Change The Map exists to transform the spiritual map of the Buddhist world for God’s glory by inspiring and resourcing the church to prayer and action.
Buddhism is the fourth largest world religion. There are one billion Buddhists in the world today, including practicing Buddhists and non-religious people with a Buddhist worldview. This is three times the population of the United States.
Buddhists believe that existence is an endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth defined by pain and suffering. The goal of Buddhism is to escape this cycle by meditating and making merit, which includes offerings and other good works. At its core, Buddhism is an atheistic belief system, but in most places it is practiced, Buddhism includes spirit worship and belief in spiritual beings.
The majority of Buddhists are living in seven countries: China, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Cambodia.
Buddhist countries are spiritually difficult places to grow churches and make disciples. For example, after 200 years of evangelical global work in Thailand, a majority Buddhist country, less than 1% of the population are followers of Jesus Christ.
After the Israelites fled Egypt, the Amalekites attacked (Exodus 17). During the battle, when Moses raised his staff, Israel prevailed. When he dropped it, they lost ground. Moses’ staff raised high in intercession before God was more powerful than the Israelites’ swords. Similarly, pastors and global workers are battling in the Buddhist world, but without the intercession of the church, progress will continue to be slow. Prayer intercession is critical for God’s kingdom to advance.
We believe now is the time for the church to intercede for a powerful move of God throughout the Buddhist world.
Change The Map was born during a season of prayer when veteran global worker to Thailand, Mark Durene, realized that he was living in the center of the highest concentration of Buddhists in the world. The words “change the map” sprang into his mind and spirit. He knew that changing the spiritual map in the Buddhist world would not happen without significant divine intervention in response to fervent prayer.
As a result of the faithful prayers of the church for the Muslim world over the last 40 years, God has been intervening miraculously among Muslims, drawing people to himself through dreams and visions. Today, some of the fastest growing churches are in the Muslim world. It is our prayer to see the same spiritual transformation happen in the Buddhist world.
Sources: changethemap.net, Operation World
It is our goal to inspire 50,000 prayer partners who will commit to intercede for the Buddhist world on a weekly basis, and to send 100 additional workers to serve in the Buddhist world.
You can change the map by becoming one of the 50,000 weekly prayer partners and subscribing to our weekly Prayer Moments by selecting the “count me in” button below