Unknown Nations Podcast

This is the Unknown Nations podcast, where we'll be sharing about reaching the nation where Jesus is unknown. Welcome to the Unknown Nations podcast, highlighting what God is doing in the most spiritually dark places in the world. Now today we're diving into an incredible story of a single man's obedience.

He responded to the call of God and an entire area became followers of Jesus. Now this is a place that had never heard the gospel before, and because of one individual, this remote people group came to faith in Christ. My name is Greg Kelly with Unknown Nations, where we have the honor to serve God by helping reach the most zero access, barrier ridden, spiritually antagonistic, spoken word reliant people groups on the planet, giving birth to the church in impossible places.

Today's story is from the field. We're traveling to the Atlantica mountains in the country of Nigeria, where the Holy Spirit empowered a precious friend of mine who was the center of this story, and God just used him to bring this very determined people group, a small people group I might add, to faith in Christ. And the people group that we're speaking of are called the Coma.

Now they are one of over 400 different nations inside of the country of Nigeria, which in and of itself is an amazingly diverse country. I mean, you're talking about the most populated country in the entire continent of Africa, and it's really cut in half. The northern part, when you go to the center, Abuja, and you go north of that, you basically run into Islam to the tune of nearly 95% of the entire north of Nigeria is Muslim, 100 million Muslims.

And then of course, if you go south, you find Christianity has just flourished and prospered. So this people group, the Coma, is really right in the middle, and they in many ways are considered refugees in their own land. There's only about 65,000 to 70,000 Coma, a single people group, and they have really rejected Islam in favor of their historical religion, which is animism.

So these are people that are very primitive. These are people that live off of land. They're worshiping idols or worshiping ancestors.

So they have really rejected Islam in so many ways, but they had never heard the gospel message before. And so when you're talking about a people group like this, you're really talking about a specific strategy is going to be required to reach them. Someone is going to have to be pretty determined in order to embrace these people.

Because again, they have never heard the gospel message, and they're living on the top of the Atlantica Mountains. So as the story goes, they would come down to the marketplace, and they have these little grass skirts on, and they'll exchange goods. And that's where a missionary encountered the Coma people.

And they just stood out because obviously just the appearance of them just was very abnormal. And then they would rush off back to the mountains. And this individual discovered that there wasn't a single Christian among the Coma people.

I mean, imagine that, 65,000, some people never having their first gospel witness. And so this missionary went to a local church, and he shared the story. He said, there's these people that come down.

And my friend was in this particular meeting, really minding his own business. Isn't it interesting? That's where the Lord usually meets us. When we have our agenda, we're pursuing our plans.

And then God intersects that, a vision that He has where He wants to redirect us into something that is a much higher calling. And so my friend heard this story of the Coma people never hearing of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit began to speak to him. And he thought, if anyone can go there, why not me? Why can't I? And he had to leave his very comfortable position, a government job that he had.

He was doing very, in all ways of assessment, he had a very successful life. He had sort of made it to the top, so to speak. And yet God told him to get rid of all of it.

And God said, I have a higher calling for you to go to the Coma people. And so off he went, and he went to the Coma people, leaving everything behind. In fact, he thought they were cannibals when he left.

I mean, think of that, like the courage that that would require. Not only had these people never heard of Jesus, but on all accounts, these people were cannibals. And so thinking maybe this would be it for him, he left.

He learned the language. He lived with them for three years, embracing their culture, bringing the gospel to them, and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. I just can't imagine.

I mean, think of your own life. What would it take for you to leave it all? I know for my wife, Kathy and I, the Lord called us to unknown nations over 27 years ago, and I had a business. Now, it's hard for me to compare going to cannibals with coming here to unknown nations.

But I think for all of us, whether you're going to cannibals, or you're serving someplace in the local church, or you're going on mission, or maybe the Lord is putting an unknown nation, an unreached people group on your heart, it's going to cost something. And when we're following Jesus, that's the key. It's like counting the cost and we're giving something up, not because we're trying to impress him.

There's nothing you could do. There's no works that you could do that are going to get God's attention and impress him. But it's just making a statement saying, God, you're more important.

It's like, there's nothing in my life that is more important than following your agenda. And so for all of us, as we're giving something up, that's the statement that's being made. And for my friend, he gave up this good government job and then to pursue these precious people.

Now, the impact of that very sacrifice is so inspirational. God's looking for something. See, it's the act of giving something up.

That becomes a seed that God wants to use for his glory. And that's exactly what happened in the story. As my friend gave everything, that seed was put in good soil and it manifests itself in such a way that the Coma people really responded to the gospel in power.

One individual, one person. There's not a dozen people in this story. There's not an entire church in this story.

It's one individual. And I think that's the key of it. So many times we undervalue or don't give ourselves... We don't see the potential of what God can do just with this one life that's fully sacrificed to him.

And so as this one life was becoming a seed, the Coma people responded to the gospel. Now, if you go to the base of the Atlantica Mountains today, you will see settlements in every direction. And those settlements are filled with Christian.

They are Coma people who have come down from the mountains Now, there's still Coma that need to come to know Jesus, but there is settlements in every direction at the base of the Atlantica Mountains that are Christians, followers of Jesus. And the most powerful part of this story is, yes, the Coma have come to know Christ, but they are now sending missionaries. The Coma people themselves are launching out to neighboring people groups to share the good news of Jesus Christ.

