Unreached Peoples Initiative (UPI)
There are a number of factors that must be considered in defining a people group, but generally speaking the most important are language and culture. Missiologists today have identified over 15,000 people groups.
It is estimated that more than 6,000 people groups, or nearly 2.6 billion people, have never heard the name of Christ, This represents about 40% of the world population. Many live in the most poverty-stricken areas of the world. Most live in countries that are resistant or closed to foreign missionaries.
Christian Aid’s Unreached People Initiative is founded upon the belief that the most efficient and effective way to reach all nations with the gospel is to support native missionaries who have a God-given vision and burden for the unreached.
More than 50 years of missions experience has attested to Christian Aid’s conviction that evangelism to those from the same or similar languages and cultural backgrounds is the most ideal way to spread the gospel.
The fewer barriers the gospel must cross, the more effective the message.
Thus Christian Aid’s primary purpose is to get behind and assist indigenous missions working among unreached people groups.
Some examples of people groups being reached by native missionaries are detailed in this section.
The Chakmas are among the top 16 of the 353 larger unreached tribes in Bangladesh. There are over 400,000 Chakma people residing in the Bandarban Hills. Currently, 84% still practice Buddhism and worship the spirits of trees, hills and streams....
Wandering the vast deserts and savannahs of West and Central Africa, the unreached Fulani is the largest nomadic tribe in the world. "Converted" through Jihad in the 13th century, they are known as missionaries of Sunni Islam....
The Guarani people (pronounced "Warani") originated from what are now Paraguay and the provinces of Corrientes and Entre Rios of Argentina. There was no written record of the Guarani history, religion, or culture until modern times, so everything has passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth....
Living in the high country of North India, Uttarakhand State, Bir Singh, a young man in his early thirties, sits outside at his loom and weaves cloth from silk, cotton and wool. He supports his family in this time-honored tradition....
Christian Aid seeks to establish a witness for Christ in every tribe and nation through indigenous ministries. Native missionaries have made much progress in recent years, but thousands of people groups still remain unreached....
Perhaps best known as the world's only Hindu kingdom, the small, mountainous country of Nepal is home to approximately 400 ethnic groups. The Magar tribe represents 7 percent of the country's total population, and is one of the oldest tribes in Nepal....
Although the Vietnamese government officially claims freedom of religion, Christians are viewed as enemies and are treated accordingly. Christians in Vietnam face severe persecution. Many Vietnamese pastors are currently imprisoned in brutal labor camps for "re-education"....
The Talaandig people, located in North Cotabato Province on the island of Mindanao, Philippines, are a small animistic tribe of only 4,500. And unlike the more dominant Muslim tribes living in the Philippines, the Talaandig are excluded from political affairs....
The cloud of purple and white came closer and closer, emerging out of the monotonous Saharan terrain of Niger Republic. For many hundreds of miles I had seen nothing but sand, rocks, and an occasional camel foraging about for something to eat in the scarce scrub brush.
In recent years, Christianity has begun to take root in the Islamic republic of Kazakhstan. The small pockets of believers lighting the country typically reside in urban areas, leaving those in rural regions without access to the gospel....
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