Source: Mission Frontiers, January 1, 2017
In Africa’s Sahel, 100 people gathered to listen to a well-known presenter on Disciple-Making Movements (DMM). After the teaching, one of the Tamajeq (Tuareg) believers stood and asked, “How can DMM be applied in my setting?”
The translator was befuddled by what appeared to be a very general question.
As he began to translate, a rather bold fellow interrupted him and attempted to explain to everyone the context this question came from. With some confidence he asserted that the question was rooted in the general poverty and great needs of the desert-dwelling Tamajeq people. Then he [presumptuously] rephrased the question this way, “How can DMM succeed when so many Tamajeq people are hungry, needy, and dying?” The presenter answered as one might expect, advising that attention be paid to the needs of the suffering before doing DMM.
The Tamajeq man sat quietly but I squirmed in my seat. We settled people have a default that identifies nomads as suffering people who barely eke out a living. We believe that nomads would succeed if they would only settle down. The fact is the Tamajeq are great nomadic pastoralists of the desert. They range over vast swaths of the Sahara Desert, living where most of us would likely die.
Neither the translator, the bold fellow, nor the presenter understood that this man was struggling to apply the principles of DMM in a nomadic society. Ideas and strategies like DMM are not imagined or purposed for people who live as they do. How, for instance, was this man to convene weekly meetings with people who are always moving in different directions? He and his Tamajeq colleagues needed answers.
» Full story unpacks missiological shifts required to reach nomadic peoples. January edition of Mission Frontiers is focused on nomads. You might also be interested in the Nomadic Peoples Network.