unreached: the japanese

would you believe that the largest unreached people group in the world is the japanese? i was pretty shocked as i was reading through some of the research. in japan, there are over 122,413,000 japanese, and only 1.2% claim to follow christ. wow! according to thejoshuaproject, the japanese are one of the most homogeneous people groups in the world. they are successful, live in family clusters like us in the states, and follow other religions such as shintoism and buddhism. yet most of them don't know christ. with a population size so large, it can be hard to reach out to many of them. yet with the devastation of the earthquake & tsunami, and with the abundance of business people traveling in and out of the country of japan, God has opened great doors for His gospel to be proclaimed.

join me in praying that God would continue to send laborers to this massive people group. they need to know the truth of the love of God!

Father, would you please being to soften the hearts of the japanese, and reveal yourself to them? would you raise up godly business people who, as they go and do business, would make disciples among the japanese and share your love with them? the number of the japenese is almost too high to understand, but God you created each of them in your image and have a plan for them. please remind us that you have a future for them as much as you do for us, and keep them on our hearts and minds this week. amen.

unreached: the bedouin levantine in lebanon

alrighty ladies & gents, it's tuesday, and time to kick off this brand new feature!

to kick it off, i have selected a people group from one of my favorite countries- lebanon. i'll post later sometime about my experience in lebanon, but today i want to talk about the bedoiun levantine people who reside there currently.

the bedouin people live throughout lebanon, having migrated into the country from egypt by way of israel. these folks speak both arabic and eastern egyptian bedawi. there are approximately 46,000 bedouin calling lebanon home, and of these, less than 5% are known believers. in fact, the most of them consider themselves to be sunni muslims. the bedouins typically spend their lives as either nomads or farmers, both living mainly in desert areas.

while there is an arabic translation of the bible, there is no translation (that i could find) in bedawi. additionally, it can be hard to reach these people, since they live as nomads without the presence of many western conveniences like cell phones, the internet, or even a home address.

so what can we do? pray!

pray that the Lord of the harvest would send laborers to these people

pray that God would protect, encourage, and guide the few believers among these people, and that His light would shine through them

pray for someone(s) to be willing to translate the bible for them, or maybe even be willing to make a recording on an mp3 player to spread the love & message of christ among them, in their language

god, we ask that even now, you would raise up believers to send to lebanon. even if it is us, we ask you to reveal, convict, and lead people to minister to the bedouin in lebanon. prepare their hearts, and begin to draw them to yourself. you are the Father to the fatherless, and have prepared an eternal home for even the homeless. Lord, we do ask that you be with the believers that are sleeping even now among the bedouin. thank you for how your Word never returns void, and even these few have devoted their lives to serving you! give them strength, fill them with your love, and use them from within to reach this people group. please keep the bedouin on our hearts and minds this week, that we might pray for the harvest on the other side of the world.

as always, all the info & pictures in this special feature comes from the joshua project, unless noted elsewhere

another new feature....

so its been really exciting to see who has been following this blog. i'm not going to lie, it makes me feel pretty special when someone comes up to me and says, "hey, i've been reading your blog and i liked..." fill in the blank with some random recent post. nathan and i were talking about this and it made me realize what an impact i can truly have just by posting to the world my thoughts, affections, and interests. so thanks for reading!!

as i was thinking about this, i started thinking more about what i hoped people were getting out of this blog. its cool that i have influenced what kind of nail polish they should buy or encouraged them to bake a certain recipe, but at the end of the day, am i conveying and promoting the things that matter most to me?

one way i really want to do this is by sharing another interest of mine and encouraging you to get involved. ever since high school, i have been passionate about the world. i love to travel, love to eat new foods and meet new people and go different places. i love to be found in a land where i cannot communicate on my own, and i love the sounds of the multitude of languages. i eat hummus and feta and appreciate different types of chocolate and room temperature cokes with no ice. i love hijabs, saris, maasi patterns, and soccer jerseys. in school, i studied anthropology because i think culture is extremely fascinating. i drink turkish coffee, and from time to time love a good gyro, or shwarma, or burrito. 

i have had the privilege of seeing a lot of parts of the world. i have been to dumps and orphanages, monasteries and seminaries, castles and villages. i have visited four continents, have delivered christmas presents to the fatherless and discussed disney channel with kids in multiple countries. i love the nations. 

our home is full of nick-nacks and odds & ends from around the world- an arabic bible, a figurine from south america, a blanket from kenya....i could go on and on.  

