Lausanne World Pulse – Urban Articles – A Focus on North America and the Caribbean: Eighty-eight Least-reached People Groups Remain

Overview
 The thirty countries in North America and the Caribbean include three of the largest countries of the world: Canada, the United States and Greenland. Communities from every ethnic group in Europe have settled in the Americas. It is probably the region with the least religious discrimination and it has been the largest sending base in the world for missionaries; however, this is rapidly changing. Eighty-three least-reached people groups remain here. Canada has the largest percent of population that is least-reached with 4.6% in sixteen groups (nearly 1.5 million people); however, the United States has the largest population of least-reached people at over 3.5 million in twenty-four people groups. Mexico has almost half a million people in eighteen people groups.

If the gospel is not sent, sometimes people come to hear the gospel in a land where churches are plentiful. This could be the legacy of North American Christianity. Students, immigrant communities and indigenous peoples remain a challenge for the gospel in the world’s wealthiest continent and the economic engine on which the world’s economy depends for growth. Less than fifteen percent of international students in the US today are touched by any Christian ministry. Additionally, seventy percent will never see the inside of an American home and eighty percent will never have a Christian friend. Sadly, American churches pray for Muslim countries but do very little to reach Muslims in their own communities. In addition, only in Greenland are Native Americans a majority; elsewhere they are often a marginalized underclass alongside a large majority that overran their continent.

Pray for a re-energizing of the body of Christ in North American and the Caribbean to come alongside the rapidly emerging harvest forces from China, Russia, Latin America, India, Africa and other places.

Prayer Points

  • Turning obstacles into opportunities. Pray that God causes North American/Caribbean believers to value all the redemptive gifts in every culture. Pray he gives them the ability to respond with his grace and love to the challenges of building relationships across cultures.
  • Seekers to find Jesus. Pray for those who have migrated or come as students, overseas workers, immigrants or refugees seeking education, opportunity or fleeing war, famine or deprivation to find Jesus as their resource, refuge, teacher and friend.
  • Turning the hearts of the fathers to the children. Pray for God to supernaturally reconcile the older generation with the younger, so that families are God-honoring examples and faith in God is passed from the older generation to the younger. Pray for the changed lives of those coming to Christ as young people—and that they will win their families to Christ.
  • Building bridges of friendship. Pray for God to empower believers to creatively build friendships. Pray that he will help believers share his love as they connect with those different in language, culture or belief.
  • Relevant faith. Pray for God to be alive in believers of North America and the Caribbean so their lives are the message. Pray they live lives worthy of imitation and bring a living witness to least-reached peoples. Pray for a re-energizing of the people in the body of Christ in North America and the Caribbean.

Links

  • Resources to pray, to mobilize prayer and to do outreach.
  • Discover North America and Caribbean’s eighty-eight least-reached peoples.
  • Pray for the peoples of North America and the Caribbean region.
  • Obtain daily prayer guides for peoples of this region.