Unknown Nations Podcast

Greg Kelley: 

Well, hello everybody, welcome to the Unknown Nations Podcast, highlighting what God is doing in the most spiritually dark places in the world today. We have a really cool opportunity talking to three of my really good friends who work with us here at Unknown Nations. And these gentlemen just got back from a really cool trip to the Horn of Africa.

And they were in multiple countries. We're going to be talking about countries. We're going to be talking about people groups. These guys serve just faithfully and the giftings that the Lord's given them. I'm really excited for you to meet Mike and Jerry and of course Kevin, as these guys have been with me around the world.

But I wasn't on this trip. I feel a little bit jealous. So I'm going to learn with you today as we unpack this. But of course, my name is Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations, and we have the honor to serve God by reaching the most zero access barrier ridden, spiritually antagonistic, spoken word reliant people groups on the planet, giving birth to the church in impossible places.

That's really what it's all about. And guys, you served alongside some of the most faithful, courageous mission leaders on planet Earth. So, Mike, let's start with you, cause, you kind of led this group here as the Director of International Ministries here at Unknown Nations. So give us a little summary, Mike, of what your guys trip was all about and where you went.

 

Mike Grandy: 

Yeah, thanks, Greg. First off, I just want to honor both Jerry Smith and Kevin Roosien. When you talk about traveling across the world, there's some people that are easy to travel with and some people who are not easy to travel with. And these guys were amazing to travel with. Amazing attitudes and flexibility and just, I just want to honor them. These guys are amazing. And so, we did just get to go to the Horn of Africa. And you might wonder what the Horn of Africa is. It's in the eastern part of Africa. If you look at a map and you look at Africa, it almost looks like a horn sticking out and it includes several countries.

It includes Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea, and Ethiopia, and we got to go to three out of four of those countries. We got to go to Ethiopia first, the first seven, eight days of our trip. We're in Ethiopia and just like you mentioned originally about countries versus nations, the whole time that we traveled, it was going to different nations.

The first place we flew into was a state in Ethiopia that was home to the Somali people. And that was the first place we went to and got to visit some work that was happening there. Then we flew from there to the Afar region, which is a whole nother people group, a whole nother nation, completely different from the Somali, nomadic people that live in the desert, very hot.

 That was another place where we have work happening. And then we flew down to the total other end of the country in the south, the Omo River Valley, where there's lots and lots of different nations, lots of different tribes. We actually got to visit several tribes. And when we talk about these nations, we're talking about unique languages, customs. And one of the things that stood out to me about one of the tribes we visited, it was the Male tribe.

And as you go to different places, everybody that travels internationally can attest to this. There's always like some kind of special drink, you know, coffee or tea, chai, something like that. So we had this very unique coffee and it was like roasted and crushed coffee beans, but then I had a couple more ingredients. I see both Jerry and Kevin smiling because they had this too. 

 

Greg Kelley: 

Not alcohol, not alcohol. 

 

Mike Grandy: 

It was crushed, roasted peanuts added to it and garlic. So it was a very unique coffee. First time I've ever had coffee like that. So it kind of gives you this idea. You're sitting in this remote place and you can look in the landscape and you see the mountains rising.

We saw the sun setting among the mountains and this beautiful lush scenery, and we're drinking this peanut flavored coffee. So that was a unique experience. But from there, that's how we spent the first seven, eight days visiting different nations within Ethiopia.

And then we went on to Djibouti for a day and Djibouti is a unique country. It's about the size of Massachusetts. It's home to about a million people, it also has seven or eight military bases, but most of the country lives in poverty. So there's like money that comes in and there's some foreign influence, but most of it lives in extreme poverty.

So we got to spend a day there, meeting with the Somali and the Afar people. And then, we split off as a group and Kevin and I got to go to Eritrea. And Jerry went to Kenya. So I'll let Kevin give a couple of minutes about  Eritrea, and Jerry, a few minutes about Kenya. And so, you can hear about the rest of the trip.

 

Kevin Roosien: 

Yeah. I tell people when I start describing this trip, I say that we had 16 days. 16 flights, three countries, three all-nighters, the rest of the nights, we, in between Muslim calls to prayer, loudspeakers coming through our hotel windows, we'd get about four hours of sleep. So it was, it was an exciting, challenging time.

 

Greg Kelley: 

Very restful, it sounds like. 

