In Mark 6:34, Jesus looked at the crowd around him and “had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” His heart was moved by how lost they were and how much they needed Him.

Rabi expressed the same heart of compassion in his report. He directs a Global Disciples discipleship-mission program in a highly-restricted South Asian country. He looked around and saw a group of people in need.

“I passed a wonderful time with the tea sellers,” Rabi wrote. “They have no value in society, but Jesus loves them. Jesus wants all nations to hear about his name.”

The tea sellers are children who run around the market all day carrying tea pots and thermoses, providing a simple service to earn a few pennies. No one is concerned about their spiritual or daily welfare.

When the disciples in Rabi’s training program did their outreach, he took several to focus on these young people. Rabi said, “I invited all the tea sellers in the market and fair. It is a sorrow that they are only children, so I feel compassion for them. I share about God’s love for them. And I teach them how to behave with others.”

Rabi recognizes that “least-reached” people can be more than an ethnic or language group. They can also be socio-economic groups, or those who are marginalized or ignored in their own culture—like the children selling tea in the local markets.