This post is not a critique of either Kenya, her government, her churches, or refugee camps. It is a reminder that windows for gospel advancement may only remain open for a season.
According to the 7th edition of Operation World, Kenya has the highest percentage of evangelicals in the world (49%). As a comparison, the United States is around 28%. As far as Kenya’s total Christian population, she comes in at number 22 with 34,000,000.
Of the 22 people groups who call Somalia home, all of them are considered unreached. Kenya has the largest refugee camp in the world. It is the home to at least 500,000 Somalis.
I want to be very careful in this post. I write as an outsider and from a degree of ignorance. I have never been to Kenya. I do not know the contextual issues in Kenya or Somalia. We do not have a refugee camp in my country. However, this refugee camp appears to be a great opportunity for the churches to share the good news of Jesus with some of the world’s unreached peoples.
Yet, the window of opportunity may be closing. The Kenyan government has given the United Nations three months to relocate this camp.
Whether or not this relocation occurs is not my point.
If the Divine Maestro, working through the evils of mankind, orchestrated the movement of the Somalis into the world’s most evangelical country (percentage-wise), has the Church there been faithful in preaching the gospel (Acts 17:26-27)? I hope she has.
The United States has the third largest number of unreached people groups for any nation in the world. We also have a large evangelical percentage.
This window may be closing in Kenya. Could today’s open window in the U. S. start to close tomorrow?
Will someone one day blog about us asking, “Did the Church labor to make disciples of the unreached peoples who moved into her backyard?”
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I spent today in Virginia at the Empowered Conference hosted by the SBC of Virginia. I promised the participants I would post my presentation on my blog. So, here you go guys! I am so thankful for you and all that the Lord is doing through you. It was an honor to be with you.
We agree that America has a large portion of unreached people. Many of them live far north of the contiguous US in Alaska and Northern Canada. We call it the 60/70 Window. Here is why we do what we do: http://ow.ly/Jylvg
Thanks for this blog highlighting the need!.
Thanks, SEND North! Keep up the great work up there!