 

Kevin Roosien: 

As Mike and I were preparing to leave for Eritrea, Mike kind of casually mentioned to me, "yeah, so our point person in Eritrea has gone dark for like a month. We haven't heard anything back from him. He's not responding to communications. We don't know what happened. If he's around, if he's, you know, in prison, we have no idea where our good contact person's going to be."

 I'm like, "okay, so who are we meeting with Mike?" 

He's like, "well, there's a travel agency. He's going to pick us up. We're not really sure if these guys really understand what we're there for." 

So I said, "do you think this is a great idea? Mike, I'd like to go there with no context at all." 

He's like, "yeah, I think the Holy Spirit's really going to lead us and into the right places."

And sure enough, the Holy Spirit led us greatly through this. We met with our contact through an amazing story. He just blessed the Lord, blessed us with many more contacts. We met in people's homes. We had dinner with people that we'd never thought we would have met, and really had a chance to encourage believers there who are, I would call them oppressed.

It's a communist Marxist country that's not really open to a free flowing Christianity. So we had to be very careful with how we spoke, when we spoke, who we spoke to. But I feel like the Lord really used us to encourage the folks there that He gave us the good grace to meet. 

 

Greg Kelley: 

Hmm. Wow. Some of these leaders that you met with, Kevin, were just, I take it's pretty much heavy underground activity, kind of very below the radar and not open, serving the Lord, right?

 

Kevin Roosien: 

Yeah. So the gentleman that we met with, when we first met him, it was quite something. Mike and I just stood out there very inconspicuously, right?

 

Greg Kelley: 

Yeah. You don't say. 

 

Kevin Roosien: 

Wait for somebody to approach us and sure enough, a gentleman approached us and quietly whispered his name and asked if I was Kevin and that was Mike. So we walked for like 20 or 30 minutes to be able to get to a place and or kind of a remote part. So we could speak in hushed tones about what we were there for. Later on, when we hooked him up with some Treasures and materials, we drove 20 minutes to meet him. Drove another 20 minutes to actually have that discussion and distribute some of that information. So it's very, very, hushed and quiet undertones, because in most communist countries like North Korea and even China, and even the former Soviet Union. The communist government encourages people to basically turn in their own relatives.

So there's really nobody you can trust, and let them even know that you're a Christian. It was very different for me. Mike had to elbow me a number of times. I would forget where I was and start talking about Jesus. He's like, " hey, stop, stop!" 

It was very different for me to really understand what kind of atmosphere these believers live in. So it's very impactful to me to see firsthand the life of an oppressed believer. 

 

Greg Kelley: 

Yeah. Right. Well, I'm looking forward to learning more about, especially Eritrea, Djibouti, because they're just not as much on the radar of missions, Ethiopia, a little less, but where Jer was in Kenya, well, all of us have heard about trips to Kenya.

 There's actually a fun story we have behind why we work in Kenya. But Jerry, that was not your first trip there. Not your first rodeo, so to speak, so what was it like this time around? 

 

Jerry Smith: 

Oh my goodness. Well, as Kevin said, 16 days and 16 flights in three different countries.  I think the first 10 or 11 days that I was on this trip, I never spent two nights in a row in the same place. So by the time I got to Kenya, I was really wiped out. I was participating with a brother who was recruiting among Turkana and Pokot peoples to go and be missionaries in the northern part of Kenya, where there are villages and entire groups that still don't have the gospel. Daasanach being probably the number one that we would be concerned about. So we did that. We ended up recruiting 50 young people who signed up. And the brother that is training them, it's really a rugged bootcamp.

After three months of those 50, he'll rejoice to get five to seven who are really committed to going. Though Kenya is considered the most Christianized country in the world. Many of the nations that are in the northern part of the country still do not have the gospel.

Some have heard the gospel, but then there are frontier people. That really doesn't have any access to the gospel and the brothers that we're working with there, though they're working among the Turkana, which is a people group that is reached. Nevertheless, the training ground of going into the villages, living with the people, and getting to know them.

And literally they go in and they live 2, 3, 4 months in those villages with the people loving them and gaining their trust. That is where all these missionaries are being trained. They're not being trained in classrooms. They'll get some training like teaching, but they are getting first hand training apostolic type ministry among unreached people groups.

