Sudan (MNN) — Sudan loses political progress, but the Gospel makes significant strides forward.
Security forces killed a protestor in Khartoum last week as he demonstrated against military rule, bringing the total number of civilian deaths since October’s coup to 102. Widespread hunger further compounds public frustration with leadership.
April 2019 protestors in Khartoum, Sudan.
(Photo credit: Hind Mekki/Flickr/CC2.0)
Junta and civilian bloc leaders remain at loggerheads. The United States and Saudi Arabia brokered talks earlier this month, but the outcome remains unclear. Generals loyal to the ousted dictator Omar al-Bashir recently found themselves in “influential” positions, BBC News reports, raising concern about a comeback.
Meanwhile, a Church-Centric Bible Translation team celebrates progress. “They finished the Sudanese Arabic Open Bible Stories,” unfoldingWord CEO David Reeves says.
“It’s the ‘meta narrative’. An Old Testament/New Testament survey [in] 50 key Bible stories from Genesis to Revelation.”
Right now, church planters are “sharing [the stories] and proclaiming the Gospel; people are coming to Christ through that process,” Reeves says. This translation, the first of its kind in Sudanese Arabic, is a critical resource for bilingual believers.
“They want to use it to help translate [Open Bible Stories] into all the minority languages in Sudan, many of those represent unreached people groups.”
By partnering with church planting networks, unfoldingWord equips and empowers believers to translate God’s Word into minority languages. Learn more here.
“Initially, we went in and worked closely with them, helping to train them. In this next batch, they’re (believers are) doing the work, and we’re observing,” Reeves says.
Three ways to partner with unfoldingWord
1. Pray
Use the prompts listed alongside this report, or “on our website, there’s a special page for current prayer requests. The most powerful and strategic thing you can do is join us in prayer,” Reeves says.
“We are up against powers and principalities of darkness in these parts of the world where they haven’t had access to the Gospel. Our Enemy doesn’t want to see that happen.”
2. Serve
Are you linguistically gifted? Connect with unfoldingWord here.
(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord)
“We need to have a set of resources translated into what we call Gateway Languages or languages of wider communication,” Reeves says.
“We’ve got a few openings for people to come alongside and help in that.”
3. Give
As a nonprofit, unfoldingWord depends on gifts from God’s people to fuel its work. Give safely online here.
“Start with prayer, but if you have the capacity, want to participate financially and be a partner in this, then, by all means, join us,” Reeves says.
Header image courtesy of Prayercast.
