England

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Country Facts
Population: 61,113,205 (2009)
Median Age: 40.2 years
GDP per capita: $35,400 (2009 est.)
Major Religion: Christianity (74%)
People Groups: 104 Unreached: 28
Largest Unreached People Group: Punjabi (555,000)
Government Type: Constitutional Monarchy
Official Language: English

Geography
Located in Western Europe, the United Kingdom is composed of islands including the northern one-sixth of the island of Ireland between the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea, northwest of France.

Get Involved

Donate
to a missionary below

People
The English are a Germanic people who entered Great Britain over 1500 years ago from Central Europe. Due to repeated conquests (Vikings, Norman French), mixing with the Celtic inhabitants of Britain, and the expansion of the empire in the 17th-20th centuries, the English are ethnically quite diverse. England was a major power that created the most widely-spread colonial empire on the globe, which is now relinquished. England, as part of the U.K., maintains a great cultural influence throughout the world. In recent decades, the Muslim population has grown significantly in England, with many who are native born, posing a threat to British culture and laws as it increasingly demands to be recognized.

Millions of English live in large cities (London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, etc.) but also in small towns and country villages. Most live at a "First World" level in comfortable homes with sufficient employment, entertainment and access to all aspects of modern life.

History
Early English history is marked by immigration. Although not the first, the Celts began arriving around 2,500 to 3,000 years ago. England became part of the Roman Empire in A.D. 43. After the Roman withdrawal in A.D. 410, waves of Jutes, Angles, and Saxons arrived and established control.

Under Queen Elizabeth I, England became a major naval power and its colonies and trade expanded.

Culture
The United Kingdom is a crowded country. People cope with this situation by being reserved and diffident in public, politely ignoring strangers, quietly minding their own business, and marking out and defending their private spaces, homes, and gardens. They expect others to do the same.

The idea of social class is much more powerful than that of ethnicity. People frequently characterize themselves as working class or middle class. Although few admit to being upper class, in principle there are three classes, with the highest one reserved for the aristocratic inheritors of old, landed wealth. People frequently characterize themselves as working class or middle class, perceiving themselves to have respectable but unprivileged origins, and typically are born into a family supported by wages from industrial or agricultural labor paid in cash at the end of the week.

England is known for its bland cuisine.Traditional meals have ancient origins, such as bread and cheese, roasted and stewed meats, meat and game pies, and freshwater and saltwater fish, usually eaten at midday. Tea and beer are typical and rather iconic drinks in England. Roast beef is a food traditionally associated with the English.

There are many sports which have been codified by the English, and then spread worldwide, including badminton, cricket, croquet, football, field hockey, lawn tennis, rugby, table tennis and thoroughbred horse racing.

Spiritual Climate
The spiritual climate in England has changed dramatically in the past centuries. Once sending out Christian missionaries to all parts of the earth, and shaped by successive Evangelical revivals in the 18th and 19th century, present day England is nominally Chris tian and secularized. England is a post-Christian culture, though the Church is stronger there than in much of Europe. Since the 1950s, church adherence has fallen dramatically, and the British are generally uninterested in formal religious practice. Sixty percent of adults do not believe in God, and one-third have no religious affiliation. The English are susceptible, like other secularized populations, to a wide range of beliefs from astrology to Buddhism, though in the main, they are likely materialistic, practical atheists.

With its wide ethnic diversity, England's growing Muslim population (due to a large influx of Muslims from former colonial areas since 1960) is having increasing influence, posing a threat to the British way of life and making it also a great mission field to reach the Muslim world for Christ. More people in England attend mosque than church.

NMSI Involvement
NMSI became involved in England in 2007. Current NMSI ministry includes:

• Church planting

• Ministering in local schools through curriculum development and teaching Religious Education courses
• Ministry to moms with small children (MOPS)
• Incarnational ministry is at the heart of all their relationships, within the existing church and to non-believers.

Prayer Points
• Pray that God would raise up workers for the harvest field in the East Midlands.
• Pray for Kingdom fruit with students and staff through the Christian coursework.
• Pray that opportunities for the Gospel to penetrate the hearts and minds of the lost.
• For relevancy of the church and revival to spread in post-modern England.
• For the English to recapture the spirit and resources they once used to evangelize much of the world and to send out missionaries again.

