Source: ASSIST News, March 26, 2015
The largest and most accessible mission field in the United States has grown another 14 percent in the last year according to the Department of Homeland Security. The new statistics confirm what missiologists have been saying for decades; the easiest way to reach some of the most unreached people groups in the world is to stay right here at home.
For example, Saudi Arabia, which forbids Christian evangelism and missions of any kind on penalty of death, has sent 80,941 students here this year. Saudi Islamists are the prime funders of the world’s most famous terror movements including al Qaeda and ISIS. This means one of the only places to reach out to young Saudi leadership from the world’s most closed country is in the USA.
In fact over 855,807 of this year’s international students are from Asia—331,371 from China alone, another country which forbids American missionaries. Most of the Asians are in the 10/40 Window, a region mostly behind the veil of Islam, communism, or extreme nationalism. Over 146,000 are from India where Hindu nationalists are increasing terror attacks on Christians and American missionaries are illegal.
» Read full story, which describes some of the ways Christians are responding to this opportunity. Many of these ministries participate in the Association of Christians Ministering among Internationals, which will hold its annual gathering in Wheaton, IL at the end of May.
» Also note that the Institute for International Education’s Open Doors reports offer numbers that differ somewhat from those above, but affirm that the number of international students in the USA is at an all-time high (almost double that of any other country).