On April 25, 2026, in Baku, something began that the believers gathered there refused to call an event.

They called it a beginning.

A Country of a Hundred People Groups

Azerbaijan is a country of mosaics. Roughly 90 percent of its population identifies as ethnic Azerbaijani, but the remaining 10 percent represents close to 100 distinct ethnicities — most of them rooted in centuries-old Islamic tradition, most of them still without a sustained gospel witness in their own heart language. These include: the Lezgins of the northern foothills; the Talysh of the southern Caspian coast; the Avars and Tsakhurs of the Caucasus highlands; the Ingiloys of the western valleys; and the Udins, Rutuls, and Meskhetian Turks. Each carries its own language, customs, and spiritual story. Each remains, in missiological terms, unreached.

For years, the School Without Walls (SWW) program in Azerbaijan has trained young leaders in cities like Baku and Sumqayit — not through detached classroom instruction but through the relational, immersive formation that has become the SWW signature. Out of those years grew a conviction: it was time to look at the country not as a single mission field but as a gathering of people groups — and to begin recognizing, naming, and praying for each of them.

The Gathering

That conviction took shape on April 25, when Mission Eurasia's Unreached People Groups Initiative (UPGI) and the SWW Azerbaijan team convened more than 70 pastors, leaders, and believers — drawn from seven churches across Baku, Sumqayit, Qusar, Zaqatala, and Yalama. UPGI coordinator Sergey Babaraika traveled to Baku for the gathering. Zaur, the SWW Azerbaijan coordinator, led the local effort and served as translator for the international visitors.

What unfolded was not a conference. It was something closer to a confession — a corporate recognition by Azerbaijan's church that the unreached people groups around them have names, faces, and waiting hearts.

"The prayer meeting dedicated to the peoples of Azerbaijan became a special event," Zaur reported afterward. "It united representatives of diverse cultures, languages, ethnic and Christian communities. In an atmosphere of sincere unity and spiritual depth, it was obvious that those in attendance gathered with a single purpose — to pray for the peoples of the country of Azerbaijan and proclaim the hope offered by Jesus Christ."

Above the platform where the panel sat, a banner declared the words of John 3:16 in Azerbaijani. Beside it stood the banners of Mission Eurasia, School Without Walls, and partner ministry EveryHome — three works united by the same vision from different angles: training, mobilizing, and reaching every household with the gospel.

Twelve People Groups. Twelve Months. Twelve Cards.

In preparation for the gathering, the team had developed something deceptively simple: a prayer card set covering 12 of Azerbaijan's ethnic groups, designed to be distributed to pastors and leaders who could, in turn, place them in the hands of their congregations.

The number was deliberate.

Twelve people groups. Twelve cards. Twelve months in a year.

Before the gathering closed, those present made a unified decision: to commit one month of focused prayer to each of the 12 groups, and within that month, to make purposeful contact with at least one representative of that people group. Twelve months. Twelve people groups. One year of intercession married to action.

It is a structure that turns a single Friday in April into a sustained spiritual campaign carried by every church represented in that room. Each prayer card travels from the gathering into a sanctuary, from a sanctuary into a small group, from a small group into a household, and from a household — by God's grace — into a relationship with someone whose people have waited generations to hear the gospel in their own tongue.

Scripture in Their Hands

Mission Eurasia also placed the Word of God directly into the hands of those who came. Copies of the Injil — the New Testament — in both Azerbaijani and Farsi (Persian) were distributed, ensuring participants could share the words of Jesus with their neighbors in the languages those neighbors actually speak. For some of Azerbaijan's smaller ethnic groups, complete Scripture in their heart language remains an unfinished work. The shortage of translated material is itself one of the burdens those gathered carried before the Lord.

A Movement, Not an Event

One participant, reflecting afterward, captured what many were sensing:

"Let this meeting not be a one-time event, but the beginning of a new movement of prayer and unity. Let every believer see their responsibility — to be a light for their people within their given culture, for those who do not yet know Christ. Today, more than ever, the call resounds: open your heart, go beyond the familiar, and bring God's love to those who have not yet experienced it."

By the time the day ended, multiple voices were already asking the same question: When can we do this again — on a larger scale?

Alexandr Belev, executive director of Mission Eurasia Field Ministries, put it plainly when forwarding Sergey's report: this was unprecedented. The harvest among Azerbaijan's unreached is plentiful, the workers are few, and a door has opened for the church to walk through.

How to Stand With Azerbaijan's Church

The 12-month prayer commitment that began in Baku now belongs not just to those 70 believers, but to every brother and sister willing to take it up. There are two clear ways to stand with the work God is doing among Azerbaijan's unreached peoples.

Pray

Join the prayer movement that began in Baku. Intercede specifically for the Lezgins, Talysh, Avars, Tsakhurs, Ingiloys, Udins, Rutuls, Meskhetian Turks, and the other people groups represented in the 12-card set. Pray for boldness in the believers carrying the gospel to them, for translated Scriptures in still-unreached languages, and for laborers — for the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few. Click here to request prayer updates.

Give

Behind every Injil distributed, every prayer card printed, every gathering convened, and every SWW student trained, there are real costs absorbed by Mission Eurasia and its on-the-ground partners. A gift to the Unreached People Groups Initiative (UPGI) directly funds the next gathering, the next translation, the next leader equipped to reach his or her own people. This event was the seed. Financial partnership is the soil that allows it to grow into the larger gathering participants are already requesting. Give to UPGI →

Azerbaijan's church has stepped to the plate. The question now is who will stand with them.