“There’s an undertow of frustration and discrimination, if you will, against the Afghan people,” Unknown Nations’ Greg Kelley says.

Military tensions escalated last week as both nations closed their borders. Pakistani airstrikes killed civilians in Afghanistan following a terrorist attack in western Pakistan. “This is an area that has had continuous conflict,” Kelley notes.

“From an Afghan perspective, there’s been a long-standing border dispute. They disagree with the borders that were drawn, and that has caused frustration,” Kelley explains.

“[The boundary line] went right in between the Pashtun people, so half became Pakistani citizens, the other half became Afghan citizens, and that has not set well with Afghanistan and the Taliban.”

Meanwhile, Pakistani officials “look at Afghanistan as being a sanctuary for terrorists that are causing disruption inside of Pakistan.”

Forced returns: a silver lining

Diplomatic fallout between the neighboring countries hits refugees the hardest. So far this year, roughly a third of all Afghan refugees living in Pakistan – some one million people – have been forced back to Afghanistan.

Yet hope follows on the heels of hardship. Afghanistan and Pakistan have “high concentrations of oral learners, so we send our solar-powered audio Bible in the languages spoken by the people of both countries,” Kelley says.

“We just trained about 200 Afghans that were forcibly sent back into Afghanistan (from Pakistan), and that created an opportunity for the Gospel.”

How to help

Consider partnering with Unknown Nations to send audio Bibles into these Muslim nations. A gift of $35 shares Jesus with eight people, often leading to two new decisions for Christ.

A worker distributes aid to vulnerable Afghans.
(Photo courtesy of Unknown Nations, formerly known as World Mission)

“We need to find creative solutions and partner with organizations, like Unknown Nations and others, who have infrastructure in these areas where the Gospel is being shared,” Kelley says.

“We cannot, as the Church, steer away from these places because of the complexities.”

Most importantly, pray. Ask the Lord to strengthen and empower church planters in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pray that Unknown Nations will receive the funding it needs to send more audio Bibles to the region.

Header and story images courtesy of Unknown Nations. 

Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations says he recently visited an area of Northern Nigeria that is almost exclusively Muslim. In addition to the lack of Gospel saturation, the poverty is striking.  He says, “When you come you feel the depravity of the people’s lives. You see poverty in every direction. You see villages that people are suffering just for daily necessities, drought conditions, and yet God is moving in power in this place.”

Two Villages Turn to God

God’s work has been especially evident in two villages in the area. Despite political and social turbulence a team was able to complete a water project in one village. This opportunity opened the door to sharing the Gospel with the village chief. As a result, he and his whole village turned to the Lord in repentance and faith.

As if that were not extraordinary enough, God miraculously healed a man with epilepsy in a second village.

(Image courtesy of OCHA on Wikimedia Commons)

Kelley says, “It caught the attention of all of the leaders in the area, particularly the witch doctor, who had tried many times to heal this individual, but to no avail. But God healed him through the power of the Holy Spirit. Now both of these villages in northern Nigeria, near the border of Niger, are 100% Christian. It’s just an unbelievable experience for us here at Unknown Nations.”

A Cause for Rejoicing

Believers in these villages are hungry for the Word of God. By their own reports, they cannot spend enough time hearing about their Savior.

“They’re consuming the Word of God. They’re listening to the Treasure, our solar powered audio Bible. The witch doctor himself, he testified. He listens now to the Word of God from sunup until sundown. We are rejoicing in what God is doing in this part of the world.”

Please pray that God will continue to grow these new believers in truth and understanding of the Gospel.

If you’d like to join the work of Unknown Nations, click here.

Image courtesy of Tep Ro from Pixabay

Local World Mission partners visited the Mru, Greg Kelley says. “We asked them, ‘What do you need? What would be helpful?’ And they said, ‘We want to have some kind of a training, a school, for our children, where they could be safe so we could go and work during the day.’”

Mru beliefs

The Mru have no written language. In fact, orality is built into their belief system. According to traditional belief, the great spirit gave all peoples languages and written rules for how to live. But an evil animal interfered, eating the rules intended for the Mru.

