Gospel to Africa

Igniting a Fire in Dark Places

Sep 3, 2025 | Africa, Longer Reads, Stories

by Aychi B. R. with Dave Coles

My life was transformed one dark night in 1996. I heard a knock on my door and opened it to find a man with a dark beard standing there, holding a small pamphlet in his left hand. I didn’t know him at all, so after the usual greeting, I asked, “What do you want? Can I help you with anything?”

He just stood there, looking very upset, then asked, “Is your Jesus able to cleanse the sins of the whole world?”

I didn’t expect this at all. I thought, He doesn’t know me, and I don’t know him. Where is this coming from?

I said, “Come again?”

“Is your Jesus able to cleanse the sin of the whole world?”

I didn’t want to answer directly, as it felt like a trap–especially since he looked so angry. I said, “Come in. Let’s discuss this.”

“No. You give me an answer: yes or no.”

Because he pushed me so hard, I had to answer bluntly. I said, “Yes, Jesus can cleanse the sin of the whole world.”

He said, “You are a liar!” And as he said it, he entered the little house I was renting (three by three meters–less than 100 square feet) and sat down.

I didn’t want to argue with him about different religious doctrines, so I said, “Let me share my story with you.” I told him how Jesus came into my life. I briefly shared about the life I used to live before I met Jesus, and how Jesus had come into my life. I told him about the forgiveness I had received and how my life had changed. I told him, “That’s not just my personal experience, but…” Without mentioning names, I told him the biblical story of Saul’s conversion on the Damascus Road and other stories. I shared them in an oral storytelling way.

Suddenly, he said, “Okay, your Jesus may be able to cleanse your sins. And maybe the sins of other people you know about. But let me tell you: He will never cleanse my sins.”

I don’t know how he came across the pamphlet he was still holding in his left hand, but it apparently mentioned the verse from 1 John 2:2, which says Jesus’ blood can cleanse the sins of the whole world. I told him, “Jesus forgave me. And Jesus forgives everyone who comes and asks for forgiveness.”

He shared with me his struggles with a sin that had bothered him ever since he committed it a long time ago. He was involved in religious leadership and was an educated, well-respected person. But he said, “I can never sleep. This thing bothers me day and night.”

The Lord softened Abdu’s heart and allowed me to lead him to saving faith that night. I started discipling him day after day on many different topics. His life changed completely, and God broke many bondages in his life as he prayed through issues with me.

One day, he asked me, “What do you think about people from my religious background, especially religious leaders? Do you consider it scary to share the gospel with them?”

I said, “Yes, I think so. You came looking for me; I didn’t come looking for you.”

He said, “Even though we look scary on the outside, our inside is empty. My people need this message. But they will never come and knock on your door like I did. This was a rare opportunity. To get the good news to them, please don’t expect them to come knock on your door. Instead, go and knock on their door; they need this gospel.”

That was so challenging, I felt like a bomb had exploded in my mind. I began weeping because I had considered such people almost unreachable. His words became a wake-up call that has stayed with me every day: Go to them; they can’t come to you.

While I was God’s messenger to Abdu, he was also God’s messenger to me. My interaction with him spurred me on in my passion to reach those in people groups who have never heard the gospel.

A Calling to the Unreached
Early in my ministry, the Lord had put one specific people group on my heart. But I struggled a lot with that. I prayed, “God, please change that call. I’ll go anywhere, but not to those people!” During a war a few years back, some of my extended family had been killed by people from that tribe, so I grew up not loving them. They were one of the many tribes living near my family, but we intentionally didn’t have anything to do with them, even though they were close neighbors.

I thought that after fasting and praying, the Lord would change his mind about that calling. But he didn’t. I finally said, “Okay, God. I love you and I want to obey you. But if you are serious about this, give me the one thing I don’t have. I’m struggling with a heart issue. I have no love for these people. I need a deep, desperate love—a passion for reaching them with the gospel.”

Then God did it! A supernatural change took place, and he put a burden and love in my heart for the people group I had once struggled with. I focused on learning: observing, listening, praying, becoming more fluent in the language, and studying their culture. I got to know the people firsthand and developed relationships. This laid the foundation I needed to prepare for the upcoming ministry.

