Jeremiah and the Occult King
When Jeremiah* first heard that his Chadian church-planting network needed his help translating unfoldingWord® Open Bible Stories (OBS), he was skeptical. “I thought Bible stories were for children, like the stories Grandma and Grandpa told around the fire.” But when he first read Open Bible Stories, he thought, “This is brilliant! It tells the whole Bible and the story of Christ in simple, easy-to-understand language very quickly.”
*Names changed for security.
Soon, Jeremiah was translating Open Bible Stories, unfoldingWord’s Bible translation primer, into Chadian Arabic, the national Gateway Language. Now that Jeremiah’s team has translated OBS into Chadian Arabic, they have the tools to train people from all 78 of Chad’s unreached people groups to translate OBS into their languages, use them for evangelism outreach, and then move into Bible translation for their people.
One such unreached group* is known for violence against Christians. Still, Jeremiah and his team took an audio-visual Open Bible Stories slide deck in that language to that group for its first community check.
When visiting a village, African custom is first to see the chief, usually addressed as King. But there was a problem. The king in that region was known for using the occult to manipulate and oppress people. He was also hostile to Christianity and made life difficult for anyone interested in it. But the king was so sick during Jeremiah’s visit that he could not eat. “He had done all he could to get well,” said Jeremiah, “but failed.”
Jeremiah’s team gathered a crowd from that dangerous, unreached people group and shared the audio-visual Open Bible Stories slide presentation in that group’s heart language. It was the first time any of them had ever heard the gospel! The next day, they visited the king.
Usually, one is cautious with such a leader, avoiding direct evangelistic messages. But Jeremiah felt a conviction to pray for the king. “A boldness filled my spirit, and I said, ‘King, may I pray for you?’ He said yes, and I held his hand.”
“I began to pray, and then had an even stronger moving in my spirit to present Jesus to him as Savior,” said Jeremiah. “I told him, ‘You are the King, but you have someone who is the King of kings. If you believe, he will help you now.’”
“The King believed! Then, we led him in prayer, and he confessed Jesus as his Lord and Savior. And God healed him,” said Jeremiah. “It was a very powerful experience.”
Please pray for that king, who is now being carefully discipled by Jeremiah’s team.
Want to help Jeremiah and his team do more? The Chadian Arabic Gateway Language project will equip Chadian Bible translators with the tools to translate Scripture for 78 unreached groups totaling more than nine million people. The 2023 Chadian Arabic Gateway Language project needs $618,000 in additional funding. In June, the remaining $26,000 of a matching grant expires. Double your impact by clicking the GIVE NOW button.
Join the Movement
Your investment will help empower church networks worldwide to translate the whole Bible into their ethnic languages for the very first time.
Give NowIn the News
Stories From the Field
Trust God and Get Going
- September 11, 2023
“God, this is your journey, your work. Please help us get out of here.” Let’s imagine that your family and close friends have a passing acquaintance with the message of Jesus, and some might even be b...
Critical Tools for Courageous Translators
- August 03, 2023
The global demand for Bible translation far exceeds the capacity of existing Bible translation agencies. Doing translation in dangerous places makes it doubly difficult. That’s why members of the illu...
Meesha's Story
- July 03, 2023
In the Republic of Iran, for the church to be planted, discipled, and grown, more than 60 people groups need a Bible translation in their own language. May was Iran’s bloodiest month in the last five...
UKRAINE: Bomb Shelter Bible Translation
- July 03, 2023
Ukrainian Great Commission partners are translating unfoldingWord’s suite of Bible translation tools to make God’s Word accessible to more than 540 languages spoken across the countries of the former ...
All 27 New Testament Book Packages Complete
- August 08, 2023
It used to take western experts at least 20 years to translate the New Testament into a Bible-less language. Now, every bilingual church-planting network has access to the open-license English tools t...
Making God's Word Accessible to Ordinary People
- September 11, 2023
Sofia Ivanov speaks on the impact of unfoldingWord’s Bible Translation tools Editor’s Note: Sofia Ivanov* is a project manager for unfoldingWord’s Eurasian Whole Bible, Whole Nation partner. Her thou...
Saved While Escaping
- October 02, 2023
“I was a terrible husband for the first fifteen years of our marriage. Every weekend, I would get drunk, abuse my wife, and ridicule her. We mistreated each other terribly,” said Siroos. “But God amaz...
Man on the Run
- July 03, 2023
Asim* serves on the Bible translation audio-video team for unfoldingWord’s Whole Bible, Whole Nation partner in Sudan. They use Bible translation as part of their church-planting strategy for 133 unre...
Ten Times Faster
- March 14, 2023
Imagine you are ordering a new internet connection or cable TV or maybe something new from Amazon and you get the message saying, “Your town is too remote and we can’t serve your area at this time. We...
Meet Amy & Priscilla
- March 14, 2023
unfoldingWord operates as a catalyst for the Church-Centric Bible Translation movement. We collaborate as part of the body of Christ to develop and implement strategies and unrestricted biblical resou...
Jeremiah and the Occult King
- May 04, 2023
When Jeremiah* first heard that his Chadian church-planting network needed his help translating unfoldingWord® Open Bible Stories (OBS), he was skeptical. “I thought Bible stories were for children, l...
The Exponential Journey
- April 10, 2023
Khartoum, Sudan, April 2021. I was sitting in a small hotel conference room with the leaders of Greater Reach Alliance and half a dozen representatives of unreached Sudanese people groups. We were ta...
Chad's Unreached Receive the Gospel with Joy!
- June 05, 2023
“Giving Jesus to any human being is the best gift you can give to that person. Only the gospel can change the ugliness of man,” says Jeremiah,* one of the Chadian leaders of CCGP,* unfoldingWord’s chu...
Iran: Bibles in every language
...
Escape from Kharkiv
- June 13, 2022
BAM! A rocket penetrates a building, shattering windows and shaking foundations. Clatter! Bomb debris splatters cars, building façades, and adjacent roofs. Bang-Bang-Bang! The jackhammer staccato of A...
Innovation in Bible Translation
- March 13, 2023
unfoldingWord catalyzes innovation in Bible translation. Your gifts and prayers are enabling remarkable new developments! One of those is happening in a state in Asia. It began with translationCore. ...
Breakthrough in Chad
- July 04, 2022
Three churches were birthed when a local chieftain, who formerly combined Islam and the occult, came to Christ. In the another community, new believers were baptized, and two new churches were planted...
OVERCOMING the ODDS for 300,000 PEOPLE
- April 06, 2022
The challenge Pastor Manish was facing seemed insurmountable. His 300,000-member South Asian mountain people group desperately needs Scripture in the language they understand best. Pastor Manish, an e...
Ruska Roma celebrate first Scripture in their language
- September 20, 2021
EASTERN UKRAINE — To Stephen K., holding a Ruska Roma translation of 3 John means more than a chance to celebrate with his Roma friends. It’s the answer to 10 years of prayer. In April, a team of fou...
Escape from Kharkiv
- June 28, 2022
BAM! A rocket penetrates a building, shattering windows and shaking foundations. Clatter! Bomb debris splatters cars, building façades, and adjacent roofs. Bang-Bang-Bang! The jackhammer staccato of A...