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THE CHURCH THAT CROSSED THE BORDER
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Sudan’s church didn’t stay behind.
It followed its people across the border.
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You’ve heard from us about Sudan many times. Usually it’s the story of the church that stayed: Tarig leading Bible studies while artillery moves through the streets, Elias baptizing a couple in Wad Madani as the war closes in around them. All of that is still happening, and still worth your prayers. But there is a second story running alongside it now, one that crosses the border, and this month we want to bring it to you.
Yacoub didn’t plan to plant a church in Uganda. Until last year he was pastoring a congregation in Khartoum North, one of the neighborhoods the airstrikes hit hardest. When staying grew too dangerous for his family, he moved them to Kampala and assumed the ministry was on pause. Then he began running into his own congregation on the streets of the city, people he had discipled in Khartoum years ago, scattered now and looking for each other and for a church. He had not come to Kampala to start one, but he started one anyway.
The gatherings happen in whatever room the community can borrow. Some who come are old faces from Khartoum. Others are Sudanese Muslims Yacoub had never met, brought along by a neighbor who told them there was somewhere worth going on a Sunday.
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Yacoub began running into his own congregation on the streets of the city, people he had discipled in Khartoum years ago, scattered now and looking for each other and for a church.
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Nearly fourteen million people have been forced to flee since the war began, and Uganda has taken in tens of thousands of them. Near the South Sudan border sits Bidi Bidi, one of the largest refugee settlements in the world, where Mansour now leads weekly Bible studies. He served in Darfur until the war forced him out, and the same approach that carried his ministry there carries it here, for the same reason: he is one of them, and he stays.
The people finding these gatherings are carrying a lot. Tahir was baptized in Kampala on the seventeenth of June, after a year in which he had not slept through a single night. He came to faith through one of Yacoub’s home groups. Nawal crossed the border already injured. She needs three surgeries and has lost contact with her husband. She is a new believer, and the community around Yacoub is walking her through the medical appointments and through the slower, harder work of finding out what became of the people she loves.
None of them chose Uganda. The church in Sudan was scattered by force, and wherever the wind carried it, it took root. Pray for it to keep taking root and for the people carrying it: Yacoub and Mansour, Tahir and Nawal, and those whose names we cannot print.
(Names have been changed for security reasons.)
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A Promise That Outlasts Any One Person:
The Endowment Fund
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One of the most important things Dan has done in this final season is help establish the Enduring Love-MENA Endowment Fund: a permanent resource, built jointly with International Ministries, to ensure that the work we’ve invested in together doesn’t depend on any single person’s tenure.
Our goal is to raise $5 million dollars, a meaningful foundation that provides lasting, reliable support for Arab Christian leaders for 10 to 15 years and beyond.
Why does the timeline matter? Because this work simply doesn’t move on a Western ministry calendar. Church planting among unreached people, Bible translation, establishing Business as Mission projects, and earning the trust of communities that have seen decades of outside engagement come and go — these things take time.
The relationships, cultural fluency, language capacity, and trust built over 12 years across six countries cannot be quickly rebuilt if interrupted. The Endowment Fund is how we protect that investment and honor the people who put everything on the line for it.
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Will You Stand With Us?
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If you feel moved, give toward the Endowment Fund, a gift that will compound over time, sustaining pastors, church planters, Bible translators, and the quiet heroes of the MENA region long after any of us are gone.
To give to the Enduring Love-MENA Endowment Fund,
donate below.
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Pray
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Lift up our Middle Eastern partners as they navigate challenging circumstances and share the Gospel in difficult places. Your prayers are vital.
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Give
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Every donation directly impacts lives: Bibles, relief, and ministry support across the region. Your partnership makes both immediate aid and long-term ministry possible.
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Share
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Help others understand what God is doing in the Middle East by sharing these updates. Many people don’t realize the difficulties Christians face in these challenging regions.
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To give today, visit the IM website (link below). Your gifts are tax-deductible and go directly to support our Middle Eastern partners and their communities.
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Founder-Director & Mission Advocate. Dan served as a global servant with International Ministries for more than 28 years, most of them as a professor at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary in Lebanon. Now in active retirement from International Ministries, he remains engaged in Enduring Love’s leadership transition and partnership development.
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Area Director for Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa with International Ministries. Julie holds a Master of Theology from the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague and most recently served as Director of Global Partnerships and Unity with the Baptist World Alliance.
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Associate Director and Convener of the Enduring Love Oversight Committee. Todd is the Minister of Missions and Finances for the West Virginia Baptist Convention and has a passion for mobilizing the church to reach the nations. He has been involved in ministry in the Middle East since 2009. He has been the Associate Director of Enduring Love since 2019.
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Communications Director. Filipe has 12 years of experience in the Middle East and North Africa and holds a Master in Theological Studies (Christianity & the Arts) from Regent College, bringing regional knowledge and commitment to the communities Enduring Love serves.
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This email was sent to jjustus@internationalministries.org.
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