"Presently our focus has been on eastern Africa, particularly in Ethiopia, Uganda, and South Sudan," says John Lomperis, director of education and development for Petros Network, a missions-focused group that has also worked in other parts of the world.
Some people might hear about a country such as Ethiopia or Uganda and think 'wait a second, there is history with the Ethiopian eunuch and the Book of Acts and the British colonization, aren't those places already reached?' but Lomperis says there are still very remote regions of these countries with large Muslim populations or where people have never heard of Christianity or Islam and are still practicing varieties of traditional African religions.
Lomperis adds that Jesus died for all people, and where they are from or where they are located should not prevent them from hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
"Earlier this year the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary released its annual Status of Global Christianity report and there was lots of good news in there including that the estimated number of non-Christians who at least personally know somebody who is a Christian might be the highest it's ever been.
“However, some of the not-so-great news is that number is still very low. It’s only 18.6% of non-Christians globally who even know somebody who's a Christian,” Lomperis said.
That, says Lomperis, should be a shock to all followers of Jesus.
"We have plenty of people in America who do not know Jesus but just about everybody here in America has somebody in their life, usually multiple people, neighbors, coworkers, relatives old college friends, who are believers and who at least could share the Gospel with them, but around the globe, out of every five non-Christians over four do not even know one person who is a follower of Jesus."
