Malcolm and Barbara Collins came to Minneapolis in 2002 to start a ministry of presence, teaching English as a second language, and outreach to the thousands of Somali people who are living in the Twin Cities.
Why are they interested in Somalis? Because, their first assignment as new missionaries in Kenya, back in 1977 was to start translating the Bible into Rendille – the language of a nomadic people group in northern Kenya – who are “cousins” of the Somali and their languages are related. The Collins family only spent their first five years with that project, and had to leave because of a health crisis.
Now, working with the East African Outreach Project, under the umbrella of the Upper Midwest Congregational Fellowship, Malcolm and Barbara are part of a vision for the emergence of a new body of believers in Jesus Christ among the Muslim Somali. This ministry involves relationship-building through language learning, teaching, and tutoring in English to adult Somalis, many of whom never went to school. Currently, there are a handful of Somalis in the Twin Cities who are followers of Jesus Christ.
Worldwide, there are very few fellowships of Somali believers. Since the highest population of Somalis in the US is in the Twin Cities, what better place to share the love of Jesus and to pray that from the Twin Cities, the good news of Jesus will spread among the Somalis here, and all the way back to their war-torn country.