Unknown Nations Podcast

Mike Grandy: 
Well, hello and welcome to the Unknown Nations Podcast My voice may be different your usual host Greg Kelley is not on today, but you have me, Mike Grandy, I have the privilege of serving as the director of international Ministries at Unknown Nations, and it's such an amazing honor to partner with our indigenous missionaries who serve on the front line to bring the gospel to the places where Jesus is unknown.

Today we're actually doing a podcast from the Horn of Africa, where we spent the last eight days. We've had the privilege of going to Ethiopia, and Djibouti, and we're gonna be heading to some other places too, and we'll save that for later. But I'm not alone. I actually have a good friend with me today.

I've only been at Unknown Nation since October 1st, 2024. But I met Jerry back in 2019 on a mission trip to Kenya. This is Jerry Smith. He's our Director of International Training for our guys. And he does such a good job meeting with our guys and training them. And he's really a gifted, anointed teacher. [I am] really privileged to have been able to spend the last year with him. Eight days here with Jerry. So, Jerry, tell me your thoughts. How's the trip been going? 

Jerry Smith: 
Been more than interesting. The amount of travel we have done on the interior has been amazing. And we've been able to see works that are going on, some are among people, very remote peoples, where some amazing churches have been planted and some works are happening.
And then we were able to focus on a couple of different unreached people groups that are Muslim. And so we're going to be talking about one of those right on this podcast. 

Mike Grandy: 
Yeah, we're actually going to be talking about the Afar people group. You know, Greg has taught us this, over the years so many times, and other people have taught this as well, but the concept of people groups, when Jesus says, "that there will be witnesses to all nations", and that "there'll be members of all nations at the throne worshiping," that word is ethnos, and it means people group.

And so that group that we're talking about today is the Afar. And they have approximately 2.7 million people, 2.8 million, something like that in the horn of Africa. They're actually only located in three countries. They're in Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Eritrea. Those are the three places. And we actually got to visit afar people in both Ethiopia and Djibouti. In Ethiopia, there's actually a state that's designated just for the Afar people. And what are your thoughts of that state, Jerry? 

Jerry Smith: 
Well, that was interesting. I've been all throughout this country many times, but I've never been to this particular area. And it is fascinating in these countries where, the Westerners, we look at them, we look at all the people, we basically see the same people, you know? They might, some might dress a little differently than others, but we don't really understand until you get there that these are distinct cultures, languages. They have their own history, their own customs. They have pride in who they are as a people. And that really fits the Afar.

And a couple of things that were very striking about being there was the Islamic nature of the surrounding area. This particular country has been considered Christian for quite some time, but it has a very large Muslim population, and this area is basically, I wouldn't say 100%, but it's pretty close to those that live there.

And so you have the mosque, you have the calls to prayer, people are friendly, but you definitely have this sensing that you have stepped into a world that it's not your typical one that you're familiar with. And where we were very barren, lots of desert, and it's a hard land. And the people live there.
They're not looking to leave. They live there, and they've been living there for centuries. And so, just an interesting place. 

Mike Grandy: 
Yeah, the whole country of Ethiopia is really quite interesting when you think of where we've traveled on this trip. We're in Addis Ababa right now, which it's green, it's luscious, it's comfortable, kind of reminds you of San Diego, big huge city, it's busy, and then we go up into the area where the Afar live, in the state of Afar, and it's hot, it is dry.

Jerry Smith: 
It's another world. It's another world. 

Mike Grandy: 
And they're pastoral people. So, they travel around with their livestock and searching for grass, searching for water. And they're very tough. And they actually take, Jerry hit on this, they take a lot of pride in their nationality, who they are. They're known as being strong warriors and there's writings about 'em going back for a long, long time, this people group has been here for a long time. And they've encountered a lot of people and they're known as a tough people and now they've been Muslim since, like you said, but since like 1300, they've converted and now they kind of have their identity in that religion.

Jerry Smith: 
It's very much so. To be, yes, to be a far as to be Muslim. Very much so. Yeah. One of the reasons they remain, and it's the same case with just about everybody we work with, there's a reason they're still unreached. Yes, there has been an ignorance toward them, and maybe not a strong effort to get to them, but the reason so many of these peoples remain frontier, what we would call frontier mission people, is that it's very difficult to break into the culture itself, to become a trusted individual that can develop relationships.

And one of the things that we were able to see is some of the nationals that we work with. We've actually taken the time and they've really dedicated their lives to go, though they are not part of the people. They have gone there to live and to, and renting their own place and living among them and getting to know them and love them. And they have services, they have professional services they can offer the people. But they have to be very, very careful. 

