“Isn’t America the new mission field?” This is becoming the popular sentiment among Christians today. And it is true that America is falling more and more away from God by the day. It is true that we need to reach out to our neighbors wherever God places us. And it is true that not everyone in America has been exposed to all of God’s truth as found in His Word. So, yes, there is work to do here.

But I have a question – do Americans have access to the gospel? Yes, of course. Pretty much every home has multiple Bibles or can get a free one very easily – and many translations at that. There is a church on every street and plenty of uplifting material on television and the Internet. Jesus is a household name. We celebrate His birth and resurrection every year. Everyone knows all about Him, even though not everyone really knows Him personally. But, here in America, people can at least make a choice if they want to follow Jesus or not.

Now here’s another question – what is the definition of an unreached people group? A people group is a group of people that share a common language and understanding. An unreached people group is one where there is no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize this people group. It may come as a shock to many to find out that over 2 billion people in the world are unreached and have no access to the gospel. Most of these have never even heard the name of Jesus! How can you search for someone you’ve never heard of! Most of these have no Bible in their own language. Imagine not being able to have a Bible to read from! Imagine living your life with no hope! There are 6,517 languages in the world and only 2,284 of those have a Bible in their own language.

{image-1}

Does this gross imbalance seem right to you? How are these people going to know about Jesus if we don’t tell them? Jesus is asking, “Whom shall I send?” Who is willing to say, “Here am I, send me”? 90% of the world’s Christian ministers serve 10% of the population. Of course, not everyone can go overseas, but shouldn’t we all be doing all we can to spread the gospel – among the unreached?

This is why Bo and I choose foreign missions. There is a huge need that needs to be filled. We personally feel a strong call and desire to give our youth to this end. Past age 35 it is significantly harder to learn a second language, so the open window for us is now, while we are still young. The Lord has called us personally to reach the Great River People of Cambodia who have virtually no Christian presence. We covet your prayers as we embark on this journey.

• Twitter