Undaunted | Difficult living conditions in Sudan have not stopped the gospel from going out. Teams show the JESUS film throughout the country, with thousands responding in faith.

Sudan, a nation nearly four times the size of Texas, offers a microcosm of the African continent. Desert sands of the north contrast with lush plains in the south. Arabic people live in one region while tribal groups inhabit another. Ethnic conflict rips apart one village whereas another dwells in peace.

Some reports on Sudan tell of atrocities and famine, disease and persecution. Such circumstances, however, have not stopped God from changing lives in amazing numbers.

During the last five years alone, millions of Sudanese people have viewed JESUS, a feature-length film based on the Gospel of Luke. Nearly 50,000 New Life Groups help people grow in their spiritual lives. And 5,752 believers have been trained as "multiplying disciples," which is to say they tell others about Jesus, then help the new believers know God better and tell still others.

"I can give you 25 to 30 different reasons why the Great Commission cannot happen in Sudan," says Makram Morgos, leader of the Bible Society of Sudan. "But that is not the issue. It can happen because Jesus said so, and that finalizes the whole thing."

Makram is a man with a passion--above all else, he wants to see the Great Commission of Jesus Christ accomplished. He wants each of his countrymen to have a chance to learn who Jesus is and what He taught. And he's not the only one with this passion. "Thousands of people in Sudan have this same vision," says Makram (pronounced MUH-krum). "This is from the Lord, and He is using many people."

Passion for the Great Commission did not always rule Makram's life. For years, the quiet businessman ran four companies in the sprawling capital city of Khartoum. Though a Christian, he saw his spiritual life go up and down. "I knew Christ was in my life," he says, "but something was wrong, and I didn't know what."

In 1974, a Lebanese Christian gave Makram the Transferable Concepts, a series of booklets written by Bill Bright. Those simple explanations of biblical truth changed everything.

As he studied the booklets, he discovered how to experience God's love and forgiveness, how to be filled with God's Spirit, how to find power to live the Christian life. But something else happened. "The moment I started reading," he explains, "I felt the Lord calling me to serve Him. But I didn't take it seriously because I was in business. My mind was full of meat exports, cars and money."

Three years later, Makram finally said, "Lord, you know the issues: I love business, I love money. If you want me in this work full time, you'll have to make me dislike my business and dislike money."

The wreck of his newly purchased Volkswagon started the process. "See what you are putting your life into?" God seemed to be saying. Not long after, Makram sold his businesses and together with his wife, Amal, moved to Nairobi, Kenya, for ministry training.

Nairobi held new challenges: unreliable public transportation rather than comfortable cars, trainers to learn from, things to learn by heart--all difficult situations for a proud man. Plus their families could not understand why they would leave a life of affluence. "It was hard," he says simply. "But God was breaking us. He wanted to take us through this hard time."

When the Morgoses returned to Sudan, life got tougher. "I couldn't start any ministry," Makram recalls. "Things were really tight and closed." Finally, a small group of believers agreed to meet. Within a year, that small group multiplied into 50 small groups. The groups mushroomed across the countryside, only to run up against Sudan's high rate of illiteracy. "We had to start teaching people how to read and write," says Makram simply.

He developed a literacy program that emphasized knowing Christ personally and obeying the Scriptures. By the early '80s, the literacy and discipleship training had led to tens of thousands of small groups, many in the south, which would later be cut off by civil war.

In 1980, the JESUS film came to Sudan. That same year, the secret police of that decade's political regime took an interest in the proliferation of small discipleship groups. This began three years of surveillance and, for Makram, repeated interrogations and threats.

"Every day when I left home," Makram recalls, "I said goodbye to my wife, because there was no assurance I would come back to her. In that process, God taught me to share my faith with the police. They could not understand why I had left my business and everything I had to work for the Lord. I started to share Christ with them."

Throughout this time, trained volunteers continued showing the JESUS film and making disciples, using the New Life Training that had so changed the lives of Makram and Amal. At first, they had the film only in Arabic, spoken best by those in northern sections of the country and the better educated. Today they use the JESUS film in eight languages, with volunteers taking it to increasingly remote areas.

Although predominantly Muslim and with a reported governmental objective of taking Islam to the world, Sudan as a nation officially supports freedom of religion. Only rarely do the volunteer teams encounter official opposition. (Of 6,300 film showings in 1998, for example, only about 150 had "problems"--people being stopped or taken into custody, or the equipment impounded.)

By 1994, 6 million people had seen the JESUS film. Yet with an estimated population of 32 million, much work remained. It was then, Makram says, that the Lord made an adjustment to his faith and to that of many other Sudanese believers.

"The Lord put it very clearly that He is able to do what He told us to do," he explains quietly. "That finalized the whole mission. It is there in the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20. He says, 'I have all authority, I have all power, so go, I am with you.' This became very clear: It is no longer what we are doing, it is what God is doing now. And God is fulfilling the Great Commission."

As a result, he says, "We started asking big things from the Lord. We asked the Lord to let us see the Great Commission fulfilled in Sudan by the end of 2000." That resulted in a plan to reach 6 million people every year, through showings of JESUS, the personal witness of trained people and the multiplication of small groups.

This is leading to changes, notes Makram. "It is reflected in the simple things. You visit a house and they are cleaning around their houses. People don't have expensive clothes, but whatever they have is clean and ironed. Everything is different."

Things are different in a high-security prison, too, where volunteers asked if they could offer New Life Training to the prisoners. Several had been condemned to death for their crimes. Though not a Christian himself, the director consented, for he thought the training might influence inmates for the better.

Within 24 weeks, 15 prisoners had trusted Christ and completed the training. That included explaining their newfound faith to others and starting small groups to teach others what they had learned. "Graduation day" took place within prison walls, drawing nearly 2,000 inmates, including many of the nation's top criminals.

"The lives of these 15 prisoners had changed," Makram recalls, "and they were giving their testimonies in front of all the prisoners and the authorities of the prison. Their hands and legs were chained and they could not move, but they were singing, they were joyful--it just wasn't a prison!"

In this nation of contrasts, evidence of change may come from unlikely sources. One day a church leader received a note titled "letter of complaint" from a prominent official. The man's initial thought: Ahh, we are in trouble again! Then he read the letter: "Why do you have only one JESUS film team in my state?" the official complained. "You should send another team here."

"The official is not a believer in Jesus," says Makram, "but he is seeing a change."

Despite more than two decades of uncertainties, Makram's passion has not dimmed. "My prayer every day is that God would give us another day," he says. "In one day, 30,000 to 40,000 people in Sudan encounter the gospel, plus thousands go through discipleship training. It is amazing. God is fulfilling the Great Commission in Sudan."

Donna Bahler, communications director of The JESUS Film Project, lives in Indiana and writes extensively about the JESUS film ministry.