Focus on the Unreached: The K People of Sub-Saharan Africa

Learn.

In 2003, the call that had been put on the hearts of those who founded School to the Nations began to be fulfilled. A trip to the K People, a tribe in Sub-Saharan Africa, took place in January 2003 when they were officially adopted by what would become School to the Nations. There had been little to no preliminary mission work in this area, and there were no known believers among the 35,000 people of the K tribe.

School to the Nations first reached the K People by partnering with IMB in Africa. The first goals of this partnership was to facilitate indigenous church planting among believers and to bring compassionate touch to the K. We began with medical clinics, where over 400 patients were treated and individually prayed over. Eventually, the compassion projects expanded into BioSand filter wells to give the villages access to clean water and a healthier life.

The area is harsh. There is constant drought, occasional danger of famine, and malaria is prevalent among their villages. What’s more, they battle with spiritual warfare against the worshipping of nature and folk Islam.  Their country was, at the time of our first outreach, among the top 10 poorest in the world. All of this was a heavy weight on the first teams to reach the K People in 2003 and 2004. Leaders of School to the Nations experienced extreme spiritual warfare they had not anticipated – some very personal struggles as well as a deep discouragement among the teams.

Faced with returning for another trip again, School to the Nations’ leadership sought to obey Christ, remembering the words of Jesus in Matthew 9:37: “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few”. The Lord fulfilled His promises to the K People Outreach teams, when in 2005, the first Houses of Peace were established, meaning that they found people who had clearly been touched by Jesus before even hearing from this missionary team.  One Muslim man had had a dream about following and seeking Jesus, and approached the team to tell them he wanted to accept Christ.

After this encouraging trip, teams began returning to the K People two or three times each year, and in 2006 the first group of believers came about. This particular team witnessed a powerful work of the Lord, as K People literally began to burn up the idols they had relied on for so long. With new believers emerging each trip, the prayer for the K People shifted to finding them an indigenous leader. In 2007, Pastor A and his family moved to the tribal regions and planted the K People’s first indigenous church in 2008, where a team from School to the Nations experienced the first baptisms of these people. Truly, the Lord showed Himself faithful when these teams chose to draw near to Him and His people in obedience.

Pray.

This church is very young and in a very dark place – the political turmoil in this Sub-Saharan country is powerful, and teams have not been able to reach the K People recently. We pray, and hope you will pray with us, that Pastor A and his family as they seek to reach and disciple around 35,000 K individuals. The harvest truly is plenty, but these workers are few. Pray that they are supported by current believers and encouraged that the Lord is working among the K People. Pray that political trouble will be assuaged and that the elections this summer will bring up strong leaders who will create peace.  Pray that this political upheaval ends soon so that the doors will be open once again for missionaries to come and aid pastors like Pastor A in reaching these tribal, unreached peoples.

The amazing thing about our work among the K People is the reality of prophetic words coming true. Revelation 5:9 says “for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.” Jesus has bought the freedom of all unreached people with His blood, and we have had and will have the opportunity to see the first fruits of this promise from the Lord.

To read an amazing story of Jesus’ miracles amongh the K People, visit this post. To get involved with School to the Nations' intercessory prayer movement, which includes prayer for the K People, email us at stn.intercession@gmail.com.