“The nations have come to us,” Kevin Green declared. “You don’t have to hop on a plane anymore to be involved in cross-cultural ministry.”
According to the Louisville survey, Bosnians comprise the second largest group of refugees in the city. Green estimated that there are as many as 8,000 Bosnians now living in Louisville.
In their four years among the community, the Greens said they have established strong relationships with the Bosnians through discussions and simply helping out with everyday tasks.
“The way we’ve approached things is basically integrating into their community and just loving them and showing them what true Christianity looks like,” Jennifer Green explained.
However, the Greens noted, their work has yet to lead to a church or a home Bible study.
“Up to this point, they have been very clear that they are Muslim,” Kevin acknowledged. “In their minds, to be Bosnian is to be Muslim. So the idea of converting to Christianity is incredibly foreign to them.”
Jennifer pointed out that the couple’s work is made even more difficult by Bosnia’s history. “‘Christians’ were slaughtering them and those atrocities continue with the family that they have close contact with back home,” she said.
Like the Greens’ ministry with Bosnians, Mission Service Corps missionaries Hal and Laurie Wright* are establishing similar connections with Louisville’s third largest refugee community, Somalis—a group which is also predominantly Muslim.
Since 2005, the Wrights have been slowly building a ministry to the Maay speaking Somali people. Like Bosnians, unrest in their home country has led them to seek refuge in the United States.
“God’s really used the turmoil in their homeland to get them out of an almost inpenetrable country to get them to places where we can get to them,” Hal Wright noted.
The couple have planted themselves among the Somali community as a way to help the refugees acclimate to a new environment.
During the winter, the couple collects warm clothing for their neighbors. They also put together school packets for Somali children. Wright said the response from the community has been overwhelming.
“They are just totally astounded that we take time to do little things with them,” he added.
Those small acts of service have allowed the Wrights to take a major step in their ministry. To date, the couple has distributed three Bibles and have shown the Jesus film in the Somali language several times. He acknowledged that these steps point to a larger goal of eventually planting a church.
“We’re building toward it, but we’re not there yet,” he said.
The task of planting churches among Muslim people groups has been a difficult one to undertake since it is a fairly new concept in Kentucky, according to Carlos de la Barra, ethnic associate for the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s new work and associational missions department.
“This is something completely new for us,” he recognized. “It is really hard work to enter the (Muslim) community.”
De la Barra called those who have established such ministries “pioneers,” adding that they do it out of “pure love.”
However, he noted, trying to offer assistance to missionaries like them can be tough because there are very few resources to point them to.
“I know how to help the Koreans. I know how to help the Hispanics,” de la Barra said. “How can we help” Muslim church planters?
Plus, he added, with such a clear-cut strategy in place for assisting and funding church plants, the task becomes much more complicated the longer it takes to start a church.
Carpenter suggested that the need to cross religious barriers in order to reach certain ethnic groups may require an overhaul in the church planting mindset.
“We have to look at … reaching those kind of people groups in a much different way than Hispanics (and) those countries that have some kind of Christian presence,” he said.
Carpenter also noted that more resources are being developed. Recognizing the growing international population in the United States, he pointed out that the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board and International Mission Board have begun “a coordination of strategy” to reach ethnic communities.
“If it works in that country, with a little tweaking because they’re in our culture, it still will work here,” he emphasized.
Another way that barriers to ethnic church plants are being broken down is through the Nehemiah Project at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The program has allowed many students to explore the inner workings of planting a church.
One of those students is Heather, a Nehemiah Project intern who is working with several different Indian groups throughout Louisville. She came to Southern Seminary following a two-year term as a Journeyman in northern India, an experience which she hopes to make her life’s work.
Once in Louisville, Heather—who asked that her last name not be used —said she discovered an entire community of Indians, mostly from the southern part of the country.
“I’ve been going to all the Indian festivals, everything wherever Indians are, I’m there … building lots of relationships with families,” she said.
Heather also works with the Cypress Pointe prayer meeting, a community of Indians that meet each week to pray and study the Bible. She noted that while they do not yet consider themselves a church, the gatherings have led to two women accepting Christ.
Although many of her Indian neighbors are Hindu rather than Muslim, there are still barriers to sharing the gospel.
“They have a lot of misconceptions about Christianity that you really have to pull apart before you can get to the gospel,” Heather acknowledged.
Whether it is Muslims or Hindus, Carpenter pointed out that the most important way for these church planting missionaries to cross religious boundaries is through relationships.
“I really admire these people … willing to invest their lives,” he said. “They’re just developing relationships … and sharing Christ in the midst of that relationship.”
*Names changed for security reasons
Western Recorder issue date: March 25, 2008
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