I realized I had been wrong in my prejudice toward them—that they all had hard hearts. I thank God for the unique privilege of being one of the very first Christians from my country to serve cross-culturally among that tribe. I began reaching out to them and started two house churches among them. I also trained and coached many others, including workers with other groups. As a result, churches began to be planted among them, both in the capital and in the eastern part of our country, and leaders began to emerge. Even now, the number of believers among that group is not large, but many who have come to faith are the fruit of the ministry we started at that time. After six years of personal ministry among that group, I began equipping other leaders coming into our region. I started to intentionally lead cross-cultural internships. After another six years of focusing on that group and equipping others in cross-cultural ministry, the Lord spoke to me. “I want you reaching more than just that people group. You need to see the bigger picture of all the Unreached People Groups in your region, encompassing many nations.” I realized we needed to make significant changes to pursue completing the Great Commission among all these people groups. We noted that the local churches didn’t give any attention or priority to reaching the UPGs from a different religion. In fact, many considered them too aggressive and unreachable.

The Lord gave us a burden to plant 10,000 churches within 10 years. That seemed like a huge task, but we saw it as God’s way to reach that region. For three years, from 2003 to 2005, we planted churches using traditional methods: winning one person, then moving on to another, conducting open-air evangelism, and distributing tracts. I wouldn’t say those methods are wrong, but they didn’t produce much fruit.

Shifting to a More Effective Approach
I got my first real exposure to Disciple Making Movements (DMM) at a training in late 2005. At first, I resisted all that was being presented. But the Lord convicted me that I should listen and consider the simple principles I was hearing. These included immediate radical obedience, finding a person of peace, the discovery process, focusing on families rather than individuals, and multiplication like we see in the book of Acts. After that training, I felt eager to go back and share these things with my partners and the network I represent.

In 2006, we revised our mission and vision statements, very intentionally choosing to implement a movement strategy. What happened next amazed us. In the previous three years, from 2002 to 2005, we and our partners had planted only 220 churches. After this training and reshaping our strategy, we and our 15 partners planted well over 300 new churches in just the first year. I personally went to check some of the places because I had a hard time believing the reports. (Any time we suspect inflated numbers, we go to visit and check.)

Then, in 2007, more than 900 churches were planted. The Lord gave us a multiplication of disciples and churches being planted every day. We now have well over 100 partners planting churches. God is doing amazing things here. I’m very grateful for this—not because some superhero or big man has come to make it happen, but because ordinary disciples in their natural networks are obeying the simple command of Jesus, “Go and share what you have experienced.” Disciples are making disciples who can make more disciples. We see individuals, families, and communities coming to the Lord and being transformed—falling in love with Jesus and his word. God is showing his greatness through dreams, miracles, and wonders as he expands his kingdom.

At present, we have a ministry among around 40 different UPGs. About 50% of those groups profess a different faith, and about 40% of the fruit we’ve seen so far has come from that background. Roughly 25% of the groups we serve have a background in tribal religion, and another 25% are nominally Christian.

We have identified 22 factors the Lord has used to ignite, accelerate, and sustain Disciple Making Movements among these diverse groups. While a few of those factors are unique to our African context, at least 15 of them could be applied by any believer, in any social or religious context. I’ll briefly describe just two of them.

Factors in Fruitfulness
Healthy dissatisfaction opens our hearts to pursue God for greater things than whatever ministry fruit we have experienced so far. In 2005, I had already been doing contextual ministry among unreached peoples and planting churches among them. But I didn’t feel satisfied with the results I saw, because God had given me a passion for something much greater.

I saw in Luke 15 that God takes attendance by who is missing. The shepherd in the parable has 99 sheep safe and sound, together with him. Ninety-nine percent of his flock is doing very well. But he’s not at all satisfied with that. He leaves the 99 to go look for the one lost sheep. When we begin to see the world from God’s perspective, it breaks our hearts and stirs a longing to see more lost people come to know the Heavenly Father. If we compare the need with what we’re currently accomplishing, we have to ask, “Are we in line with what must happen to fulfill the Lord’s command?”

