Sudan’s civil war started three years ago, with strong evidence of genocidal violence in Darfur, but few in the West pay attention.

“There’s genocide after genocide, and oftentimes it doesn’t make the news because there’s other conflicts that are more germane to United States politics,” Jesse Griffin of unfoldingWord says.

Sudan faces one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with war, famine, and economic collapse all overlapping. There’s no clear path to peace, and violence is intensifying rather than slowing.

Yet hope remains. “The Gospel continues to expand in Sudan, and it’s wonderful to see how the Holy Spirit is still at work,” Griffin says.

“Our brothers in Sudan will say that, because of the conflict, there’s a huge receptivity to the Gospel.”

Refugee camps become ministry centers

The Lord is working through Sudanese church planters who partner with unfoldingWord to do Bible translation.

“Our partners at Greater Reach Alliance have trained people from 89 different tribes in Sudan,” Griffin says. “These people are going back to their communities and sharing the Gospel, starting churches, and making disciples.”

Using the Scriptures they’ve completed, translators eagerly share the Gospel in their language communities.

“They have adopted a method that integrates translation into the life of the church and their ministry,” Griffin says.

“On a weekly basis, they are not only understanding Scripture, translating it, applying it, but they’re also ministering it in their church context, and they’re proclaiming it in the refugee camps.” 

Translators press on

(Photo courtesy unfoldingWord)

Teams are completing the New Testament in Sudanese Arabic and Masalit this year. Sudanese Arabic teams will finish work on the Old Testament in 2027. Support these efforts through unfoldingWord here.

“Because we have empowered the people to do it (Bible translation) themselves and they don’t need outside help to do the work, it’s actually progressed in spite of the war,” Griffin says.

“It (translation) doesn’t have to be a long, drawn-out, seven-or-10-year process. They’re actually using Scripture as they work on it.”

Many Muslims are turning to Christ after hearing the Gospel in their heart language.

“Pray for their protection because many of them, [as] soon as they make that decision, their lives are in jeopardy from those closest to them,” Griffin requests.

Header and story images courtesy of unfoldingWord. 

An estimated 1.8 million soldiers have been killed, injured, or are missing on both sides, the Associated Press reports, with Russia bearing the brunt of the losses. Nearly six million Ukrainians fled to neighboring countries, and approximately 3.7 million remain displaced within Ukraine.

Bible translators were not immune when Russia invaded Ukraine. Dane of unfoldingWord says one gateway language project had to be put on hold.

“We were using Russian as a gateway language because almost everybody [in the former Soviet Union] was forced to learn it,” he explains.

“The war has had a devastating impact on Bible translation and church planting efforts, including our ability to deliver completed translation guides in Russian to the Church-Centric Bible translators across the former Soviet Union.”

War forces change

unfoldingWord equips believers in the local church to translate Scripture into minority languages. More about that here. A team working near the front lines in eastern Ukraine had to be relocated when the war began.

(Photo courtesy Алесь Усцінаў/Pexels)

“That team had six translators and was doing really well. They [were] working through translating the Bible into Ruska Roma,” Dane says.

“The Romani people are scattered all over Europe [with] various versions of the Roma language. That version (Ruska Roma) has about 29,000 people.”

Today, like many Ukrainians, believers are living far from home. In a recent report, the team leader told Dane that daily survival takes priority.

“He said, ‘I am living in a place without heat, water, or electricity because one night, Russia bombed the heat and power stations. As a result, no pumps can deliver water to the apartment buildings where people live, including people with infants and relatives who are bedridden’,” Dane says.

“‘For us right now, getting food can feel like something out of The Hunger Games. But,’ he said, ‘we continue working on Bible translation.’”

Perseverance shifts perceptions

Yet believers see a glimmer of hope. In their language community throughout Eurasia, “evangelical Christians have always been viewed with a little suspicion,” Dane says.

“But because they’ve stayed and they’re serving their neighbors, people are beginning to have a different attitude about the evangelicals and the Gospel they preach.”

(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord)

Keep praying for the Russia-Ukraine war to end. Pray that unfoldingWord receives the funding it needs to get the Eurasia translation project back online.

