North Africa (MNN) — The Hazani people in North Africa are devoutly Muslim. They are also an unreached people group, meaning they don’t have any local Christians. Carissa and a team with Frontiers USA minister full-time among the Hazani and have a good relationship, but it took a while to get there.
Decades earlier, Carissa’s American Midwest church began praying for the Hazani people to know Jesus. Frontiers helped the church connect with the Hazani in North Africa and they learned the tribe was trying to find ways to broaden their children’s understanding of the world.
This prompted an idea. Carissa’s church invited the Hazani to send their kids to visit America and stay with Christian host families.
(Photo courtesy of Frontiers)
Perry LaHaie with Frontiers says, “They reached out to the Hazani tribal leaders and they said, ‘Well, other Muslims really aren’t helping us. So let’s give these American Christians a chance.’
“That first summer, nine families from Carissa’s church hosted the kids and then after a couple of years, Hazani leaders invited Carissa’s church to send short-term teams to come and just love on the kids more. The tribal leaders just said, ‘You love our kids. We can see that you genuinely care.’”
Once Carissa finished college in the early 2000s, she started going on short-term trips to visit the Hazani. Eventually, her church partnered with Frontiers to send a full-time team to work among the Hazani in North Africa. Carissa quit her job, joined the full-time team, and even became the team leader.
“They’ve been working among the Hazani for several years now sowing seeds of the Gospel, sharing and showing the love of Jesus,” LaHaie says. “There are still no churches and no believers. After decades, Carissa started to wonder and her teammates started to wonder if they had been just laboring in vain, working in vain, just throwing seed into the dry ground.”
“But God brought this promise to them from Isaiah 43. God says, ‘I’m doing a new thing. I’m making a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.’ They have held on to that promise.”
Rain in the desert (Photo courtesy of Frontiers)
Carissa was also struck by a powerful word picture demonstrating the importance of their work. Someone asked Carissa if it rains in the Sahara. She admitted it isn’t often. She’s only seen two big rainstorms herself during her time in North Africa.
“This person said, ‘I’ve heard that after a rainstorm, a bunch of plants will just spring up overnight.’ Carissa said, ‘Yep, that’s exactly what happens.’
“Then Carissa realized, ‘Wow, all the seeds my church have sown haven’t been in vain. God is eventually going to send the rain and when the rain falls, life is going to spring up among the Hazani.'”
LaHaie says, “The Lord has promised that there will be some from the Hazani people group represented in the new heavens and the new earth. We’re just waiting for Him to send the rain.”
A short-term prayer team will be visiting Carissa’s team among the Hazani. Their purpose is to cover the ministry in prayer, conduct prayer walks, and hopefully even pray with Hazani families.
LaHaie says, “They’ve got great relationships. So just pray that that will be a powerful event that’s going on this month.”
Please also pray for God to send the rain of the Holy Spirit over the Hazani people in North Africa and cause a harvest of faith to spring up.
Then, see if you can get your church involved. Reach out to Frontiers and ask if there is a Muslim people group your church can specifically be praying for. You can even send a short-term or long-term team with Frontiers and share Jesus with Muslims!
Click here to learn more about missions trips with Frontiers USA.
Join what God is doing in the Muslim world at frontiersusa.org!
Header photo representative, courtesy of Frontiers USA.
