Last evening, I was with two Ethiopian missionaries who work in India. After a sumptuous meal of injera be watt (their national food) we held hands and poured out our hearts to God. As I prayed, the husband, Joseph, began to weep for the Indian people milling on the street below us. His wife poured out her heart to God for the lost, the poor, those Indians who will accept anything as god but find it so difficult to believe that Jesus is the only way to God. You have to be here to feel India with its 1.2 billion people—and less than 3% are Christians.

Just now, I got off the phone with an Indian Christian doctor who is recruiting medical background Indians to go to Somalia. He was giving me a lecture on why Indians need to be involved in world missions. “We have a part to play,” he said. “And actually if we start sending out missionaries, we will see that God will bless our nation as well.” I reminded him of Paul praying and asking the Lord to leave him in Jerusalem where he knew how to reach the people, but God said, “I am sending you far away to the Gentiles.”

It brings up a fascinating question. Why should Indians (or other nations for that matter) send missionaries “far away” when there are so many near to them that do not know the Lord? Why is it important for every nation–not just the “reached” ones–to become involved in world missions? It is important because every nation has something to give to the missionary cause that only they can give. There is a background, a history, a context that is like a part of a puzzle or an instrument in the orchestra. When that part is missing, the puzzle cannot be completed; the orchestra cannot reach its potential. And there are things that God teaches the sending church through sending its missionaries.

To my knowledge there has never been a country in the world where its church has been hurt because they sent too many missionaries into the harvest fields of the world. On the contrary, it seems that everyone who gives receives, for it is more blessed to give than to receive. It is like a wise old man said long ago, “You take care of God’s business ... and He will take care of yours.”

What does India have to contribute to the world of missions? Just after I hung up with my doctor friend, another Indian friend called. He and his wife had gone to Ethiopia to teach in a missionary training college there. They were an immediate “hit” with the students. And when I debriefed with this Indian couple, they began to tell me their observations and concerns from Ethiopia. I have lived in that land since I as a boy, but they had picked up more in a few weeks that most pick up in a lifetime! Why? Because their own background and culture alerted them to all kinds of issues that we don’t see or are desensitized to. Indians could say things to the Ethiopians from their India background that no one else could ever say!

Yes, India, with all its millions of lost and needy souls, needs to be involved in world missions. For “God so loved the world ...”