“No, no, no, you can’t wash our feet. We’ll wash your feet!” they said. Someone respectable would never touch another person’s feet in this culture.
“No, we prayed and the Lord showed us to do this,” responded our small team of Novo staff and volunteers. “We’d ask that you allow us to do it.”
Washing feet hadn’t been on our agenda for this disciple-maker training in Central Asia, but God had made it very clear it was what he wanted. He knew something our ministry team could never have imagined—that washing feet was about to become a replicating “movement,” opening a pathway for hundreds of Muslims to better understand Jesus.
How It All Began
A year and a half before this training trip, some Novo staff invited me to start a mentoring relationship with a small group of Central Asian believers over Zoom. These Asian believers had an amazing ministry to an unreached Muslim people group that has been very resistant to the gospel (there are over 38 million of these people and 0% follow Jesus). Believers have been praying for them and trying to reach them for over a hundred years, with little apparent fruit—it was hard ground.
During our calls, other Novo staff and I introduced these local leaders to listening prayer and Disciple Making Movement (DMM) tools like Discovery Bible Study (DBS). They took those things and ran with them. It was illegal to talk to a Muslim about Jesus in their country, but they were committed. Even when some were imprisoned and tortured, they didn’t quit.
One of the women gathered Muslim women together for crafting groups where they could talk about Jesus and do DBSs, and it started bearing a lot of fruit among those unreached people.
In 2023, a small team of mentors and I took a trip to encourage and equip these disciple makers in person. We wanted to do some training around DMM principles, but every time I prayed about it, I heard, “Leave your tools at home. I’ll show you what to do when you get there.”
Just a few hours before our first in-country meeting, our mentor team huddled up in one of the hotel rooms and did a listening prayer exercise: “God, how do you want us to go forward tonight?” Three of us sensed we were supposed to listen to their stories and wash their feet.
That night we listened to the local disciple-makers describe the miracles Jesus was using to bring people to faith and the risks they were taking to share the good news. It became apparent that they needed to tell their stories. They told us, with tears in their eyes, “No one wants us to share any of our stories, not even the churches, because it’s too dangerous. By being able to share, you’ve allowed us to empty.”
Encountering the God Who Washes Our Feet
There was obvious discomfort when we brought out the water to wash their feet. One of the men told us later that he was thinking of running out the door.
Every person wept as their feet were washed. They’d washed the feet of other people in their ministry efforts before, but none of them had ever had their own feet washed.
“As you guys washed my feet I saw an open heaven. It’s too much for a person to bear. That’s why I was crying,” one of the men told us. His wife said she’d only seen him cry twice throughout twenty years of marriage. She, herself, actually saw Jesus while her feet were being washed. Each person had a powerful, supernatural experience.
Several months after the trip, one of the local couples gave a surprising report. After their own powerful encounters with Jesus during the foot washing, they were inspired to wash feet as a way to help Muslims learn more about Jesus.
They’d go to members of that unreached people group, and tell them, “We want to wash your feet in Jesus’s name.” They would explain how Jesus had washed feet and commanded his followers to do the same. First it was to their DBS and crafting groups, but then they used it to introduce Muslims outside of those groups to Jesus—and God began to move.
The Foot Washing Multiplies
Having their feet washed was so impactful that these Muslims washed other people’s feet in the name of Jesus! Many members of that unreached people group became curious to learn more about Jesus. “We knew Jesus was a powerful prophet but we never knew he was humble like this—to wash people’s feet,” they said. This foot washing movement among Muslims has taken off. A year and a half later, Muslims are still washing one another's feet. We don’t even know how far it’s spread!
I could have never dreamed foot washing would open doors for these people to encounter Jesus. At last count, there were 511 members of that unreached people group participating in DBSs and 51 new followers of Jesus! It’s not all due to the foot washing, but God is doing an amazing work through that initiative that continues to grow.
I’m convinced now that God knows the secrets to unlock every people group and bring people to himself. If we had gone on our past experience with Muslims or our training, we never would have thought of foot washing. Praying and listening to Jesus made all the difference—and there will be people who had never even known a Christian before in heaven because of it.
ABOUT THIS STORY
Caleb (name changed for security reasons) and his wife serve with Novo’s Global Partners team as cross-cultural movement catalysts, supporting emerging leaders and disciple makers around the world. Before joining Novo their family lived in and served refugees in Europe, leading many Muslims toward Jesus and turning disciples into disciple makers. Their current home base is in the southern United States.