Sudan (MNN) — Sudan is a disaster, but is anyone listening?
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.
