An Unreached Muslim People-Group In China?

The Uyghur people of Western China number over 11 million, with several thousand more scattered through some other countries. Uyghurs are almost 100% Muslim, and almost entirely ‘untouched with the Gospel’ (Operation World): ‘The highly charged political and religious atmosphere, the removal of expatriate Christian workers from most of the region, and the general lack of vision by Han Chinese to evangelize these peoples are all contributing factors’ to this dire situation in Western China.

What makes this situation even more tragic is that  there was once a thriving church among the Uyghur people (13^th century).

Some years ago, a young Uyghur named ‘A’ was contemplating what he had learned from his study of the Qur’an: that Isa (Jesus) had never sinned. ‘Why,’ he thought, ‘do they say that Muhammad is greater, if Muhammad sinned, but Jesus did not?’  No one, not even his grandfather, nor his scholarly teachers, could answer that question for him, but many years later a foreign Christian at his university did. ‘A’ eventually came to Christ, studied in Bejing and in Turkey, and became an effective preacher of the Gospel to Muslims in Europe. God can reach them, but He uses human agents to do so!

‘A’  was a student in our Bible school in Germany back in the 90s. He as such an effective evangelist

among Turks that the mission that had sent him to our Bible school asked him to stop evangelizing in our city, because it was getting back to Ankara and making trouble for their work there!

Pray that the Uyghur people will be open to the truth of the Scriptures, and that they will have access to them, and read and study them! You can read up on the Uyghur people at the website of one of our partner missions, SIM:  http://www.sim.org/index.php/content/uyghurs

Mali or Azawad—Religious Freedom or Oppression?

For many years, Mali, West Africa, has been one of few predominantly Muslim countries offering some degree of religious freedom, but the opportunity has been seldom utilized by servants of Christ.

So, others have seized control of the country. In January of 2012, an alliance of fierce Tuareg separatists (another mostly unreached people group) and Al-Quaeda affiliated rebels, armed with Qaddafi’s left-over weaponry, took control of the northern two-thirds of the country, renaming it Azawad. The provisional capital was Gao, but the intended one was Timbuktu (yes, it does exist!). The few Christians who had moved to the area from the south were forced to flee—a Bible school in Gao was closed.

France has continued to help its former colony over the years, and when the rebels crossed their own boundary in January of this year, it was too much to take. French military units assisted the Malian army in driving rebel forces into the mountains, where they continue to mount guerilla attacks.

Despite the uprising, methods of evangelism and discipleship are still available—radio broadcasts, literature distribution (alongside of literacy work), even street evangelism. About 75% of the population is illiterate, so audio cassettes, MP3 players, and SMS cards for mobile phones—all are useful tools in telling the Story.

Not too long ago, one of our workers was traveling with a Malian pastor, visiting individual believers in the wide, sandy diaspora that is typical for the Sahel zone. They visited a little group and began to study the Scriptures. ‘Safwan’  was keenly interested, so ‘Stephan’ (a ReachAcross worker) gave him some Bible study helps, which he devoured. But where had Safwan got his Bible from? There aren’t any bookstores in his tiny village, and even if there were, the Bible certainly wouldn’t be available.

The mystery was soon solved as Safwan told his story: His father had become a committed Christian during his stint in the Malian army. Service completed, he had returned to his home village, where nobody else knew about his new-found faith. He remained the only Christian in his village until the day he died, but some time later, his son brought his father’s old Bible to our meeting. The seed that had lain dormant for a few years began to bear fruit.

With the equivalent of a fourth-grade education, Safwan had trouble reading some passages, but his comprehension is improving. He likes listening to cassette tapes of Bible portions—especially when he can follow along in his New Testament—the Old Testament isn’t available yet (a team of translators is working on it). God is working in the life of this soldier’s son.

Please pray for Mali. Safwan himself gathered in a good harvest of peanuts last year—most families are not so blessed, and if the rainfall isn’t sufficient in late summer, famine will again be just around the corner, as happened in 2012. More important still is the spiritual harvest that is just as meager. Neither type of famine—peanuts or the Bread of Life—is necessary, if God’s people will respond to His call.

