Dear Friends,

Dark places have a special need for light.

Where the church is strong, outside resources are often just a nice addition, but in the dark places, even small efforts to shine a light can make a huge difference.

Today, many missions’ strategists are focusing on unreached people groups, the Muslim world, responding to poverty, and releasing the oppressed.

But Europe is often ignored. Clean water, food and health care are not the pressing issues of this region of the world. Why the need for missions here?

Because the level of darkness is surprisingly great.  

Operation World recently compiled a list of the 28 countries of the world with the least number of evangelical believers as a percentage of the population. Five of those are countries within our target zone of Central and Eastern Europe.  

In studies ranking the highest percentage of atheists, or least religious, two more of our countries, Czech Republic and Estonia, trade off for the position of first and second. They have more secular atheists than any other country in the world.

I recently asked a group of Czech students to guess how many people in the world were atheistic. They were shocked to find that the worldwide percentage of atheists is only 7%. In Czech, it is over 55%. Over 80% have no religious affiliation of any kind.

Our region is one of the neediest in the world in terms of the low number of evangelical Christians and lack of the gospel. Yet in this same place, we are experiencing amazing open doors to the next generation and an unprecedented response when young people hear the clear message of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Be encouraged. Your prayers and gifts to the ministry of Josiah Venture are extremely strategic.

Thanks for helping us shine a light in a dark place,