A church with a heart for the unreached took steps to pray and send. Then God worked miracles, and unreached people met Jesus.
Praying for a Muslim Tribe
This tale goes back as far as 1999-2001, to a California church. This church had sent many of its members into YWAM. One family they supported worked in an impoverished region of Africa. They faithfully served an unreached Muslim tribe through evangelism, wells, grain banks, animal loan programs and literacy. Through this family, the church learned of another nomadic Muslim tribe needing to be reached.
They began praying. The church prayed faithfully for the tribe. Their vision and commitment grew.
One of their key prayer requests was that God would give people dreams. Commonly, Muslim people believe God speaks through dreams. The church prayed that dreams would prepare tribal members to receive and welcome people the church was about to send to them. Preparations were being made for a team to go to this remote tribe. A partnership formed between the church and YWAM.
Sope*: A Special Woman of God
Fast forward a few years and meet a woman named Sope. She is a member of the tribe and now a follower of Jesus. She is described as “a special woman empowered by the Holy Spirit.”
For the last two years, she has been actively sharing the gospel. She goes out regularly with her younger brother, Albade*, into the bush. Out there–far from towns or even roads–people ask them to come and tell stories from the Bible. They do!
Recently she told an amazing story to a YWAMer now serving in her area.
A Dream of Two Women
One night, some years ago, she had a dream. In the dream, there were two white women showing her a little book. Before this dream, she had never seen any white women up close. She had only seen them from a distance driving by, or attending their tribal cultural dances during the rainy season.
About 8-9 days after she had the dream, her father became a follower of Jesus. He participated in a Bible study run by Dave*, one of the team members from the California church. After that, her father no longer said his memorized Muslim prayers.
Sope was about 25 years old at the time.
Interested, she went along with her father to these studies. There she met Rachel*, another member of the team. Before long they became close friends.
Over a period of three years, Rachel, shared the gospel with Sope, helped her come to know Jesus, taught her how to obey Jesus’ commands, and eventually baptized Sope. Then Rachel left. But another white woman named Esther* soon came. Sope and Esther’s friendship grew and Sope continued to learn a lot from her just as she had learned from Rachel.
The following year, most of the church planting team had to leave the country. Everyone departed except Dave and one other team member. Sope decided to stay in contact with these men. As they got to know her, they were extremely impressed at how well she knew the Bible. She was so confident in talking about it!
Sope told her foreign friends about how she prayed over her husband in the hospital. She prayed despite the doctor’s negative diagnosis. Her husband was healed! Through this, he too, became a follower of Jesus. A new disciple-making group was forming within the tribe.
Answered Prayer!
As he heard more of her story, he began to realize the significance of her dream involving the two white women and the little book. This was an answer to the church’s prayers from years earlier! He was amazed at how God had worked. Just as the church had prayed, God prepared Sope through a dream. God then sent Rachel and Esther, the two white women, to share the gospel (as told in the “little book”) and introduced her to Jesus.
The fruit of Sope’s life and her stories have been a strong confirmation of God’s faithfulness. He is a God who hears and answers prayer for the lost.
A team continues to work with Sope, helping her to do what God has called her to do among her own people.
Lives Transformed on Many Levels
In this story we see how God worked on many different levels, as He so often does. The lives of many people were transformed.
First, Sope and her father met Jesus. They are now witnesses to family, friends and beyond.
Second, the lives of the church planters who went to live among these people were also changed. Their faith in God grew as they watched Him work.
Then, there was the sending church back home. So many of their prayers were answered: empowering them: to give sacrificially; to send the pastor, the elders and several church members to visit over the years; to equip, send and support their long-term church planting team in partnership with YWAM. The congregation experienced God in new ways through prayer, giving and going for the sake of reaching an unreached people group whom they had come to love.
Working to release Disciple-Making Movements in unreached areas is a process. It has many steps. The first is to pray as the church did. The next is to go as in the team that they sent. Then God took the next step. He worked miracles, choosing His key people. We call them “persons of peace.” Sope was one of them.
Will You Pray and Go?
Do you feel overwhelmed with the task of starting DMMs in UPGs? When we walk step by step, partnering with God and each other, the impossible becomes possible!
What unreached people group is God calling you to pray for? How could you be instrumental in raising up a team to go to them?
*Names have been changed to protect the identity of these workers and believers.