And the leader there is particularly training them, not necessarily for the Turkana, but that's where they're learning and they're getting ready to go to the Daasanach and some of the other unreached people groups there. And I was thrilled to learn their discipleship making methods that they're using. These are illiterate people. They are people who have zero foundation in anything Christian or biblical, and yet they are effectively training them in the gospels and in who Jesus is, and they are training them two by two.

The very people that are coming to Christ within three or four months are going to other places to share the gospel. I have never been so encouraged in seeing the multiplication factor of how quickly the task could be done if everybody were doing their part. And it was very encouraging, very trying physically, but wow, spiritually amazing.

 

Greg Kelley: 

Yeah, I can imagine, buddy. Well, let's stay in Kenya, Jer, from a spiritual standpoint, because you're mixing some things together, which people  might have a hard time visualizing, because we're talking about the most, as you said, the most Christian country.

195 countries, number one, literally, with nearly 50 percent being not just Christian, but evangelical. Yes. So think Bible Belt, you know, it's even more Christian than that. Yet you mentioned Turkana, you mentioned Daasanach. So I mean, if someone's saying, "hey, I just going to go to Northern Kenya, um, and just sort of arrive."

 Why is it important that there be an understanding of exactly what nation or people group you're ministering to in a place like Kenya? Why does it matter that I'm targeting versus just showing up in a place like Lodwar and preaching the gospel on the streets? Why is that important when it relates to the assignment? 

 

Jerry Smith: 

Well, as we've often said here at Unknown Nations, our passion is not just to do the work of the Father, but to finish it. And in order to finish it, we need to reach each of these nations in the world. These are the peoples that live within these countries.

So Kenya still has a couple dozen peoples that still don't have the gospel. So Kenya might be reached, but these nations within Kenya are not. And our passion is that we properly allocate our human resources, our financial resources, ministry resources, so that we're not spending them preaching on the street corner to people that already have access to the gospel, but that we're going out to those areas where the people still don't know Jesus.

Jesus told us that every single nation is going to have a testimony of the gospel. And as of this day, there are still nations that don't have that. And so when you go to Kenya, you need to go and find where the people are and know how to get to them in order that the gospel might be effectively ministered to them.

So we're about finishing the task that Jesus has given the church to do. And to do that, we have to reach these peoples that are inside of these countries. 

 

Greg Kelley: 

So a lot of the unreached areas when you're kind of on the more of the Eastern part of Kenya. Jerry, this is so fascinating.

I saw a State Department map. You go to the U.S. State Department website and they've got a map of Kenya, and it starts way up in the northwest corner up by Lake Turkana where you were at and just picture coming down an inch and this red line goes all the way across the northern part. It's way over into the northeast corner and by Somalia and then it goes all the way down and it's got this red area [that says] "Do not travel in Kenya." 

And the irony is, where are all the unreached people groups in Kenya? By the red line, which is where Jer was working at. But the Daasanach, if you go over more to the Eastern part, it's almost exclusively Muslim unreached people groups because of the influence of Somalia and the 4 million Somalis that are in Kenya.

But describe a Daasanach. If you show up at a Daasanach village, what is someone going to see?

 

Jerry Smith: 

Well, first of all, you need somebody to take you there. You don't show up. Number one in many places, they're very isolated. Our leader just went in there last week and he found a pocket of Daasanach and he had no idea that there were that many hundreds all gathered together. Not a single one of them had any clothing on.

 

Greg Kelley: 

Oh my gosh. 

 

Jerry Smith: 

I mean, they're that isolated. They're that far out into the bush, and on top of that, they're in the middle of a hostile environment. They're both warring and being warred against. So coming in there and bringing into them the gospel, it takes somebody who's got either the contacts or who can develop them and who can lead you in there.

And if you're willing to listen and learn, you will gain the kind of knowledge and ability to really strategize. I'm really excited. I think that what we're going to be seeing among these people in the next year is going to be something for the books. 

I just think the Holy Spirit is getting ready to do something among these people that is phenomenal.

 

Greg Kelley: 

That's exciting. That is so exciting. And as you're listening to him, Mike and Kevin, it's a little bit of a different story in Ethiopia and Eritrea, but what's interesting about those two countries is they've got plenty of religion. The Daasanach, you'd say, well, animus, yeah, not technically that's a religion, but Ethiopia and Eritrea are very religious countries.

