A Rapid Support Forces commander known as “the butcher of El Fasher” is reportedly out of prison and back in combat, boosting morale among rebel forces and spreading fear among survivors.

Flag of the Rapid Support Forces
(MartinKassemJ120, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The RSF detained Brigadier General al-Fateh Abdullah Idris, known as Abu Lulu, after multiple social media videos showed him committing atrocities against unarmed civilians in the fallout from last year’s battle for El Fasher.

The trauma inflicted by Abu Lulu and others demonstrates how citizens pay the heaviest price of Sudan’s civil war.

Neither of the warring sides offers protection or help, and aid workers cannot reach starving communities. John of Greater Reach Alliance explains, “There are no safe corridors for humanitarian aid access inside Sudan right now.”

If Sudanese people cross into a neighboring country, they still struggle to find food, clean water, and shelter. “This is not only in refugee camps, but in Sudan itself, because basic infrastructure has been destroyed,” John says.

“Water systems, electricity – all the things that make up a functioning civil society have been destroyed.”

Hope amid loss

Sudan’s civil war began in April 2023. Since then, at least 59,000 people have lost their lives, and 30 million Sudanese require support to survive.

Church planters supported by GRA offer biblical trauma healing and targeted relief aid. “There’s only one source of healing that we can offer them, and it is the Gospel,” John says.

In dozens of locations, GRA teams encounter Sudanese refugees and displaced families who are desperate for hope. “People are deeply, deeply exhausted, and they’re living under constant fear,” John says.

“They carry such deep trauma from the loss of family, of home, and dignity. This trauma is shaping their daily lives and how they view the future.”

Even in places marked by fear, loss, and displacement, the Lord is drawing people to Himself and bringing His peace.
(Photo, caption courtesy of Greater Reach Alliance)

More than 300 graduates from GRA’s school of mission and 28 church-planting teams are serving Sudanese people in refugee camps in three countries. During every encounter, believers offer the compassion of Christ.

John says the response to believers’ kindness often goes something like this: “We’ve been told Christians were evil. How can you love us like this? We’ve been taught to hate you.”

How to help

UNHCR’s 2026 appeal describes Sudan’s war as the world’s largest displacement, humanitarian, and protection crisis. While humanitarians struggle to raise the funding needed to address needs en masse, you can help Sudanese people directly through GRA.

Your gifts enable Gospel workers to meet physical and spiritual needs. Although it’s primarily a church-planting ministry, GRA’s targeted relief efforts include food, shelter, and medicine as the Lord provides.

“God has miraculously opened the door for us. Even though these ministries weren’t our wheelhouse, God has said, ‘Yes, I’ll be with you,’ and He is,” John says.

“Pray that God would bring into our hands the means to provide food and shelter. We’ve done that many times,” he continues.

“The shelter is a tarp over their head, because that’s all we had, but they’re sitting in the middle of the sun in some of these areas – that’s 110 degrees.”

Pray that the Sudanese people will surrender their lives to Jesus as they encounter Him through the GRA teams. Pray they will accept the Gospel as truth.

“We’ve had our tragedies, and there will be tragedies to come. How do we as Christians get through them? It’s because the Gospel is true,” John says.

Header image is an AI photo generated by ChatGPT. 

(Photo courtesy of Erik McLean/Unsplash)

Two years of conflict shuttered most hospitals and clinics. One review found that in states affected by the war, close to 70 percent of health facilities had closed or were barely functioning. Even if a clinic exists, most Sudanese cannot safely or affordably get to it.

Earlier this year, the Lord’s provision seemed like a miracle in and of itself. “God provided medications that allowed us to do what we were capable of doing, and it was just an incredible blessing,” says a Gospel worker we’ll call John*.

“We did a pop-up clinic, we identified the needs of people, and we gave them medication.”

But the blessing didn’t stop there. Sudanese church planters working alongside the medical teams shared Christ with every patient.

“The Gospel is hope. When there is an actual connection with a person to say, ‘I have hope for you today. Would you like to hear it?’ And the answer is ‘yes, please’ – in the middle of an unchanged exterior, there is an internal rest,” John says.

“The outside things that happen to a person – peace doesn’t come from there. It comes from what happens on the inside.”

Today, those patients still have peace that surpasses understanding.

