Originally published in Mission Network News
As many as 70 people groups in Chad are cut off from Christ. They have no way to know Jesus because there’s no Scripture, or other biblical resources, in their language. These communities in Chad would fall into the “unreached people groups” category in missiological circles.
Thankfully, the story doesn’t end there; God’s calling His followers to action.
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“A small cluster of about 22 denominations and organizations in Chad have been gathering and praying together for a number of years. They felt the Holy Spirit was laying on their heart that they needed to be the ones to reach these unreached people groups in their own country,” David Reeves of unfoldingWord tells MNN.
“Leaders of this network contacted us saying, ‘could you help us along this journey?’”
Surrounded by unreached people groups, Chadian believers feel the Lord calling them to make His name known among their neighbours. However, Reeves explains, they don’t have the resources or training they need to fuel community outreach. That’s when global ministries, including unfoldingWord, came alongside to help.
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First, unfoldingWord taught Chadian believers how to use their open-source material to translate 50 Bible stories into the language of a neighbouring unreached community. “Our Open Bible Stories project is a set of 50 stories released in Creative Commons,” Reeves explains, “so they’re free to take and translate without having to have additional permissions from us. The stories cover the metanarrative from Genesis to Revelation.”
Chadian believers collaborated with JESUS Film and World Mission to create additional evangelistic materials and load them onto solar-powered devices. Once everything was finished, Chadian church planters and evangelists immediately put the resources to use. In a three-day outreach event, believers shared the Gospel with over 8 300 people.
“They are on a journey now of spiritual formation, from no church to the beginnings of a church,” Reeves says.
“47 people came to Christ, including three imams… now, you have the beginnings of a church plant in that people group.”
Check back tomorrow for the latest development. “We have a friend, a colleague who works in Sudan, and they want us to come alongside them and help do the same thing,” Reeves says.
Until then, pray for this collaborative effort to make Christ known among Chad’s unreached people groups. Pray for effective cross-cultural communication between Western and Chadian Gospel workers. Ask God to soften the hearts of unreached individuals so they’re more receptive to Christ’s message of hope and grace.