This is in less than one generation that the gospel came to them for the first time. They heard the gospel, they responded to the gospel, and now they are multiplying. That is really a vision of Unknown Nations.

When we tell people, here is the goal, because I think it's important to have a goal, like what's your strategy? What do you consider a success? What is a win for you as an organization? The answer to that at Unknown Nations is an indigenous church planting movement. That is the win. That is because Jesus called us to make disciples of all nations.

And the way that's going to happen is this precious verse in 2 Timothy 2 and verse 2, where Paul, the great famous missionary himself, says, the things you've heard me share in the presence of many witnesses, share with faithful men and women who will share with others. That is four generations of multiplication. That is how you and I carry out the Great Commission.

But keep in mind, it starts with one person. And that is this story as the Lord used this individual to go. And that's your story too.

I think that God has got seeds inside of you that he wants you to plant for his honor, for his glory. Friend, we are here for one purpose and one purpose alone, and that is to bring God glory. There's no better way for you and I to bring God glory than to celebrate and be participants in seeing the nations of the earth come to know faith in Jesus Christ.

And so as we're asking the Lord that question, the answer to that lies in your participation in one of the nations, maybe multiple nations, not the coma. The coma, praise God, are now counted as followers of Jesus. And they are reaching out to the remaining coma that have not yet had a gospel witness.

So when we think about what we do at Unknown Nations, it's reaching the ends of the earth and planning lasting movements in place where Jesus is unknown. I think this is absolutely critical because there's places on planet earth to the tune of one third of the world's population. Imagine that.

The coma were a part of that from before, no longer anymore. Their name came off of the list of unreached people groups because of an individual. But yet there still remains thousands, over 3,000 nations or people groups that are still considered 0.00% Christian.

That is just not acceptable. You and I, we are stewarding Jesus' last words to make disciples of all nations. And yet on our watch right now, there are still thousands that still remain and they're waiting.

In the church, sometimes we're talking about the second coming. We're talking about, is it going to be pre-trib, post-trib, mid-trib? And the reality is, is for most people, they're waiting for the first coming of Jesus. They don't know he came for the first time.

That is our opportunity as followers of Jesus. I can remember one of my friends from the country of Nigeria, he was making the analogy. He was painting a picture and he said, Greg, it would be like the time Jesus is feeding the 5,000.

And as they were in rows and lined up one row after another, Jesus fed in the first helping, that front row. And he gave them bread and he gave them fish. And then he gave him some oil as well.

And then he went to the second row and he said, would you like some bread? Would you like some fish? And yes. And then before he got to the third row, the first row said, hey, excuse me, sir. Could I have a second helping? I'm still kind of hungry.

Oh, absolutely. Here's some bread and here's some fish. And would you like a little more oil with that? And then the second row, they got hungry too.

I mean, after all, they'd only had one helping. And so he serves the second row for a second time. Getting ready to go to the third row now, that first row was still hungry.

Goes back to the first row for the third time. Friend, over and over and over. The model, unfortunately, too often in the church has been, we continue to feed the front row, the second row.

Forget about the third row. What about the 10th row? How about the 100th row? Representing people who are yet to have their first helping, i.e. they have never heard of Jesus. It's time for us to go to the third row and beyond.

That's what we do at Unknown Nations. That is our focus. We find the coma of the world and we take the bread of life to them.

We want to encourage you and challenge you to find your place. Ask yourself the very important question that every follower of Jesus needs to ask themselves. What is my expression of the ends of the earth? It's Jesus' last four words.

It must have been important if Jesus, the King of King and Lord of Lords, used his last four words to mention ends of the earth. What is your expression of ends of the earth? It used to be the coma, no more. But praise God, there's plenty of other unreached people groups, even in the country of Nigeria, that we need to be a part of bringing the good news of Jesus Christ.

Three billion people. Can you imagine that? 30% of the world's population. 30% are still without their first gospel witness.

So we want to thank you so much for joining us on this episode of the Unknown Nations podcast. There's so many different things that you can do to get connected with us. First and probably easiest is just going to the website, unknownnations.com. There's lots of really good information on there, resources, suggestions, ideas that you can connect to.

You can subscribe and follow and join us on this great journey of faith and hope and transformation. And also sign up for this podcast. You know, if you gave us some favorable ratings on this and just respond to this, even ask us a question or two, give us some suggestions on things that you'd like to hear, that would be a great way.

And share it with your friends and family. I think they would be encouraged by it. Finally, we have a weekly prayer informational piece that we can text out to you, we can send to you on email, and that will equip you with the information.

It will educate you about who are the Koma. It will educate you about who are the Kanuri, who are the Hausa, who are the Fulani. Those are other people groups or nations in the country of Nigeria that are yet to have their first gospel witness.

Because at the end of the day, we want to see God's kingdom expand into the darkest corners of the world. And we can do that together. But we have to ask that vital question.

What is my expression of the ends of the earth? Thanks again for joining us on this week's episode of the Unknown Nations podcast. We're grateful for your time and we're looking forward to joining you next time. God bless.