EAST ASIA – Statistics put the number of university students in East Asia in the tens of millions. When students in East Asia move to a city to go to college, many are able to hear the gospel for the first time ever.
Living in a small town with a Buddhist mother and an atheist father, Karen* had never met a Christian until she moved to the city where a Southern Baptist worker served. Still today, no one in her family shares her faith, and she doesn’t know any other believers in her hometown.
The worker noted, “It overwhelms me with sadness to think how she spent nearly 20 years of her life without ever even meeting someone who could share the gospel with her.”
But Karen expresses joy for how the Lord has changed her story.
“God used those 20 years to make me hungry for Him,” she said. “It’s like I came from a desert into an ocean. So, what can I do but praise Him? I believe He was with me even when I didn’t know Him.”
The worker said, “Praise God for never leaving or forsaking us, and for pursuing us in every small corner of the globe.”
– Pray for believers like Karen who stand alone among their family after deciding to follow Jesus.
– Pray they will have strength, endurance and abundant love for their lost family members.
– Pray they will have steadfast hope in the gospel’s power to change the lives of their loved ones.
Gifts through the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering make it possible for Southern Baptists to live and work in East Asia, where they share the gospel with university students who’ve never had another opportunity to hear the good news of God’s love for them.
To learn more about East Asia, click here.
*Name changed.