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.
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....
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"....
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....
