Unreached People Group Project of Yemen - Report Example

UNREACHED PEOPLE GROUP PROJECT OF YEMEN # Table of Contents I. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………….3 1 Background information………………………………………………………………4 1.2 Social Life of Yemeni Arabs…………………………………………………………….5 II. A survey of missions work……………………………………………………………………….8 a. The Condition of Yemeni Christians…………………………………………………..9 2.2 Challenges of the unfinished task……………………………………………………..12 III. Proposed Strategy……………………………………………………………………………….13 I. INTRODUCTION The Great Commission forms the basis of missions in the Christian faith. Christ Himself commanded his followers in the Great Commission to go out and spread the gospel to the ends of the world. In a bid to obey this commandment, Christian missionaries travel to the furthest corners of the world so as to reach the unreached groups with the gospel message (The Yemeni Arabs, 2012). They have devised creative ways of reaching such groups for example extending hospitality, sinking boreholes, providing health care amongst other ways. Despite all this well intended cause, the missionaries experience unspeakable challenges as they try to reach out. They face rejection, persecution, battle with doubt and even death. On the brighter side, there are some missionaries who witness the fruits of their labor such as seeing totally transformed lives of people who had never before heard the gospel of Christ. Their faith in Christ’s assurance that he himself will be with them at all times, keeps them strong and willing to reach out to unreached people groups (Unengaged Unreached People Groups, 2012). Yemeni Arabs are from North and South Yemen is one such group. With a population of over 24 million people, Yemen only has 15,000 – 25,000 both indigenous Christians and non-native Christians practicing their faith underground with majority being non-native. These non-native Christians are refugees from neighboring countries (Yemens Forgotten Christians, 2013). This thesis will assess the current status of Yemen unreached groups and efforts by Christian missionaries to fulfill the Great Commission by consciously but creatively spreading the gospel and knowledge God’s love to the unreached. This evaluation will be done through surveying relevant academic journal and books, interviewing missionaries to Yemen, academic journals and in some cases, discussing with religious refugees to Yemen. I will conclude by discussing the missiological impact of missionary work towards the unreached people group of Yemen. 1.1 Background information The difference in ideologies between the North and South Yemen has presented exceptional opportunities for Christians to evangelize to the unreached people group of Yemen (CIA Government Library, 2013). Yemeni Arabs, who most scholars consider as the original Arabs, are categorized as unreached group of people. Mission organizations define unreached people groups as any ethnic group that has less than two percent of its population as evangelical Christians. It is an ethnic group lacking an indigenous population of believing Christians who can proclaim the gospel to reach the rest of the group (Hamilton, 2005). The Joshua Project uses two percent of an indigenous population as the minimum percentage of a population that can impact an entire nation (Hoskins, 2005). Yemen unreached status stems from their topography which varies from hot coastal plains to cool mountains, and scorching deserts. This climatically challenges missionaries willing to spread the gospel there (Joshua, 2009). Secondly, their social and tribal structure has prevented penetration by Christians since all persons and goods passing through their towns are strictly controlled. They have various tribes which are ruled by Arab Chiefs who often fight each other. The belief system is the third reason for their unreached status. Despite being predominately influenced by Islam religion, the different Islamist sects complicate evangelism even further. Zaydis which is the largest sect is obsessive and warrior-like. They view all wars as a crusade against all non-Muslim believers to the extent that any Muslim converting and professing faith in Jesus Christ can be killed (McCarthy, 2004). This belief system and antagonism towards the Gospel creates major challenges to any evangelization efforts to this unreached group of people. The Arab World includes all regions where Arabic is the leading language irrespective of the fact that this affinity bloc includes such languages also that were used to be spoken before the Arab attacks. The physical boundary of the Arab world encompasses Western Asia and North Africa. Yemen belongs to the Northern African and Middle Eastern Peoples of the Arab World affinity bloc. The people cluster is Arab and Yemeni, the other name the Southern Yemeni, speaking Hadrami Arabic (ayh). The main religion of Yemen is Islam, grown with the teachings of Quran, and the prophet Muhammad. It has a population of 1,612,000, while worldwide population is 1,712,295. From gospel perspective, Yemen’s GSEC ranking is 1, as the population is below the 2% Evangelical count, with no church planting activity. People can have access to the translation of Bible only; Jesus film, gospel recording, and radio broadcast is not available to the people of Yemen (People Groups, 2013). 