A Story From Africa
Circling the Kaaba with thousands of fellow Muslims during the hajj (an annual pilgrimage to Mecca), a young Sudanese man comes to a moment of crisis. He realizes that fellow believers from all over the world are bowing down and kissing the Black Stone, which Muslims believe dates back to Adam and Eve. He also realizes that he never will. Only one week away from completing his three-year journey to becoming an imam, an Islamic holy man, he turns to his teacher and asks, “What are we doing? Why are we praying toward this? Why are we kissing this?” He returns to Sudan and leaves the mosque and Islam behind, giving his life to Christ at age 21.
Now 52, Richard is one of the founding pastors and the director of a ministry dedicated to reaching his community with the Good News of Jesus Christ. Having grown up in Sudan, he knows war personally. He speaks with great conviction about this moment of opportunity for his country.
“I think the war in Sudan is a blessing,” says Pastor Richard. “Without this war, people will not change their minds. This war, I know, is evil, is bad — but also all things work for good for the sake of the Gospel. And this war, the outcome of it is these people whom we are training now.”
By the end of November, a handpicked team of more than 20 translators will be well on their way to completing the translation of Bible stories and a suite of translation software tools into Sudanese Arabic. Once those tools are in Sudanese Arabic, the translation gates will open for all 137 unreached people groups of Sudan and South Sudan. The translation team is composed primarily of young, college-educated men and women. Interspersed among them are a few middle-aged professionals, a television journalist and a professor of classical Arabic.
Translation Process Manager Faheem says that he and his college friends often talk about the strife and bloodshed in Sudan. “We are discussing … Why are we killing each other? We need peace so that we can live in harmony and we can laugh. But we are full of hatred. So how can we get rid of these problems?”
Samir is a church-planting pastor and English translator who makes himself available to ministries that are moving the Gospel forward in South Sudan. “We understand the purpose of this project. What we are doing right now is very good and is going to contribute [to] the change of many, many communities in Sudan. It’s very good.”
Many of the translation team members live in refugee camps and spend months away from their families, staying in a secure location for translation work. Every time he calls them, Samir’s four children ask, “When are you coming back? We are waiting for you. Why don’t you want to come?”
But before marriage and children, something happened in Samir’s life that motivated his commitment. He was studying an old Arabic version of the Bible in an Ethiopian refugee camp when he heard God’s call to serve Sudan. “God is talking to me just to come back to Sudan, to preach the Gospel to my people,” says Samir. “In the refugee camp, I had a chance to go to the U.S. but rejected it. I said, ‘No, I don’t want to go.’ Many of my friends said, ‘Why don’t you want to go to the U.S.? You have a chance.’ I said, ‘No, I have something to do. I have to go back.’”
Inspired by the Spirit’s prompting, Samir went on to earn a diploma in theology and was working on his master’s in Christian leadership when the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted his education. But he remains dedicated to the cause.
“If we translate the Bible stories into local languages, I think within 20 years we will see a new Sudan,” Samir remarks. “Because of the pressure and difficulties they face from Islam, my generation’s mind is open. They are ready to accept the Gospel and to change their lives. Even for those who don’t read, if you give them the Bible stories on audio in their mother tongue, that’s the one thing that will change their heart. In 20 years, I think Sudan will be rich with the Gospel.”
Pastor Richard agrees. As a theology student, he learned that Sudan had once been a Christian
country. He wanted to know why the church faded in the 16th century. “I did the research about why Christianity died out in Sudan,” he says. “It was a kingdom, a Christian kingdom, but totally died out. Why? I realized that it died out because they were using Greek in services, or Coptic, which the normal people of Sudan did not know. That’s why the people didn’t own the Gospel: Christianity wasn’t their identity. That’s why it died out. So, to me, it’s very important that you give the Gospel in the heart language of the people whom you target.”