Surprising Statistic

Hannah and I had a fabulous time at the She Event last night.  It was great to see her and her friends praising God and even enjoying a "star" from my era.  They loved the music of Rebecca St. James and  new group Luke and John and the entertainment of Evie (she sang too).

There was a question and answer session with Evie and Rebecca St. James half way through the evening.  One person asked Evie the secret to enjoying empty nesting.  She said don't forget to stay involved and shared of her and her husband's work in China. 

She shared an interesting number which made me come home and look it up.  There are now confirmed 150 million believers in China.  They are almost entirely in underground churches and face persecution for their beliefs.  That means that 12% of the 1.3 billion population of China proclaims Christ as their Saviour.  I remember my childhood days when we heard of  very few believers in China.  I remember hearing of the days where China was considered one of the least evangelized areas of the world.  It is exciting to hear of how God is moving. 

I had to ponder that statistic for other reasons last night too.  In my mind China has always represented the "lost" of the world, yet there is 12% of their population who know Christ and according to several sources (the IMB included) there is approximately 0.02% of the population in Spain who know Christ as a personal Saviour.  Reached no conclusions from these ponderings, just realized that perhaps the "center of the lost world" is shifting.  Reminded me how much I really need to be praying for all those working in Europe and for the people of Europe.  Hope it makes you ponder a little too.