Pentecost Sunday kicks off 33-day challenge to pray for Gospel-destitute areas of the word By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor
Pastors David Platt and Francis Chan have joined a collective of more than 50 Christian ministries in launching a 33-day prayer challenge on Sunday, the Day of Pentecost, to raise awareness for the one-third of the world’s population that is still without access to the Bible, the church and other believers.
The 1:11 Prayer Challenge, which will begin with a Facebook Live event on Sunday at 1:11 p.m. in each U.S. time zone, will ask Christians across the U.S. to pause at 1:11 p.m. each day for 33 days to pray for the “third of us” who have no access to Jesus.
“What many people don’t understand is that ‘unreached’ is not the same as unsaved or even unevangelized,” explained Marv Newell, executive director of the Alliance for the Unreached, which is hosting the event as part of the “A Third of Us” movement. “The vast majority of people in communities across North America are reached with the Gospel, meaning that they have access to the Good News in their language in some form or another.”
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Newell continued: “But this is not true for the 3.2 billion people living in Gospel-destitute areas of the world. They are considered unreached because they have no access to the Good News. They still await the opportunity to hear the message of Jesus for the first time, and based upon the number of professing believers in their community, it is extremely unlikely they will meet or know a Christian personally.”
Throughout the day on Sunday, the online event will feature video chats with Platt, the lead pastor of McLean Bible Church in Vienna, Virginia, and New York Times bestselling author Chan.
“I cannot imagine having to face God apart from Christ,” the alliance quotes Chan as saying. “So how can I allow other people to do this? If there are people who haven’t even heard — God, give me a desire for them. Give me a love for them.”