So unpack those a little bit for us guys, like from a spiritual perspective, like when you show up in Ethiopia, let's start there because that's had such a long history of religious exposure. But today so many people still haven't heard the gospel in Ethiopia. So sort of unpack Ethiopia for us first.

 

Mike Grandy: 

Yeah, the first place we stop is Addis Ababa, which is a very modern city but back to what Jerry was just talking about people groups, you have the the Tigray people and Oromo people both of those were were Orthodox people but there's mention of Ethiopia all the way back in the Old Testament when you hear the land of Kush, that's considered the Ethiopian land.

 They're descendants of the Kushites and even Moses's wife, they believe was an Ethiopian. And so then we have also the reference in the New Testament, the Ethiopian eunuch. And so the gospel actually went to Ethiopia very, very early on. And then you have this long history of the orthodox church there.

And so if you look at Joshua Project or some other resources, you're going to see that a very large percentage of Ethiopia is Christian. And it's particularly in the Tigray people group and then the Oromo people group but there's also lots of other people groups. There's the Tigre people group, which is almost 100 Muslim.

You have the Somali people group, almost 100 percent Muslim, and the Afar people group, almost 100 percent muslim. They actually have all their own states except for the Tigre people. And when you hear some conflicts happening, it's the Tigre people who don't have their own state and there's a lot of political challenges with that.

And there's actually some warring things happening. But we got to go up to the Somali area. My hotel wasn't the nicest hotel we've ever stayed at [for] Unknown nations. My window, I think, was about 20 feet away from a microphone off of the mosque with the call to prayer.  It was an interesting experience, but one of the things that sticks out is we partner with some amazing, just amazing people who go to these places.

The Lord puts a call on their heart. And they're like "I have a call for the Somali people. I'm going to go and I'm going to reach these people or I'm going to reach my people", which is what some of them do. 

And we just heard this amazing testimony of this young man who had just come to Christ in the last 30 days. And I've kind of formed this thesis and Jerry and Kevin have heard me say a bunch of different times, but reaching the Muslims, it just starts with a relationship. And these guys are just going to live among them. They're building relationships and then living good conduct. There's that Bible verse that says, "win them over with your good conduct" and we see our partners doing that. They're living above reproach.

They're known as good people, and then they're showing this unconditional love constantly. This guy tells us the story of this Christian that just continues to reach out to him, showing him love, consistent, unconditional love. And because we're Christian and we know the love of Jesus, we know God has unconditional love for us. But in a lot of these religions, it's a conditional love that they have grown accustomed to that “I do good things. I get good results. I do bad things. I get a bad effect." 

And so they see the deity is this conditional love that's ready to punish them. But when they experience unconditional love from Christians over time consistently, when a catalyst happens to open the door. They're open to it. And this young man experienced some real hardship. He actually had gone across the Red Sea over to Yemen, had been arrested, spent time in Libya, just some horrific stories.

Entered back in Ethiopia and these Christians showed him consistent love and the thing that just gets me that threw him over the edge was a story about a mango. This Christian came over to visit him with three mangoes. He had one mango for himself, one for this young Somali man, and one for another friend.

And the other friend wasn't there. And so, instead of keeping two mangoes for himself, he gave this Somali guy two mangoes. He said, "here you go, have the extra mango." 

And it broke this guy, cause he could not figure out why this guy would give him the extra mango instead of keeping it for himself. And that's literally what broke, and so he started asking questions, started attending a Bible study with them. And he came to the Lord within the last month. And so we had the privilege of meeting him and seeing just the fruits of these real servant hearted people. And that's just one story among the Somali.

And I know I've talked a bit. So Kevin, do you have any stories you want to share? 

 

Kevin Roosien: 

Yeah. And in that same hotel room, you were a good brother to me as your older brother. The room that I was designated to sleep in, had a mattress that felt like a piece of plywood. And I just said, "Mike, I don't think I'm going to make it till the morning with my old body. I'm like, dude, you have to give me a different room." You go "no, I'll take it. I like a hard bed." 

I'm like, "God bless you." I remember being awoken at three 30 in the morning with a, with a call to prayer that was deafening. And the oppression was so thick. I immediately got out of my bed. I fell to my knees.

I began to just pray out to God to deliver that city from the grip hold of Islam. And so it was, it was a very impactful evening for me. And then every 30 minutes they repeat it. So you just maybe start to doze off and go to speakers again. But to get to the people in Ethiopia, I thought they were just the most precious brothers and sisters.