Showing Jesus’ radical love has opened countless doors for bringing the gospel to the unreached. When persecution or hardship comes, we receive these as special opportunities to show Jesus’ love, often in ways that surprise others. This paves the way for sharing the gospel verbally, after we’ve already demonstrated it through our Christlike response to mistreatment.

These are just two of the factors God has used in our ministry. Both these factors, and over a dozen others, could be fruitfully applied by any person or ministry that wants to see God do great things among the unreached. In Living Fire, we describe and illustrate in detail each of the factors God is using to ignite, accelerate, and sustain Disciple Making Movements among unreached peoples in our region. We’re thrilled to invite all God’s people to join together in bringing good news to peoples and places where the gospel has not yet reached, for the glory of his name.

Excerpts from Living Fire: Advancing God’s Kingdom in Challenging Places by Aychi B.R. with Dave Coles, © 2024 are used by permission. This article was first published by lausanne.org and is used here with permission.

From Muslim to Movements

Aug 20, 2025 | Longer Reads

by Aila Tasse with Dave Coles

I was born into a staunch Muslim family in Marsabit, northern Kenya. I started going to the mosque with my father at a young age. My family were all very devout, with daily life centered on the mosque in the afternoons and evenings. Our community was predominantly Muslim, and other faiths were scorned and rejected outright. Those we thought of as Christians were few and disliked by our community.

While growing up, I took my Islamic studies seriously and avoided the Christians. At around the age of nine, I developed a deep desire to know more about my Islamic faith. I remember longing deeply for a personal relationship with God. While watching my father’s cows, I would often look up at the sky and ask Allah, ‘Can you speak to me?’ I felt sad and frustrated that I went to prayer five times a day and didn’t know to whom I was praying. The answer eluded me for years, even as my desire to serve Allah grew.

When I was 13 years old, I went to a Muslim-dominated boarding school in Moyale, about a day’s drive from my home. I quickly joined the Young Muslim League. A preacher from a very conservative Muslim sect came every Wednesday evening to teach those of us in the group. He taught that the primary duty of a young Muslim is to propagate the religion of Allah.

My searching soul cried out for more of Allah, and the allure of this presentation of conservative Islamic teachings gripped my soul like talons that dug deep. My desire for relationship with God led me to embrace these teachings. My gradual radicalization had begun. It wasn’t long until I was ready to pay the ultimate price for my faith: to die for Islam.

That year in the school’s second term, an intern teacher named Teacher Francis, from a university in southern Kenya, came to our school for three months. He was a born-again Christian. I didn’t know what that meant, but God used him to bring me the message of life.

During that term, a deadly malaria and yellow fever outbreak occurred in our area. Medical services were poor: just one small, ill-equipped health center served the whole town. Many students, including myself, became so ill that we had to be admitted to the health center for treatment. Some students and many from the local community died in the following weeks.

Every day, more dead bodies were wheeled through the hall outside my room. This birthed in my heart a great fear of death. ‘Will I die? Where will I go if I die?’

About a week after I entered the health center, the infection caused my brain to swell and my vital organs to slow down. Medical personnel informed the school administration that they did not expect me to survive.

Then Teacher Francis came to visit. He had heard that I was the next one likely to die, and he felt led to come to the hospital and share Christ with me. He brought me some food and spoke with me for a while. Then, before he left, he asked me, ‘If you die today, where will you spend your eternity?’

I instinctively responded, ‘Inshallah’ (‘Allah knows’). The Qur’an states that only Allah knows a person’s ultimate fate. No one receives any assurance whatsoever.

‘You know, your sins can be forgiven,’ he told me.

This was the first time I had ever heard this! As he spoke, I realized that he wanted to convert me to Christianity. ‘I don’t want to be Christian,’ I told him.

He responded wisely, ‘You don’t have to be a Christian for your sins to be forgiven, you just have to believe in Christ through whom sins are forgiven.’

That night I began to hear a male voice in my sleep repeating, ‘Your sins can be forgiven.’ I dismissed it as just a thought in my head, since I was still sick enough to be in the hospital.