Officially, most of the Mru people have been categorized as Buddhists. However, many Mru beliefs and practices lack Buddhist influence.

Churches

Kelley says many among the Mru have embraced Jesus. “They were so thankful for what we did by helping their children that the parents now are coming to know Jesus. We’ve heard just recently, in the last couple of months, three new church plants have started.”

“They’re getting the Treasure in their language, they’re listening to it with their ears, hearing the Gospel.”

The Treasure is World Mission’s solar-powered audio Bible.

Kelley says the Mru churches are created and led by Mru people, not outsiders. Ask God to strengthen them. “The first-generation church that was planted, disciples come out of that. They are sharing Jesus with others who are planning other churches. So it’s just a beautiful thing God is doing right now.”

The header photo shows a Mru boy. (Photo courtesy of Astrothomas, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

(Map courtesy of cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ reference_maps/pdf/middle_east.pdf)

The region encompasses Sudan, Mauritania, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, the countries of the Arabian Peninsula (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahr, Yemen, Qatar, and Oman), Egypt, and Libya.

Of these countries, many recognize Egypt as a strategic location when it comes to the issue of reaching Muslims with the Gospel. After all, it’s a gateway into the Middle East. Greg Kelley, Executive Director of World Mission, says it’s also the cultural center for all of North Africa.  

An urgent call

On his recent visit, he saw, firsthand, that  Christians aren’t the only ones looking at mobilizing and training. Recognizing that an effective strategy to reaching Muslims in the Middle East needs to go through Egypt, and more specifically, through Cairo, he filed the following report: 

(Photo courtesy of World Mission)

 “Here is an amazing University and incredibly large university 60,000 students. It’s a missions training center located in Cairo, where the students are from over 100 countries around the world, all being trained as Muslim missionaries. Some 24,000 Graduates every year are being launched out to every country imaginable in Asia, in America and Canada, and all of Latin America throughout Europe.

It’s an incredibly aggressive strategy that Muslims have, and a lot of these students that are graduating are radicalized; they are taught on how to advance Sharia law there, they’re imams in these places. We need to be aware of that.  

Jesus has called us to make disciples of all nations and here in the Middle East, So be praying for the Middle East be praying for the Christian leaders that are reaching Muslims for Jesus in this area.”

Challenges for ministry

Ranking 16th on the Open Doors’ World Watch List of countries where it’s hardest to live as Christian, Egyptian believers feel like they’re living in a pressure cooker. In rural areas and the northern part of the country, there’s social pressure from the community. There’s pressure from family. Sometimes this results in violence against the person for following Christ.

Greg Kelley details strategic importance of Egypt to reaching the Middle East. (Photo courtesy of World Mission)

In the cities, according to groups like the Voice of the Martyrs USA and Canada, extremists attack social media or menace Christians in public spaces. Christians feel like second-class citizens in their home country. Authorities trample their rights, and there’s frequent discrimination. The government also encumbers some ministry work by delaying official recognition for thousands of churches.  

In some cases, the low-level duress spills over into terror attacks against churches, as was the case for dozens in 2019, when ISIS publicly vowed to wage war on Christians. Yet, the followers of Christ remain focused on ways to share the hope of the Gospel.

Egypt and the Gospel

Given the difficulties a new project poses to those involved, World Mission didn’t release specific details of their plans in Egypt. However, they work closely with a network of national partners who can help resource the Gospel workers with training and tools like the Treasure, a solar-powered, hand-held audio player containing the Gospel message in their language. Pray for creative wisdom for ministries working in dominant Muslim regions.

(Headline photo courtesy World Mission)

Finding a peaceful resolution won’t be easy, explains Greg Kelley, CEO of World Mission. “You’ve got Islamic/Christianity conflict, which would represent the two main groups; you’ve got historical tensions that goes back decades; you’ve got people group or ethnic, specific aspects going on in there; and then you’ve got this overarching issue of corruption. So when you bring all those things together, you have got a mess.”

