Wolof is the national language of Senegal and is spoken by 12.4 million people, including 4.6 million people as a first language. The language also has a variant that is spoken by more than 160,000 people in The Gambia.

“We’ve got distributors that have been waiting and praying for this for years,” says Helen Williams with WMP.

(Photo from Adeane, Senegal courtesy of Eyelit Studio via Unsplash)

“God is at work even when we don’t see it. If we just wait for Him, He has a plan. He’s got people out there willing to join us and use material. We just need to wait on Him.” 

Exciting new developments like printing in more languages and supplying more partners can be tricky while keeping older contacts well stocked.  

“It’s going to require that we keep producing at a steady rate,” says Williams. “We still produce these booklets for just four cents each.”

Please pray that these booklets will disciple and touch the lives of the believers who receive them. Pray that as demand rises WMP will have both the funding and production capacity to faithfully serve existing and new partners.

If you or your church know missionaries on the field who could use Scripture booklets in their ministry, reach out to them and ask. If they are interested, direct them to learn more about World Missionary Press. 

Header photo courtesy of _____

Rob Myers with DOOR International shares three misconceptions or challenges that make Deaf-led churches rare today. 

“Some of it has to do with the lens that we use to view the Deaf community. Many times when we talk about Deaf ministry, people put on the viewpoint of special needs ministry,” Myers says. 

Instead, Deaf communities should be viewed as minority languages, people groups with their own distinct cultures. 

“In some places where we’ve recognized Deaf communities as minority languages, then the way that we approach Deaf ministry is the way that we approach ministry in other minority languages,” Myers says.

(Graphic courtesy of DOOR International)

“We want to train up leaders to reach their own communities, we want to do Bible translation.”

A second challenge facing Deaf believers is often access to information. 

“If [Deaf communities] don’t have Bible translation in their particular sign language of that country, then many of the people in that church are going to be cut off — the ones particularly who don’t have access to written language.”

Myers says that creating Bible translations turns into a situation like the age-old question, “Which came first, the chicken, or the egg?” 

“In order to do Bible translation, we want to find Deaf churches [to help translate into their language]. But in order for Deaf churches to really grow and thrive, they need Bible translation,” Myers says.

A third challenge is the stigma that surrounds Deaf people in many cultures, even within church communities. 

“It’s only been within the past few years that we’ve really seen the Church begin to embrace the idea of Deaf people being able to be missionaries,” says Myers, “[overcoming] that barrier [concept] of Deafness being somehow preventative of people using the spiritual gifts God’s given them.” 

Would you take time today to learn the facts about gospel ministry to the Deaf? Visit doorinternational.org to learn how you can help empower Deaf leaders around the world. 

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of SHVETS production via Pexels. 

(Photo courtesy of Jesus Film Project)

Legacy meets a new world

“Our vision and passion is to give every person in the world the opportunity to hear Jesus say, ‘I love you’ in their heart language,” says Holly Newell with Jesus Film Project.

The JESUS film is the most watched film of all time. Newell shares that over the past 45 years it has been viewed 11 billion times, and more than 600 million people have given their lives to Christ.

It’s a God-given legacy, but one they aren’t content to sit back on.  

“Not long ago, we took a look at the world and its growing population, and we said, ‘We’re doing what God has called us to do, but we’re not doing it fast enough,’” Newell says. 

Research led them to two important facts about the world today. One is that the majority of the people who have never heard the name of Jesus live in 12 specific countries. The other is that the world is very young.

“The average age of all the people in the world is 30,” says Newell. ” In some of those top 12 countries of unreached people, the average age is only 18.”

(Image courtesy of Jesus Film Project)

The JESUS Film for the next generation

The new animated JESUS will use much of the audio tracks already recorded in more than two thousand languages for the 1979 film. That means when it releases in December 2026, it will quickly become available for people around the world. 

And then? The global Church will step in. 

“We partner with over 1,800 different mission organizations. They’re the ones who are doing the hard work of showing the film, doing the follow up, building the churches,” Newell says.

“So we just want to take this new animated tool, give it to them and say, ‘Go! Go and reach the people that have yet to hear!’” 