“We really can’t do much until this war comes to an end, but when it does come to an end, we need to have our funding ready to go,” Dane says.

“Pray for those church planters who are staying in Ukraine when they could leave. If you want to stay up to date with what unfoldingWord is doing around the world, please go to our website and sign up for a prayer calendar that is sent out via email every month.”

Header image depicts an elderly woman peering over the edge of a recently bombed site in Kyiv, Ukraine. Photo courtesy Mykhailo Volkov/Pexels.

Dane with unfoldingWord says an ongoing blackout cut them off from Bible translators in Iran.

“With the internet shut down, they’re all just kind of focused on staying out of view,” he explains.

Tehran protests began in late December over inflation. Then, the language quickly morphed into anti-regime rhetoric. The movement gained support early on from U.S. President Donald Trump, who threatened intervention before the country went dark.

Translators press on

Despite the risk, believers will continue translating the Bible into Iran’s minority languages. Project Director Siroos Torabi tells Dane:

“God has placed it in human nature to seek the truth. This was dangerous, even in Jesus’ time. But the danger could not stop the spread of the good news, and obviously, it’s not going to stop it now.”

(Graphic courtesy of unfoldingWord)

In partnership with Transform Iran, “they’re working on translations into 20 ethnic languages,” Dane says. Learn more about the project here.

“Four of those are for complete Bibles, and the rest are other Christian materials, such as unfoldingWord’s Open Bible Stories.”

“Something I could not ignore”

Bible translation is on pause while believers remain in hiding. Even so, the Holy Spirit is still at work in Iran. A Muslim scholar recently came to Christ after reading Scripture in his heart language, Arabic Khuzestani.

“He said, ‘The first chapter of the Gospel of John captivated me,’” Dane shares.

“‘The text was simple, but at the same time, so profound and unique that I either had to accept it as truth or believe it was all a lie. But the feeling that I felt in my heart as I read these words was not something I could ignore.’”

Now, the man boldly proclaims the Gospel truth. “When Muslims come to Christ like this, they put their lives on the line to share it,” Dane says.

How to help

Ask the Lord to protect His followers in Iran and provide for their daily needs.

“Pray that they can manage to get some medium of exchange that is worth something because the Iranian currency is completely devalued now,” Dane requests.

“I pray that the plans of good men and women will prevail, and the plans of evil men and women will collapse upon their heads, and that God would deliver this beautiful country from the thieves that took it over 47 years ago.”

Header image is a representative AI photo generated by ChatGPT depicting protests and prayer in Iran.

Dane with unfoldingWord says 85 people from 18 countries gathered recently in Kenya for the Global Church-Centric Bible Translation Forum. “It was just excellent,” he states.

“The Spirit of God was definitely present, and everybody was encouraged.”

One pastor shared how God was answering 40 years of prayer for the Masalit in his homeland.

Masalit tribal dancers at a 2014 event in Darfur, Sudan.
(Photo courtesy UNAMID via Flickr/CC)

According to Joshua Project, the Masalit are a non-Arab people group living primarily in Sudan and neighboring Chad. Classified as a “frontier” unreached people group, nearly all Masalit identify as Muslim.

By God’s grace, Sudanese Masalit trained by unfoldingWord are using church-centric Bible translation to reach the Masalit in Chad.

“This formerly unreached people group now has more than 150 who have come to Christ out of Islam in Chad,” Dane says.

Shifting paradigms

Testimonies and training sessions filled the forum, along with field reports, networking, and breakout sessions. Participants agree that one training on sustainability introduced a helpful paradigm shift.

Instead of viewing Bible translation as a project, “sustainable church-centric Bible translation takes this on as a mission assignment from God,” Dane says.

“Bible translation becomes a foundational, fundamental part of any growing church network in any part of the world.”

Sustainable church-centric Bible translation requires capacity building, training, local ownership, and leadership. Pray that church networks will achieve these priorities.

“The global Church’s responsibility is to translate the Bible for themselves, not ask outsiders to come and do it for them. It helps them develop really robust theological foundations,” Dane says.

Header and story images courtesy of unfoldingWord. 

