With the push for missionaries to go to the 10/40 window and to the unreached people groups of the world, people sometimes wonder, “Why Zambia?” when we say that we sense God leading us there. It is neither in the 10/40 window nor is it unreached. According to the CIA World Factbook, Zambia is 50%-75% Christian (how is that for a precise statistic?!), 24%-49% Muslim and Hindu, and 1% indigenous beliefs. The Muslim and Hindu percentages are visibly on the rise, although every religion, including Christianity, is greatly syncretized with animistic beliefs and witchcraft.
- First, and most obvious, is that people are dying in droves, and the majority of these, perhaps, do not know Christ as their Savior.
- Second, is the hundreds of thousands of children that are left orphaned as their parents, aunts, and uncles die. This relates to the Church quite differently than you probably think. Many developing countries view children as second-class citizens. One manifestation of this in the Church is the lack of children’s programs. In most churches, the children play while the parents worship, and they never really hear the Gospel until their late teens or early twenties.
By adding these two together, it is easy to see the result that Christianity could easily die out or become weakened to the point of ineffectiveness.