A few facts on Bangladesh:
1). It has the largest single unreached people group in the world - the Shaikh muslim people. See Joshua Project here and here. There is a 0.00% status of professing evangelical Christians among their 130 million. And that's a very broad accounting considering we are using the two terms "professing" and "evangelical." But even still 0.00%.
How does that break down practically? That means, you won't find 1 professing Christian among ten thousand people, nor would you find 100 professing Christians among 1 million of the Shaikh muslims. Perhaps the statistics are way wrong... that would be great, but it's probably wishful thinking.
2). Surprisingly this is the same people that William Carey went to in 1793. Technically he was right across the border in Calcutta, but essentially it was the same people and same language, Bengali/Bangla. He translated their bible in 1801 with revisions in later years.
3). Bangladesh has the highest population density of any country in the world. It's a bit smaller than Missouri, but 30 times more populated. For all my Missouri friends, imagine 30 St. Louises, 30 Kansas Cities, 30 Springfields, 30 Bransons, 30 Jeff Cities, 30 Columbias, 30 Kirksvilles, and 30 La Platas. That's alot of people. 90% Muslim, 10% Hindu, 0% Christian.
4). It's extremely impoverished. I'm told the capital city, Dhaka, which is bigger than Missouri alone (6 million people) has 1/3 of the people living in the slums.
5). Currently HCMS supports 5 local evangelists in some of the tribal Hindu villages. Though apparently in the cities things are somewhat safe and Christianity is not illegal, in these tribal Hindu villages there is much persecution. Pray for these brothers literally risking their necks for the sake of the name! Through the limited involvement our local church has had with these men, we know that the believers among the tribes are beaten and threatened frequently.
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Here are some pictures. What is the Lord up to in this part of the world and with this people? Believe me, he sees and watches all that happens and knows each person by name, and even each hair on their head. Is this the next Nineveh that will receive the Lord's mercy in the gospel? My question is, why has the gospel not taking hold here? 200 years ago they had William Carey the "father of modern missions" translate their bible! Today among the muslims ... 0.00% Christian.
May God be glorified through Jesus Christ among these people.
May God be glorified through Jesus Christ among these people.
