80% of the world’s evangelical Christians live in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Over the last 50 years, God’s church has grown exponentially in these areas.

These regions have tremendous mission sending potential to help bring the gospel to unreached peoples, but they currently send only 20% of the world’s cross-cultural missionaries!

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Total Number of Evangelicals

Cultural Bridges to UPGs

Regional Access to UPGs

Religious Freedom

Prosperity

Current Sending Abroad

Mobilization Potential

Custom Mobilization Potential

Number of Evangelicals

Cultural Bridges

Strategic Access

Religious Freedoms

Current Sending

This infographic provides a visual score for seven data points ranked on a 0 to 100 scale. Faded icons show scores for other countries on the mobilization index. See below for actual scores and country-specific insights.

ADDITION

FINANCIAL DEPENDENCY

INACCESSIBLE

LIMITED MISSION FORCE

DISTANT AND FOREIGN MISSION FIELD

THE WORLD IS THE MISSION FIELD

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&ldquo;Uh oh,&rdquo; I thought, looking up the hill. &ldquo;Thad has no idea what we&rsquo;re about to see.&rdquo;
I glanced quickly around the parking lot, the Thai heat pressing in around us, and squatted down in front of my son. &ldquo;Hey, buddy. So we&rsquo;re about to see some people worshiping in really different ways than we&rsquo;re used to, and it might be a little scary. Buddhists don&rsquo;t worship the true God&mdash;in fact, they don&rsquo;t really worship a god at all&hellip;&rdquo;&nbsp;
I gave a quick run-down of the Buddhist faith, trying to keep it simple without missing anything. Then I stood up and glanced at my dad. &ldquo;Think that covered it?&rdquo; Dad grinned and turned to walk up toward the temple at the top of the hill. &ldquo;Yup. Good summary.&rdquo;
My parents live in Southeast Asia, and my family had come to visit them and take a short tour of the area. The temple we were visiting was famous&mdash;beautiful and busy&mdash;but part of the reason we were there was so that my son could see what it&rsquo;s like to follow a different religion. What did it look like? Smell like? What was it like to look into the face of people who hadn&rsquo;t met Jesus and might never get the chance to?
I watched my son&rsquo;s face as we walked around the pagoda-like structure at the top, watching people kneel in front of statues, light incense, and circle the central column over and over. &ldquo;This is gold,&rdquo; I thought. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m so glad we were able to let him see this.&rdquo;&nbsp;
If you&rsquo;re planning a family mission trip or going to an area where the majority of people follow another religion, letting your kids see those people worship can be a milestone in their faith journey. I&rsquo;m glad I had the presence of mind to give an age-appropriate primer on Buddhism, but I probably should have prepped my son better. Here are a few tips to prepare your kids before you walk into a temple, mosque or synagogue.
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Explain the big picture, but also show them what it means.&nbsp;
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</ol>
Give your kids a high-level idea of what the &ldquo;host&rdquo; religion believes. This may involve doing some research yourself. Explaining something so that a child can understand often means you need to grasp it even better than if you were speaking to an adult. Draw out belief differences between Christianity and the host religion, and try to explain the difference in worldview.
But don&rsquo;t leave your explanation in the theoretical realm. Help your kids imagine what it would be like to grow up immersed in that religion. What assumptions would you have? What would your hopes and dreams be? What would you think is good and admirable?
<ol start="2">
<li>
Be clear, but respectful.&nbsp;
</li>
</ol>
Clearly explain the beliefs of the host religion that are untrue. I often fall prey to making things too complicated or &ldquo;gray&rdquo; when explaining things to my own kids, but children crave clarity. They need to know where the lines between truth and lies are.
However, stay respectful. It&rsquo;s easy to think that people from a different culture or religious background aren&rsquo;t as smart as you, but that&rsquo;s not the case. Remember that Jesus referred to those who didn&rsquo;t believe in him not as wrong or heathen, but as &ldquo;lost.&rdquo; I love this term! Someone who is lost hasn&rsquo;t necessarily chosen to get lost. It might not be their fault, but they are still in trouble unless someone points them in the right direction.
<ol start="3">
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Let it be hard.&nbsp;
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This one is the worst for me. Watching my kids experience real poverty for the first time and realizing they don&rsquo;t like being around it or seeing it. Watching them realize that the people passing them on the street are destined for eternal separation from God. Watching them struggle with &ldquo;weird food&rdquo; and hard places to sleep. Watching them feel out of place in church when people worship differently than they do. Yes, it&rsquo;s difficult, but this is where true impact can happen.
I remember being in college when a major tsunami hit the countries surrounding the Indian Ocean. I couldn&rsquo;t get over the fact that hundreds were dying without knowing Jesus. I remember pacing around the loading bay of my summer job, crying and trying to figure out how God could let this happen. Tragedies like this happen every day but for me, it was the first time I&rsquo;d felt the desperate need for missions at a gut level. It was a part of my journey toward leveraging my life for the nations.
Hopefully, the family mission trip you&rsquo;re planning will help your kids start taking steps down that same path.

Via Families

Family Mission Trips: Prepping for Impact

Family Mission Trips: Prepping for Impact

Ian Fraiser