“It’s hard to calculate the responses of the people that are coming to Christ, but the absolute power of the Gospel, when it’s combined with practical, compassionate service to their needs, has been a very special thing,” John says.

Find your place in the story

Now that you know, how will you respond? Start by seeking the Lord. Then, wait for His leading. “I found there needed to be a transformation in my prayer life, from taking the list of my needs to God to be part of His plan for reaching the world,” John says.

Submission also involves asking the Lord, “Will you involve me in the Great Commission?” John adds.

“There are a lot of ways of going, and first of all, it is going there with your heart. Eventually, your other parts of your life will continue… it is a wonderful beginning of a new aspect of your faith.”

Consider partnering with John’s organization to support Sudanese church planters.

*Pseudonym

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

John*, a Gospel worker focused on Sudan, says Rapid Support Forces show no sign of slowing. “They’re going east to Kordofan, and it’s creating a new displacement of people,” John says.

“We really need to pray. I don’t think that Sudan is on the radar; very, very few people that I talk to are even aware of how dire the situation is.”

Displacement and despair

A brutal power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted in April 2023, plunging the country into widespread violence, displacement, and humanitarian collapse. See our coverage here.

(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord)

El Fasher, the last army stronghold in Darfur, fell to the RSF in October. “Now the RSF, much like ISIS, is free within the city to do what it wants without having to fight a battle. And what they’re doing is ravaging the people,” John says.

“Rape of women is [common]; the numbers are unbelievable. And then the trafficking and selling of children has become one of the most horrible results of the RSF having control of El Fasher.”

Thousands of families are struggling to survive as their access to aid groups is limited. Access routes into Darfur and Kordofan have become increasingly restricted due to RSF control, active fighting, and the looting of aid supplies.

Furthermore, “They (survivors) are moving from El Fasher into places that make it more difficult to help them, and that has really heightened the crisis,” John says, adding that the Mara Mountains are a popular destination.

“The (church planting) teams that we had [in El Fasher] were driven out. We’re trying to contact some of them in the Mara Mountains.”

Strength for today, hope for tomorrow

Church planters living among the displaced offer the hope of Christ through trauma counselling.

“We have 28 teams in 28 refugee camps in three countries, and they are sharing Christ. I have pictures of baptisms from refugee camps, so the Church is growing. People are coming to Christ,” John says.

“The Gospel is such a threat to Islam because it gives the person inner strength, regardless of the circumstance, and it gives them hope through the circumstance. It is an incredibly powerful thing.”

Please keep Sudan in your prayers. Ask the Lord to guide and protect two church planting teams in Kordofan, the expected path of RSF advances.

“Desperation creates an openness to the Gospel. Pray that the people who were seeking wouldn’t become closed off,” John requests.

“Pray that the Christians in these camps – the people who know God, who have peace, and yet are struggling with discouragement – would be reminded of the hope that they have, and they would be motivated by the Holy Spirit to share that.”

*Pseudoynm

Header image depicts the flag of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). (MartinKassemJ120, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Steve Prince from Warriors Set Free, a ministry of Set Free, says, “the universal veteran experience is facing the real evil of combat and the worst of humanity”.

Recently, the ministry connected with Ukrainian veterans to help equip them to guide and support others. This includes suicide prevention, mentorship, and practical pathways toward healing.

Prince explains that for Ukrainian veterans, the transition home can be just as difficult. The soldier may feel lonely in the church and misunderstood in his feelings.

It will take many years for Ukraine to recover from war, especially in people minds and hearts; Kyiv park (photo courtesy of Nadiia Yahaha via Pexels)

“Typically, it takes a warrior mindset and someone who’s had a similar experience to be able to relate, communicate and disciple someone who’s been in combat,” he adds.

That’s why churches are being encouraged to lean on experienced veterans — men and women who understand combat and are grounded in faith. With their help, the goal is to walk alongside Ukraine’s defenders.

As Prince puts it, returning warriors need help so “that they will be able to process the loss of friends in combat, the tragedy of it, and the hell they’ve seen on the battlefield.”

It is important to understand, Prince adds, that unless someone feels ready to hear a warrior’s testimony — possibly including graphic details, painful memories, and hard parts of the story — it’s better not to get involved until they are truly prepared.

