Herkunftsländer der Migranten sind häufig klassische Missionsländer

Migrants' countries of origin are often classic mission countries

Where do migrants in Germany come from? If you look at the statistics, you realize that many of the migrants' countries of origin are classic mission countries, i.e. countries with unreached ethnic groups. Turkey leads the way with roughly 1.5 million people. As a rule of thumb, the same number includes people with German citizenship, but from this country of origin. It is important to note that this rule of thumb only applies to people from countries of origin who have been living in Germany for several decades. This excludes Ukraine. This means that around 3 million people with a Turkish background live in Germany. Syria (900,000), Poland (almost 900,000), Italy (650,000), Afghanistan (380,000), Greece (360,000), Russia (290,000), Kosovo (280,000), Serbia (260,000) and Bosnia (230,000) would also fall into this category of classic mission countries. Note: The figures in brackets only describe the citizenship.

How many of these people can speak German really well? How many of these people read regularly in German? Certainly not the majority. That's why oral stories and appealing videos are a good way to tell the Good News to everyone, including the many migrants in Germany. After all, migrants' countries of origin are often classic mission countries. If you want to know more about how to share the Good News in simple German, click on Training.

Constraints: There is no generally recognized definition for classic mission countries. This is more of a personal assessment. I follow Joshua Project's definition of Unreached. Unreached counts as: Less than 2 % evangelicals.

Jeder Fünfte nicht in Deutschland geboren

One in five not born in Germany

According to Wikipedia there are around 16.4 million people living in Germany who were not born here. As a reminder, Germany currently has 84 million people. This means that roughly one in five people came to Germany from another country. Incidentally, that is the second highest number in the world. And many of them speak German as a foreign language, sometimes better, sometimes worse. Many will find it difficult to read in German. On the other hand, we Christians have a mission to bring the Good News to all people. That's why I love telling "Bible stories" in simple German. More about this in my training courses at Training.

So viele Deutsche können nicht richtig lesen und schreiben

So many Germans can't read and write properly

6 million people are not able to read in Germany. 16 % of students with a high School-leaving qualification in Germany are not able to read or forgot to read. When I told my wife about this statistic, she replied: "Now you've gone mad! Once you've learned to read, you can do it forever. If you get a high school diploma, you won't forget how to read." A day later, she went to her needlework circle, a meeting of women to do needlework together. There she told me about me and the fact that there are people who have finished school and later forget how to read. One participant said: "That really does exist. After my studies, I had a job where I didn't have to read. At some point I realized that I was on the verge of forgetting how to read altogether. That's when I forced myself to consciously start reading books again."

I was very surprised by this anecdote and it illustrates why even people with a high school degree can forget how to read. If you want to learn more about this topic, I recommend my handbook "Stories and Oral Bibles" at Download download.

Non-readers in certain occupational groups

Look at the proportions in certain professions, for example, 56 % of unskilled construction workers cannot read. If we take Jesus' mission to bring the good news to all people seriously, then we can't expect non-readers to start reading. That's why telling Bible stories is so important to me. More about this in my training courses at Training.