other workers going to the field. (All of this happened to us personally; I am here in large part because I saw someone else like me go and realized it was possible for my family to come as well.)

Ralph Winter has commented in Mission Frontiers (May 1993) that mission mobilizers are extremely important: "Anyone who can help 100 missionaries to the field is more important than one missionary on the field."

So here's what you could do:

• If for some reason you cannot go to the field, find someone who can and who seems to be interested, and be a weekly encouragement to them;

• Be the initial seed donor for them. Introduce them to other donors. Pray for them and with them. Help them get training; and,
• If there is no reason you cannot go to the field, start actively seeking out what you can do and see if you can't bring someone else to the same idea.

Don't go with the idea that "if everyone did this, then who would be left to give?" The simple fact is, everyone won't do this. Only a few will. You could be one of them. Don't settle for just giving; stretch for going.

Maurice Antonelli is a "missions mobiliser" who has been involved in missions for 21 years and worked in over 50 nations, particularly in Asia and Africa and especially in Islamic cultures. He is currently working as an itinerant getting people out on the mission field.