Sudan (MNN) — The past nearly 21 months of Sudan’s civil war have displaced more than 12 million people. More than half of those refugees are women and girls. They suffer atrocities from both the army and the paramilitary embroiled in the civil war.
There is no end in sight to their suffering. According to a UN report, an estimated 6.9 million people in Sudan are at risk of gender-based violence.
Ed Weaver with Spoken Worldwide says their ministry is pivoting to bring the hope of Christ to these women trapped in Sudan’s humanitarian crisis.
“We’re going to, in the first quarter of this year, have a women’s only workshop that will be focusing on how Jesus dealt with women in the New Testament, how he valued them,” he says.
(Photo courtesy of Spoken Worldwide)
“We’re hoping to minister to women in these refugee camps, those that have been traumatized by the war, by displacement, [by] deaths in their families — even just the traveling across the country has been cruel and unusual in terms of how to get into a safe place.”
Spoken Worldwide has led these kinds of workshops in other countries. Weaver says the truths of God’s Word have profoundly affected women in cultures that tend to devalue them.
“When you begin to show them the value of women in Scripture, they’re going, ‘Wait a minute. So I’ve been looked down upon. I haven’t had educational opportunities. And you’re saying I can be contributing to the kingdom of God? I can be valued as an individual?'” he says.
“This is such an eye-opener for these women. It breaks through some barriers to the gospel that existed in the past.”
Praise God for bringing His hope into Sudan’s tragedy! Pray that Spoken Worldwide’s upcoming workshops will lead many women to understand there’s a God who loves them more than they can imagine.
“I’d love for people to be praying for breakthroughs, for women to see that they are valued by God, that they are not looked down upon by God,” Weaver says.
Header image is a screengrab from VOA’s Number of Refugees Who Fled Sudan for Chad Double in Week. This is a refugee camp in Chad.
(Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