This continued for a whole week before Teacher Francis came back. By then, I was desperate for him to come and take away this tormenting ‘Christian spirit’! My illness was also worsening, and I had become even more afraid of dying.

When he returned, he explained to me more of the gospel. I told him again, ‘I don’t want to be a Christian, but I want my sins forgiven, so I die without sin.’

He asked, ‘Are you willing to pray for your sins to be forgiven?’

I said ‘Yes!’ And he quietly led me in a prayer of salvation. I suddenly felt complete peace, as the fear of death evaporated and my heart was at rest. That night I slept soundly for the first time in three weeks. My newfound peace was so profound that I didn’t notice the rapid changes taking place in my body. To the astonishment of the doctors, my health had taken a dramatic turn, and I was undergoing a rapid and noticeable recovery! God had healed me.

During the following weeks, Teacher Francis discreetly discipled me, telling the other teachers he was helping me catch up with studies after my long illness. When the time came for him to leave our area, he told me to do three things to grow in faith: Pray every day to God in Jesus’ name, read the Bible (giving me his Gideon’s pocket New Testament), and ‘share with others what happened to you’.

For many months, I did the first two secretly while fear prevented me from doing the third. But months later, while I was back at home, the Lord allowed my new faith to be discovered by my parents. My father was irate, and after I resisted days of pressure to recant, I was thrown out of the house. The Lord provided a Christian family three hours away who took me in, enabling me to finish my studies and attend church regularly.

One day, I went to a campsite in the Marsabit forest to pray in solitude. Suddenly, I felt such a strong presence of God that the environment around me totally changed. As I started praying in his presence, I went into a dramatic vision that lasted for many hours. The climax was a vision of cabbages growing in the desert. I realized God was calling me to bring the gospel to my own people and other unreached tribes in Northern Kenya, and was promising to bring fruit in those efforts.

Over the next few years, the Lord allowed me to plant many churches among unreached peoples and attend Bible school. He also expanded my vision to include taking the gospel to all the unreached groups in Kenya.

Then in 2005, I began applying the ministry approach now known as disciple-making movements. The Lord blessed this approach with multiple generations of disciples making disciples and churches planting churches. In the 20 years since then, thousands of groups and families from other faith backgrounds have come to Christ—grounded in biblical faith and sharing that faith with others. Our network has now multiplied to impact multiple unreached peoples in nations throughout East Africa, the Horn, and Southern Africa. To God be the glory!

Excerpts from Cabbages in the Desert: How God Transformed a Devout Muslim and Catalyzed Disciple Making Movements among Unreached Peoples by Aila Tasse with Dave Coles, © 2024 are used by permission. This article was first published by lausanne.org and is used here with permission.

Would You Walk 13 Hours for Training?

Aug 24, 2022 | Africa, Stories

Justin Long, Beyond’s Director of Research, recently returned from a trip to a Disciple-Making Movement conference in Africa. The first four days were a “Catalyst Camp” for DMM practitioners. The last two days were a 24:14 African leaders’ meeting for strategy and planning.

“It was an amazing time of worship, stories, and training,” Justin reports. “On the first night, I shared the dashboard* of what God is doing through movements worldwide. Surprised at the scope of the work, one man said, ‘I thought this [DMM stuff] was just something I did in my backyard. I didn’t know it had spread so far!’

Many fellow disciple-makers shared stories: people who walked 13 hours one way to be trained in disciple-making, of COVID and unrest bringing previously unreached people groups within reach of the gospel, of churches started in ghettos and among witchcraft practitioners, of widespread openness to the gospel amongst Muslims, of many previous “mission graveyards” becoming fruitful vineyards, of tens of thousands of new believers, of “Sauls” (persecutors) becoming “Pauls” (evangelists), of people bearing scars and disabilities because they refused to renounce their faith, of whole families and villages turning to Jesus as a result of the love and obedience of Christ-followers.

Please pray for these many African movement leaders who wholeheartedly work among nearly 1,000 people groups and strive toward gospel-movement engagement for the whole continent.

