It blew my mind.

This article actually shocked me when I read it a few days ago, and I keep thinking about it.  Please read about the research before you comment.  Basically some very well-done research shows that countries around the world today which have better education, better health, and more democracy are the countries where independent Christian missionaries went in the 1800's.  What is meant by independent: those who went out of a sense of personal call to convert people to a Bible-based faith. This is in opposition to missionaries who were attached to a political power at that time - the ones who were Catholic (aka attached to the Vatican) or who were Protestant and going at the behest of a government.  The difference held whether the independent missionaries made many converts or almost none.

So first of all, I hadn't thought about the long-term impact of missions.  It didn't occur to me that 150 years later, there would be any noticeable impact.

And second of all, I guess I expected to hear that 19th-century missionaries had neutral or negative impact on their territories.  Hear me out, friends of faith.  I thought we'd learn that they helped in some ways (helped a few individuals) and harmed in others (think colonialism).  Or that they basically destroyed all the good that was in their target culture.

Anyway, not so.

While the article concluded that not every missionary did consistent good for the people they went to serve, on the whole they improved literacy, human rights, health, and peace in those areas in ways that still show up dramatically 150 years later.

So I started thinking about Jesus' parable of the mustard seed which I studied recently in Matthew:

The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.

What I understand the parable to say is that God's kingdom starts out really small - like one missionary family entering untouched territory.  But when God's kingdom grows through conversion (a change of heart), it makes a difference for the whole people group or national government.  And it makes a difference to people who are not even part of God's kingdom - they are able to nest safely in its protection.

O ye of little faith!  (*O me of little faith!*)