“Pray about that before you volunteer to go deep with them and help them unpack their story,” Prince adds. Not to cause more harm.

There is an urgent need for prayer as soldiers carry the heaviest burdens of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine while defending their people. Equally important is the need for Ukrainian churches to learn how to be safe, supportive environments for their defenders.

As you pray for Ukrainian soldiers:

“Pray that the Holy Spirit will heal them of their trauma, and that they will be able to return to a state of peace when the Lord brings them back home,” says Prince.

Visit Warrior Set Free website if you want to learn more about helping veterans and about the Freedom Appointments ministry.

Header photo courtesy of RDNE Stock project via Pexels.

Meanwhile, Israel continues to weigh the psychological cost of war.

Believers on the ground tell Bruce with Uncharted Ministries, “They can see a lot of brokenness, even on the streets of Jerusalem, a sense of people not knowing what to do. Some people they’ll see on the streets just wandering around, disoriented.”

Israeli soldiers are facing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in record numbers. Suicide rates are skyrocketing, too.

(Photo courtesy of Susan Wilkinson/Unsplash)

“Some of our leaders have been on five different rotations. They are having an increasingly difficult time [coping] with what they’re experiencing and seeing on the battlefield,” Bruce says.

“The PTSD, the trauma – they don’t know [how] to deal with it.”

War’s hidden cost: Trauma and brokenness in Israeli society

Because so many Israelis serve in the military, it’s common in this small nation to know someone affected by PTSD.

Studies show how Israeli military families suffer high rates of “PTSD spillover,” while other research describes the mental health fallout of the October 7 terrorist attack.

“Relationally, the stress on families is unbelievable,” Bruce says. “They’re seeing an increase in divorce, separations, family trauma, turmoil. They are understaffed for counselors in the country.”

Pray for wisdom for Bruce and other Uncharted leaders as they seek opportunities to respond with the hope of Christ.

“We’re seeing a spiritual desire on the part of the people, given the trauma that they’re going through, but there’s still brokenness in the country,” Bruce says.

Hope for tomorrow

Uncharted may build upon its current outreach to Holocaust survivors to meet today’s trauma needs.

Child survivors of the Holocaust filmed few days after the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp by the Red Army, January 1945.
(Wikimedia Commons)

“One of the key ministries we have in Israel is to Holocaust survivors. These people have gone through unbelievable trauma,” Bruce says.

“Many of them are atheists; they just can’t believe that God would have allowed this [to happen.]”

Regular group sessions help Holocaust survivors process their trauma and find hope in the God who heals. Over 100 survivors have put their faith in Christ as a result.

“They’ll come [to the meetings] for fellowship, food, and they’ll hear a message of encouragement,” Bruce says.

A local leader who coordinates this ministry says, after October 7, “he’s seeing [people seek] spiritual answers, and to understand that they cannot survive without God.”

Header image depicts Israeli soldiers on the ground in the Gaza Strip in the Iron Swords War. (Wikimedia Commons) 

Over the weekend, a White House official announced that U.S. President Donald Trump was dispatching envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Egypt to finalize the technical arrangements for the hostage release and to explore a long-term peace agreement.

“We are certainly watching what’s happening with these ceasefire negotiations, and we are looking for direction on next steps,” Bruce with Uncharted Ministries says.

“We’re obviously very concerned for our staff [who] are in the fight; one of our close contacts in Israel [has a son who] is the tank commander.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed hope that the captives’ return could be announced during the Jewish festival of Sukkot, observed from October 6 to 13. Meanwhile, Israeli military operations continue deep within Gaza.

Jerusalem’s Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock, where both Jews and Muslims pray every day.
(Photo courtesy of Uncharted Ministries)

Trauma and faith amid war

Hamas jihadists raided a Jewish community on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. More about that here. Nearly 50 hostages remain in Gaza today, and only 20 are still alive.

“We have a Jewish member of our team and then our Israeli national leader there; they say the nation is exhausted. Some are experiencing trauma, PTSD,” Bruce says.

However, despite the mental toll of war, “as long as the hostages are still held, they can’t move on.”

Uncharted partners with Jewish-background believers in Israel, and “We’ve heard, ‘October 7 has changed everything,’” Bruce adds.

Israelis are asking deeper questions about faith, purpose, and healing. In the midst of loss, a hunger for hope is growing – and many are finding strength in God’s promises. Learn how you can support this Gospel growth by partnering with Uncharted.

