6,607

Six thousand six hundred and seven...that was a foreign number to me the first time I saw it posted anywhere. There are plenty of familiar numbers that I can recite or recall if asked. For example, when you read the number 23 and think of basketball, who comes to mind? I can also get pretty close to telling you how many people fit inside Auburn's football stadium at a sold out game (87,451 for everyone keeping score at home).

Numbers are familiar and we can depend on them. Most of you know that I have ran a couple of marathons and several half marathons over the past few years. When you train for a race like this, there are many numbers that you have to become familiar with. For example, your running pace, distance ran and heart rate are some of the crucial numbers that are good to know for safety and to track process as you train. A marathon is 26.2 miles, for anyone that may want to run one... This is kind of a crazy number, and there is a reason for it. The distance of the race is the exact distance from two towns in Greece, Marathon and Athens. A greek runner was sent to Athens from Marathon to announce that the Persians had been defeated during the Battle of...you guessed it, Marathon. After he had ran the 26.2 miles, he collapsed and died... I wonder who was the first person to try this again after this man passed away? Smart, right?

Back to the number 6,607. If you haven't googled it by now...can you guess what this number represents? According to the International Mission Board (IMB), this is the number of people groups where less than 2% of the total population profess to be Evangelical Christians. The IMB considers that a people group is "the largest group through which the gospel can flow without encountering significant barriers of understand and acceptance." After letting that number sink in, please read Romans 10:14-15. My prayer is that this number starts to shrink as we go to the nations!