Some of them were asking me questions that they had heard about the state of the church in America. And they would say, "is it really true that your young people are falling away from church and falling away from God and maybe don't even believe in the Lord?" 

I'm like, "yeah, there's some of that going on."

And they're like, "oh, we just can't believe it. Everybody in Africa knows and believes in God." But they don't all believe in the right God, correct? The witch doctor or the animus gods, but they're all very deeply spiritual. That was a difference for me to see, just their openness.

So when we minister to some of these young people in Ethiopia, they were so hungry. They were such passionate worshipers and prayers. And they just received everything. They just drank up everything that we preached to them. We prayed for them. We ministered with them. It was really a treat to be around such a hunger for the gospel. And it just made me think the harvest fields are ripe for the harvest. It was just a beautiful thing to see. 

 

Greg Kelley: 

You know, what's interesting, we track everything around the world. We think about persecution. We think about even Christians that are displaced. We think about the poverty levels. We think about all these different metrics that measure the quality of life. And inevitably, when you're looking at that, you're going to see Afghanistan, Somalia, North Korea, and probably like Mauritania, throw slavery in there too, right?

Mauritania, Somalia, North Korea, Afghanistan, mixed up in some fashion or another. And then you see this fifth country that most people are like, "huh, like, what's that?" 

Eritrea. It's on a lot of those lists when it comes to it. And people, they're shocked by that. They don't necessarily understand that because it's not really radical Islam, which is the general perpetrator of persecution against Christians. So what is the form of persecution and what's the source of it? Why is there such an intensity of persecution against evangelical Christians, because some people call themselves Christian, but the threat becomes the people that are surrendered to Jesus Christ and filled with the Holy spirit. Why are they such a threat in Eritrea guys? 

 

Kevin Roosien: 

I think you can kind of compare it to the situation in China, where China allows these churches to exist, and I think they're called something like state controlled or state run churches. In other words, they're reviewed by and they're probably monitored by the state government.

I believe that's the same thing in Eritrea. They allow a certain number of churches to meet, but they're highly monitored. They're highly watched. So that's what I think the government is fearful of is seeing breakout for Jesus going uncontrolled. That would be a threat to the state government. 

 

Greg Kelley: 

Yeah. Would the three of you agree with the statement that in these countries, even if you're talking about the Daasanach, Jer, or Somali, certainly the Munyayaya, that's one of my favorite people groups ever. And in Northern Kenya, the Barana, the Afar, Mike, you talked about them. Would all of you say the statement that the authorities who are oppressing what they're threatened by, they don't necessarily understand, but they see it, the potential of it as a movement.

And that is the Holy spirit multiplying people, right? They don't necessarily get it, but it's a threat because they see the activation and the mobilization power of it. What would you guys say to that statement?  

 

Mike Grandy: 

Yeah, I completely agree with that because it was the same thing in Djibouti. Kevin shared the story earlier when we were talking about [how] we met with some leaders, we walked down this kind of narrow alley and trash everywhere.

I talked about the poverty, just a very impoverished area, and we go up a couple flights of stairs and we go in this apartment, and we just talk with really quiet voices, because they don't want to be heard, and one of the things we heard when we were in Eritrea, this was a phrase one of the Christians said, "we have to be very disciplined with our worship". 

I'm like, "what do you mean disciplined?"

He's like, "quiet, we can't break out in hallelujahs or amens." 

They just have to be very quiet, how they pray and they worship. And yeah, you see it. It's a threat. People don't understand it. And oftentimes there's a fear and there really is a battle between good and evil too, that when the gospel is piercing the darkness, it faces opposition. And so we're seeing that in all of those places that you mentioned. 

 

Jerry Smith: 

I was going to say the immediate fear is this lack of control. What they don't understand is that there's a whole spiritual element behind that manipulates and motivates these people to resist it.

And that is where we have to take the battle to, that they would be free of that. But they want to control everything, and they see this getting out of their control. But it's spiritual. It's deeply spiritual. 

 

Greg Kelley: 

Yeah. Wow. Well, the Lord used you guys and for Unknown Nations, but one of our models is not necessarily to load up a bunch of airplanes with short term trips.