Ministry Opportunities
Short-term: Join a 2010 summer internship to England

Long-term: If you feel called to work or are currently working in a country in this region, please contact our People and Organizational Development (POD) Team to explore how NMSI might partner with you.

England Photo Gallery

Sources: Joshua Project, CIA World Factbook, Campus Crusade for Christ, Wikipedia

NMSI missionaries serving in England:

Estonia

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Country Facts
Population: 1,340,000 (2009)
Median Age: 39.9 years
GDP per capita: $21,400 (2008 est.)
Major Religion: Christianity (74%)
People Groups: 37 Unreached: 6
Largest Unreached People Group: Tatar
Government Type: Parliamentary Democracy
Official Language: Estonian

Geography
Located in Eastern Europe, Estonia is situated north of Latvia and west of Russia, bordering the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Finland.

People

Get Involved

Donate
to a missionary below

Estonians belong to the Balto-Finnic group of the Finno-Ugric peoples, with strong ties to the Nordic countries. This highly literate society places great emphasis upon education, which is free and compulsory until age 16. About 20% of the population belongs to registered churches, including Orthodox, Catholic, Baptist and Evangelical. Estonians are typically introverted and seldom make eye contact in public, yet celebrations are

History
Estonians are one of the longest-settled European peo ples and have lived along the Baltic Sea for over 5,000 years. The Estonians were an indep endent nation until the 13th century A.D. when it was conquered by Denmark, Germany, Poland, Sweden, and finally Russia. In 1920, amidst the collapse of the Russian empire during World War I, Soviet Russia recognized Estonia's independence and renounced all rights to its territory. This independence lasted just 22 years when in 1940, during WWII, the Soviet Union illegally annexed Estonia as the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic (E.S.S.R). During WWII, Estonia was occupied by both the Nazis and Soviets, losing 180,000 people, 17% of their population. During Nazi occupation from 1941 to 1944, 7,800 citizens of the Republic of Estonia were executed in Nazi prison camps. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1980s, Estonia once again gained independence in 1991.

Culture
Estonia has a unique culture stemming from their peasant history. Folk festivals and poetry continue to be important. The Estonian national identity solidified in reaction to Russification policies imposed by the government. Estonians are traditionally socially introverted, keep a distance in public, yet celebrations such as weddings can last for several days. Although built under foreign rule, buildings are important symbols in Estonia. City walls, towers, churches, and fortresses strongly connect Estonians to the past.

Spiritual Climate
There was a severe persecution of all faiths under the Soviet occupation 1940-1988, but freedom of religion was established in 1988. The introduction of capitalism has brought wealth accompanied by a moral slide. Most people nominally recognize Christianity's principles, but have little desire to commit themselves to Christ. Younger churches are growing. (Campus Crusade for Christ)

NMSI Involvement
NMSI first began to work in Estonia in 2002 when NMSI organized a container of used clothes from churches and individuals in Florida to be shipped to the city of Narva. A Russian church then distributed them to needy people both in Estonia and Russia. In the summer of 2005, NMSI sent their first full time missionaries** there who began efforts in:

• Evangelism and church planting work in the Russian communities
• Campus ministry in English for Tartu University International students
• Different types of projects with Russian and Estonian churches
• Short term mission teams to help at children summer camps

Prayer Points
• Pray for the missionary work in Estonia, where only 20% of the population are connected with the church.
• For spiritual revival throughout the country of Estonia.
• For the campus ministry at Tartu university as they reach the international student population.
• For the summer internship to have a strong impact in the Tartu region.

Ministry Opportunities
Short-term: Join a 2010 summer internship to Estonia

Long-term: If you feel called to work or are currently working in a country in this region, please contact our People and Organizational Development Team to explore how NMSI might partner with you.

Estonia Photo Gallery

Sources: Joshua Project, CIA World Factbook, Every Culture Campus Crusade for Christ, Wikipedia

NMSI missionaries serving in Estonia:

**Our workers names and locations are not disclosed on our website so the humanitarian nature of their work is not misunderstood.