Pray that God’s Kingdom will prevail in Mali.

Translated, with additions and revisions, from the German. 

Missionary Memorial Day

In a previous post, I mentioned the idea of having a Memorial Day in our churches for fallen missionaries. What I’m talking about are those who gave their lives in an attempt to establish a ‘beachhead’ for God’s Word—giving a chance for people to hear the truth about Jesus who otherwise have never had a chance.

In her classic missions textbook, From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya, Ruth A. Tucker writes that in the nineteenth-century Congo, ‘only one out of four missionaries survived the first term of service’ (p. 155).

The ratio was probably similar in some other places. Adlai Stevenson II, former Democratic presidential candidate, responded when asked what had most impressed him during a visit to Africa in the 1950s: ‘The graves. The graves. At every mission station, there were graves.’ His description of the rows of crosses is suggestive of military cemeteries, such as Arlington and Normandy.

And yet how many American Christians would be able to name at least three missionary martyrs?

More importantly, what difference does it make if we do know something about them?

Missionary pioneers are generally not an easy crowd to be around. In some ways they are spiritual giant, but many have or had significant personality flaws. Tucker comments that David Livingstone (not martyred, but he nonetheless gave his life in missionary service, as did his wife when she went out to join him) ‘was not an organizer, and soon [his] mission [agency] was in chaos’ (p. 152).

The same and more could be said of many others. They tend to be hard-headed (otherwise they wouldn’t be pioneers) and too often discount the wise counsel of colleagues. Perhaps more tragically, their families often pay a high price—think of C. T. Studd, who left his wife behind in England for more than two decades while he pioneered in the Congo.  Tucker’s comment on Livingstone, that their children buried a father ‘they had never really known,’ could be a common epitaph.

But at the same time, I have to wonder if my tendency to see the flaws in these men and women really doesn’t reflect my values as an aging American baby-boomer more than it does God’s perspective on these more recent apostles. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (11:37-38) describes them this way: ‘. . . they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented--of whom the world was not worthy.’  For me, one of the most gut-wrenching scenes imaginable is the one in the movie End of the Spear which a young Steve Saint watches his missionary pilot father fly off for the last time.

There were no Congressional Medals of Honor given for martyrs like Nate Saint, Jim Elliot, or any of the others who gave their lives in reaching the Waorani in the rain-forests of Ecuador in 1956.  But I would imagine that Jesus words, ‘well done, good and faithful servant!’ (Matt. 25:21) are worth a great deal more to all five of them than any earthly honor would ever have been.

Not to discount the debt we owe in the ‘free world’ to those who gave their lives in combating tyranny—the Apostle Paul says that some do give their lives for a good cause (Romans 5:7). But it may be a good deal harder to give one’s life (and sometimes even more so to live it out, consistently) for sinners, trusting, but not necessarily seeing, that in the end it will bear fruit.

 We honor military heroes who risked their lives for the sake of others. I wish we would honor God’s heroes (yes, I think He actually thinks that way about them) at least as much.

We owe it to Him and to them.

-ReachAcross U.S. Director

The Word Speaks our Language!

Despite the rise of technology and advances in media ministries in some regions of Africa, for many people, tracts and tapes are still the sole means of communicating God’s word. One worker from another agency shares about this rewarding ministry:

"ReachAcross has been sharing the Good News in West Africa via the printed page for over three decades. During this time we have kept book stocks in several local languages: Pulaar, Khassonke, Soninke, Bambara, Hasaniya, as well as French, Arabic and English. Also there are Scripture portions in Songhai, Tamaceq, Wolof, and others. We also sell tapes: the book of Luke, the Way of Righteousness (chronological teaching) and the Seven Signs (verses in the Qur’an which point to Jesus). 

There has always been a steady stream of Fulani customers and a trickle of the other ethnic groups. The biggest encouragement in our work in the past three or four years concerns the Soninke people. We are now selling Soninke books (literacy, folk tales, and Scripture portions) and tapes at an average of eight books and two tapes per week. Before then we sold virtually no Soninke material at all for years. The best-seller is naturally the Soninke alphabet book along with the primers - it is great to see the rising demand for literacy materials. 