At unfoldingWord’s annual Global Church-Centric Bible Translation Forum, “We announced an AI-assisted tool called BT Servant,” Dane with unfoldingWord says.

“This promises to be a highly effective tool; everybody that heard about it was excited.”

Attended by 85 translators and associated partners, the fourth CCBT Forum presented workshops, testimonies, and networking opportunities. More about that here.

“We ended up with about 85 people, including 21 ministry partners, 28 languages, and 18 countries represented,” Dane says.

“It was just excellent. The Spirit of God was definitely present and everybody was encouraged.”

BT Servant: AI support in disconnected places

(Graphic courtesy unfoldingWord)

unfoldingWord partners with church planting networks all around the world. These believers translate God’s Word into their heart languages using tools and training from unfoldingWord. More about that here.

The newly announced BT Servant app helps translators check their work. “You can ask it any question you want about Bible translation,” Dane says.

Through WhatsApp, “it will take you NOT to resources all over the world, but [to] our very specific, tightly controlled library of resources that help church-centric Bible translators solve problems as they are drafting or checking their brand-new translations,” he explains.

Typically, highly trained consultants review translation work and answer questions. However, “we’re not creating PhD-level Bible translation consultants fast enough anymore,” Dane says.

“The traditional systems of Bible translation just cannot meet the demand.”

BT Servant’s integration with the popular messaging application WhatsApp makes it ideal for Bible translators in underdeveloped or hard-to-reach locations.

“In many places of the world, their internet service is intermittent. They can’t get online or stay online for lengthy periods of time. The offline software is great but sometimes they don’t even have access to a laptop,” Dane says.

However, “almost everybody has one of these phones, and you can go pretty much anywhere in the world through WhatsApp,” he continues.

“BT Servant is a big, big deal, and I think it’s going to get bigger as time goes by. Everybody was excited to hear about it.”

(Graphic courtesy of Progress.Bible)

How to support Church-Centric Bible Translation

According to Progress.Bible, 541 languages are still waiting for Bible translation work to begin. The scale of the task highlights a critical gap that ministries cannot bridge alone. You can help by partnering with unfoldingWord.

“unfoldingWord does not make Bible translations. We make Bible translators,” Dane says.

“We need people who can capture that vision, see the exponential power of it, and join us as financial partners.”

Most importantly, pray. Pray that BT Servant will help expedite the drafting and checking process for hundreds of church-centric Bible translations currently underway.

Sign up to receive unfoldingWord’s monthly prayer calendar here.

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Brett Jordan/Unsplash. 

Today is day two of unfoldingWord’s Church-Centric Bible Translation Forum, a gathering aimed at strengthening global collaboration in Scripture translation. The event brings together nearly 100 leaders from 18 countries and 28 language groups in Nairobi. Read about last year’s CCBT Forum here.

“Some of them work in countries that have religious opposition, all the way up to death threats and assassinations,” Dane* with unfoldingWord says.

(Graphic courtesy of unfoldingWord)

Kenya provides the neutral territory needed to facilitate a meeting of this size. Dane says, “We chose Kenya because it’s a very welcoming country, and it seems much easier for many of our global partners to get visas to Kenya than other parts of the world.”

unfoldingWord supports church-planting work among every people group by equipping believers with open-licensed biblical resources and training to translate God’s Word into their heart language.

“If we tried to do all of this translation work ourselves, we would immediately exceed our capacity. That’s why we are equipping an [independent] network of church planters and disciple-making ministries across the world with church-centric Bible translation tools, technology, and training,” Dane says.

“That network continues to expand, and as a result, hundreds and hundreds of new languages are being engaged in a formative process for them, individually and for their people.”

Learn more about unfoldingWord’s approach here.

“We’re not alone”: building a global family

The Church-Centric Bible Translation Forum builds upon unfoldingWord’s global church planting network, connecting believers near and far. The four-day meeting is comprehensive, offering education, training, and opportunities for collaboration and networking.

“Almost half of the people coming are new, and so it will be an introduction to how church-centric Bible translation works,” Dane says.

