A Sudanese family that may just need to hear the Good News.
Bible translators were affected, says the President of Wycliffe Associates Bruce Smith. "Bible translators really had to move out of Sudan pretty much en mass about 20 years ago. There were a few that were still doing work, some national partners that were doing work inside the country, but under very difficult circumstances."
However, Smith says the signing of a peace accord last year has, "created kind of a window of opportunity for the next five to six years where this cease fire is supposed to be in place that has given us enough encouragement for the Bible translation teams who were working outside of the country to move back into Sudan." That allows Bible translation to become more efficient.
However, they have a problem, says Smith. "The facilities that they left 18 years ago have not had any maintenance in the intervening period of time. There (are) actually squatters and other people that have used the facilities and so they're in terrible disrepair."
Wycliffe Associates needs volunteers to help rebuild the facility. Smith says, "This is a great opportunity to really have firsthand personal experience and make a personal contribution to enable them to have Scripture in their own language and to really encourage the Christians that are in that country as well as getting the word out to the people who still need the Good News of the Gospel."
One team just returned from Sudan, but there's a lot of work to do and they're looking for skilled construction workers and other who can help.
Smith says the challenging part of volunteer recruiting is convincing people it's safe. "If it wasn't a safe situation we wouldn't be going back in there. We're doing this because our partners who live there and work there are telling us that it is a safe time. That it is a safe opportunity and we really need to seize this opportunity because we don't know that the future is going to be like."
