A Strategy to reach the Nubia Muslims with the Gospel in Kisii

Abstract

The mission of the SDA church gives priority to evangelism to all people groups in the spirit of the great commission of Mathew 28: 18-19. .The Nubian Muslim community lives only a kilometre awayfrom the Seventh-day Adventist Church headquarters – South Kenya Conference in Kisii.To date, the Nubians remainunreached by any Christian denomination despite the fact that the Seventh-day Adventist mission has been in operation in Kisii since 1912.This study examined the factors causing slow pace in ministry to the Nubians in the past, the challenges faced by our pioneers in this line of service and makes recommendations on how best thiscould be done. After an intensive literature reviewdone as from April 2011 on how to reach the Nubian Muslims with the gospel, it was realised that there was no program developed for this ministry, thus both the laity and clergy were not equipped for it, therefore a manual was developed.Consequently a three months training was launchedin December 2012, for 40 volunteers to understand the Muslim culture and how crosscultural ministry could be done for Muslims in Nubia. The existing structure on the groundAdventist Muslim Relations Department (AMR) was used as a bridge to start a dialogue with Nubia Muslims. The research aimed at empowering the AMR department rather than replacing it for effective service, this was so because the AMR department was not operational due to lack of training and user manual for ministry to Muslims. Sensitization was done at a meeting of over 300 church elders attending a congress at Nyanchwa Teachers College in December 2012 where both church elders and pastors in the entire conference- were in attendance. This was necessary because most churches either had not heard of AMR or didn’t know how it works and its relevance in missions. Relevant recommendations are made at the end of it all. After intensive surveys carried out in the months of October to December 2012, Having established what was on the ground in terms of challenges and opportunities,the volunteers were encouraged to start building bridges of understandingwith the Nubian community who are Muslims through friendships, studies on common subjectssuch as torah, gospel, prophets, Isa(Jesus), tawhid(oneness) of God in a manner that does not arouse controversy. The study established that lack of training was the main reason for the apparent apathy in the ministry to Muslims. Lack of exposure and knowledge of the Nubba culture and attitude were among the challenges faced by the volunteers while the clergy seemed unconcerned with Muslims since it appeared to be a closed door society or group. To change that attitude was therefore necessary if effective results were to be realised. A non-combatant but accommodating approach, herein referred to as ‘common-ground’, dialogue of one’s daily living, and a genuine concern forMuslims were recommended for use among the Nubbians but Muhadhara and mujadala are to beused for purposes of apologetics. The results of the six months implementation strategy revealed three Muslims baptized while the AMR volunteers appeared more equipped as they have acquired each a Qur’an and other related literature. The volunteers have developed a deeper interest in Muslim work since they now attend a monthly on-going training at South Kenya Conference. They can now rise-up to answer Muslims whenever there is a Muhadhala-done that thrice in the year 2013 at Kisii town, Keroka, and Kilgoris. This is noticeable given in the past 10 years we had to call for speakers from either western Kenya, or Kenya coast to answer Muslims. It is the conclusion of this research that cross-cultural ministry to Muslims is challenging but it can now be done, it seems to be working.