this is an emergency

Unreached.
More...unknown.
These are the concepts that caused my heart to break yesterday.  As of a year ago, I had never heard of Cape Breton Island.  I did not know that on one side of their island, there were 22,000 people and only 275 believers.  That is 1.25% believers.  There are three "evangelical churches" on this side of the island.  One started by Margaree Baptist (the church we are working with) and including itself.  How desperate are we for the glory of God to spread among all nations and people groups?  Do we even know the full reality of the unreached and unknown people groups out there?  How many more Cape Breton Islands are there in the world?  The reality of this is breaking my heart for the lost of this world.  And who are we?  That we have hundreds of churches in one town when billions of people around the world have never heard of Christ.  Do we understand this?  Why does this not bother all of us more? 

The past few weeks have been a rollercoaster of emotions for Jeremy and me.  Jeremy's grandfather passed away last week and gave us a sad reminder of the cost of missions.  Jeremy was close to his grandfather.  I told him that day, "You might have the looks of your other grandfather, but you had the character of this one."  We could not go home to be with his family, yet fully knew and understood that God has us here right now for a reason.  And our Lord has provided unbeliveable strength to my husband this past week as he preached about discipleship and the sacrifice needed to follow Christ only days after his grandfather passed away. 

We have both been praying continuously since we got here.  The word "isolated" fills almost every sentence when you talk with someone about their relationship with Christ.  They do not see many believers coming here.  And when they do, you are welcomed with open arms willing to embrace a brother or sister and joyful to see that there are others out there who worship the same God they do.  We take it for granted...having so many believers surrounding us.  They were shocked when we told them how we attend a 4,000 member church, but that it is one of hundreds of churches in our area and probably not the biggest.  They responded:  if only half of the believers in your area would go out, the gospel would spread dramatically and it could radically change their island.  If only ten or fifteen families or missionaries moved to this island, the island would be changed. 

And they understand that the only breakdown in missions is when people do not speak the gospel.  And they pray for their own church to be disciple-makers, but they are still in the process of training their own people. 

We drove the Cabot Trail last week.  I kept telling Jeremy that I think this is what heaven will look like and that I will one day see Jesus on top of one of the clifts and He will embrace me with a warm embrace as the cool wind covers both of us.  It was breathtaking.

The scenery could not have been better, but people asked us what we thought of the trail when we got back and we continued to say, "It's gorgeous, but every town is so far away from the next and the people on the far side of the island are so incredibly isolated."  It took us about five hours to get around the whole trail.  There are a couple of believers on the other side of the trail who would have to drive at least three hours to get to another believer.  

This trip continues to not be close to what I expected, but it is turning into something much greater than I could have thought.  I am learning that God requires much more out of us if we are to follow Him.  I am learning that the rest of the world (even a developed, English-speaking country) is vastly different from the southern United Stated as far as Christianity goes.  And I am learning that His plan for all nations to glorify Him involved us spreading His name among all nations.  

I have not listened to Leeland's "Tears of the Saints" in quite some time.  I listened to it almost every day my freshman year of college and am sure I drove my roommate crazy with it.  I also burnt myself out on it.  But this week, I could not get it off my mind.  This is an emergency.  People perishing without knowledge of their God and no hope of hearing about it is an emergency.  God not receiving glory from those for which He died is an emergency.  My prayer this week is not that God would just bring you to Cape Breton (although, it would be great if He sent you here), but it is that we (as believers in the US) would open our eyes to the lost world...those unreached, those we have never even heard about...and that this would grip our hearts and burden us to a point of going out to seek them.  Cape Breton is just one island that is unreached and unknown.  How many more people are out there who we have simply not heard about?  The thought is overwhelming.  

Father, that we would want the world to glorify You because You are worthy.  Give us eyes to see the lost around us and a burden to seek those who have never heard.  Let us not hoard the gospel to ourselves, but want to tell it to those who are separated from You.  Let us see that we play a part in Your plan of making disciples of all nations...all of us.  You deserve the glory You are due.