Get involved

Even though the animated JESUS film just finished pre-production and is two years away, Newell invites you to get involved with their gospel tools today. Here are two ways to do that:

(Photo courtesy Jesus Film Project via Facebook)

Keep in the loop
Receive updates and prayer requests for the animated JESUS film. Click here to learn more and sign up for email updates or download the insider app. 

Take JESUS with you
By downloading the Jesus Film App, you can carry the film in two thousand languages in your pocket. And it’s easy to share with anyone in their heart language! Simply search their language in the app, then forward the link to that version with a brief message. They’ll be able to open the link and watch without any need to download.

Click here to find the Jesus Film App on Google Play or the App Store. 

Header photo courtesy of Jesus Film Project.

Greg Yoder with Keys for Kids Ministries says, “There just aren’t any churches there. The ones that were there aren’t in existence. I mean, when you think of 65 million speakers of the Pashto language, and only 20,000 known Christians [in Afghanistan] and most of them are gone, there’s a huge need.” 

Last month, Keys for Kids raised $50,000 to begin translating their Storyteller resources into Pashto. The project is in partnership with FMI. 

“We’re talking about solar-powered MP3 players that have Scripture and Keys for Kids stories that point kids to Scripture,” says Yoder. “So because it’s easy to understand, everybody can listen to it, everybody can understand it.”

(Keys for Kids Storytellers are loaded with Scripture and Bible-centered audio resources. Photo courtesy of Keys For Kids)

These resources will help reach the next generation of Afghans. 

“We know that between the ages of four and 14 (known as the 4–14 window), 70% of people [who] come to faith in Christ do so in that that window. So it’s the most fertile ground. It’s in that demographic [that children] are looking for spiritual truth.”

But with the opportunity also comes danger. Yoder says that those involved in recording Keys for Kids resources and Scripture into Pashto are risking their lives to do so. That goes for those who will eventually carry the resources into Afghanistan too.

“Just to be thought of as a Christian and Afghanistan can get you killed or, worse, tortured, so that you give up other Christians that you know of,” Yoder says.

“We’re excited to be [in] the partnership with FMI, dealing with people who know how to get these things in, who are bold, who aren’t ashamed of the gospel, and are going to take it into regions of the world where it’s desperately needed. That’s the only hope they have.”

Keys for Kids and its partners need your prayer support more than ever. 

“Pray that the Holy Spirit will go before us and just begin working in the to soften the hearts of the Afghan people, especially those who speak Pashto,” says Yoder. “We have an opportunity to get these Storytellers in the next year into regions that we’ve never ever expected, with couriers we never expected to be couriering these things.”

Learn more here about Keys for Kids’ heart to bring children to Christ around the world. 

Header photo of girls in burqaas is a representative stock image courtesy of ArmyAmber via Pixabay.

Rob Myers with DOOR International is excited about what God has been doing among Deaf communities in South Sudan. 

“DOOR’s work in general really has two main emphases,” Myers says. “One of them is training local Deaf leaders to share the gospel—to disciple other Deaf people—and to plant Deaf churches. We call that our two-by-two program. And then right on the heels of that, and really key and integral to that too, is helping local communities do Bible translation in their own sign languages.”

One member of the Deaf community in South Sudan whose life was changed due to the work of DOOR is a man named Keij Worro.  

Worro, originally from northern Sudan, fled south with his family when civil war broke out, in order to find a better life. 

His family struggled, losing many family members due to illness and the war. But Worro especially struggled as his family knew almost no sign language and were unable to communicate with their Deaf son. 

“And that is the case for too many Deaf people around the world,” Myers says. “They might not have access to a Deaf school. Their family doesn’t have resources. This wasn’t the case with Worro’s family, but in some cases, the family is viewed as cursed because they have a Deaf child, or somehow the Deaf child is a shame.”

All this led Worro down a path of alcohol addiction. That is until Worro encountered a group of Deaf people conversing in sign language, including Morris Yanga, one of DOOR’s Deaf church planters in South Sudan.

Though Worro was initially skeptical of the group, he was welcomed instantly. 

