The largest unreached country in the world
After Jesus' death and resurrection Christianity started to spread slowly from Jerusalem to Judea (modern day Israel) and to the rest of the world. Some of the first places it reached was Galatia and Asia, now know as Turkey. All of the Apostle Paul's missionary journeys visited Turkey and there were many churches set up there. The books of Acts, Galatians, Ephesians and Revelation were all written about or sent to Turkey. However, 2000 years later, Turkey has very few Christians. With only a fraction of a percentage of the people following Jesus. Nearly all Turks are Muslims.
The start of a small Turkish Evangelical Church. Turkish believers probably numbered about 10 in 1960. This had risen to about 2,000 in 34 fellowships by 2000.
Turkey remains the largest unreached nation in the world. For over 1,000 years it was a stronghold of Christianity, but it has become a strong Islamic country. The Christian population has declined from 22% to 0.32% since 1900 - most of these Christians being non-Turkish. Few of the 66 million Muslims have ever heard the gospel.
The ancient churches survived until the beginning of the 20th Century, but since then have been devastated by massacres (Armenians), severe persecution (Assyrians) and emigration (Greeks, etc.). Pray for the Christians that survive - for re-kindling of faith and for a work of the Holy Spirit. Their numbers have been reduced to an estimated 138,000 in 12 different traditions.