Birthing a Movement of Healthy Churches in the Desert
Building churches in the harshest of conditions.
Our country team leader in Niger, Hassane, is a former Muslim who has a heart for the desert communities in Niger.
In only one year, Hassane had recruited five volunteer team members that he has personally been building for years. One of these young people is a Tuareg who left the military to do evangelism. Because he is from the desert, he can go all over to different desert camps, training people and preaching the Gospel. This young man has already led over 100 Tuaregs to the Lord. The Tuareg people used to be a totally unreached people but Hassane has started a fervent ministry among them. The Holy Spirit is moving mightily among these people and saving many of them in the last few years.
Another associate that Hassane is building is a very effective church-planter who works among the Gurma people in the western part of Niger. We are seeing a movement of church-planters with Muslim backgrounds among these people, who have historically been very resistant to the Gospel. Now they have evangelists and leaders from their own people doing the work, including this young leader. Hassane is training him in leader development and he is excited to make sure that the churches he plants in the future are built on the principles in the ConneXions Model.
Our first training in Niger was for a group of Tuareg people. The leaders were so excited that they invited Hassane back to lead another training. Once the government opened travel again in July, he immediately traveled the three hours by train to the villages. Because the people’s resources are so limited, the training was done outside, by the village well, under the trees. The people in these villages did not go to traditional school or have a traditional church, but everyone was able to read and had already translated the Bible into their own language. They were so hungry for our teaching.
Given that there is no traditional church in their community, our teaching is arriving at a crucial time in their development. Hassane is strategizing about building a replication of the Early Church in this desert area, free from any denominational influence and growing organically. Two days after Hassane left to go back home, the people were calling him, telling him they could not wait until he would visit them again. Hassane predicts that there will be many “Early Church-like” groups birthed in this harsh region.
