Tunisian Arabs

Background information

History

Tunisian Arabs are around a population of 10 million people with all of them speaking Modern Standard Arabic language of Tunisia (Central Intelligence Agency 2013). While Tunisian Arabs are well known, there history and culture is relatively unique. Tunisia gained independence in 1956 from France and in a period of 55 years, they have had 2 presidents and lived under fear of the government and repression. Being an Arab speaking nation, the atmosphere in Tunisia is very secular as many of the residents rarely go to and the roots of Christianity have been forgotten.

Language

According to the Joshua project, the native language spoke by Tunisia people is primarily Arabic. This is due to the widespread of Muslim culture which heavily influences Tunisian culture.

Culture

Worship at shrines are witchcraft is greatly practiced in the area because of strong spiritual darkness connections. In the past few years, TV programs, websites and radio programs have generated an explicable interest in building Christian foundation.

Economy and family structure

The economic climate of Tunisian Arabs as a whole is oriented towards the business side. Many of the men and women in Tunisia are business people. Looking at the Joshua project, Tunisian Arabs are a group of middle class people who operate their own businesses. Surrounding the focus of community values is a great value for family. For Tunisian Arabs, a family must be balanced contained parents, youths, adults and children. Specific programs have been created to empower children and youths at family level.

History of mission work

Through Christian media stations and technology outreaches, Christ disciplines have managed to build a strong Christian foundation among Tunisian Arabs. Adding to the outreach, there has been a record of countless testimonies where new converts claimed to have seen Jesus in their dreams and visions. Presently in the country, there are a hundred of believers although a significant amount of them live far from Arabic practicing communities and thus no space to discipleship and fellowship (Winters and Hawthorne 2009).

Past and current mission strategies

Because of the fear of losing their places in society, losing their jobs and being persecuted by the government, foreigners have created a Christian revolution for the purpose of spreading the gospel. The current revolution has seen a great combination of efforts from international bodies as well as national workers who have a singular focus of seeking to know more about Jesus and make him known to the rest of the world. There are a few strategies of church planting being put in place in Tunisia as a way to transit people from Islam to Christianity (Moreau, Corwin and Gary 2004).

Strategies for reaching

In reference to the above discussion, an evangelistic strategy to reach Tunisian Arabs would begin by fostering community association and evangelize at marginal best where the spread of the gospel would be done through communication of biblical stories (Steffen 2009). Apart from forming associations with local communities, I would also recommend that missionaries form relationships within themselves as a way to create awareness of a larger missionary group existence. A third strategy would involve creating a network of having churches being sent from east to west to greatly propagate the gospel (International Mission Board 2013). As a plan for the church, we shall conduct regular prayer meetings, encourage sacrifice giving and disintegrating strong prayer teams to inner Tunisian Arabs clans to partner with organizations and churches working in remote areas.