Unreached Peoples and Nations: Tibet

Tibet is a fairly large country that is located in southwest China, and borders India and Nepal. The people that live in this isolated country are completely unreached, with thousands that have no church, Bible, or missionaries working among them. It is well-known for its hard opposition to the Gospel, with numerous martyrs having given their lives there.

Tibet’s main religion is Tibetan Buddhism, which is very hostile to Christianity. Most of this country’s people groups consist of a Buddhist majority, with several groups of over 90% Buddhist. Though Christianity first came to Tibet with the arrival of missionaries in the 1600s, the church has never been able to set its roots here. Most mission work saw few results. The Buddhists and government either kept missionaries out, or persecuted the ones already inside Tibet. The result: hundreds of thousands are without the Gospel, who don’t have access to the Bible, with no missionaries, and no church.

Today, there are only just over nine thousand Christians in Tibet, which has a total population of nearly three million. Most of those who do claim Christianity are Roman Catholics. When figured up, this shows only 0.32% of people in Tibet claim to believe in the Christian religion. If Roman Catholics are not included in this figure, there would only be one Christian for every two thousand, one hundred people. Obviously, the need for mission work in this area is tremendous.

Most of you reading this will never have the chance to be a full time missionary to Tibet, since the country is so closed. But while you may not go there, you can still help by simply praying. Please, pray that God would raise up laborers to go to these unreached people, that Bibles and resources would be produced and distributed. Pray for the native believers in Tibet, that they would be strong in the Lord and have boldness for Christ.

F. H. Henry said “The Gospel is only good news if it gets there on time.” This is very true of the Tibetans. For them, the Gospel is not good news because they don’t even know what it is. Even if they wanted to they could not hear the message of salvation. May we do everything in our power to reach these people and the millions of others like them.

-Reagan Schrock, blog manager 
 

How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without preaching? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things!"-Romans 10:14-15