All of you have been a part of short term trips and led them and been with groups to all corners of the earth. It's just not, because a lot of the places that we work as an organization are very hostile to the gospel. And you heard the three of these guys just say, we had to be a little bit discreet because we essentially stood out like a sore thumb, right?

So you don't want to draw attention. And we are not so concerned about ourselves. I mean, these guys are courageous. They're bold. They don't walk in these places in fear, they wouldn't have never gone. Our bigger concern is the exposing of our key leaders. So they want to know, why are you with the Mzungu, right?

So from that standpoint, the guys were super conscientious of those kinds of movements. But Mike, just talk a little bit about strategically from our perspective at Unknown Nations, why would we value the three of you going over there and kind of how you saw the Lord use your guys presence there on this trip?

 

Mike Grandy: 

Yeah. We partner with indigenous ministries and ministers in these places because they can do the work so much more effectively than me. As you said, a Mzungu, which is Swahili for white guy. For the white guy to show up in these places, we're just not effective. We stand out. We don't know the language. You don't know the customs. And so we partner with indigenous ministers and for us, everything we do is built on a relationship. A lot of our network are people that you've built relationships with over 20 years. Part of that with me being new to the organization, I have to build these relationships. We have to know the people, we have to break bread, and have chai. I can't tell you how many cups of Buna or Bunn depend on coffee or chai or whatever. 

 

Greg Kelley: 

We got to get some of that stuff in the break area here. 

 

Jerry Smith: 

Yeah. Especially the buna.

 

Mike Grandy: 

You're going to sidetrack me here, rabbit trail, but Buna and Bunn, they have these whole things that's designed for hospitality. It's like a coffee process. They roast the coffee. They crush the coffee. They have three rounds of it. 

And it's designed to have hospitality for like an hour and a half, two hours. So you actually like fellowship and visit. And so that's what we have to do when we travel to these places. And I want to say have to, that's what we get to do. Like we get to sit down, get to know our partners, get to know the ministry, see it firsthand.

See what they're seeing. Feel what they're feeling. Encourage them. They have to trust us. We have to trust them. We want to be good stewards with the resources that come through this place. And so we want to see that work. And then the last thing is just showing up. It is such an encouragement.

When they think of somebody that's willing to come across the world to encourage them. The people that we got to visit and pray with, they were just so hungry. And we were able to pray with them. Kevin made a joke earlier talking about the brother. One of the things we noticed is that in a lot of these places there's a lot of movement happening among the young people but not among the elders. The elders are sticking with their traditions.

And they valued so much seeing a couple of elder brothers of the faith. I was lovingly and affectionately referring to Jerry and Kevin as my elder brothers. And they just received so much from these guys and yeah, it was just a wonderful trip. 

 

Greg Kelley: 

Well, Jerry, for you, buddy, the first 12 days, man, sorry, but you know, it sounded like a vacation to me. So I'm sure when you came back, you just told Debbie, "hey babe, I know where we're going on our next vacation. Right?" 

So. Obviously, there's other purposes for you going and you've been on so many of these trips over the years, but, it has to encourage you, Jer, as you're one of the most gifted teachers I've been around and watching you teach is just such a joy. But for you, it's gotta be fulfilling to watch the leadership multiplication component of things.

 Talk a little bit about your observance of that and how that is sort of executed or prioritized in our model.

 

Jerry Smith: 

Well, you know, for years I've been involved in doing this over 30 years now. And for most of the time, the frustration has always been going and being a part of something, encouraging, sharing, teaching, and then leaving, but really not having any of the solid understanding that this is building something long term and the joy that we've been having in the last several years is seeing this multiplication of leaders, the men and the women that we're working with, they're very dedicated, not just to getting out and preaching the gospel, but they're extremely dedicated to raising up generations of leaders.

And that is one of the things we really saw in this particular trip together. Whether we were with the brother in Ethiopia, among the Afar, of the Somali, or going to Djibouti, and the brothers going then to Eritrea, where I was in Kenya and watching this multiplication. To me, this is the most encouraging thing about what we do.

 Because the gospel has spread more rapidly in the last 80 years, 90 years in the world than it ever has in history, ever. And yet the great cry of everybody we work with is we need more work. We need more help in discipling and raising up leaders because we don't have enough leaders. As Jesus said, "pray to the Lord of the harvest, the harvest is plentiful, pray to the Lord of the harvest that he will raise up and send out laborers into that harvest." 