“Become educated and maybe as a ‘bucket list’ go [to Israel],” Bruce says. “Then you can pray right on the ground and see it firsthand.”

Header and story images courtesy of Uncharted Ministries. 

Two years of civil war have forced nearly 12 million people from their homes. Over four million have crossed into neighboring countries as refugees. John – a Gospel worker focused on Sudan – partners with church planters in the region.

A recent medical outreach brought much-needed care to Sudanese refugees in South Sudan. Although his organization* primarily focuses on disciple-making and church planting, “We went to the Lord, and it became obvious that this (medical outreach) was an opportunity,” John says.

“We saw God do an amazing thing.”

Healing and hope for Sudan’s displaced

The medical outreach began as an answer to prayer. “Our organization sits in full view of the suffering of Sudanese refugees, and we were just praying and praying for these people day after day,” John says.

(Photo courtesy of John)

One day, “out of the blue, we were approached by an organization saying, ‘We have a ministry of providing medications purchased in the U.S. at a greatly reduced price, and we’d like to do something to help the Sudanese,’” he continues.

“Several organizations worked together, and the [agreement] was, ‘We’ll secure the medications and ship them to where you are, and you figure out how to get these to the people that need them.’ We were able to receive the medicines and air freight them to the areas where we had access to refugees,” John says.

“In one location, the doctor and nurses saw 1,000 children in eight days.”

Last week’s pop-up clinic focused on children with cholera, while an earlier outreach provided antibiotics and blood pressure medicine. “We were able to give them medication for several months, because a week wouldn’t help them that much,” John says.

As doctors and nurses met medical needs, church planters helped refugees process trauma. “Islam doesn’t offer anything in these settings,” John says.

“In this suffering and deep despair, they’re not finding comfort or answers or hope for the future, only a question – If I die tomorrow, [where will I go?] The Gospel gives assurance and hope.”

Now that you know, how will you respond? Ask the Lord for guidance, and then wait on Him for answers. Consider partnering financially with John’s organization here.

“When we seek to do that on a deeper level in prayer, then the Great Commission is a natural response,” John says.

*Ministry name withheld for security purposes.

Header and story images depict pop-up medical clinic serving Sudanese refugees in South Sudan. Photos courtesy of John. 

A prominent human rights group accuses Sudan’s army of torturing people to death through “execution chambers.” Meanwhile, cholera has now spread to every state in Sudan, claiming at least 1,000 lives since January.

Additionally, famine-like conditions are deteriorating in refugee camps. Around 25 million people – nearly half of Sudan’s population – are facing severe hunger, while 3.5 million women and children suffer from malnutrition.

A Gospel worker we’ll call John says, “The situation continues to get worse.”

Refugees wait for water distribution. (Photo courtesy of Robert Stansfield/Department for International Development via Wikimedia Commons)

Yet hope remains. People are turning to the Lord as they encounter the peace only He can offer.

“One of the guys that I work with, who was an imam [and] became a Christian, he says, ‘In my lifetime, I never believed that I would see a Muslim come to know Christ. And then in the space of a year, I’m seeing them lead 50 to Christ,” John says.

With help from John’s ministry, which remains unnamed for security purposes, new believers from Muslim-majority Sudan learn how to share Jesus and start churches.

“We have about 26 teams: 15 are inside Sudan, and 11 are in refugee points outside Sudan. They’re all leaders we have trained at our school; [350] Muslim-background believers from 65 tribes,” John says.

“We’ve been working in Darfur for a long time. Many of the house churches that were underground in Darfur are displaced, and they’re now in Chad.”

While church planting is the believers’ primary focus, they offer limited aid whenever possible.

“We’ve given them training; we try to give some support,” John says. “We did a feeding program in Chad, just the 100 most vulnerable in three camps. We were able to feed for two months and give tarps for shelter. That’s all we could do.”

In recent weeks, the leaders held biblical trauma healing workshops, and 150 Muslims came to the Lord. “Satan wants hope to be contraband, because it is hope that removes the control of the enemy; it removes their power over a person’s life,” John says.

“Help cannot be brought without hope. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ that makes a person whole on the inside.”