1.2 Social Life of Yemeni Arabs The Yemeni Arabs form a cluster of ten Yemeni Arab groups, scattered in nine countries. Currently, more than 12 million Yemeni Arabs inhabit the Republic of Yemen and another 679,000 live in the neighboring countries of Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Madagascar, Egypt, the UAE, and Djibouti. The Yemni Arabs consist of four social classes: the Sayyid, or wealthy, the Qatani, (tribesmen), the Shafiite townsmen (merchants, artisans, and craftsmen), and the Akhdam (slaves). They had close links with Islam all across their history. All Yemeni Arabs are Muslims. Nearly half of them are Zaydis Muslims, 40% are Shafiites, and 5% are Ismailis (Pray Way, 2005). Social life of Yemeni Arabs is tribal with more than 1,700 varied tribes. Sheiks are the commanders of these tribes, but internal strife is common among the Sheiks. Villages in Yemen give the impression of a fort for safeguarding the people from outside attack. Each singular house has windows on all sides and the front of the house faces the village. Traffic of people and products is strictly checked for entering inside the town. Houses are embellished, as flat-roofed homes called “town houses.” Windows are decorated with lime wash and brickwork to create artistic design. The rooms are generally carpeted. Shoes are laid off before entering the door. The walls are made comfortable through mattresses and cushions to sit with leaning backs against the wall. A proper drawing room and a kitchen are situated on the top floor. Women dry clothes on the flat terraces (Pray Way, 2005). Not much information can be accessed on the lifestyle of the selected Yemeni Arabs who have gone abroad (nearly 5%). It is taken for granted that when outside their country, a good number of Yemeni people follow their social customs and traditions although their businesses and surrounding environment are unlike their own at home. Arabs value social life greatly. They cherish sipping coffee while sitting on the floor from handle-less cups. They eat wheat bread and porridge of boiled meat or chicken. Although Islam as a religion is widely taught but there are still various types of Arabs. Garment is one of the critical differentiator between the tribesmen and the villagers; they can be recognized easily from their dresses. Veil is common among women at homes and in town. Boys change their attire after becoming men by wearing headgear and daggers (Pray Way, 2005). Society is patriarchal, which means all assets are transferred through the male members, and females are more appreciated for bearing children. Yemeni Muslims are although allowed four marriages but generally the Yemeni men marry once. The past tradition of arranged marriages by parents is changing with the times, as a good number of Yemeni men are selecting their own mates. The right age of girls for marriage is nine years. Off late, a good number of Yemeni nomads have made mountains their homes. They grow grains, vegetables, coffee, melons, dates, mangoes, and pomegranates. They depend on domestic animals for their need of milk and eggs (Pray Way, 2005). All Yemeni Muslims follow Islam, as the impact of Islam can be seen on all walks of their lives. The Zaydis sect of Islam is very fundamentalist in its type. They are warriors and link all wars to be representative of Jihad (Pray Way, 2005). Muslims professing to Christianity can be sentenced to death in many Muslim countries. This is the leading cause behind only 5,000 Yemeni followers of Christianity in Yemen. Attempts at evangelization offer challenges because of limitations and hatred of the Gospel. The prayer profile for the Yemeni Arabs includes prayer points, which are: • Request the Lord to reach people who are eager to be reached out and communicate the love of Christ with them. • Pray to God to provide dedicated negotiators who will assist the Yemeni Arabs • Pray to God to provide the Yemeni Arab believers chances to communicate the love of Christ with their own kind. • Pray that the hardened Muslim attitude will mellow down, welcoming the Gospel to be supported among them. • Request the Holy Spirit to soften he behavior of the Arabs towards Christians so that they will be willing to the Gospel. • Pray that God’s personification becomes visible to these Muslims via dreams and visions. • Request the Lord to construct robust local churches among the Yemeni Arab (Pray Way, 2005). II. A SURVEY OF MISSIONS WORK The Peoples’ Group considers people all round the globe as invaluable to God. It was ordained by the almighty, the Father, to His son Jesus to sacrifice life for the people. Jesus commissioned his followers to reach to all people to initiate them and begin the functioning of new churches. The PeopleGroups.org is dedicated to the cause of Christ to strive expansion of the Gospel among the people, which is the vision of the People Group. Latest research updates of more than 11,000 people groups can be accessed, including maps, lists, photos, and overview details of such groups worldwide. Key indicators of the vast research of Peoples Group include affinity blocs, people clusters, religions, population, countries and progress of the Gospel status (GSEC, 2013). The GSEC Model updates people about the growth of the gospel throughout the world by analyzing: 1. The Evangelical limit of a people group 2. Reach to the gospel 3. Reporting on kind of Church planting, limited or distributed widely in the past 2 years. The model fixes the parameters for the sub category of peoples ranked as “Unreached People Groups” and for further sub categorizing the Unreached People Groups as “Last Frontier People Groups” (GSEC, 2013). 