You may not know that the tension, confusion, and simmering chaos that people feel in your country is also prevalent throughout Asia. Ministry is increasingly difficult for all Christian ministries.

Persecution is on the increase, and new technology is posing new challenges. By God’s grace and power His kingdom continues to advance, however.

For decades, Asia Harvest has straddled the line between the Church in Asia and Christians around the world. We have shared countless books and reports about what the Spirit of God is doing in Asia, which have encouraged and strengthened the faith of believers globally.

One delusion we regularly encounter in the Christian world is the false belief that the world has already heard the Gospel, so there is nothing preventing the Lord Jesus from returning.

If you examine the facts laid out in the following pages, you will get a sense of the massive needs that exist just in the seven Asian countries we have highlighted.

Many of the Asian Christians we are privileged to serve are tiny remnants surrounded by millions of hostile people. They often feel like the Israelites when they prepared for a battle. The Bible records:

“The Israelites camped opposite them like two small flocks of goats, while the Arameans covered the countryside” (1 Kings 20:27).

Despite the overwhelming odds, God brought about a great victory for His children that day, and likewise, God’s people across Asia who are committed to Him are overcoming many obstacles as they establish the kingdom of God in some of the world’s darkest environments.

Throughout much of the Western world, research shows that institutionalized Christianity is in sharp decline, as every denomination in some countries, including the United States, is in freefall, shedding a combined total of millions of members each year.

On the other hand, we are thankful that many people groups and communities throughout Asia that had never previously trusted in Jesus Christ have been hearing the Gospel, repenting of their sins, and becoming passionate disciples of the Son of God.

One example is the 38 million majority Burmese (Barma) people in Myanmar. Known as staunch Buddhists for the past thousand years, the Holy Spirit is moving, and it is likely that more Burmese have come to faith in Christ in the last five years than in the previous 200 years combined.

Instead of being upset or envious that the Lord is moving powerfully in other parts of the world, we should give thanks as He brings other sheep from diverse backgrounds into His kingdom.

The Lord Jesus said,

“I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd” (John 10:16).

Never forget that God is showing His mercy to many peoples in Asia who have never had a clear opportunity to accept or reject Christ during their entire history. While your forefathers may have had access to the Gospel for a few hundred years or more, in Asia countless generations of the ancestors of those now turning to Jesus have perished without knowing Him and entered a Christless eternity as idolaters and unbelievers.

The Heavenly Father is pleased to extend His mercy to hundreds of people groups that have lived in darkness for centuries, even while things are in spiritual decline in other parts of the world. Perhaps this is what the Lord meant when He told the disciples:

“The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them” (Matthew 13:11-12).