WATCH JUSTIN’S PRESENTATION

Passion for God, Compassion for People

Jul 29, 2022 | Longer Reads

by Shodankeh Johnson

Practical demonstrations of God’s love play an integral role in Church Planting Movements. They serve as entry points for the good news and as fruits of kingdom transformation in people’s lives and communities.

Access ministries are one of the pillars of New Harvest Ministries (NHM). Since New Harvest began, we have shown God’s compassion, made disciples, and planted churches in more than 4,000 communities in 12 countries. These compassionate engagements have been catalytic in shaping hundreds of thousands of new disciples, and more than ten thousand new Christian leaders.

Compassion is an essential Kingdom value found in the DNA of every Disciple Making Movement. We have dozens of different access ministries. Each one advances God’s kingdom in Africa. Most are not expensive, but with God’s help, they make a great impact. We partner with local people in every ministry. They often provide leadership, labor and materials— things present in the community that can help meet needs.

Heroic Compassion
New Harvest serves many countries from our headquarters in Sierra Leone. When Ebola struck in 2014, we could not stay in safe places disengaged from the disaster all around us. The crisis hit many Muslim villages especially hard, as their burial rites caused the epidemic to explode. Suddenly, because of Ebola, people could not even touch dying parents or children. In that context, several New Harvest leaders volunteered in the most hazardous places. Some survived, but several lost their lives serving others — mostly Muslims.

One Muslim chief was discouraged by people trying to escape his quarantined village. He was amazed at seeing Christians coming to serve. He privately prayed: “God, if you save me from this, if you save my family, I want us all to be like these people who show us love and bring us food.” The chief and his family did survive, and he kept his promise. Memorizing passages from the Bible, he began to share in the mosque where he had been an elder. A church was birthed in that village, and the chief continues going from village to village, sharing the good news of God’s love.

Discovering Felt Needs, Engaging Lostness
For NHM, access ministries begin with assessing the felt needs of a community. When we complete a needs assessment, the partnership with the community must develop mutual respect and trust. After a while, the relationship leads to story-telling and Discovery Bible Studies (DBS). Access ministries let them see the love of Christ and powerfully touch their hearts.

The On-Ramp to Kingdom Movements
Prayer is the foundation for everything we do. So once an assessment is done, our intercessors begin to pray for:

open doors and open hearts
the selection of project leaders
open hands by locals
a supernatural move of God
the leading of the Spirit
God to provide needed resources

All our prayer centers know the communities being served. They fast and pray for each of them. And God always opens the right door, at the right time, with the right provision.

Prayer is the most powerful and effective access ministry. We are convinced beyond any doubt that strategic fasting and prayer consistently leads to the defeat of dark powers. Sometimes praying for the sick opens wide a door for access. Through persistent prayer we have seen hostile communities opened, unlikely Persons of Peace identified, and whole families saved. All glory goes to the Father who hears and answers prayer.

Prayer undergirds everything we do. I tell people that the three most important elements of access ministries are: first—prayer, second prayer, and third prayer.

Every Project Makes Our King Famous
We do whatever it takes to get the gospel to people so Christ receives glory. Our work is never about us. It is about Him. We make Him known with a strategic focus on unreached people groups.

Agricultural Team
Our first access ministry was agriculture. In places where farming is critical, agriculture becomes a great gateway to serve people. Most farming is subsistence farming, mainly for family consumption. Often no seed is saved for the next planting. This led us to develop seed banks for farmers.

We trained nine agriculturists who are also trained church planters. These agriculturists/disciple makers educate the farmers. Their training and mentoring led to relationships that resulted in DBS groups, baptisms and eventually churches. Today many farmers have become followers of Christ.

Education Team
When education is an obvious need, our intercessors take this need to God in prayer. While we are praying, we engage the community to discover what resources they have. We find out what they can provide to meet their own need. Often the community will supply land, a community building, or construction materials to build a temporary structure.

We usually encourage the community to pay part of the teacher’s salary. The teacher is fully certified, and he or she is also a veteran disciple maker or church planter. Schools start with a few benches, pencils or pens, a box of chalk, and a chalkboard. The school may start under a tree, in a community center, or in an old house. We start slowly and grow the school academically and spiritually.