2.1 The Condition of Yemeni Christians The condition of Yemeni Christians cannot be imagined even given the political and economic circumstances prevailing in Yemen. Yemen has been a poor Arab country that brought forward Osama bin laden. It is sandwiched between Saudi Arabia and Somalia, two of the totally fundamentalist Muslim nations. Data indicate that there are less than even 1 percent non-Muslims throughout Yemen (Raymond Ibrahim, 2013). As per a new Arabic report on the presence of Christians in Yemen, one can imagine how a handful of minority Christians can inhabit along with the majority Muslims. As per off the record data, there are near to 2,500 ethnic Christians in Yemen, preserving their religious integrity among the unfriendly people all around them. To quote Abdul Razzaq al-Azazi, the human rights activist, “Christians in Yemen cannot practice their religion nor can they go to church freely. Society would work on having them enter Islam.” The government in Yemen does not allow making of Churches for the purpose of prayers, as it is required to take such permissions in advance. Currently, a Roman Catholic Church is in the waiting line for granting the permission to build a structure to be identified by the government in Sana (Raymond Ibrahim, 2013). There is no publically acclaimed acceptance of Christianity, as it could be risk to the life of that person. Such people professing conversion to Christianity from Islam prefer to remain anonymous, opting for the pseudonym, “Ibn Yemen” (Son of Yemen). It indicates how anti-Christian social powers may react on such conversions, particularly because of the coming into power a leading Islamist group, taking the leads from the Arab Spring and considering the demonstrations that brought the end of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Even during the past non-Islamist government, Christians were dragged to the courts and observed closely by the policemen under their rule. Because of the Islam’s apostasy law, permission to worship Christ is not granted, neither to construct a private Church. Political change has heightened the life risk to Christians with the Islamist government in Yemen (Raymond Ibrahim, 2013). Interview of a Christian has revealed the level of secrecy kept by them in Yemen by praying in various members’ houses. It used to happen during the Roman persecution of Christians, worshipping in catacombs. Besides the ethnic Christian population, there are non-natives Christians around 15,000 to 25,000 in numbers. A large number of these Christians are refugees from Somalia, Eritrea, and Ethiopia, where conditions for them are far more deteriorated, particularly in Somalia, where Al-Shabaab ("the Youth") recurrently behead those Muslims who converge to Christianity. Out of fear, such Christian refugees from Africa mostly adopt Muslim names to live peacefully in Yemen (Raymond Ibrahim, 2013). There are certain Christian organizations but they are the properties of foreign governments, such as the American Baptist Mission, which manages Jibla Hospital and a Church providing community services to orphans, the poor, and jailed women. These organizations are doing just community service, not promoting Christian worship. Research has indicated that there were five churches in the southern city of Aden, out of which, three were Roman Catholic, one Anglican, and the fifth could not be identified for affiliation. The three churches constructed during the British possession of southern Yemen were in dilapidated condition, and could not be preserved; the fourth was taken over by the government, and the fifth was changed into a health care unit (Raymond Ibrahim, 2013). The conditions of Yemeni Christians represent a small microcosm of the reality of the Middle Easts Christians, facing oppression for professing to Christianity under the rule of Islam. Conditions were far better during past times of Western impact when fundamentalism in Islam was not as prominent as it is today. The Muslim world is increasingly turning away from the impact of the West towards the East, to Islam, and treading on the path of Sharia Law, hostility to non-Muslim worship and followers with the “Arab Spring” has been increasing wherever Islamist governments are replacing old kingdoms and rules. (Raymond Ibrahim, 2013). The roadmap of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization proposes plans to face the challenges and opportunities before the church with regard to global evangelization along with the stakeholder, the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA). The Lausanne III Advisory Council has been very optimistic about the role of African church in the missions of Evangelization. Strategies to the cause of the gospel were analyzed in the Lausanne III Advisory Committee with the increasing transfer of the evangelical people to the Southern hemisphere. The Covenant includes fifteen articles related to leading