Lausanne World Pulse – WORLD EVANGELISM & MISSIONS REPORTS – Urban Impact Ministry in New York City
By Larry Holcomb
Purpose and Overview
Urban Impact (UI) is a unique ministry that focuses on reaching the 10/40 Window by raising awareness of the need to reach unreached people groups and by evangelizing the unreached people groups who have come to the United States.
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Our hope is to evangelize Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs who have come to New York City from “closed countries” around the world. Urban Impact missionaries can make inroads into these immigrants’ lives, and thereby into the lives of all their friends and family in their homeland. Our long term goal is to see converts trained and sent back to their own closed countries as church or political leaders.
Daily Ministry and Focus at Urban Impact
Much of our daily ministry involves meeting the many needs of the new immigrants from our target countries. Currently, we are concentrating on Muslims from West Africa, South Asia, North Africa and the Middle East. We have various programs and outreach events targeting these groups, including children’s and youth ministries and classes in ESL, computers and citizenship. We emphasize meeting needs and building relationships; yet we are meticulously focused on leading those we interact with to a clearer understanding of Christ and the gospel.
Our ministry is built around the particular needs of distinct immigrant groups. One of our strongest outreach programs is geared toward the five to ten thousand West African Fulani tribespeople who are now in New York City. The Fulani tribe is a far flung, diverse ethnic group of West Africa spanning some nineteen countries. They are the largest nomadic people group in the world and are also the largest of the unreached tribes of Africa—numbering some twenty to twenty-four million. According to the 2000 United States census, in the past few years thousands of Fulani have immigrated to New York along with at least 120,000 other West Africans.
Because of their nomadic tendencies and their history as the “bearers of the banner” of Islam in Africa, evangelization can be a very difficult, slow process amongst the Fulani in Africa. One persistent missionary recently shared that he had served in Burkina Faso for twenty years and only saw six or seven people who were genuinely interested in Christianity.
In the United States, things are very different. Many Fulanis see America as the country of their dreams and are very eager to befriend Americans and hear of our way of life. Though Muslim, many Fulani are surprisingly open to hear the stories and teachings of Jesus. They are also very curious to learn of the true teachings of the Christians who have shown them so much love and compassion.
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Larry Holcomb is a missions speaker and director of Urban Impact. He has served in San Francisco, California; Birmingham, Alabama; and New York City (USA). Larry, wife Linda and their four children live in an immigrant neighborhood of Queens. |