so is it just that i love culture? well, partly, sure. i am intrigued by "different." but its more than that.

in all my travels, in all my studies, in all the times i have consumed ethnically diverse meals and discovered cultural norms other than my own, i have seen the desperation of the world. i have seen the hunger for hope, the longing for love, the panting for purpose, and the cravings for christ. see, because i love the nations, my heart breaks for them on a regular basis.

its pretty trendy to talk about how many children don't have access to clean water or mosquito nets. we've all bought [red] items and given to the red cross and seen, maybe even supported, a world vision or compassion international child.   while thats all well and good, what are we doing about their eternity? what does it matter if they have a nice glass of water on their death bed if once  they pass, they end up in the place where they will eternally be thirsty for the Living Water?

don't get me wrong, i'm all about meeting physical needs.  but we can't stop there. 

that's why i'm bringing in another new feature. you'll find it in two spots- on the left side bar, you will find a daily people group to pray for, and then every tuesday i'm going to focus in on one group. i want to ask you to join me in praying for the nations. maybe this will inspire further action from you- and i'd love to hear about that for sure! but at least once a week, i want you to join me in stopping and taking a break from the exciting world of pictures and nail polish and join me on my knees, praying for the lost.

in order to do this, i am going to utilize an awesome resource. for a learner like me, this website is awesome. called the joshua project,  this side prides itself on being "a research initiative seeking to highlight the ethnic people groups of the world with the least followers of Christ. Accurate, regularly updated ethnic people group information is critical for understanding and completing the Great Commission" (from here). their site is full of info on all people groups, and their standings in regards to their knowledge of the gospel. 

did you know....

a people group is defined as the largest group within which the Gospel can spread as a church planting movement without encountering barriers of understanding or acceptance

there are 16,719 people groups

there are 6,933 "unreached" people groups

there are 6,929 living languages

the largest unreached people group is the shaikh group that contains over 215,000,000 peoples

therefore, tune in tuesday to see the first group. if you cant wait until then, then check out the people group of the day on the left side.

"therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest..." -matthew 9:37-38

the news

so i'm a news junkie. its true. i am constantly checking the news, seeing whats going on in the world and how things are changing. i have a special affinity for world news- not entertainment or just following prince william and princess kate, but i mean real world news. i like to know when there have been terrorist attacks, when there are new countries being formed, and where there are droughts. i like to know what daily life is like around the world. i like to know who is hurting, who is celebrating, and who is being affected by what. it is important for me to stay in the "know," not just so i have a comment when someone brings something up, but so i can be praying & attempting to help the world around me. i check cnn, thedrudgereport, foxnews, politico, and a few others to keep myself informed. i listen to talkradio and the news in the car. when possible, i turn it on when watching tv. its not like im afraid of anything. it just really interests me and i like knowing.

back in college, i was introduced to a website that i continue to check periodically. its a site that reports on a different side of things- instead of reporting who is leading in the republican campaign or what the market is doing or how the british open is playing out, it reports on humanitarian disasters that often never make to the big news sites. sometimes, i've come across stories of hundreds of people dying, and i never hear about it anywhere else. as a follower of christ, i think it is extremely important for us to stay educated and prayerful for our family around the globe. as a citizen of the united state, i think it is equally important to use my abundant access to resources such as the internet to understand the world around me.

run as an arm of reuters, AlertNet is an excellent source of news on humanitarian issues. according to their site, "AlertNet is for anybody concerned with human suffering: relief workers, donors, policymakers, researchers, students, journalists and the general public. The site attracts upwards of 12 million visitors a year." AlertNet was founded in 1997, "in the aftermath of the 1994 Rwanda genocide and criticism of the slow media response and poorly coordinated activities of relief agencies. The site puts our strengths of speed, accuracy and impartiality at the disposal of the humanitarian community by offering a “one-stop shop” for crisis information."

so take a look at this site... and bookmark it! keep up to date on whats going on. here a few stories that were on there this morning:

 

Baby 7 Billion: Let India’s girls be born

Bookworm Corner - Partners in Health founder surveys Haiti after the quake

Child malnutrition in Somalia at dire levels - ICRC

Major outbreak of killer kala azar disease hits south Sudan

Once-daily AIDS pill can slash HIV infection risk

 

so there you go. a little news to start your morning. have you seen or heard of anything crazy in the news lately? what are your ideas for how we can help those around us? i'd love to hear!