Answers to Prayer in Asia
1 The spectacular growth of the Church in some countries of Asia observed in the 1980s has continued in the 1990s
a) All Christians have increased from 22 million (2.3%) in 1900 to over 300 million (8.3%) in 2000
b) Protestant and Independent Christians increased from under 4 million in 1900 to over 193 million in 2000
c) Catholic growth was slower — from 11.1 million (1.2%) to 96 million (2.6%)
d) Asian Evangelicals, over 130 million, have become almost as numerous as all Evangelicals in the Americas
2 The establishment of the Church in lands long sealed off from all overt Christian work with hundreds of churches and thousands of believers in Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkey and footholds for the gospel gained in a number of others
3 South Korea’s maturing Church
4 Indonesia is the first largely Muslim country to have many Muslims coming to Christ
5 The increase in the number of Muslim Background Believers (MBBs), despite or even because of, the activities of Islamist extremism
6 Detailed and dedicated research during the 1990s in India, China, Indonesia and SE Asia has revealed the spiritual needs and the extent of Christian outreach, or the need for it, to the various peoples in these complex, multi-cultural lands
7 The emergence of a mature, international missionary involvement