Mike Grandy: 
Yeah, and just like Jerry said, you know, the places we work, there's a reason they're unreached. Like, they're not easy to get to. The particular place that we went to, this just really struck me. It's home to over 400,000 people. You kind of drive through this spot, and you're like, "this is not a town of 400,000 people." 

I'm like, "where are all the people?" 

And they're like, "you look out, and they're like, they're in the hills." You know, they're in the desert with their cattle, finding food. And I'm thinking "400,000 people and no pastors, no churches, no Bibles, there are no Christians.” 

They do not know, they've never heard the name of Jesus and this is exactly why we exist at Unknown Nations. That breaks our heart and I think it should break all of our hearts to see that there are places who just have zero gospel access and just like Jerry said, we're working with some really brave people. 

I love what Greg has been saying lately is that Jesus didn't die to make us safe, he died to make us dangerous, and these are people who take this really seriously, they take the call of the Great Commission, the call to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, and like you said, they go, they take up a profession, and they live among them, and so we're meeting, and I said, "so how many Christians are in this town of 400,000, are there 20?"

And they're like, "no, no, no, no, not 20." 

And I said, "10?" 

"No, not 10." And they said, "there's less than 10, and most of them are foreigners. We know of three Afar Christians in our [00:08:00] missionary, basically, are all that we know of." 

So think about that for a moment. 400,000 people, one missionary.  But you know when I said that there are three Afar Christians, that's pretty encouraging to think that.

Jerry Smith: 
Yeah, and to be able to meet them and to hear what they had to share about. How they came to the Lord and how passionate they are. There they are in the middle of that people and they're very passionate about seeing that Jesus is known. Yeah. And it's not easy, it's dangerous, and yet they're, they're not looking to leave. It really is a phenomenal thing to see. And I really believe in the future of these people coming to Christ, because we know they're going to. 

Mike Grandy: 
Yeah, absolutely. 

Jerry Smith: 
First of all, of course, it's going to be the Holy Spirit moving in among them and doing things among them. We even heard somebody testify it even about dreams. I know it sounds like a cliché, but it happens to a lot of the Muslim peoples. But on top of that, people just have a hunger for truth. And I think that's one of the works. And the other work is going to be that it's going to be the people themselves. The people among them want to be resourceful.

We want to help them. We want to in any way we can encourage them and where there is a legitimate place where we can actually offer resources to them to help them in their mission. We want to be there alongside them. Because just getting a foothold or toehold into something like this is a major accomplishment.

And we know that the gospel started at everything living. I heard a man say this one time, everything alive started out tiny, small seeds. You know, everything is small and alive. And that's the way Jesus started. And now his kingdom is extending to the earth. And so, we are encouraged when we hear about that.

Yeah, there's only this many, but Lord, let this be the seed. Let this be the prophecy, the prophetic people that will bring, if not by their own actions, will be part of heralding in the message and a receiving of the gospel among these people. 

Mike Grandy: 
Amen, and that's, that was so encouraging. You talked about how we had the privilege of meeting these Christians. And they're new Christians, and they are on fire. And as we had just the Beautiful privilege of ministering to them and one of the things she said and what we could pray for she said "the cry of my heart, give me the Afar. That's my prayer. Give me the Afar." And that really touched us because we think you know, like that's that's the cry of our heart, right?

Jerry Smith: 
I know our feelings almost get me out of here in the sense. That is the normal human response, but that is not their response at all. It is here. We'd love our people and we want them to know the Lord that we have come to know the God of love, which is something they're not used to. So yes. 

Mike Grandy: 
Yeah. And one of the things we're planning to do is to bring a training center among the Afar. And so if that's something that catches your heart, you can partner with us on that. Pray for us. First of all, just pray for the Afar people. Pray that their hearts would be softened. Pray that the elders, the leaders of the clans, that their hearts would be softened. That's the man of peace and that once we get in with a man of peace, things spread quickly. But we have some plans to do a training center in, and we think this is kind of like creating a foe. Well, Jerry said this, when we were actually on site, we were praying.

He said, "Lord, will it, wherever our footsteps look. Let that be the ground for you and we actually walked the perimeter of this training center site." 
And we prayed and we believe that this will be a city on a hill lighthouse for the people, and it's going to start and it's going to spread. And so, join us in prayer for that and we just wanted to come here to quickly to give you a short update from the field, Talk to you about the far cause of the Afar. They've really impacted our heart when we've seen this work and we wanted you to hear the stories firsthand.

So thank you for joining us. Thank you Jerry for being with me today. You've got to catch a flight. He's heading over to Kenya. He's got another whole week on the field and he's doing amazing things. We're really proud of him and really really actually honored to be able to serve with him. He's a great man. So, thank you so much for joining us on the Unknown Nations Podcast. Have a wonderful day.