I can't count the number of times I've heard Christians ask, "Why should we send missionaries overseas when we have so many needs right here in our own country?"

The question makes sense until we look at the facts:
1. In North America, we have more than 1 million full-time Christian workers, which is 1 for every 230 people. In other places of the world, there is only 1 missionary for every 500,000 people.
2. 96 percent of all Christian finances around the world are spent in North America, which has only 6 percent of the earth's population. That leaves only 4 percent for the rest of the world.
3. 85 percent of Bibles are printed in English, while only 9 percent of the world reads English. There are more than 4,300 language groups in the world which still do not have a Bible translated into their own tongue.
4. 80 percent of the world has never owned a Bible, while Americans average four for every household.
5. We hear the gospel again and again, while 2.7 billion men, women, boys and girls are still waiting for their first chance.

Several months ago, Dave and I went to Phoenix to do a little work and enjoy some rest and relaxation around the pool. I sat in a lounge chair with the sun rays reflecting off the water and read Road to Reality by K. P. Yohannan, international director of Gospel for Asia. While sitting there in my plush and cushy world, Kohannan's words became my road to reality. He wrote:
"To understand this iniquity fully [the overabundance of hearing the gospel in the U.S], imagine the 55,000 seats in the Houston Astrodome represented the population of the world. If 171 hotdog vendors represented all the missionaries we send overseas, 170 of them would be offering food to only the first 25,300 seats. One lone vendor would have to go to the other 29,700 seats!
"And it's worse than that. When they had gone through those first 25,300 seats once, they wouldn't go on to the other rows full of hungry fans! Instead they would go back over the first seats again and again and again. . . A tiny slice of the world's population, living in the United States and Canada, is getting stuffed with the Gospel over and over again while most of the world is still waiting for a first bite" (p. 118).

So where do you and I go with this information? What do we do with these facts?

Whatever God lays on our hearts, but we must listen as He tells us how we can help others get their first bite. We can try things like:
Cutting back on some luxuries and sending the money to a missionary in our church.
Supporting missionary organizations e.g. Gospel for Asia, Samaritan's Purse, Mission of Mercy
Committing to pray daily for specific parts of the 10/40 window. The ministry, Every Home for Christ could help us do that.
Going on short- and long-term missions trips.
Teaching our kids to have a mission's heart.

Missionary Oswald J. Smith wrote, "Why should anyone hear the gospel twice before everyone has heard it once?"

Count how many times you've heard the gospel this week. Now find that many ways to reach out to the unreached.

And when you start thinking like that, you'll know why we can't possibly keep our missionaries at home.