Ask the Lord for mercy. Pray He will introduce millions in Sudan to the peace only Christ can offer. Then, support the efforts of John’s organization here.

Header image is a representative photo courtesy of The Voice of the Martyrs USA. 

“We pray for broken hearts,” she says. “These are the brokenhearted now.” 

Nuna says prayer ministry for Lebanon should include Hezbollah members as well. 

“How do you pray for them? You just ask God to heal the broken hearts, to send His spirit to bring them up again, and to minister to their lack of vision. He’s the one who opens eyes,” she says. 

Nuna adds that our shared need for redemption gives us grounds for connection with and prayer for people unlike us. 

“True that they are so bad, but God loves them; and that changes our perspective in prayer.” 

In Lebanon, “trauma healing” programs are popular; but Nuna says people are tired of a programmed approach.  

“We went to shelters, and the people just reacted to it and said, ‘We had enough of trauma healing sessions, and we don’t want this because it’s not doing anything.’”

She says individuals need to be seen and valued amidst a wider group. 

“They need to speak. They need to bring up what is inside them, and when you just do a group trauma healing session, I don’t know how effective this is.” 

Rather than a set number of sessions, people are looking for practical, physical help as well as a listening ear. The team at Triumphant Mercy takes a long view of this issue and approaches trauma with a Gospel mindset. 

“How can you be healed without Christ? He is the healer. So we come to bring breakfast and just sit together, but the reality is we’re trying to bring Christ to people’s lives.”

Ministry visits to shelters that start with a simple meal or conversation often lead to witnessing opportunities. She says connecting Scripture to current circumstances is more than just a bridge builder. 

“With a story from the Bible, you just bring God in a way that is not threatening. It’s a story, but at the same time it brings hope and restoration.” 

Nuna says in trauma healing ministry, it’s important not to rely on platitudes like, “Be happy! Jesus loves you.”

“That doesn’t matter to them now in their pain. In their pain they need to see how God weaves stories of lives from stories that are existing: from stories of the Old Testament, from stories of Jesus.”

One mistake we can make in news interpretation is thinking of world events as occurring to groups rather than individuals. 

“I would like people when they pray, to think of one person,” Nuna says. “Maybe they don’t know the person, but they know somebody who has a financial crisis, health issue, or death in the family. When you think about that person and relate it to any person in our region, it’s the same. People are hurting.” 

Please pray for God to heal broken hearts across Lebanon. Pray that lost souls would be saved and blinded eyes would be given a new direction in Christ’s light.

Photo courtesy of kaboompics.com via Pexels

Header image courtesy of Triumphant Mercy Lebanon

The latest headlines are desperate. Mothers and young children face death by starvation as the lean season approaches. Both sides of the ongoing civil war target hospitals and displacement camps as they fight to control the last capital in Darfur.

Refugees fleeing to neighboring countries arrive with tales of unimaginable horror.

“Some refugees, their loved ones were murdered in [front of] their eyes. Some of them were raped at gunpoint,” says unfoldingWord partner Reverend Joseph*, whose ministry carries out biblical trauma healing efforts in the camps.

Sexual assault is commonly used as a weapon of war in Sudan, with both women and men falling victim. One man couldn’t look anyone in the eye when he met the believers who offered trauma healing. He was raped at gunpoint by four militants before fleeing his home city.

(Photo courtesy of Voice of the Martyrs USA)

“We counseled him, [saying,] ‘This is not your fault’ [and] he went through our training, so the shame [left him,]” Reverend Joseph says.

“He feels like he can start again, and he was healed.”

Sudanese church planters partnering with unfoldingWord offer biblical trauma healing in several locations. More about that here. Some teams also work in church-centric Bible translation, bringing God’s Word to 11 minority languages.

Muslim refugees encounter the Gospel when Bible translators test out portions of Scripture in refugee languages.

“It changes the narrative they were raised in, that you cannot pray in your language, God will not hear you. You have to pray in Arabic,” Reverend Joseph says.

“Some of the tribes who were totally Muslim [have now been introduced] to Christianity, and they learn that they can pray in their language. They feel like God is regarding them [and] they have value in the eyes of God.”

Pray Muslim refugees will turn to Christ as they understand His truth. Support Bible translation in Sudan here through unfoldingWord.

*Pseudonym

Header image courtesy of unfoldingWord.