Go Beyond

Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

In 1993, Greg Mortensen set out to climb K2, the world’s second tallest mountain. K2 is located in the Karakoram range that spans the northern borders of Pakistan, India, and China. However, Mortensen’s participation in the rescue of another climber prevented him from making his summit bid. On his descent, Mortensen became disoriented and took a wrong turn and ended up in Korphe, a village of subsistence farmers located in northeastern Pakistan. Exhausted and ill, the residents of this mountain village nursed Mortensen back to health. Moretnsen promised to repay their kindness by returning to build a school in their village. He made good on that promise and has since helped to build schools in some of the most remote and rugged locations in Pakistan and Afghanistan. You can read more about Mortensen’s remarkable story in his best-selling books, Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations … One School at a Time, and the sequel, Stones Into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Mortensen founded the Central Asia Institute, a non-government organization dedicated to building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. What I love best about the CAI is that they are committed to building schools in “last places first” — in villages located in areas that present enormous logistical challenges. To date, Mortensen has had a hand in establishing or supporting more than 170 schools which provide an education to more than 64,000 children, including 54,000 girls. All of this started with a single promise he made when he took a wrong turn coming down a mountain! I have great admiration for the work of Greg Mortensen and great respect for his “last places first” philosophy.

In recent years, missiologists have called Christ-followers to turn their attention to “last places first” — to the unreached and unengaged people groups that live in what has become known as the 10/40 Window. This rectangular-shaped geographical  area is located between 10 and 40 degrees latitude north of the equator and stretches from North Africa all the way to the Pacific Rim. The people groups that live in this region of the world have the little or no access to the gospel. Many are kept in darkness by hostile cultures and governments. These people groups live in what are “last places” for the kingdom of God.

Bangladesh is in the heart of the 10/40 Window. I first visited this over-crowded nation in 1999 and have returned to visit almost annually. In 2004, a national Christian leader here told me of his concern for the unengaged islands in the Bay of Bengal. So, I made plans to visit one of those islands the following year. When I arrived, an island resident told me that no Westerner had visited their island since 1991. This man of peace arranged for me to speak to several hundred of the island’s Muslim inhabitants about why I had come. I was given complete freedom to share the story of Jesus. The following year I led a team to visit another island in the Bay of Bengal. However, our Bibles were confiscated and we were assigned a police escort throughout our stay.

Last night, my companions and I arrived at Cox’s Bazar after a fourteen-hour drive from Dhaka. Cox’s Bazar is the longest natural sea beach in the world. It borders the Bay of Bengal to the east and provides a vista of the far western horizon. In between horizons are small pockets of people who inhabit the islands in the Bay of Bengal. These are some of the “last places” on earth that are still waiting to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ for the first time. Kingsland’s missions ministry currently supports two Bengali nationals who have moved to one of the islands to share the story of Jesus. Over the next day we are meeting with our national partner to strategize on how we can take the gospel to more islands. Our focus in Bangladesh, and other places where we are involved, is to go to the “last places first.” Please pray that those who live in last places will soon have their first opportunity to hear the story of Jesus.