“For many, many Deaf people that I talk to who come to Christ, really one of the first turning points is encountering another Deaf believer,” Myers says. “But when they encounter another Deaf person, there’s an immediate connection and it’s just, it’s an instantaneous connection that happens because you’re now talking to someone who understands all of the frustration, who understands the isolation.” 

Myers says God uses that connection to train up and send Deaf leaders into the field, to use a shared culture and language to connect with other Deaf people and bring them to Christ. 

One question that often comes up in DOOR’s work is how the Gospel can be brought to someone, like Worro, who grew up with little to no language in his life.  

In Worro’s case, like in many others, he met a group of Deaf people, was welcomed, and began to build one-on-one relationships with the people in the group, giving him the opportunity to learn more of the language, specifically South Sudanese Sign Language. 

“Worro told Morris, ‘I’m so glad that I’m a part of this group now. Something’s happening inside of my heart that I can’t even describe,’” Myers said. 

Worro hasn’t yet come to Christ, but God has been doing transformative things in his life.

Pray for Worro and others like him who are in similar situations, that they might feel connection to believers and learn of the transformative power of Christ in the process. 

“There’s really four key elements that come into play here,” Myers said. “Access to connection with Deaf people, access to language. So the gospel in their own language, a group praying for these individuals, and God’s word available in their heart language. And when you bring those four forces together, something very, very powerful happens. We praise God for that.”

Learn more about DOOR International and other stories like Worro’s by visiting doorinternational.org.

Header photo courtesy of DOOR International

Candace Mackie with TWR Motion, a division of Trans World Radio, says, “We believe people of all cultures deserve to hear about Jesus in a way they understand and so, we make animated content that’s used on social media to engage with people who are spiritually seeking.” 

Kayla Schlipf, art director for Journey to Hope, illustrating a scene from the episode about the fall of humankind. (Image and caption courtesy of TWR Motion)

Trans World Radio is all about reaching the last, those forgotten and cut off from the gospel. Today, TWR Motion is partnering with a ministry in Thailand, this time to reach Buddhists. 

“We started to work with them to understand Thai people in particular, but also just broadly trying to understand Buddhism,” Mackie says. 

There’s been a steep learning curve. In recent years, TWR Motion created a video series called “Share the Story” presenting the gospel to Muslims. That was an easier process than this new series has been. 

“Islam is a little bit closer to what we’re used to. There’s a lot of bridges to the gospel with Old Testament prophets. Sacrifice is very much something that they understand,” Mackie says. “But for Buddhist people, it’s been really tricky to understand their worldview, because it’s just so different than ours.”

For example, Mackie says animism and spirit worship are common among the Thai people.

Illustration from Journey to Hope, an animated Bible story to share the gospel with people with a Buddhist worldview. Adam and Eve in the garden. (Image and caption courtesy of TWR Motion)

“It’s a very different context. We’ve kind of taken a deep dive into this, to produce 20 episodes of Bible stories,” Mackie says. 

The “Journey to Hope” series should be completed in 2025. (Learn more about it here.) Between now and then, Mackie says there are ways you can help bring it to the finish line.

“I would definitely ask for prayer for us as we develop this series. For the Lord to work out some of the challenges that we have in our workflow.”

If you are a church planter who could use “Journey to Hope” in a language other than Thai, reach out to TWR Motion. They have worked with dozens of other teams to translate their video resources into new languages to spread the gospel.  

Header photo of a church planter in Thailand talking with a local man in a village courtesy of TWR Motion.

Candace Mackie with TWR Motion says they often partner with church-planters who use social media to reach spiritual seekers. “We’ll work with them to develop original videos that they can use that reach their culture with the gospel in their language.” 

A church planter in Thailand talks with a local man in a village. (Image and caption courtesy of TWR Motion)

After creating a video series for the Muslim world, TWR Motion has now partnered with a church-planting ministry in Thailand. The new 20-video series will cover creation, the fall of man, Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, plus many other stories in between — all of them geared to reach into the unique worldview of Buddhists. 

