Brazil

In 1500 the Portuguese explorer Pedro Cabral, on landing at the newly discovered thousands of miles across the ocean, built a wooden cross and together with his crew they knelt before it and kissed it. This was to demonstrate to the natives their veneration for the cross. Cabral named this new land, “Vera Cruz”, meaning “True Cross”, though others are calling it ‘Brazil’ after the brazilwood found on the coast.

Alaska

In 1867 The United States purchased Alaska for $7.2 million, or about 2 cents an acre from Russia. Ten years later, after lax military administration had only worsened the territory's moral condition, an army private stationed in Alaska begged, "Send out a shepherd who may reclaim a mighty flock from the error of their ways, and gather them into the true fold." Presbyterian missionary Sheldon Jackson (1834-1909) answered the call and spent decades founding numerous schools, chuches and training centers that served these native people, and crusading for better laws. (Source Christian History and Biography)

Africa

In 1900, there were 8 to 10 million Christians in Africa, which amounted to 8 to 10 percent of the total population. In 2009 there are said to be 360 million—nearly 50 percent of the continent.

In the twentieth century, there were some 1.8 million Christian martyrs in Africa.