In addition, “They’ll have testimonies, and breakout sessions on overcoming barriers, security, funding, technology, and all of those kinds of things.”

(Graphic courtesy of unfoldingWord)

Believers gain more than practical skills at the forum. “What they tell us is, ‘It’s very difficult what we do, but when we meet brothers and sisters from other parts of the world who do this with us, we realize we’re not alone,’” Dane says.

“When they get to meet each other for the first time, face-to-face, it’s like this family that they didn’t know they had.”

Pray that the Holy Spirit would fill all the presenters and breakout leaders. Pray for the work that God is doing and is about to do through church planters and Bible translators.

Believers in Benin tell unfoldingWord, “We see Muslims giving themselves to Christ, imams giving themselves to Christ, kings giving themselves to Christ. Give us more. We want to keep going.”

Consider partnering with unfoldingWord to support this work. A $45,000 matching grant will double every gift made through December 31.

*Name withheld for security purposes. 

Header and story images courtesy of unfoldingWord. 

“Some people had leading roles, others worked backstage, but all of them were catalysts who equipped the Church and empowered it to reach the world,” says Dane with unfoldingWord.

unfoldingWord follows their example, acting as a catalyst for the global Church in today’s context, he adds.

“We want to see the Church go throughout the world, and it was always God’s primary means of reaching the world in the first place – the Church of Jesus Christ,” Dane says.

Breaking down barriers

unfoldingWord collaborates with indigenous churches and church-planting networks to establish a church in every people group and make the Bible available in every language. Learn more about that here.

Along with teaching believers how to do church-centric Bible translation, “We try to catalyze Bible translation organizations to adopt open-licensing strategies for their translation resources and software,” Dane says.

“It’s incredibly important for the global Church to have this (information), especially in the Global South. They don’t have lawyers that can negotiate copyright licenses year after year.”

unfoldingWord partners with the global Church to make Scripture accessible in every language through open licensing, translation, and collaboration.
(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord)

Removing barriers is part of the ministry’s original purpose. unfoldingWord “has been advocating for open licensing of Bible translation resources since before we were founded in 2017. The people in leadership were doing that way back in 2010,” Dane says.

Today, “we count at least 32 Western organizations that are releasing open-license portions of their content for the global Church.”

Find your place in the story

Partnership is another key catalytic component. At unfoldingWord’s annual Church-Centric Bible Translation Forum, “We bring together church planting ministries, disciple-making ministries, [and] Bible societies, for networking, training, and collaboration,” Dane says.

“That benefits the global Church in its mission to translate and proclaim the Gospel.”

This collaborative effort includes you. “We have several ‘Whole Bible, Whole Nation’ projects around the world. If a church is looking for a mission [project] and they care about getting God’s Word out, that’s a great way to do it,” Dane says.

Check out unfoldingWord’s “Whole Bible, Whole Nation” projects and ask the Lord how He’d have you support this work – whether through financial means, prayer, or advocacy.

Header and story images courtesy of unfoldingWord. 

As an Illuminations partner, unfoldingWord catalyzes church-centric Bible translation around the world. Dane says unfoldingWord exists to see “the church in every people group and the Bible in every language.”

(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord)

unfoldingWord partners with church planters and church networks worldwide to fulfill this mammoth purpose. “We don’t make Bible translations; we make Bible translators. We are equipping people to become excellent Bible translators,” Dane says.

“It’s the primary way God has called us to participate in the Great Commission. We catalyze and equip church networks so that they are empowered and successful in reaching the least-reached.”

Translation testimonies

On a practical level, unfoldingWord supplies tools, technology, and training to help church planters translate God’s Word into minority languages. More about that here.

“We see what we do as kind of ‘turbo-charging’ church planting ministries around the world,” Dane says. “They are already trying to do Bible translation because they need it; they can’t wait.

“It takes too long to get a Western missionary to go. They need the Bible like, yesterday, in the heart languages of the people groups where they are.”

For example, Benin has more than 50 indigenous languages. Many still lack Scripture, and the most recent New Testament took 20 years to publish. One church planting partner there recently told Dane, “When I first got involved in this and I heard how long that would take, [I] said, ‘How are we ever going to do this? How are we ever going to get the Bible in all these languages?”