I just feel like there's a momentum growing now where that cry of their hearts for all these years is going to come to pass and we're going to be seeing more and more and more leaders, multiple generations of leaders, I believe we're right on the cusp of that exploding. And I'm very excited about it. 

 

Greg Kelley: 

Yeah, that's beautiful. Well, as we're closing up, Kev, how about you? We must love you a lot. I've taken you to the war zones in Congo and to different parts of Asia. We don't take you just to the kind of normal places, just the fun places. It sounds like this was another fun one. So how'd this line up with some of your other experiences that you've had over the years? 

 

Kevin Roosien: 

It's different because I'm different. Like the last time I was a fair amount younger. And so from my perspective, it just looks different.

And then to see, as Mike was saying, it's quite a young group. We would ask these groups, what are some of your biggest needs? Undoubtedly, one of the top one or two was we need elders. We need people who can disciple us, who can train us because we're so young, we just don't know a lot.

And so they were greatly impacted that some of us more mature believers would come and just download into them. So some of the stuff that I was able to do is just teach them about how to follow the Holy Spirit and reading the scripture, how to develop your prayer and worship life, how to live a life of a leader.

And sort of to download that into some of them, they came up to me afterwards and thanked me so much like, "Oh, it's so great that you came over here as an older brother to share things that have been really impactful in your life." 

It just made me really think about the key component of Unknown Nations of having leadership training centers, how crucial that is because we're dealing with so many young believers that don't have a grounding.

Like Jerry was saying that they're multiplying Kenyon leadership with brand new believers that are maybe two to three or four months old in the Lord. I just saw that as a huge component. They were so welcoming to receive that leadership training. And it was such a blessing to be in the shoes that I am now able to provide that .

But then this made me think of just the impact of these leadership training centers, how crucial that is for multiplying growth. 

 

Greg Kelley: 

Yeah. So many times we talk about it, we know what the assignment is. We talk about the Great Commission. We talk about even the trajectory of where the Acts 1:8, that we talk about so much Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.

 But the verse that we really zero in on, which is critical, is the 2 Timothy 2:2, which you guys experienced. That is Paul talking about the things you've heard me share in the presence of many witnesses, share with faithful men. And I had women who will share with others, as you got four generations of multiplication, men and women who, I think you said it, Mike, they come to know Christ and three months later, they're activated.

They're sharing the gospel. Which is very different from our culture of discipleship making here in the U.S. It's kind of like "well, how long have you been in the church? You got to go through this class, got to do this and that." 

And I'm not downplaying Bible college and I'm not downplaying a path of being discipled.

However, the mobilization, once someone gets filled with the Holy spirit, man, send them, like send them out there, let them go. And in the manner in which you guys have talked about two by two, and you guys want the three of you to encourage each other. But just as we're closing guys, we're going to honor the trajectory of this conversation and let our elder spokesman's go first. The people that are listening to this, Jerry, Kevin, are hearing a lot of information. They just took a drink out of a fire hydrant, praying that you're encouraged and challenged in some way, but we want to leave you with a nugget.

And I know that for Jerry, Kevin and Mike, they want to impart something inside of you. Like this experience that these guys just had. And some of the most unreached areas in all of Africa. What would you say to the person, Jer? Like, "hey, you could take an actionable step as a follower of Jesus right now."

They may never get on an airplane and go to Eritrea. In fact, most likely they won't, but there's a step, an action step that they can take. What would that be? 

 

Jerry Smith: 

Yeah. It's something that over the years that I have tried to encourage people who have been a part of the work that we have done over the years is that everybody has a role to play.

There is not a single soul, a single person in the church that does not have a part to play and a vital part to play. We go, we send, we give, we pray, and we encourage. I just want to encourage people hearing this. Those of you that have been involved or involved with Unknown Nations or have been involved with us individuals over the years, we cannot do this. Our brothers there. I'm always amazed when I go overseas and I hear these guys tell us we actually have these guys tell us we couldn't do this without you. And we're thinking what? 

 

Greg Kelley: 

Yeah, right. 

 

Jerry Smith: 

Well, we certainly couldn't do any of this without you, but it really shows the interdependence that we have and people who are giving and praying to people who are staying educated and mobilizing themselves. Who are aware of what's going on and any way that they can either by giving by praying or by staying involved you play a vital role in this gospel getting to the nations. Nobody is left out of this. Nobody. 

