A Church on the Back of a Camel

“When you can put your church on the back of a camel, then I will believe that Christianity is for us,” a Somali herdsman in eastern Africa told Malcolm Hunter, founder of the Nomadic Peoples Network.

The Muslim camel herder had seen church buildings where Christians dressed in their finest clothes and gathered at specific times on specific days.

If that’s what it looked like to live out the Gospel, then he couldn’t envision his nomadic people ever following Jesus.

“When you can put your church on the back of a camel, then I will believe that Christianity is for us.”

No one had shown this Somali herdsman that faith in Christ isn’t about buildings and schedules and clean clothes. He needed to see that the Gospel also fits nomads like him—people who are ready to pick up and move whenever necessary.

An estimated 200 million people live as nomads around the world. Bringing the message of Christ to these unreached people groups remains one of the greatest mission challenges of our time.

From West Africa to Southeast Asia, more than 170 nomadic Muslim people groups remain completely untouched by the Gospel. Few missionaries have gone to serve among them—largely because of the difficulties of reaching people who are highly mobile and who inhabit some of the harshest climates in the world.

Many nomadic people groups live in remote places that are hard to access and even harder to live in. They are autonomous peoples who generally don’t concern themselves with political and social affairs outside their own group.

More than 170 nomadic Muslim people groups remain completely untouched by the Gospel.

Reaching nomads isn’t easy. It takes time, investment, and a willingness to go to some of the harshest places in the world. Living among them for the sake of the Gospel requires sacrifices of space and comfort.

But God has prepared a new generation of laborers to go and bring the Gospel to nomads.

Do you have an adventurous, pioneering spirit? Perhaps you’re able to thrive on the move.

If you say yes to reaching nomads, you’ll probably be greeted by extreme temperatures, brutal weather, and rustic living conditions.

But in return, you’ll experience a life of unimaginable adventure for the sake of the Kingdom. Jesus is totally worth it.

• Pray for the Lord of the harvest to send more laborers to reach Muslim nomads with the Gospel.
• Ask God to equip Frontiers teams with creative strategies—particularly technology and media—to share Christ with highly mobile nomadic people groups.
• Pray that Jesus will reveal Himself to nomadic men, women, and children through dreams and visions.