“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. 

“Call Of Hope works with over 200 former Muslims, Muslim-background believers, and they are the ones who actually carry out the work of Call Of Hope in over 27 nations,” says Chiricosta, now Call Of Hope’s Executive Director.

Why is that important? Chiricosta says it’s because Call Of Hope only uses national workers in all 27 countries. They don’t send people; they work with indigenous people living in the areas they want to reach.

(Photo courtesy of Call Of Hope)

Call Of Hope focuses on reaching the Muslim population of the nations in which they’re operating. Workers use media resources like radio programs, websites, specialized literature, social media, and more to build relationships with Muslims looking for answers.

“That whole relational aspect is so crucial to what we do,” Chiricosta says. “After people respond, and they respond in various ways, through letters, texts, phone calls, we begin the process of meeting people where they are.”

As Call Of Hope workers build relationships with indigenous Muslims, they can connect them with a wide network of house churches. Though they’re “not in the business of planting churches where churches aren’t needed,” they’re still willing to establish new house churches if there are none in the area so no potential believer will have to leave their questions unanswered.

And Chiricosta predicts plenty of questions since the love that can be found in Christ is a foreign concept to many Muslims.

“Allah is not a god of love, and that is not an idea that they know a lot about,” Chiricosta says. “When we say ‘we would like to help you in one way or another,’ when we reach out to people, when we show them kindness and love, it speaks volumes. It bowls them over.”

One of Call Of Hope’s practical ways to show love comes through a goat giveaway in Ghana and Nigeria. Chiricosta says the project opens doors into deeper conversations with local Muslims who are startled by the open arms of believers willing to share the Gospel.

(Photo courtesy of Call of Hope)

Many of Call Of Hope’s 200 national workers are facing dangerous, volatile situations, and they need all the support they can get. Though Chiricosta says he will never turn away a gift, “Dare I say it, I’d rather someone pray without giving than give without praying”.

“As I think about the people that we have working in the different countries, the overwhelming thing that they say to me is ‘please have people pray for our work and for our people’,” Chiricosta says.

“The focus of Call of Hope is to reach out to Muslims, and thank the Lord that when we reach out to Muslims, people are getting saved, people are coming to Christ!”

But that also means people coming into persecution. Pray for Christians working with Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan, believers facing banishment in Northern Sudan, and refugees fleeing the atrocities of Boko Haram terrorists in Nigeria.

“Pray for boldness that they will continue sharing Christ,” Chiricosta asks.