As hard as it is to imagine, the Church was once strong in North Africa. Church leaders neglected to translate the Bible into local languages, and North African people often felt like conquered subjects of powerful Christianized empires. When Islamic armies rolled through in the early days of Islam, the peoples converted to Islam, and in some cases, joined the Islamic armies in attacking Christianized parts of Europe like Spain. Someone did translate the Scriptures for the people in Egypt, so the Church remained in that part of this region. The Scriptures gave them some ownership and understanding of their faith.

This might be the decade to turn North African hearts back to the Savior, whose gospel was lost in international conflicts decades ago. Since the covid pandemic limits person to person contact, the wise thing to do in most cases is to produce online biblical materials. There is a new app, produced by North African believers, that teaches biblical principles with the goal of seeing a Disciple Making Movement spread the blessings of Christ throughout this Muslim region. There is a team of missionaries who are teaming up with local believers. They report an “unprecedented” number of people responding to gospel ads. Local leaders are also meeting with a Muslim Background Believer from outside the country who can teach them ways to spread Christ’s fame into North Africa once again.

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