Drew

“Throw a rock from our house, and you’ll hit a ULG.” 

Drew’s report from South Asia is only a little hyperbolic. After completing training at Radius, he and his family came to the area with the intent of reaching the unreached only a few months ago, yet already there are opportunities for evangelism all around them. But, Drew continues, getting a productive start can be complicated. 

Above all, they are in the throes of language and cultural acquisition. Every day they feel their need to continue learning the majority language for the sake of serving the existing church and bringing the gospel to those around them with clarity.  They still have a long way to go before they can teach the Bible in the majority language of the region, let alone a minority one.

Assessing whether a group is unreached or to what extent they have been reached, can be difficult, especially while acquiring the language. Furthermore, the language situation is fluid. Some languages are dying. Others aren’t written. And there’s overlap between the two. Neighboring groups may share a mother tongue, but one branch may have been reached by the gospel, and the other not. Drew has witnessed local friends switch back and forth between the national language and a minority language seamlessly on mountain village treks. So, determining just where to direct their limited efforts, he says, is challenging, which makes him all the more grateful for the training he received at Radius in these areas.  

What remains clear is that this area of the world is in desperate need of qualified laborers. Regardless of the language or ULG status, thousands of villages in the region lack any believers or church.

In Drew’s case, he’s blessed to be near a handful of others who are eager to share the gospel. However, like so many Christians in the last generation or so, many have been trained in offshoots of CPM/DMM methods. This adds an additional layer of difficulty to the endeavor of seeing true gospel understanding, conversion, and healthy church planting in the area. 

Even so, doors are opening for Drew to bring the gospel to those who don’t know Christ. He writes,

“Thank you for praying for the village trip. It was a two-hour motorcycle ride plus an hour hike. There are no known believers among this people group. Their mother tongue does not have the Bible fully translated. My local friend who knows their language has been meeting with a man named Sikram for the past few months who has a lot of openness and questions. We will go back on Friday to continue to study the word with him. Please lift up Sikram and his family. His wife has apparently been more hostile in the past but when I was there she was willing to talk.”

Pray with us for Drew, his family, his local friend, and especially for Sikram and his family. Pray that the Spirit will move among these men and women and that a faithful church would be planted soon.

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