When a Person of Peace opens his or her home, it becomes the launching pad for DBS meetings and later a church. We have launched over 100 primary schools, most of which are now owned by the community.

From this simple program, God has also raised up 12 secondary schools, two trade technical schools, and Every Nation College. This college has an accredited School of Business and School of Theology. Contrary to what some might expect, Disciple Making Movements also need strong seminaries.

Medical, Dental, Hygiene
When we identify a health need, we send in teams of well-qualified medical practitioners with medicines and equipment. All our team members are strong disciple makers and skilled in facilitating the DBS process. Many are skilled church planters as well. While the team treats patients, they also look for a Person of Peace. If they don’t discover one on their first visit, they make a second visit. Once they discover a Person of Peace, he or she serves as the bridge and future host for the DBS. If they don’t find a Person of Peace, the team will go to a different community, while still praying for an open door into the previous one.

Ten church planters have been well trained, equipped as dentists. They are accredited by health authorities to do mobile dental extractions and fillings. One of them also doubles as an optometrist. He checks eyesight and dispenses suitable glasses. He does this at cost, to keep the process going and to avoid dependency. Other health team members provide training on hygiene, breast feeding, nutrition, child vaccines, and prenatal care for pregnant women.

A Most Unusual Access Ministry
We do all of this in a Christ-like manner, seeking to make God’s kingdom visible. God moves and makes His presence known. This often starts with one family or an unlikely community leader.

One large community in southern Sierra Leone had been very difficult for us to enter. They were extremely hostile toward Christians. Christians found it difficult even to enter that place. So we prayed. But time passed, and none of our strategies worked.

Then something happened! Young men were becoming ill and dying in that town. It was found that their infections were related to the fact that the village never circumcised their boys. As I prayed, the Lord convicted me that this was finally our open door to serve this town.

We gathered a volunteer medical team and supplies and went to the community. We asked if they would let us help them. The town leaders agreed. The first day, they circumcised more than 300 young men.

In the following days, as the men recovered, we had the opportunity to begin Discovery Bible Groups. We saw great response, and soon Kingdom multiplication began happening with churches being planted! Within a few years, a place where Christians could not enter was transformed into a place where God’s glory shone brightly. The compassion of God’s people, the power of much prayer, and the transforming Word of God changed everything.

Planting Churches
About 90% of our attempted access ministries have led to a church. Very often one engagement results in several churches planted. As we revisit communities we hear many testimonies of individual, family, and community transformations. Compassion for people, making God famous

This article was used with permission and first published in Mission Frontiers.

About the Author: Shodankeh Johnson is the team leader of New Harvest Global Ministries, based in Sierra Leone, West Africa. He is an integral part of New Generations involved in training, coaching, mentoring and prayer mobilization in different places in Africa and worldwide. He has been an active DMM practitioner for more than 15 years. He is a key leader in the 24:14 coalition in African and globally.

Serving God in Difficult Places

Jun 12, 2021 | Stories

Workers laboring in North Africa and the Middle East must be very careful — and very bold — in their disciple-making activities. They are serving God in very difficult places – places where governments and religious institutions are hostile to the gospel and to those who would spread it.

One couple, who we will call *Bill and *Susan, strive to meet new people with whom they might share their faith. They maintain those precious relationships over cups of tea and deep conversation. They train and coach followers of Jesus to make other disciples in a way that will produce many generations. Bill and Susan want those living in darkness to have the opportunity to choose Jesus’ offer of salvation and hope.

This has been especially hard during the COVID pandemic. Bill and Susan have had the virus and know many others who have had it too. Their closest local partner recently recovered after spending many days in the hospital.

Despite the pandemic, the ministry continues. Bill and Susan, together with those they have trained, persevere in their Kingdom work. They regularly hear of newly formed Bible study groups, and their partners report that thousands have found peace and renewal through becoming disciples of Jesus.

Even in the most difficult places, people are being called out of darkness into His marvelous light.

*pseudonym

« Older Entries