Imagine serving as a missionary to a very large and growing mission field. Then imagine being brought into the office of the mission agency you work with and hearing this..."You've got 10 years to reach your mission field with the gospel of Jesus Christ. After 10 years, if you fail to reach this mission field, there is an 80-90% chance that you NEVER will, and their souls will be lost for eternity. Imagine the time urgency you'd feel.
This is where I find myself, and hopefully you find yourself. Consider these statistics....
1. In the ministry area I serve, the state of Nevada, according to census data, the population is approximately 2.8 million, of which approximately 25% are children under the age of 18 or about 700,000.
2. According to the Barna research group, 80% of all salvation decisions are made under the age of 14. Barna says after age 14, the odds of any salvation decision go considerably down.
3. There are approximately 50 Awana clubs in Nevada with say, an average of 50 children per club or about 2500 children being reached with the gospel through Awana. I'm not sure how many are reached through other ministries, but certainly not 700,000.
These statistics tells us a very, very large percentage of this mission field has not had the opportunity to hear about Jesus. The harsh reality is that there is a very small window in the life of a child when they can be reached with the message of Jesus. Every year there are children "arriving" in this window, yet every year there are children who are growing out of this age. If these statistics are true, after age 14, they'll grow out of this window. At that point there is only a 20% chance of any salvation decision being made, or in other words an 80% chance they will be lost for eternity.
Bottom line, children are a huge mission field, time is short and the stakes are very high. I hope we can all act with extreme urgency to reach these little ones with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Reach Kids, Equip Leaders, Change the World
