Christian* slung his satchel over his shoulder, swung his leg over his bike, and pedaled off for another day of evangelism and outreach in the market. His faith and dedication to reaching his Chadian neighbors had not waned, but he had been frustrated at the tepid response to the gospel. *Pseudonym
Chad has 80 distinct people groups. The problem is that most gospel presentations available to Christian are in French or Arabic, trade languages that don’t connect to the heart of most of his listeners. The people like his Christian music but they don’t understand the lyrics, and visiting street preachers have always needed translators.
But today would be different. Christian was carrying audio versions of unfoldingWord® Open Bible Stories that our Chadian partner had translated into the languages of several Chadian unreached people groups.
The impact was huge! “When Muslims heard it,” said Christian, “they searched the Quran for the salvation story, but they could not find it there. Now they want to know more. When backsliding Christians heard it, they wanted to go back to church!”
With joy, Christian returned, asking for more copies of Open Bible Stories because “Every time I play it for the people, they are really impressed! When it is time for me to leave, they say, ‘No, no, no! Don’t leave! Please give us the SD cards with these stories!’”
Why such a powerful impact? “For the first time, Chadian people can hear the gospel story from Genesis to Revelation in about two hours. And they hear it in their heart languages, not through a translator or a trade language. They are really touched,” he says.
One man was so moved that he said, “Now I believe you are giving us the real truth to follow. But now that I believe in Jesus, I don’t want to stay here because they will persecute me. They will try to force me to worship the idol again. Please take me with you.”
According to Joshua Project data, our Chadian partner’s current work can impact 28 of the 80 unreached people groups in Chad, representing about 7.8 million people. With your help, they want to reach all of them!