"A Million a Month Dying without God"

I just finished reading a great book about Hudson Taylor and some of his work in China (definitely a must read!) Riveting from the very first page till the end, the author tells of Hudson's trust in Christ, his dedication to doing God's will, his devotion to prayer, and incredible will to win lives in China for Christ.

So, I'm sort of a "facts and statistics" person, and one section in the book (mostly taken from a pamphlet written by Hudson) especially interested me:

The Chinese Empire extended to 44 times that of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; 104 times that of England. Its population: 400 million. 'What mind can grasp it?' [Hudson] imagined them walking past him, hour after hour, day after day, month after month, taking, he reckoned, over 23 years. And the total number of Protestant converts-say 3,000-would pass by in as little as an hour and a half. The daily mortality was estimated at 33,000, or more than the population of Leeds; in 3 months deaths outnumbered the population of London. And almost all died, in St. Paul's phrase, 'having no hope and without God'. Indeed, Taylor loosely summed up his findings by coining a slogan, 'A million a month dying without God', a slogan which hammered on his mind, bore down on his sleep, domninated his prayers. He found that in the seven provinces with mission stations a total of 185 million souls were at present 'utterly and completely beyond the reach of the Gospel'. Eleven provinces inland, totaling in population 197.5 millions, had not one single missionary.

Ok. Wow. But that was over a hundred years ago. What are the statistics today? I did a little research (mostly using the Joshua Project), and here's what I came up with:

-The Chinese Empire's population today totals 1,301,101,000. (More than 8.5 times that of the population of America.)
-The estimated daily mortality rate is 25,610. (This is more than the 3 times the population of Sandpoint, ID. And in less than 2 months more than the population of Idaho.)
-Over 83% of the groups of people in China are unreached*. (There are NO "unreached" people groups in the U.S.)
-SO, if 83% of the estimated daily mortality rate are unreached, that means that approximately 21,250 people die every day"having no hope and without God".

I can understand why Hudson said, "A million a month dying in that land, dying without God. This was burned into my very soul. I scarcely slept night or day for more than an hour. I feared I should lose my reason. Yet I did not give in. The voice of God: 'I intend to do it through you.'"

"For I know their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all the nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory, and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations...to the coastlands afar off, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the nations." ~Isaiah 66:18-19

"For 'everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? and how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!' ~Romans 10:13-15

Hmmmmm, Tibet anyone?


*Note: According to the Joshua Project, an unreached people group is: "A people group among which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize this people group."