“The whole series theme, we’re trying to show that Jesus is our ultimate hope. So we’re trying to present Jesus as the person who can bring hope to their lives and that they can know for themselves,” Mackie says.

Mackie says the trickiest part has been learning to understand the worldview of Buddhists. Their partners have been essential in developing the content.

“They [ministry partners in Thailand] actually worked with Wycliffe Bible Translators as well. So the base of the scripts came from Wycliffe,” Mackie says. “We made some adjustments and spoke into it at different points to help [with] thinking about it from a video perspective. But [we] really trusted them with the content that needed to be in there.” 

Illustration from Journey to Hope, an animated Bible story to share the gospel with people with a Buddhist worldview. Adam and Eve eating the fruit. (Image and caption courtesy of TWR Motion)

The series Journey to Hope should release in the Thai language in 2025. Between now and then, would you pray for and support the team? 

“There’s a lot that goes into the artwork and the way that we tell the stories. [Pray] for wisdom, and clarity, and energy, stamina,” Mackie says. 

This video series is meant to reach beyond just Thai communities. It’s an ongoing project that you can support. (Learn more about “The Crew” behind TWR Motion here.)

“The goal — and what we’ve done with our other series — is that any church-planting team who would like to use this can come to us and we’ll work with them to translate it and produce it in their language so that they can use it in their contexts,” Mackie says. 

If you could use Journey to Hope to reach Buddhists in another culture or language than Thai, reach out to TWR Motion here. 

Header photo: Kayla Schlipf, art director for “Journey to Hope,” illustrating a scene from the episode about the fall of humankind. Photo and caption courtesy of TWR Motion. 

This powerful, evangelistic tool is helping to raise up Bible translators around the world to bring Scripture into their own heart language.  

“Open Bible Stories is 50 carefully chosen Bible stories from creation to Revelation, designed by a team of Bible translators, theologians and Bible teachers,” says Dane Skelton with unfoldingWord. 

unfoldingWord® Open Bible Stories is developed by unfoldingWord® and the Door43 World Missions Community. The illustrations are © Sweet Publishing and the entire project—text and illustrations—is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
(Logo, caption courtesy of unfoldingWord)

“They’re theologically accurate, but they’re not Scripture, and that reduces the anxiety for many first-time translators, especially Muslims, about working directly with the Word of God.”

unfoldingWord uses Open Bible Stories as what they call “a translation primer.” The process of translating helps a group of believers learn the necessary tools, techniques, and concepts (such as simile, metaphor, metonymy, etc) that they will eventually use in creating a full Bible translation.  

“Everything that our partners learned by translating Open Bible Stories into their heart language, equips them to move directly into Scripture translation,” Skelton says. 

The Bible translators, sometimes new believers themselves, gain a basic survey of the Old and New Testaments through the Open Bible Stories. Skelton says two things start to happen:

“Number one, they are fascinated by the Old Testament history. They start to understand the whole scope of what God has done. Then they are deeply, deeply moved by the fact that, ‘God wants to speak my language?’”

Visit unfoldingWord.org to learn how you can invest your prayers and your resources into Bible translators around the globe. 

“We are utterly convinced that God wants His church all over the world equipped to be able to translate the Bible for itself in every nation in every language. But we also know that the enemy doesn’t want us to do that. And so we really, really encourage people to join us in prayer, because that’s the key thing that keeps us going,” says Skelton. 

Header photo courtesy of unfoldingWord.

Then, only two years later, Eritrea fought alongside Ethiopia against a paramilitary group in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. That war ended in 2022, but in December of last year Eritrean troops were still present in Tigray. In the past two weeks, unrest has flared up again in Tigray, displacing nearly 29,000 people.

Even as concerns for the region’s long-term stability rise, an Eritrean Bible translation team is at work own people: the Kunama of Eritrea.

“They (the Kunama) have for decades experienced hardship through civil war in their country,” says Meg Hunt with Wycliffe USA. “Many of them have migrated to neighboring countries — and then actually several of them have come to North America as part of their refugee experience.” 