 

Greg Kelley: 

Love it. How about you, Kev? What would you say?

 

Kevin Roosien: 

So for me as a board member at Unknown Nations, and it's been a while since I've been on a trip. I've recently retired. I have more time to do things like this and to travel. It was very impactful for me to see again, firsthand.

It's been a while since you and I were in the jungles of Congo, to get back in and see firsthand what's really going on in the world? And as I've been able to share that with some of my close friends and relatives since I've been back, it's really inspired them to become more involved. I think that as we come back from these things, and like you said, not everybody will want to go or have the opportunity to go or even the health to go.

 But we who have gone and we who are working in Unknown Nations we can inspire others with our stories with Greg, with your stories from the field and just to stay connected with that and not to look at it as a one off, like we go to the banquet once a year, we hear some stories, but to really just stay in and stay connected.

And I believe that there's opportunities for folks that are listening to this podcast to get more involved with what's going on in Unknown Nations. I've been more impacted to pray now for these folks that I've met than I maybe ever have. So I think there's ways that we can encourage and inspire one another to push on to the finish line.

 

Greg Kelley: 

I love it, man. Thanks. That's good wisdom from you guys. Well, how about our Director of International Ministries, Mike? What say you, buddy? 

 

Mike Grandy: 

Yeah, I just think of Acts 1:8, it says you'll be my witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and all the ends of the earth. And as we're in a land cruiser, going through the mountains, going through the valleys, crossing the river, Jerry's in the back, the back of the land cruiser, bouncing up and down for hours and hours and hours.

We get to a spot, we get to this tribe, and I think it was Jerry that said this, it's like the ends of the earth, "we've arrived, we've made it, we're at the ends of the earth, and we made it, we're here." 

And we think about that, and it's like, we have a responsibility as believers, , for all those expressions, Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and the ends of the earth.

So even though we got to ride, Jerry got to bounce around on the back of that land cruiser and arrive at the ends of the earth. There's a place for all of us to have that expression. And I think both of these guys hit on it. Prayer, especially with the persecuted church, it's like, "don't forget about us. Tell our stories, pray for us." 

There's people really suffering. But pray that the gospel will go in these dark places. Some of these places there's a reason that they're unreached. The low hanging fruit of missions. It's done like the places that are left are really hard to get to, they're really hard to reach. And so pray that the light will pierce these places and then give. We asked and it's like, "okay, what do you need?"

They're like "we need more treasures. We need more audio bibles. We need more herald backpacks. We need more leaders, pray, give and so there is an expression for every single person to help us." 

 And just like Jerry said, " we're all part of this together. We have alignment from the front all the way through the whole organization, all the way through our donors. You're part of the fruit, you're part of the harvest." 

And so that's my closing call to action there. 

 

Greg Kelley: 

Love it. Well guys, Jerry, Kevin, Mike, thanks guys. What an example you guys are, truly. You guys inspire me. I know that was a big trip and challenging, but I think anytime we come alongside these individuals and can encourage them, I love what they say.

A couple of you guys alluded to it, thank you. Like we're going there and we're seeing the conditions they're serving in. And we're always blown away by their spirit of hospitality, of generosity towards us and their thankful spirit. They're like " thank you. Thank you." 

We're all just like, "really?"

But I think that's our message, even to everybody who's sitting in churches or listening to this podcast. Like, thank you. No one's more important. When you start dissecting the body, is the left hand more important than the right? But is the right eye more important than the left? They all have value.

They all have value. And I think that's the message, the body of Christ. Y'all have your value, find it, lean into it just like these guys are doing. So God bless you guys. Thanks for doing the trip and jumping in on the podcast today. 

 

Kevin Roosien: 

You bet, it's been fun. 

 

Mike Grandy: 

Thanks. 

 

Greg Kelley: 

Beautiful. Well, that does it.

Thank you friends for joining us today on the Unknown Nations Podcast. Visit our website. That's what you can do right now at UnknownNations.Com to learn more about how you can get involved, subscribe, follow, share this with your friends and family. That would be amazing. And join us in making Jesus known to the ends of the earth.

That's what it all comes down to. The impact that you could have is immeasurable. And together we can see God's kingdom expand to the darkest corners of the world. God bless you. We'll catch you next time.