duce Indian languages to writing, translating the Bible into these tongues. The one who knows any thing about linguistics realizes that there is a language of the lips, of the head, and of the heart. Going to a foreign country one quickly memorizes enough words and phrases to find his way about. He certainly has not really learned the language. It is only when he be gins to think in the foreign lan guage that he can really commun icate. Now matter how fluently a man may learn to speak and think in a foreign language it still has to become the language of his heart. This is where the impact can truly be made. Before you become a Christian the tense of the Bible is past. There is nothing to do, only believe. The moment you accept Christ as Sav iour the tense changes. When Je sus gave the disciples the Great Commission the verb was not "done" but "do." This task has not been completed. May these four words challenge your heart: Not "done," but "do." The Enemy There is a great struggle which every Christian must face (Ephes ians 6:10-18). Our fight is not against other people. That is why we need to put on the whole ar mour of God. Paul is essentially saying, "What you need in the battle of world missions is to real ize that you are up against satan, the ruler of the darkness of this world." The principle applies not only to the work of the mission ary but also to the work of the Christian at home. When we give, our purpose is that satan may be defeated. When we witness by life
is no glory, glamour, or pleasure about ministering in places like these. They are hard and getting even harder. In some sections there are no crowds and very few con verts. It may be a ministry from tent-to-tent, igloo-to-igloo and shack-to-shack, with hundreds of miles of torturous trails between them. Geographically, the task has not been completed. Consider, too, the problem of population. Not only have we failed to go to all the place geographi cally, but also we have failed to reach people in more densely pop ulated areas. There are probably over three billion people in the modern world. Over half of them have not been evangelized. This is despite the fact that the Church has had her orders for nearly 20 centuries. We used to think that there were approximately 2000 spoken lan guages in the world. Most recent surveys have revealed that there are at least 3000 languages, and perhaps even more. Wycliffe Bible Translators tell us that only about 206 of these have the entire Bible in their language. Another 260 have the New Testament, with 620 hav ing less than the complete New Testament, and 100 less than one book; just a few chapters or verses. Just think, there are at least 2000 individual languages used by peo ple who have yet to see the first verse of the Word of Cod in their own tongue. In New Guinea there are 626 dif ferent languages, 200 more among the tribes of Australia, another 200 among the islands of Indonesia, with 320 found on other Pacific Islands. Here in our own land mis sionaries are working hard to re- Page 14
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