Over the course of the last year, we have shared the statistic with you that there are 18-20 unreached and unengaged people groups in Eastern Chad. But, what does this mean and why does it matter to our family? Why does it matter to you? We want to take some time over the next few weeks to answer this question in a helpful, but concise way. Our hope is that you will gain a better sense of how you can be involved in God’s Kingdom work in Eastern Chad – what part you can play in bringing the message, hope, and life-changing realities of the gospel to these people.
For starters, what does an “unengaged/unreached people group” even mean? Simply put, an unreached people group is an ethnic group with few or no followers of Christ. A people group is considered “unreached” when the number of Evangelical Christians is less than 2% of the population. This means the people group doesn’t have enough Christians to evangelize the rest of the population. Furthermore, a group is considered “unengaged” when there is no gospel witness among the people group. A people group in not engaged when it is simply the object of focused prayer or is part of an advocacy strategy.
So, how does this information affect your family and our family? We believe that the information above is unacceptable! What a tragedy to know that in 2000 years the church has made very little progress in pushing back the darkness in this part of Africa. Over a million people have yet to hear the good news of Jesus Christ! So, with God’s guidance, our goal is to take His life-giving message to a part of the world saturated with unreached/unengaged Muslim people groups. Our challenge to you is twofold.
First, we challenge you to ask God to burden your heart not just for these people, but for God’s glory to be made known in these hard places.
May He grow in all of us a heart to pray for His word to go forth and transform lives.
Second, we challenge you to ask God not only if he is calling you to GO, but that he would make you WILLING to go the unreached/unengaged peoples of the world.
Over the next few weeks, we plan to highlight a few of the people groups in Eastern Chad who are waiting for someone who is willing to come tell them about Jesus. As always, we are grateful to your generous, faithful hearts in supporting our ministry through prayers, encouragement and financial partnership.
People Groups of the World (each red dot represents an unreached people group)
For His Glory,
Josh and Kimberly