issues, such as the urgency of world evangelization among others. The Covenant offered a pattern for unity to act as the statement of faith for innumerable organizations across the globe. The Lausanne Committee identified dire issues before it like global perspective over Christianity becoming increasingly unfriendly. The Committee strategized to propel the Church with a new vision and a new dedication in collaboration with various peoples groups and other stakeholders for the evangelization of the world (LCWE, 2010). Offering prayers is easy but openly professing to Jesus is fraught with risks for the Yemenis, as shari’a law and culture are the leading impediments, and further agreement with the family is must. Until the change happens at the family level for having faith in Christianity, gospel cannot be preached in Yemen; family is the major bottleneck, as it persecutes the believer till the end (Operation World, 2013). A large percentage of Christians living in Yemen are expatriates; a good number of Ethiopian refugees participate in mass evangelical congregations. Rest of the expatriates includes Westerners, South and East Asians, and some Arabs in global jobs. North of Yemen is totally blank in registering the presence of Church (Operation World, 2013). http://www.operationworld.org/yemen 2.2 Challenges of the unfinished task Spiritual Challenge: Overall, in the past 19 centuries had seen less Christians martyred relatively to the 20th century, which has been a huge spiritual challenge before the Mission. People challenge: Those people and groups living in remote locations, experience language and cultural hurdles due to ongoing religious extremism, and are increasingly hostile to the gospel. Political / national challenge: The countries with the most Least-Reached offer huge challenge, as they are totally distanced from Christianity (Status of World Evangelization, 2013). Church challenge: Only one out of ten cross-cultural missionaries work among unreached people groups. Out of every $1.00 (one US dollar) of Christian help to all welfare activities, only less than one penny goes is spent on church planting among least-reached people groups (Status of World Evangelization, 2013). III. PROPOSED STRATEGY Winter (2009) has stressed on the need of change in reaching to the unreached people by revising the mission strategic thinking. It should not be place-centric but people-centric – by holding meetings with the spokespersons of the unreached people. Mission is a particularized type of evangelism, the type that is a “first penetration” into a community that has the least possibility of getting attracted towards evangelism. There have been quite positive reviews of prayers. If Germans make a serious attempt to impress upon the Yemeni Arabs among them. The German believers in Christianity should not let natural pride and bias turn opposite to including the Yemenis in availing the grace of God because God had ordained Christ also to propagate gospel, the cherished aim of propagating Christianity. Jesus was also ordained to visit and experience the over-joy of the people in the synagogue at Nazareth when he agreed to the need of providing the grace of God to foreigners. Therefore, the hurdles on the path of praying to the Lord cannot come in the way of the Great Commission, stopping it from completing to the unfamiliar ones among the crowd (Winter, 2009). Foreign lands where Yemeni Arabs are presently living to fulfill their educational needs provide an ideal opportunity to familiarize them with the gospel. In the past also, during the 1970s and the 1980s, the Yemeni Arabs were provided training in East Germany as doctors, benefitting from the good diplomatic relations, Germany had with Yemen. It was a time when both Germany and Yemen were divided on the Communist and non-Communist lines. After the downfall of Communism, both nations have come nearer diplomatically. A large number of the Yemeni medical professionals preferred to live and work in Germany; only near to five percent went back to Yemen. They have been following their own Muslim customs and traditions. There has been no information available on those Yemen professionals who shifted back to Germany from Yemen (Winter, 2009). Presently, there are perhaps near to 500 Yemeni students in Berlin, half of whom are availing scholarships from the Germany. Leaving aside the religious and lifestyle variations, these students also face the hurdles of not having any social and personal connection with ethnic Germans. No individual level dialog occurs between the Yemeni and German students. Shifting from a Muslim country having nearly no believers in Christianity to a country where opportunities abound witnessing gospel, which is a challenge as well to the German Church (Global Prayer Digest, 2010). The general understanding among various Christian organizations worldwide is that there is no further need to depend on traditional missionary strategy and should rather depend on local Christians to accomplish the task of gospel. It is also the reason of greater evangelical unity emerging from one great password of evangelism. All preachers may not have common agreement with foreign mission strategies but increasing number of people perceive evangelism as the only work needs to be accomplished. There may not be