Around The World: Making A Global Impact OverseasSýnishorn

Living in Places With the Least Access to Jesus

Now that we’ve started to dream about moving to live around the world, we might wonder what it practically looks like to live overseas. 

How do we get into a country? What countries are most spiritually strategic? What would we do there? Who would we be there? What kind of specific earthly impact in causes such as poverty alleviation, education, or social justice could we make? And how do disciple making, church planting, running a business overseas, and affecting social change all fit together? . . .

God is often pleased to use our life experiences, education, and personal passions as part of our official identity in a country overseas. This might come as a relief, even a surprise, if we imagine being a Jesus follower overseas can only involve building a hut in a jungle somewhere in Africa. The landscape of the unreached world—which include mostly Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists—is different today than it was fifty years ago. 

Many populations and family members from unreached people groups—people with similar language and culture that have less than two percent Christian population—have migrated to urban centers. Few people groups remain isolated in remote jungles and villages. And because much of the time the countries we’ll need to enter rarely give out religious worker visas, it’s helpful, even necessary, to make use of the skills we already possess.

Every nation, also coined “people group”—those with a similar language and culture—must have a chance to hear about the kingdom of God. So we need to know which people groups are not getting to hear and in what nations the message of Jesus Christ is not even being offered—by anyone. 

“Unreached-ness,” is about access to the gospel. Did you know that seventy percent of the population of all unreached frontier peoples*—that’s 4,700 people groups with less than 0.1% Christian—live in South Asia, in countries like Pakistan, India and Bangladesh? To live in those countries, we will need valid visas that reflect our skills, education and training. 

Be who you are!

Yes, our primary purpose is to introduce Jesus Christ to those without access to his good news. But be prepared to have another official identity in an adopted country, which will most likely be different from—but complementary to—our primary purpose. Our official identity is authentic. It’s not fake. Our identity as a businessperson, a development worker, or a student is who we really are and what we really do during our working hours. 

And that identity will truly bless communities and families in places where Jesus is not known. 

*research by The Joshua Project