In pursuit of justice

In the past, the wheels of justice moved slowly. However, in the capital city of Bangui, workers are in the process of overhauling a courthouse. It signals the launch of the Special Criminal Court (SCC), created to deal with war crimes and ethnic cleansing. Trials should begin in 2021.

(Photo courtesy of Pierre Holtz/UNICEF/Flickr/CC)

(Photo courtesy of Pierre Holtz, UNICEF/Flickr/CC)

It also indicates a shift in CAR. People now acknowledge the trauma that changed the face of the nation. “Every two seconds, someone in the world is newly displaced because of war, violence or persecution, and the Central African Republic is at Ground Zero in many ways, especially on the continent of Africa,” Kelley says. 

That displacement added to the lack of infrastructure and stability makes it tough for churches to connect. “Traditionally the Church has said, ‘Let’s wait for things to stabilize and settle and get more peaceful so that we can go in and begin dealing with the wounds and the trauma that people are dealing with.'” The problem is, “What we’re realizing is that you may wait ten years, you may wait 20 years for that stability if it ever does come.”  

Hope returns in the Central African Republic

The question then became ‘How do we get the Gospel to the displaced?’ followed by ‘How can we begin dealing with the trauma these people survived?’ The answer, Kelley explains, was to take the Gospel to the people rather than wait for people to come to Gospel workers.

“Organizations like the American Bible Society, who we partner with, have come up with something called a ‘Trauma Healing’ message. They’ve said, ‘we can’t wait. It’s just way too important, what these people have endured.'”

It’s a Bible-based model that leads to sustainable trauma care in any context, he adds. “We load it on our solar-powered audio Bible, in the language of the people, and it’s going into these camps so that people are listening. It’s the Spirit of God through the Word of God, and through this training that is healing them right where they’re at, in their displaced situation.”

Attracted by hope in a message spoken in their heart language, people flock to the listening groups. “There are about three to four thousand participants (in CAR) right now, in our listening groups. And just in the last couple of weeks, we’ve heard of 250 people that have made decisions for Jesus just by going through this. The American Bible Society put it together, and World Mission is loading it on our solar-powered audio Bible in the native tongue of the people.”

Strategic prayer for the CAR

Kelley invites us to pray with him for the Central African Republic and its neighboring countries of South Sudan, Chad, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. “It’s the most chaotic part of the entire continent of Africa. Let’s just be praying for God to bring restoration. Jesus said in John 17, ‘I pray they would be one so that the world would know the Father has sent the Son.'” 

The final thought comes from a question Kelley posed at the conclusion of the interview. He asked, “Can you imagine the impact not only that will have in Africa, but also in the world when we see peace and stability come to a place like the Central African Republic? The ripple effect can touch the entire continent of Africa and even the world!”

Headline photo courtesy of P.A.S. HOPFAN NGO via Flickr

(Photo courtesy of AIRS/Flickr/CC)

So which is it? Unfortunately, says Greg Kelley of World Mission, their partners are telling them it’s both. “India, like other countries in Southeast Asia, is very prone to disasters. What we were hearing– all kinds of news reports and horrible stories that made all of our hearts turn in May and June–was of the drought.” In a month that should have seen the highest rainfall of the monsoon season, almost half of India felt the sun parch the earth instead.

Kelley says, “All across India, families were being devastated by the drought, they didn’t have access to water. We were trying to get in there and drill some deep water wells to help the people. We were even supplying water tanks, the trucks that would go into remote villages where people were dying of the drought situation; their animals were dying.”

Disaster upon disaster

With the earth baked dry, there was nothing to absorb the rains when they DID fall. Things were bad enough before unusually heavy rain in Nepal and the rivers flowing south into Bihar state breached their banks, destroyed roads and bridges, and flooded acres of farmland. In Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Gujarat states, over a million people evacuated their homes due to the monsoon flooding.

The government noted that whatever headway they’d made in recovery from LAST year’s century floods, for Gujarat, it was starting all over again.  Death tolls climbed in the aftermath.

Kelley explains, “These disasters in a place like India create an opportunity for the body of Christ to respond in love. Whether it’s drilling the wells, or providing the water, or in the case of the monsoon and the flooding, it’s now all of a sudden, all the water is dirty and they’ve lost everything. We really need to be creative when we think about engaging places like India, and the opportunities are right in front of us.”

