Chad (MNN) — Tensions simmer between locals in Chad and refugees from neighboring Sudan.
There aren’t enough essentials like food and shelter to go around. Now, as fighting picks up in Sudan and thousands of refugees come across the border, tensions could erupt into conflict. Over 47,000 refugees fleeing violence in Sudan have arrived in Chad in the last 30 days.
There’s at least one silver lining: “When you have Sudanese refugees coming over into Chad, and you’re translating unfoldingWordⓇ Open Bible Stories into one of the Sara languages, the number of people that you [can] reach with the Gospel expands exponentially,” Dane with unfoldingWord says.
“There are several different dialects in Sara, but they can all understand each other, and there are various people groups in the Sara language.”
unfoldingWord partners with church planters in Chad to bring the Gospel where it’s never been. More about that here.
Through collaboration, dedication, and a shared vision, communities are gaining access to God’s Word like never before.
(Graphic, caption courtesy of unfoldingWord)
“Chad has about 80 unreached people groups, [which] totals about 10 million people who don’t have God’s Word in their language,” Dane says.
“Church planters need the Bible in all the heart languages of Chad to plant healthy churches and disciple believers.”
Whole Bible, Whole Nation: Chad
According to Joshua Project, roughly half of Chad’s population identifies as Christian, while the remaining half is a mix of Muslims and animists.
The latter groups have posed a significant challenge for unfoldingWord partners, creating an opportunity for growth and innovation in their collaboration.
“Those groups have been very difficult, almost impossible, for these church planters to penetrate until now,” Dane says.
“The ‘Whole Bible, Whole Nation’ strategy equips our partners to create a movement of Bible translation and church planting to reach all of the least-reached people groups in their nation.”
While believers now have a proven strategy, this doesn’t mean the process is simple. One people group in Chad shunned believers simply because they were different.
“They would just block you out. They wouldn’t even eat with you,” Dane says. “Everybody [who] doesn’t practice their religion their way is considered unclean.”
Then, church planters asked this people group to review some unfoldingWordⓇ Open Bible Stories they had translated into the people group’s language. This review led to a lunch invitation. “That was just extremely important,” Dane says.
“It (eating together) means familiarity; it means friendship. Now, that door is open.”
Here’s how you can help unfoldingWord reach more people groups in Chad.
“We have some future translation work planned, but we need funding for that,” Dane says. “It’s a group of eight languages that want to get into Scripture translation.”
Header and story images courtesy of unfoldingWord.
