Do you know that there are still 3.44 billion people (42.6% of the world’s population) who live in communities with no access to hearing the Gospel? One of the least reached populations is a Pastoralist people group in the Sahel desert of Africa.  

Called to serve from rural Victoria  

Phil and Carol Short both individually sensed a strong call from God to serve in missions at a young age. At a church meeting Phil attended, a mission worker shared how there were approximately 12,000 unreached people groups in the world. Phil was shocked. He explained, “Following that meeting, I had no peace about living out my life farming as I asked the Lord, ‘How could there still be so many unreached people groups in the world so long after Jesus said to his followers, “Go and Make disciples of all nations”?’ It seemed that Jesus was saying to me, ‘It’s because young people like you, who say you love me, are not prepared to give up what you want to do, to do what I have asked you to do!’ This led to me leaving the farm in order to prepare myself.” 

At the age of 10, Carol was eagerly looking forward to attending her first Christian Convention Children’s camp. “It was at the missionary meeting that I understood for the first time that just as God spoke personally to the boy Samuel, God continues to speak to people today, even to children,” she shared. “When the speaker invited people to indicate a willingness to make themselves available to go wherever God might lead them, in response, I stood up. Sometime later my sights became set on serving as a Missionary Nurse.” 

Years later, as Carol was completing her third year of training in a hospital, she met Phil, a young pastor who had also sensed God’s call to missions. After Phil completed Bible college and gained some pastoral experience, the couple began reading of opportunities to serve in different countries. One day, at a youth camp, their eyes fell upon an article of SIM’s Africa Now magazine featuring ‘The Forgotten Ones of West Africa.’ Carol said, “We had never heard the name of this Pastoralist people group before, but here they were described as being forgotten because of their isolation and nomadism, about 20 million of them. We felt challenged to consider them. In the next month, we heard their name mentioned three more times, and we began to feel that God was calling us to go to them.” 

Faithfully witnessing for 50 years 

Phil and Carol arrived on the field in 1974, believing that God had called them to live among this cattle-herding Pastoralist group. At the time, SIM had been working in the country for 50 years but had not focused on this people group.  

To fit in, Phil and Carol live simply and dress like them. When with them, they eat a diet of staple grain, millet mixed with milk, and sleep on the ground under the stars or in a ‘guest’ grass hut. The people group they minister to value hospitality, so Phil and Carol learned to reciprocate by providing places of rest and refreshment for visitors. Carol shared, “One of the biggest challenges in this work is earning the trust of the people and becoming an insider. For us, it meant learning to speak the mother tongue of the people (without the help of a language school), understanding their worldview and honour-shame culture, and adapting to their culture. This included learning to relate respectfully and appropriately to the different segments of society.”  

The couple left for the Sahel with a mindset of persevering in mission for the long-term, aware that there was still much to learn about this people group. Therefore, they were not surprised to encounter communities that were closed to them and suspicious. Praise God, as Phil and Carol continued to build trust, some grew interested in the Gospel and eventually accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. They explained, “In time, as we continued to visibly live in the community and with persevering prayer, we saw their attitude changed to respect and acceptance. This made it possible for our relationships to develop and deepen. Gradually, we saw how the message touched their hearts. They became hungry to know more and eager to share with their relatives and with visitors.” 

One community was so transformed by the Gospel that government officials told Phil, “Before these people became followers of Jesus, we would often have to come here to resolve disputes and tensions, and even arrest people. But since they became followers of Jesus, we don’t have these problems. Instead, we come here to ask them to help us resolve problems in other communities. We see the changes in the way they care for each other, how their women are treated. Where once there was deception, we now see transformation to honesty and integrity.” 

Another challenge Phil and Carol faced was knowing how to make disciples among nomadic and semi-nomadic people who roam widely and are mostly illiterate. “The Lord’s provision of Megavoice MP3 players is a wonderful resource we use as they are loaded with Scripture and Biblical teaching, following on from the Gospel Recording hand-wind cassette players that we used at first,” Carol explained. “These units are solar powered, which is a great advantage for those living so remotely. One of their cultural practices is to share what they are given, particularly among family members. As a result, Megavoices are given by request and can end up far away from where they started, exposing so many more people to the message. Our task is simply to replace them!” 

With local ministry partners, they also saw how God led them in the development of a Bible training centre in 2010. This centre teaches and disciples laypeople in their mother tongue. Praise God, more than 200 students have undergone training through the centre. Some are now working as evangelists among their own people and even reaching out to other people groups.  
 
In 2015, a security threat meant that Phil and Carol had to relocate their main base. After they settled into their new location, God opened a creative way for them to assist Pastoralist communities to dig concrete-reinforced wells. The traditionally built wells were collapsing, and at times burying alive the young men cleaning or deepening them. The well-digging ministry opened up the opportunity to build relationships with unreached Pastoralist communities in many isolated places.  

Over the span of their 50 years of faithful service and ministry, Phil and Carol give glory to God for equipping them in their various roles. Now, many clans in this people group have heard the message of Jesus and have accepted Him as their Lord and Saviour.  

“In every phase of our ministry, we have seen God’s faithfulness enabling us to do what he entrusted us to do.” They testify to the truth of I Thess 5:24: ‘The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.’ “We knew we were inadequate and incapable of ourselves. But we trusted in God, and he enabled us to adapt and become insiders. He answered our prayers and the prayers of many people who have been partnering with us. We acknowledge them because we are certain that without their encouragement and their persistence in prayer (and financial support), we wouldn’t have persevered through the hard times,” said Phil.  

“As a result, God opened the spiritual eyes and hearts of people who are so different to us. He brought about events that led to people feeling disillusioned with their own religion and wanting to put their faith in Jesus instead. All we could do was patiently sow the seed and it was He who made it grow.” 

GO: Do you have a heart to share God’s love with an unreached community? Get in touch with a Mission Mobiliser today to find out how you can serve by visiting sim.org.au/startaconversation.  

PRAY: Join us in praying for our Faithful Witness teams who are ministering to least reached communities by visiting sim.org.au/faithfulwitness.