Other well-liked items are the tape series on the life of Moses, and the book of Genesis in two different dialects. I can’t describe the joy I feel when a dignified Soninke man sits on a stool next to the book table and listens to the Moses story for an hour at a time. Or, despite Soninke customers’ amusement at the way I read aloud the Soninke alphabet book, they end up buying it. The sales during the recent Soninke festival were phenomenal but, we think, of even greater impact was the exposure Soninke people had to the existence of literature and recordings in their own language. 

Workers who produced quality literature in the local languages through the years should be encouraged that their work lives on. 

Each morning as I interact with people, I realize that many of my customers are appreciative of the fact that some outsiders took the time to learn their language, write it down and then publish it. Every day we pray that each book and tape ends up in the hands of one whose heart God is drawing to Jesus. Be encouraged and please join us in praying for these people."

Our thanks to all who give and pray so that the Word of God can go out through the printed page!

U.S. Director

Arab Spring—quo vadis? 

A good majority of the 300 million people who live in predominately Arabic-speaking countries are under the age of 25, and the rate of population growth is between 30 to 40%. Most of these young people are growing up in a climate characterized by corruption, endless restrictions, and misuse of power. 

The economies of their countries aren’t keeping up with the increase in population, either. Access to precious resources like water and gasoline is tightening, and jobs are scarce. In Egypt alone there are nearly 750,000 college graduates each year, and even highly qualified academics can’t find work. They don’t see any opportunity to change their society or engage their situation in creative ways.

At the same time, these young people are informed about the world outside—social media like Facebook, YouTube, and chat rooms make sure of that. A person in Yemen knows within minutes what is happening in Tunisia. When Mohammed Bouazizi committed suicide on December 17, 2010, he started an unexpected avalanche of protest marches throughout the Arab world. Local police had confiscated his scales until he agreed to pay the expected bribe, but the 26-year old street vendor would not give in. 

After being beaten up more than once by the municipal authorities, Bouazizi couldn’t take the humiliation anymore. He set himself on fire in a main street of his rural town and died a month later. His deed set off a wave of indignation that quickly engulfed all of Tunisia, and rapidly spread to other places. Countless young people identify with this young man who simply wanted to earn an honest living, and was known for his willingness to give his produce away to the very poor.

We are familiar with the aftermath of Bouzizi’s death: within a few months, the regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya were toppled, and in many other countries, the pressure continues to grow, often accompanied by violent struggles. But did and will these protests lead to freedom of expression, justice, and fair elections? 

For many, the answer does not lie in Western ideas of human rights and democracy—they don’t want to exchange the repressive regime of despots for what appears to them to be an equally oppressive Western moral degradation. Arab nations wish to find Arab solutions to Arab challenges, and many still look to Islam. 

Other (non-Arab) majority-Muslim nations, like Turkey, have a much more ‘secular’ history, and a sizeable portion of its population rejects conservative Islamic conceptions , as has been evident in recent weeks. 
In any case, this ship of hope launched by the Arab Spring in Muslim political groups and parties is quickly running aground on the rocks of disillusionment. Syria, for example, continues to be more of an example of human tragedy than of Arab political awakening. 

It hard to evaluate all this from a Scriptural perspective.  On the one hand, the  desire for freedom to make one’s own decisions is a fruit of a Christian world-view and a God-given dignity. At the same time, true freedom is only found in fellowship with our Creator.

The bottom line for us who witness these events is that we are being challenged to pray for true peace and just governments in countries experiencing the Arab Spring. ReachAcross has workers in some of these countries, seeking to engage especially this younger generation, and hoping to bring about change—the kind that is based upon truth, respect, and above all, trust in the One who alone gave His life so that we may be truly set free. 

And in some places, the Gospel of Christ is gaining ground! 

Let us know if you would like be more informed about these situations so that you can pray more effectively. There are several good links for up-to-date information that we can share with you. 

This article is based upon an earlier one by the ReachAcross director in Germany, with revisions and additions by the US office.