Being part of the solution

(Photo courtesy of World Mission)

World Mission’s effectiveness in disaster response proves that despite increasing difficulties for Christian non-profit groups, there is still time and place for Christians.  Plus, “Most people wouldn’t believe that not only is India the most populated Hindu country in the world, but (also that) within the next 25 years, it will simultaneously be the most populated Muslim country in the world.”

Hope shines in crisis

(Photo courtesy of World Mission)

Sometimes, people wonder about using a natural disaster as a way to introduce the Gospel. Kelley says it’s about preaching the Gospel at all times, and sometimes using words – but not in the way that you might think. “The same village that may have been very resistant to the Gospel, after they’ve endured a drought, or they’ve endured a flood where they’ve lost literally everything, animals have been wiped out, and the most vulnerable, the weak, the old are dying, all of a sudden that Gospel presentation becomes very interesting, because the person who’s bringing the Gospel is also showcasing a tangible form of love in Jesus’ name.”

That’s what bringing in water trucks or drilling for water does. Meeting physical need earns ears for something more, which is where their partners come into play. “We’ll equip them with the resources to provide that tangible expression of love. And always, that’s connected to a Treasure distribution, which is our solar-powered audio Bible. And now, we have a heart that’s receptive to the Gospel that previously was not.”

Take the story and run

As far as this story goes, Kelley urges folks to respond to the information you’ve read here. “I believe that every follower of Jesus should have some expression–whether it’s praying for one of the unreached peoples of India or helping a Bible translator or helping distribute Bibles or our solar-powered audio Bible s or part of disaster relief.” Click here for more ways you can come alongside World Mission and its partners.

Header photo courtesy of Siddarth Machado/Flickr/CC

(Photo courtesy of Vision Beyond Borders)

Getting to this point hasn’t been easy for Nepal, since the last few months have been marked by riots and an import blockade from India on the southern border.

Greg Kelley with World Mission says change in Nepal is slow-going as generations and ethnic groups clash — and even change on the religious freedom front has been a struggle.

“Nepal is really trying to move into that place of religious freedom, but there’s a lot of challenges to that. For generations, it’s been a Hindu nation. So the persecution, interestingly, comes very much from a localized standpoint. What I mean by that is, when you give your life to Jesus in Nepal, it’s really your family where you feel the fiercest persecution. They will essentially ostracize you from the community.”

According to the CIA World Factbook, 1.4 percent of Nepalis identify as Christians out of the nation’s 29 million people. Kelley says, “We know the Church is much larger than that, but irregardless, it’s very small. So I think just from a priority standpoint, Nepal is filled with unreached people groups and it needs to be a priority for the Body of Christ.”

(Photo courtesy of Global Disciples)

Besides persecution, one other reason why ministry in Nepal can be difficult is that the country is marked by drastic terrains, including the Himalayas. Missionaries can have a challenging time getting through to hard-to-reach communities.

“It’s situated right in between India to the south and then China to the north, which makes it kind of landlocked and hard to get at. But the Lord has just been doing amazing things in Nepal in the last 20 years, and I think it’s no coincidence that it kind of coincides with their efforts to more embrace democracy.”

World Mission distributes about 1,500 units of their solar-powered audio Bible called the Treasure in Nepal each year. The Treasure comes loaded with Scripture in the Nepali language and other national dialects, and every year they see amazing responses to the Gospel.

“That starts in a listening group environment. So for World Mission, we’ll distribute one Treasure and that will go into the hands of a group of people about the size of 12. Then they’ll begin listening to the Gospels and our team members on the ground will follow up with them,” says Kelley.

(Photo courtesy of World Mission)

“We just received word back a few days ago of a brand new church that was established just from a listening group of the Treasure. Now these new Christians are coming together, they’re growing in fellowship with one another. But the reality is for most of them, their families will essentially disown them. So they, believe it or not, in their infancy in Jesus, are now launching themselves into kind of a missionary movement reaching out to their family members who are persecuting them. And that’s really evidence of the love of Jesus manifesting itself in places like Nepal.”