anything wrong with evangelism (Winter, 2009). Evangelism is seen happening when a large number of conversions happen and when conversion of a neighbor is seen by a Christian witnessing. This conversion issue becomes interesting when faced with the added fact that most non-Christians across the world at present are not culturally in proximity to any Christian neighbors and that it requires a particular type of “cross-cultural” evangelism to reach the unreached (Winter, 2009). Worldwide the Muslim religion has created more challenges to evangelism than any other religion. Cross-cultural evangelism can be used as a strategy in Muslim populations. A converted Muslim may not feel at ease in routine Presbyterian Churches. Churches, therefore, should be designed as per the local areas architectural preferences (Winter, 2009). Taking the example of Pakistani Muslims, even converted Muslims don’t feel at ease into the churches designed by former believers of Hindu religion. This can be proved from the current Christians of Pakistan (nearly all formerly Hindu) who have been totally failed in including converted Muslims into their gatherings. Moreover, it is not possible even to happen to them that Muslims can be converted and create their own individual gatherings. The greater tragedy is that this type of hold delays serious evangelism along E-2 lines across the world wherever there are any of the 664 million Muslims. Analyzing the Muslim regions from the far east of Mecca, in specific areas of Indonesia, a large number of Muslims have become Christians because they have not been compelled individually to join Christian gatherings of different culture (Winter, 2009). Towards the west of Mecca, in the center of Africa on some of the islands of Lake Chad, there are reports that a few erstwhile Muslims, presently Christians, still pray to Christ five times a day and offer prayers in Christian churches on Friday, the Muslim day of offering prayers. These two varied examples indicate that Muslims can be converted to Christianity by not bothering about ongoing trend of dictatorial cultural shift. Muslims worldwide can be more accommodative and welcoming by converting to Christianity if missionaries are as aware cross-culturally as was Paul, who did not ask the Greeks to become Jews to be welcomed to God (Winter, 2009). It is an irony that national Christians all across the non-Western world are more conscious that there is no need to Westernize the new followers of Christianity, but in certain cases they may be unable to gauge that the challenge of cross-cultural evangelism expects them to permit other people in their own localities to have the ditto freedom in deciding and constructing culturally different and unique churches, which are nearer to their cultural taste (Winter, 2009). Strategically, top preference in evangelism at present should be given to encourage the cross-cultural insight and feelings involved in E-2 and E-3 evangelism. If necessary, evangelists from a far-away location must be invited for this task. Nothing must move us away from the hugely significant reality that at the minimum eighty percent of the non-Christians worldwide at present will never have any direct opportunity to profess to Christianity unless the Christians themselves come forward at least more than halfway in the specific activities of cross-cultural evangelism – the topmost priority of the missionaries. References CIA Government Library. “The World Fact-book.” Available from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos Internet; accessed 5 March 2013. Global Prayer Digest. “Yemeni Arabs in Berlin.” Available from http://www.globalprayerdigest.org/index.php/issue/day/2010/04/07 Internet; accessed 5 March 2013. Hamilton, A. Christianity and World Religions. Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 2005. Hoskins, E. A Muslim’s Heart. Colorado Springs, CO: Dawson Media, 2005. Ibrahim, Raymonds. “Yemens Forgotten Christians.” Gatestone Institute. Available from http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3563/yemen-christians Internet; accessed 5 March 2013. Joshua, P. (2009). “Yemeni, Northern of Yemen.” Available from http://www.joshuaproject.net Internet; accessed 5 March 2013. McCarthy, C. (2004). “Christians, Muslims and the Communication of the Gospel.” International Review of Mission 84: 447-452. “People Groups.” Available from http://peoplegroups.org/connect/Default.aspx Internet; accessed 5 March 2013. The Yemeni Arabs. (2012). “A cluster of 10 Yemeni Arab groups in 9 countries.” Available from http://www.prayway.com/unreached/clusters/8056.html Internet; accessed 5 March 2013. Unengaged Unreached People Groups. “Global research, international mission board, SBC.” Available from http://public.imb.org/globalresearch/Pages Internet; accessed 5 March 2013. Unreached People Group. “Lausanne Global Conversation: Lausanne Committee on Global Evangelization.” Available from http://www.lausanne.org/en/about/news-releases/81-lausanne-iii-cape-town-2010-international-congress-on-world-evangelization.html. Internet; accessed 5 March 2013. Winter, D. Ralph. The New Macedonia A Revolutionary New Era in Mission Begins. Chapter 54. Available from http://www.joshuaproject.net/assets/articles/the-highest-priority.pdf Internet; accessed 5 March 2013. Read More