Imagine NEVER hearing you could be forgiven
and reconciled to God.
Imagine NEVER knowing Jesus Christ.
Imagine NEVER attending a Christian church.
Over 100 million people in the Sahara Desert region of North Africa NEVER have.

Adopt-A-People is a global strategy which will connect you and/or your local church directly to a particular unreached people group. Adopting a people is committing to the long term work of establishing Christian churches where there are none. Your part could be to pray, give, go (short-term or career), care for those who go, and/or help us find others to get involved

YWAM Sahara would like to partner with you to bring the gospel message to those who have never heard it. There are many different unreached people groups to choose from covered by this web site. Read through the information given (people profiles) on the peoples that interest you and consider committing to help one of them.

Benefits for your Church:
By adopting an Unreached People Group you will not only be cooperating with the worldwide Christian Church but obeying Christ's last command to go and be His witnesses to the ends of the earth. It will add purpose and focus to you and your church's vision. Excitement will increase in the church membership as they are involved in actual ministry to an Unreached People Group. Missions will become more than a boring footnote to Sunday services, as prayer, giving and outreach become directed strategically. How thrilling when you are able to see change among your people group and, eventually, a growing church started.

What adopting an Unreached People Group with YWAM means:
You will partner together with YWAM Sahara to see the gospel proclaimed and new churches begun. This is normally a long-term commitment. Your level of involvement depends on you. A minimum involvement is gaining knowledge about your group and praying for them. Financial giving to the work of evangelism may be another step. A further step may be visiting your adopted group or sending short term teams to help on the field. Perhaps you or a member of your church may even feel called to join in the work as a career missionary.

Adopting does not mean giving up your current mission program and missionaries. Actually, your church's involvement may generate more interest in your current mission program as world vision increases through your adoption.

Steps to a Church's Involvement:
Every unreached people group and every church is unique, therefore every adoption will be as well. The following are steps that may be helpful as you begin. You may follow them in a different order or omit some altogether.

Pray: This is not just a program for your church, adopting an unreached people group is entering a battle. Through prayer the Lord will guide you as you begin this journey, and prayer will be your best weapon to bring your adopted people out of darkness and into the light of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Prayer is more than just a first step, it will be necessary throughout all the adoption stages, and beyond. We must listen to the Lord as He leads us, and evoke His help.

Involved Church Leadership: To have a successful church adoption, the church leadership's enthusiastic cooperation is needed. If the pastor captures God's heart for those who have no church, he can impart it to his congregation. If the ministry leaders of the church are enthusiastic, the people in their ministry groups will be as well.

Form a Coordination Team and appoint a Chairperson: Gather a group of zealous people who are willing to make a long-term commitment to this effort. This group can be a task force that works as a sub-group of your missions committee, the committee themselves, or better yet a cross section of your church's ministries. Appoint one person from your Coordination Team to serve as the chairperson. Look not only for an innovative person who gets things done, but a person who has a heart for God and His heart for world evangelization. This person needs to be someone who has access to church leadership. The Coordination Team will be the backbone of your church's adoption. It will be these people who spearhead the selection of a particular unreached people group for your church, and who will communicate with YWAM Sahara about the partnership. The Coordination Team will prepare the church congregation, host the Adoption Ceremony, and keep the vision alive by organizing prayer, projects and trips. For this reason, it is good to form this team prayerfully including a good cross section of your church body.

Select your Unreached People Group to Adopt: Read the information on this website about the unreached people groups of the Sahara Desert region. Prayerfully select one of them to help.

Contact YWAM Sahara: Once you have decided on a people group, contact us. We will be able to assist your church in planning its involvement.

Prepare your congregation and have an Adoption Ceremony: Help your congregation to catch the vision of adopting your unreached people group, through mission-oriented sermons, dramas, bulletin inserts, etc. Formally commit to the people which you are adopting by having a celebration service. Just as a baptist or a wedding is a cermony that signifies dedication and commitment, your Adoption Ceremony will be as well. Choose a time that will include the greatest number of church members. This service could include a brief explanation of the concept of adopting an unreached people group via a speaker or a video. Include some presentation about the people the church has adopted. This could also be a good time to evoke a prayer or financial commitment from church members through the use of individual commitment cards. Include prayer for your adopted group and take an offering for the work.

Build Relationships: Continue to learn more about world missions and your adopted people and educate your church. The idea is to establish a relationship between your church and your adopted people. You may consider taking a mission course with YWAM to better equip yourself to represent this ethnic group to the church. Another area of relationship will be between you and the people who are working among your adopted people group. If it will not cause a security concern, you might plan a trip to visit your adopted people group face-to-face.

Enter into the Work: Plan ways to maintain interest and sustain involvement. Perhaps your church may want to set goals or develop a plan of action in order to define your steps of involvement towards reaching your adopted people group. Your plan may include: establishing prayer networks, developing fund-raising projects, sending church members as missionaries, ministering and encouraging field workers, recruiting help for the work. Your YWAM contact will help you with specific ideas of how your church can participate in the field work of evangelizing your adopted people group.