Sphere of Influence

I thought it would be interesting to follow-up yesterday's post, chronicling my (in)experience in world exploration, with a comparison to the level of international experience among the collected body of my church community, Zolder50.

Since the beginning of our church planting project, some three years ago, I've been keeping a list of the various countries that have been represented at Zolder50. Then, using the geographical plotting website that had been initially recommended by Sander, I simply plugged in the information from my records to create a rough graphical depiction of our church's sphere of influence during its short history in Amsterdam's city center.

It's exciting to see what a breadth of exposures we've had to different cultures... But it's also challenging to notice some of the gaps. For instance, why is almost the entirety of the western coast of South America not represented (while the rest of the continent has been pretty well covered). Central Asia is conspicuously absent, and Africa and the Middle East are also less clearly represented. In particular, it's challenging to note that no one from Turkey has ever visited Zolder50, in spite of the fact that Turks are one of the largest minorities in the city of Amsterdam.

I don't know what to make of these observations, but it's interesting stuff to consider.