Believers shared the following after receiving Bible translation tools and training from unfoldingWord:

“Our encounter with unfoldingWord completely changed our perspective. Now we know that Bible translation can be done in a more inclusive, effective, and efficient way than ever before. We’re proud to be involved, and we’re ready to make a sacrifice to make this dream a reality.”

Consider supporting unfoldingWord’s “Whole Bible, Whole Nation” projects through financial partnership.

Most importantly, pray. Ask the Lord to bless unfoldingWord’s global work in Bible translation and church planting. You can also become an ongoing prayer partner here.

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Kelly Sikkema/Unsplash.

First, technology enables believers to complete work they would otherwise struggle to do.

“They’ve taken technology tools that our folks created, most notably the one called translationCore, and they have turbocharged it,” Dane with unfoldingWord says. “It serves as a checking tool, which is essential in Bible translation, [and] an initial drafting tool as well.”

Secondly, tech tools from unfoldingWord help believers work efficiently, completing more work in less time. “They’ve translated the New Testament faster than anybody we’ve partnered with,” Dane says.

“They have completed 10 New Testaments, text versions. They have completed one New Testament in audio, and two more audio New Testaments are underway for 2025. They also have 10 Old Testaments underway; those would be text versions.”

When God’s Word speaks your language, it speaks to your heart. This is why unfoldingWord equips local believers to translate the Bible into the languages they know best.
(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord)

Finally, technology fosters key connections. Team members collaborate on projects using digital means, and some believers discover the Lord’s leading through technology.

“One of the brothers, a key leader, shared how God called him into ministry, not through a pulpit,” Dane says.

“Pastors preach sermons, and God calls people to ministry in a church. This guy came to his call to ministry through technology.”

However, the authorities are also highly skilled with technology, so pray for believers to have wisdom and discernment.

The government’s “surveillance apparatus is really powerful,” Dane notes. “They are concerned that the translation of the Bible and the truths that it teaches might foment a rebellion.”

Help unreached people groups receive Scripture in their heart languages here.

“We’re equipping our partners and aiding them in any way we can so they can translate the Bible into all of the languages represented there, especially the ones that are unreached,” Dane says.

“This country has [several dozen] unreached people groups out of a total of 119, so that is over 9 million people.”

Header image is a representative photo courtesy of fancycrave1/Pixabay.

A recent Pew Research study shows that the technology usage gap between Americans under 30 and those over 65 has significantly narrowed over the past decade. However, within the Bible translation community, a digital divide still exists.

Dane, a spokesperson with unfoldingWord, a ministry dedicated to enabling church-centric Bible translation, says traditional translation methods often require high-tech infrastructure, formal training, and external oversight. This creates barriers for many language communities that need God’s Word in their heart language.

One of the biggest challenges, Dane explains, stems from a common misconception: “The question goes like this: ‘I thought only experts with PhDs could translate the Bible. How can we know church-based Bible translations are trustworthy?”

This perception and a global decline in the number of qualified Bible translation consultants created a bottleneck. “It drove the creation of unfoldingWord’s software toolset that we call translationCore,” Dane says.

(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord)

translationCore is a suite of open-access digital tools designed to empower local churches and translation teams with quality control, accuracy checks, and collaboration support. More about that here.

The impact is already visible. “This team [in Myanmar] is working on a translation that will reach over 600,000 people who have never heard the story of Jesus in their language,” Dane shares.

By streamlining the translation checking process, translationCore drastically increases efficiency.

“They tell us, ‘When we have to check a Bible translation by hand, manually, we can get through maybe 10 verses a day. When using translationCore, we can check 100 verses a day,’” Dane reports.

unfoldingWord provides these tools free of charge to the global Body of Christ, but continued development depends on support. “We share these tools… without charge, but they aren’t free,” Dane notes.

“Every gift helps get them fully developed and out to the people that need them most.”

You can find your place in this unfolding story — and be part of accelerating Scripture access for the world’s least-reached — by supporting unfoldingWord here.

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of John/Unsplash.