Sometimes, however, a community isn’t initially open to the Gospel message coming in. Or a village may have immediate physical needs that need to be met before they will readily hear the Good News of their spiritual Savior.

Often, the biggest need in a community is clean drinking water. Kelley says, “There’s lots of water available in Nepal run-off from the Himalayan Mountains, so it’s not an issue of access to water, but it’s filled with bacteria.”

World Mission has a ministry division called Zoe Waters. Through Zoe Waters, they install water filtration systems in Nepal.

“We just did a very large water filtration installation…. These water filtration units that we put in these communities have literally become a lifeline, and we combine that with our Treasure distributions.”

Doing so earns them an audience with the community, and then they simply let the Holy Spirit do the work of convicting hearts once the Gospel is presented.

During this quickening time of change and transition in Nepal, the stability of Christ is needed now as much as ever. It costs $40 for World Mission to send in one Treasure in the Nepali language. Click here to support World Mission!

And especially, Kelley asks you to pray. “We really appreciate people praying for us and Nepal, because our network of national leaders have such an amazing task and opportunity ahead of them. We just encourage people to pray for national leaders to grow in their own depth and their journey with Jesus…and also for safety, and just for the Lord to help us send more Treasures.”

People wading through the water outside the hospital. (Photo, caption courtesy of World Mission)

The Department of Social Welfare and Development states around ten people have been killed and 579 homes destroyed in the devastating rains.

These storms this month come on the heels of Typhoon Nina (Typhoon Nock-Ten) which slammed into the island nation on Christmas Day. According to the Philippine Red Cross, over 110,000 homes were demolished by the typhoon, along with several schools, farms, and health facilities.

With the one-two punch of overwhelming floods weeks after a typhoon, the Philippines barely had time to get on its feet.

Flooding and landslides have destroyed thousands of homes in the Philippines. (Photo courtesy of World Mission)

“So many people, their homes have literally been washed away, every one of their possessions, and so they are just struggling to survive right now as we’re trying to continue to survey the devastation.”

Kelley explains, “They’re saying this impact is worse than even some of the typhoons that recently have come through. The one in particular in 2012, they’re comparing it to that. So it’s pretty widespread devastation, and the flooding, the photos we’re seeing, everything is under water…. It might not be a large-scale, massive disaster that [news organizations] are going to pick up, but there are thousands of lives that are just as impacted as if it were a massive disaster.”

World Mission is currently working with their church partners in-country to distribute emergency relief. “The situation right now with those thousands of families that have been impacted is really just to find safe ground for them and the basics. Right now, we’re in the midst of a campaign where we’re providing basic hygiene, blankets, some medicine, tarps, rice, even water filtration, because when these things happen all of the water gets contaminated. So we are mobilizing some water treatment filters right now.”

A Filipino evacuation center for those displaced by the floods and landslides. (Photo courtesy of World Mission)

They are also sending canned goods, soap, disinfectant, mats, and pillows to Filipino families.

But the aid being given through World Mission and ministry partners isn’t just for physical restoration and healing. They also want to make sure they are encouraging people’s hearts and souls through the deeply staying power of God’s Word.

“They’re distributing Treasures in the Cebuano language, which is our solar-powered audio Bible. So we have 500 [Treasures] right now that are being sent to the Philippines that will be delivered in conjunction with the aid.”

If you’ve ever had to live for a period outside your home — maybe due to a house fire, water damage, a family crisis, or moving conflict — you know how disorienting it can feel. And it’s why Filipino families who have lost their homes or livelihoods are in real need of prayer and encouragement.

Water damage from flooding in the Philippines. (Photo courtesy of World Mission)

“We need to be praying for the people, that they survive this, but then they’re able to find the necessary relief and [able] to begin to get their lives back in order…. So let’s be praying for the people there and also the opportunity the Christians have. Any time a disaster comes, it creates an opportunity for the Body of Christ to, in a very tangible way, be the hands and feet of Jesus and that’s exactly what we’re doing in the Philippines right now.”

