Unreached (Intern Insights)
“A people group is considered unreached (UPG) when there is no indigenous community of believing Christians able to engage them with church planting. Technically speaking, the percentage of evangelical Christians in an unreached people group is less than 2 percent.” The West African countries of Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Senegal, Guinea, and Mauritania have alarmingly high rates of communities that fit this description. Many people in these nations have no evangelical material available to them in their own language. And they lack tangible resources which tell them more about the awe-inspiring truth of the Lord’s love for them.
In other areas of West Africa, though, some have been more fortunate and have had exposure to Christ-centered encouragement through the Women of Hope radio programs. Countless lives have been changed as listeners hear the good news of the Gospel each week. One woman wrote Project Hannah expressing how as a child she suffered sexual abuse at the hands of family members, yet kept silent due to fear. Her teenage years were not much better as she ignored the trauma and tried to find fulfillment through relations with multiple men. She was searching for a reason to live when she turned on the radio one day and stumbled across Women of Hope. Now an emotionally and spiritually healthy adult, she is a believer who attends church every single week with her family and who prays for her children to come to the Lord as well. Praise God!
Another listener proudly proclaims that the Gospel really does carry the power of God to transform the lives of those who choose to believe and embrace it. He was a drug addict and had three times gone to rehabilitation centers, only to relapse after each stint of treatment. The Lord reached this man, though, when he heard a Women of Hope program. He kept listening, eventually gave his life to Christ, and now doesn’t ever wish to abandon this fulfilling, life-changing path he’s chosen.
One more testimony sums up so beautifully how transforming the Gospel’s teachings can be: “…your broadcast opens my eyes and what you say touches me deeply. I want to be a Christian…”
Doesn’t everyone deserve to experience the hope that these people have felt? An unreached people group can’t help it that they are unreached. They need the Lord’s Word to penetrate their cultural and physical barriers so they can have the opportunity to hear and make a personal decision to believe. Please join me in praying today that more radio licenses would be obtained, that TWR transmitters would blanket truth over even more geographic areas, and that Women of Hope would travel the airwaves to cover miles upon miles of West African ground. Pray that men and women would hear in their heart language about the glorious inheritance they have waiting for them in Jesus Christ.