The need for evangelical churches in Nebraska
This past Sunday I traveled to Tryon, a small town in the beautiful Sandhills of western Nebraska, with Jason Arensdorf, one of our core team leaders. We traveled about 4 1/2 hours to share the gospel with his 79 year-old grandmother, Leah, who has been diagnosed with lung cancer and who has only months to live. Jason has shared with his grandmother in the past, but she has resisted his attempts, changing the conversation to criticize Christians for hypocrisy and to even blame us for the war in Iraq. I guess a prophet is not received in his hometown! Jason asked me to talk to his grandmother, thinking she might listen to a stranger. God answered many prayers as we shared with Leah. Her daughters, who we were afraid would object to us talking to their mom, actually helped us out by turning down the television and police scanner that were blaring in the room, and they affirmed what we were saying! Amazing when you consider that they too have rejected Jason’s attempts to share with them.
The most amazing thing we experienced was the extreme need for gospel-preaching churches in western Nebraska. Despite past objections, Leah’s daughters, faced with their mom’s impending death, were actually waiting for someone from a church to talk to their mom so that she could get her life right with the Lord, but they didn’t know what to do because there are so few churches in their area. No one was available to share the good news of Jesus with their mom! How many people in Tryon, how many people in other rural areas of Nebraska, how many people in populated areas of the state are waiting for someone to share the good news of Jesus? How many don’t even know enough to know that there is a Savior, Jesus? Chances are great that there are many. I recently did some research and found that about 34% of the nations in Africa have more evangelical Christians than we do in Nebraska! The populations of our most populous counties, Douglas home to Omaha and Lancaster home to Lincoln the state capital, are no more than 10% evangelical. The populations of some African nations are 20 to about 35% evangelical! I understand that many African nations are not so blessed, being less than 1 or 2% evangelical. But Nebraska is in the heartland of America.
I am convinced that the only way to get the good news of Jesus to the people of Nebraska is to fervently pray and ask God for a church planting movement across the state. I believe that if enough of God’s people pray persitently and ask Him to bring revival that God will answer. Please pray for Leah and the hundreds of thousand of Nebraskans who don’t know Jesus. Time is running out.
If you would like to see the beauty of the Sandhills, do a Google search, or check out the link http://www.hprcc.unl.edu/nebraska/nebraska-sandhills-aug2001.html.
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