Oral Bible translators in Sudan keep working even as war displaces

By February 19, 2024
stock photo, Sudan, Unsplash

Sudan (MNN) — Imagine keeping up a ministry job while on the run from war, moving every few months, with uncertainty about your future increasing each day. It would have to mean you were utterly convinced your work for God mattered. 

That’s the situation that ministry partners of Spoken Worldwide are in today in Sudan. 

Ed Weaver with Spoken Worldwide tells us, “One of the key ways that I see God answer to prayer is we’ve got people that care so much about the Sudanese people. They’re working desperately to continue to do their work because they know people are lost.” 

Did you know 2/3 of the world’s population are oral learners?
(Graphic, caption courtesy of Spoken Worldwide)

Sudan is around 92 percent Muslim and 95 percent unreached with the gospel, according to Joshua Project.  

Members of Spoken Worldwide’s oral Bible translation team have been displaced themselves from the fighting, yet they carve out time to keep translating and recording scripture for oral learners. 

The amount of commitment that’s necessary to be thinking about things like that, while you’re just trying to survive, is pretty amazing,” Weaver says. 

Spoken Worldwide’s pastor development program, however, may be on hold as the war disrupts relationships and communication methods. They will be evaluating how they might move that initiative forward.

Pray for the peace of Sudan and that Jesus would reveal Himself to those on the run and bring them to safety. There’s no end in sight to the conflict that has already displaced an estimated nearly 7.76 million since April 2023.

Pray also for indigenous Christian leaders as they walk through dangers and adapt to rapidly changing circumstances.  

Even if they’re unable to currently do the type of ministry that we envision, we want them to be able to keep their long-term focus and say, ‘Well, okay. At some point I’ll be able to get back to that,’” Weaver says.

 

 

Header image is a representative stock photo of Khartoum, Sudan courtesy of Ammar Nassir via Unsplash.


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