Seeing some of the faces and names of 6,426 people groups unreached by the gospel — like the Warnang of Sudan — gave college student Kaci Dills a sense of urgency to do something.
While attending a collegiate ministry event at LifeWay’s Glorieta Conference Center in New Mexico, Dills and other students stopped at the International Mission Board’s (IMB) display booth. There they found a large wall covered with tan stickers bearing the names of people groups that are fewer than 2 percent evangelical Christian. Those who visited the IMB booth were challenged to pick a sticker and start a journal via imb.org/gettingthere to pray for the unreached people group. “God has burdened my heart,” said Dill, a junior at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, who plucked the Warnang people group sticker from the display wall.
Many of the people groups represented at the IMB booth do not have access to Bibles. They have no churches. There are no missionaries working among them.
The display helps students put their hands on something tangible to help them relate to the prayer need, said Suzanne Lillard, associate director of collegiate ministries for the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. “This generation needs to feel like ‘I’m doing something that’s going to impact the world,’” Lillard said. “The more individually connected a student can get, the better it is for them.”
Clark Carter, campus minister at Charleston Southern, grabbed 700 stickers to distribute to students from the IMB display at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in June in Orlando, Fla.
“We’re giving them real, practical ways to put their faith into action,” Carter said. “Every week I have students stopping by saying they want to go [visit their people group].”
Since the IMB display made its debut at the SBC annual meeting, all 6,426 unreached people group stickers have been selected.
But the challenge has just begun, said Ed Cox, the IMB’s director of global prayer strategy.
“There are people where no one is working, and they’re on no one’s radar,” Cox said. “Their only hope is that people are praying for them.”
More people are needed to register that they have already selected a people group or to still commit to pray for one of the unreached people groups. More than one person or group can register to pray for a people group. To register a people group that has been selected or to learn about how to pray for an unreached people group, go to imb.org/gettingthere. To learn more about how to involve students in the prayer initiative, call toll-free 1-800-789-4693, option 9, or e-mail studentteam@imb.org. (BP)
Share with others: