International (MNN) — About 2.5 billion people remain unreached by the Gospel. Seeing the desperate need, the Alliance for the Unreached unites organizations working to share the message with the remaining people who haven’t heard about Jesus.
Bibles For The World became a member because they know what a great difference sharing the Truth can make. After all, “we actually are a ministry born out of an unreached people group,” says President and CEO John Pudaite.
History of Bibles for the World
In 1910, the Gospel was brought to the Hmar tribe in India. Pudaite’s grandfather, Chawnga, became a Christian and prayed someone in their village would have a son so he could learn to read, write, and translate the Bible into the Hmar people’s language.
Chawnga had four sons and one of them was Rochunga Pudaite, the founder of Bibles For The World.
Trusting God, Rochunga was the first boy in his village to attend school. While there, he translated the Bible into his native language, and later, he started village schools to educate those who couldn’t read.
(Photo courtesy of Bibles for the World)
Now, Bibles For The World has started schools that have taught thousands to read and they have brought the Word of God to many unreached people in India.
“Those people groups, starting with our own, and then the neighboring people groups reach through our ministry in essence. And we continue this to this day as we look for opportunities to share the message of the Good News of Jesus Christ with the unreached around the world.”
Bibles For The World has extended their reach from India to 122 more countries. Their work has touched up to 300 million people with Scripture, and they continue sharing the Gospel with unreached people groups – even where they were founded.
The Future for Bibles for the World
Pudaite recently attended the Finishing the Task Conference, a conference with a vision “to see every people group in the world engage with an indigenously led church planting movement.”
While there, Pudaite learned about four unreached people groups in India he hadn’t known of before.
“Though there has been a lot of work in India over the years, a lot of Christian and missionary work, both by foreign missionaries as well as the indigenous Christians, there still are so many unreached people groups. It is such a vast country… And so, as research goes on, we continue to find new unreached people groups or subgroups that really have not been touched with the Gospel yet.”
However, these last people groups will be the hardest to reach. Ministry for each group will need to be researched and prepared specifically for those people.
“The remaining unreached people groups are unreached for many different reasons. It may be political, social, cultural, maybe geographic,” Pudaite says.
“And so, now these remaining unengaged, unreached people groups especially, each of them needs a specially crafted strategy to be able to reach them effectively. And we have to look at things from all different angles, language-wise, literacy level, education levels. Some of them are socio-cultural, customs, different things like that to determine who and how would be the best way to reach them.”
Bibles For The World will be working with indigenous leaders in India to research and plan for the best way to reach these unreached people groups. Pudaite will be going to the country in March to kick-start research and efforts to touch these people with the Gospel.
(Photo courtesy of Bibles for the World)
Despite the extra time and work it will take, Pudaite says, “We can’t back off at all. These are still people groups that need the Gospel. They need to hear the message of Jesus Christ. They need to hear about the love of God for them and so we’re looking at continuing, maybe ramping up our efforts, which is trying to do it in much more strategic, well-researched ways.”
Get Involved
Bibles For The World invites you to pray as they expand their efforts and share the Gospel with the last unreached people groups in India. Pray they will find the best ways to interact with the people and that the people will be receptive.
Want another way to get involved?
Mark your calendars for May 20. It’s International Day for the Unreached. It’s a day to “renew a vision for hope for all nations.” Join Bibles For The World and Mission Network News as we pray and refocus our minds on sharing the Truth with the lost.
