Nostos is an ancient Greek word that expresses welcome of somebody home after a long time away. It is also the name of a mission part of Operation Mobilisation (OM) that seeks to welcome Muslims into a home within Christianity.
Nostos is active in many places where Muslim diaspora groups are. The Muslim diaspora communities are amongst the fastest growing least-reached people groups in the world.
Tillmann K, who served as a missionary to Muslims in Australia, now runs the Nostos network from Germany.
“This was just after the height of the refugee wave that hit Europe 2015-16,” Tillmann explained. “This wave shook many churches and Organisations in Europe, and since then, many new ministries were started.”
Nostos says “We minister to Muslims of all ages and backgrounds, striving to meet them where they are. This looks like language tutoring, homework help, handiwork classes, social media campaigns, church plants and more. Our ministries focus on reaching Muslims wholistically and building relationships with them.”
But the work reaches out from Europe into the Middle East, north Africa, and central Asia largely through social media.
“The arrival of social media has brought huge change – especially in reaching those specially “closed” kind of groups – like Somalis who have been incredibly resistant to the Gospel – when approached in sort of traditional Mission efforts,” Tillmann K reports.
The OM Somali ministry report that more than 50,000 liked their content on TikTok. This is despite mass reporting/complaining about of their weekly videos. Here’s a recent testimony: “On 19th June, 12 Somali Muslims called our WhatsApp Hotline and decided to give their lives to Jesus! Hallelujah! Now is the time for the harvest.
“Nine of those new believers were from 1 family. The father and his eight children had been watching our videos for the last three years! Praise God! They learned about Jesus from our videos and made the decision together.
“The father asked to speak with us at a specific time, took them all to a rural area in Kenya, somewhere far away from the Somali Muslims, and they called us on a video call. We read them the Salvation Prayer and will be discipling them going forward, God willing!”
In this way emigres can have influence for the gospel in their home nations.
Many missionary efforts have to keep secrets. But this applies to Nostos more than most,many of its stories are unprintable. Even identifying the countries where The Other Cheek understands considerable conversions are happening is something Nostos does not want to be publicised.
Does prayer depend on publicity? Praying for Muslims to know Jesus is one way to prove it does not.