You can be a palpable support for the Filipino Church serving as a representative of Jesus Christ. World Mission needs at least $20,000 by February 15th for this outreach. Click here to give to World Mission humanitarian aid efforts.

“Time is really of the essence,” Kelley emphasizes. “Any time one of these disasters hits, every hour counts. So as people are praying about ways to get involved, we can make sure that turns into tangible instance.”

(Pakistan flag courtesy Wikipedia)

The country’s infamous blasphemy bill was answered in one province by the Criminal Law (Protection of Minorities) Bill, which failed the last hurdle to ratification.  The bill prevented the forced conversion of religious minority women to Islam.  Circumstances usually included those who were abducted, forcibly converted to Islam, and given as sex slaves to influential Muslims.  Christians, Hindus and other religious minorities felt like the bill offered some protection and recourse, until, under pressure from strident Islamists, the Sindh Assembly governor refused it.

It’s just one of four provinces, but the failure of this legislation leaves religious minorities feeling isolated and vulnerable to the abuses of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. Christians are always wary in case an allegation of blasphemy is raised to settle a personal score.  The government has ignored calls to amend the laws, and political efforts to back reform have ended in bloodshed.

(Map courtesy World Mission)

Christians make up just two percent of the population.  Churches can still work and meet unhindered, but they will be monitored, and sometimes their services are interrupted or attacked.  Congregations hire guards to protect their meetings.  Christians are treated as second class citizens.

However, the nation has a great spiritual curiosity and hunger.  The way the followers of Christ live their lives goes a long way toward keeping the door open for conversation and questions.  Greg Kelley of World Mission says they’ve been partnering with the local churches to resource them with multiple copies of The Treasure, solar-powered digital audio Bibles.

Quick facts on The Treasure:

*Each $50 unit can hold more than 400 hours of audio material.

*World Mission has over 185 New Testaments recorded in an audio format that can be placed on The Treasures.

*World Mission has access to around 5,000 languages. More than 200 languages have an entire New Testament available.

*Each experience is unique but in most instances an oral learner will listen to The Treasure within a group of 8-12 people.

*Each Treasure is used more than 2,000 hours over the duration of its lifetime.  Anywhere from 100 to as many as 2,000 people will hear about Christ through each Treasure.

However, in places like Pakistan, he says, “Anytime you have a physical device that makes it obvious, as far as your strategy, you have to be so sensitive because it’s drawing attention to your national partners.”

With a flurry of blasphemy cases recently coming to light, Kelley says they’ve taken the creative route.  “Instead of distributing our Treasure, our solar-powered audio Bible, we’re actually putting in wireless transmission devices that essentially create hotspots.”

The hotspot makes a footprint invisible, which adds a layer of security for the Gospel worker and the person making the inquiry. “Our national partners are essentially creating a beacon that’s transmitting the Gospel out to anybody within 100 yards of them with a Smartphone so they can receive it.”

(Photo courtesy of World Mission)

Even with a creative answer to increasingly difficult security situations, there’s another aspect to this approach that needs prayer.  Kelley explains, “If I were to say, ‘Let’s put one gifting inside of a national partner,’ that gifting would be discernment.  You just have to be so sensitive to the Holy Spirit as far as who you can trust.”  The wrong person could be trying to bait a follower of Christ in order to turn him in and accuse him of both apostasy and blasphemy.  Prayer is part of the package.

It takes time to connect with and create an inroad into a community or into a family.  The Gospel never promises safety, but it does promise hope.  “It really comes down to someone knowing they’re loved.  That takes a heart for them, and a love and a compassion that will reach out to them.  That’s really where our emphasis is put upon friendship evangelism in these hostile areas.”

Aside from helping World Mission continue to resource believers, Kelley urges you to keep praying for the missionaries and the national partners who are living in these areas.  “[They’re] risking their lives on a daily basis, just for the sake of getting the Gospel in there.”

All this comes in the wake of failed negotiations between Boko Haram and the Nigerian government to swap kidnapped women and girls for imprisoned insurgency members.

