PARK FOREST, IL – Reach a Village is a relatively young faith-based parachurch organization. It was founded in 2012 by Robert Craft, a servant of the Lord with more than 40 years of ministry as a pastor, missionary, and evangelical leader.

The Need

The vision for the ministry is rooted in Mark 1:38 (NET), where Jesus said, “Let us go elsewhere, into the surrounding villages, so that I can preach there too. For that is what I came out here to do.”

While serving as a missionary in Southeast Asia, Craft began to realize that a significant amount of missionary work focused on reaching people in the major metropolitan areas. He saw a pressing need and believed that the Lord was calling him to go beyond urban areas into remote villages where the Gospel has never been presented.

The Approach

In less than a decade, and along with a vast international network of local Christian ministries, Reach a Village has established successful outreach and discipleship programs in Eurasia, Southeast Asia, and China.

Based on the information available, Reach a Village estimates the number of villages in the following countries, for example, where there is no evangelical church:

The footprint of Reach a Village is far wider than those five nations. Its evangelism, discipleship, and church-planting programs are also actively operating in the Eurasian countries of Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Macedonia, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine.

In Southeast Asia, projects have been established and are continuing in Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

Despite the official opposition to Christianity in China, Reach a Village is working with indigenous partners to reach the 400+ unreached people groups living in remote regions of the massive country.

The Results

The program is working! Operating on a budget far smaller than many similar ministries, during 2019:

• Nearly 1.6 million people heard the Gospel.
• More than 222,000 people became new believers.
• Nearly 4.4 million copies of the Scriptures were provided.
• 2,230 new churches were planted in previously unreached villages.
• More than 393,000 people joined Bible studies.
• Nearly 125,000 people attended Christian leadership training programs.

What’s more, “Every person who has committed to Christ in 2019 has completed a Bible study based on the teachings of Jesus and is part of a house church.”

On average, one person has made a commitment to Christ for every $10.54 invested in funding Reach a Village.

Because of Reach a Village and its network of like-minded ministries, unreached villages are becoming villages from which God’s love is being shared with yet other unreached villages.

You can learn a lot more about Reach a Village by visiting their website or their Facebook page.

Read more news on Children’s Education and World Missions on Missions Box.