Population displacement due to Tigray conflict, 12 January 2021 (Photo courtesy of USAID via Wikimedia Commons)

Kunama translation teams live Ethiopia and North America. Together, they feel the effects of the regional tensions. 

“For the team that is translating the Old Testament (in Ethiopia), they are being targeted by the local government, so it’s been hard for them to continue to feel safe in that environment,” Hunt says.

“Although they have resettled into different cities (in Ethiopia), in more rural areas refugees experience fear of being relocated to refugee camps back in Northern Ethiopia where there is still unrest.”

For the North America team, who is working on the New Testament, their pressures are less dangerous but still real.

“It’s actually pretty incredible that it’s entirely volunteer-based in North America. The challenges for them are really that they’re balancing a lot. They’ve got a lot of things of care for their own families, their day jobs. But again, they’re so committed to translating God’s Word,” Hunt says. 

“One of the things that is really unique about the translation is that because they are a diaspora team, working together across multiple time zones and continents, keeping in step with one another is an opportunity and a challenge that they have.”

Meet this dedicated Bible translation team here. Several books of the Bible have already gone through community testing — one of the final steps before they go to print or audio publishing. The books are Ruth, Jonah, Haggai, Matthew and Galatians.

You can be part of this Bible translation project spanning the globe through your prayers and your partnership. Learn more and sign up for prayer updates here.

“Pray for the safety of these Kunama team members, especially those in Ethiopia. Pray for the just energy and stamina to continue this work,” Hunt says. 

Header photo of internally displaced persons in Tigray, April 2021 courtesy of Rastakwere via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Wycliffe Associates has developed Symbolic Universal Notation (SUN), a written language available for the Deaf around the world.

Stacy Shawiak with Wycliffe Associates says, “We created a language of symbols or pictures so that we could easily communicate the Gospel in a way that could be quickly learned and we hope and pray is intuitive so that the pathway to literacy is quick.”

In 2020 Wycliffe Associates celebrated the completion of the New Testament in SUN. Four years later, the Old Testament is going through final accuracy checks.

(Graphic courtesy of Wycliffe Associates)

“We also have Our Daily Bread version in SUN. We have 50 Bible stories. We have a catechism. We’ve come a long way in getting access to ways to understand Scripture in this new language,” Shawiak says.

Click here to learn more about SUN.

A massive need

The World Federation of the Deaf says approximately 56 million of the estimated 70 million Deaf people around the world receive no education. In many ways, they are cut off from their family, their community, and the world. Tools such as SUN are providing a way for change.

Already Wycliffe Associates has introduced SUN in 30 countries, 19 of which are in Africa. Here’s how one Deaf church in Tanzania responded.

“They said, ‘This is amazing. We have so many Deaf that don’t come to church because they don’t understand sign language. But this is so easy to learn.’ It spread to the ten Deaf congregations they have throughout the entire nation..Then they started going to other countries around Africa, and teaching it to their other sister churches and other nations. They saw hundreds of people come to know Christ,” Shawiak says.

During SUN workshops, the Deaf also have the chance to more fully enter their community through language learning. 

“We always partner with Deaf churches and organizations. As we teach SUN, we have the symbol and we have a picture to help connect the meaning. But we always teach it with the National sign language, so that the Deaf come in, and they learn the language of their community,” Shawiak says.

“It has so many more benefits than what we originally intended. There’s church [growth], they’re learning the language of the Deaf, they start to communicate, they get a community of people. It helps with self-confidence [and] it helps with autonomy. We’ve seen some beautiful blessings that we did not anticipate.”

(Graphic courtesy of Wycliffe Associates)

Find your place in the story 

Ask God to protect those who have come to know Christ through SUN so that they would grow in the knowledge of Him. “Many of them come from Muslim families and are scared that their family will see that they’ve come to Christ,” Shawiak says.

Pray for Wycliffe Associates as they translate SUN training materials. Pray also for their ongoing work in creating tactile, 3D symbols to reach those who are both Deaf and blind.

“It is a huge task with many challenges. Every step of the way, we ask God to guide us, to provide, to let us not miss anything that He wants us to do.”

Header image courtesy of Wycliffe Associates