It’s been seven years of Boko Haram militants terrorizing northern Nigeria. But the crisis they’ve instigated is not grabbing headlines like their Euro-Middle Eastern ISIS counterparts or attacks on the West.

(Photo courtesy of Open Doors USA)

Greg Kelley with World Mission says, “They’re causing all kinds of terror and it’s incredibly difficult. In fact, there are so many communities in northern Nigeria that Christians have 100 percent evacuated just because they are literally targeted and murdered on site as they’re identified.”

This crisis isn’t just Nigeria’s problem. It’s affecting countries around them — and really, no matter how far the effect goes, Christians need to fight against and pray for injustices.

“The reality is that Boko Haram, although they’re concentrated in Nigeria, their influence has spilled over into Niger and Cameroon, specifically where you have hundreds of thousands of refugees. The numbers we have are that there’s an additional 400,000 refugees in just those two countries as a result of Boko Haram.”

Because of the hostilities, northern Nigeria can be a very volatile area for ministry. And Kelley says it’s exactly where World Mission has been called.

“Literally, as Christians are fleeing, the people we work with are leaning into and going into those very places and sharing the Gospel with these terrorists, essentially,” explains Kelley.

“Nigeria is a dichotomy in missions, because [in] the southern part around Lagos you’ll find all kinds of Christian activity and churches and meetings…. But there’s a line that literally runs right through the center of the country. North of that is majority Muslim, south of that is majority Christian. So all of our work is targeted in the northern part where Muslims live and worship, and that’s where Boko Haram is very active.”

A devastating fire set by Boko Haram militants. (Photo courtesy of World Mission)

Over 2.6 million people have been torn from their homes because of Boko Haram. Most are in camps now, and they need hope.

“There are these IDP or Internally Displaced People camps scattered throughout northern Nigeria where Muslims have essentially been congregated because of Boko Haram, and it really makes them very accessible [for ministry]. So our strategy is going into these IDP camps in northern Nigeria where there are more than a million people just in Nigeria alone living.”

According to the United Nations, northern Nigeria is seeing famine-like conditions created by these attacks. Many of the refugees used to be farmers, and have now lost their livelihood.

“We’re being told there are 20,000 children right now just on the verge of death due to malnutrition in these camps in Nigeria. And we bring in food and sanitary items, and our partners are building relationships with them and just loving them without strings attached.”

Kelley continues, “And then of course they share The Treasure, which is World Mission’s solar-powered audio Bible in the native tongue, which is Hausa, and people are gathering around, Muslims gathering around in small groups listening to the Word of God in these refugee camps.”

But why audio Bibles, rather than the written Scriptures? Kelley says not only is the community in northern Nigeria highly oral and relational, but also, so many schools in the area have been destroyed and literacy has gone down.

“Even prior to [Boko Haram], there was a highly illiterate area. But once you bring the chaos in of people running indiscriminately from place to place, it takes out all of the infrastructure which includes medical [and] it includes schooling. So people literally don’t have access to schooling right now in so many places in northern Nigeria, so the illiteracy levels we’re seeing, they’re getting even worse now,” explains Kelley.

(Photo courtesy of World Mission via Facebook)

“So audio Bibles are critical because the people can’t read and they do things in oral cultures together anyway. So it sort of hits the sweet spot of them listening and engaging with the Word of God.”

World Mission would love for you to get involved in making sure aid and spiritual resources get into the hands of people in Nigeria!

“People can send resources. It takes us about $50 to send a Treasure into northern Nigeria, and then another $50 allows us to feed an entire family for a couple of weeks with rice and provide clean water and that kind of a thing.”

He also encourages, “We need people to pray. We need to pray that as Boko Haram has caused chaos, that the Lord uses it in some way for us to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with people who have never heard before.”

Kelley leaves us with this thought: “It does create an opportunity for the Church, even though it’s not on the radar, it’s not being promoted aggressively in the news like some of these other things. It’s a huge crisis in our time, in 2016, that the Church needs to respond to.”

Click here to donate to World Mission and send The Treasure and humanitarian aid to our Christian brothers and sisters in Nigeria!