God's reckless love in es dangerous African Zahel

VIDEO SCRIPT

INTRO:
IN ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS PLACES ON EARTH, AN AMERICAN WOMAN IS QUIETLY BUILDING AN ARMY–NOT WITH WEAPONS, BUT WITH PRAYER.
GEORGE THOMAS REPORTS FROM THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF THE SAHARA DESERT.
[Notes:OPENING SHOT OF DESERT WIND BLOWING]
The Sahel region of Africa isn’t the kind of place you just wander into. You’re called here.
CAROLE WARD, Christian worker
(“It’s very dry. It’s very sandy. It’s dusty. It’s desert. It can be 100, 115 degrees year-round.”)
This vast stretch of land cuts across ten African nations—from Senegal to Eritrea. It’s a land of extremes—scorching heat, shifting sand, and deadly danger.
More than half of the world’s terror-related deaths happen here. IT’S the front line in a spiritual and physical battle.
CAROLE WARD
(George: And now here you are in the middle of one of the most dangerous swaths of land in Africa. What is wrong with you?
Carole (laughing): The call of the wild. I don’t know. It’s in my blood (continues laughing)”)
Carole Ward runs toward the fire. She’s been doing it for decades—starting in Northern Uganda during the height of the Lord’s Resistance Army.
Then came South Sudan—civil war, destroyed villages, broken hearts.
While others fled, Carole stayed. Bringing healing. Hope. And the relentless love of Jesus.
CAROLE WARD
(“You can’t live here until you’ve already died” George: What do you mean? Carole: You’ve died to yourself, and devil can’t kill a dead man because your life isn’t your own.”)
This kind of courage runs deep.
CAROLE WARD
(“So, this map was my father’s map on the wall of his, of our missionary house in the Philippines. And he would lay his hands, particularly on Muslim areas, just weeping and weeping.”)
Her parents spent 62 years preaching the Gospel in regions terrorized by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines. Her grandparents SERVED AS missionaries in China for 30 years.
Following Jesus wasn’t just a decision. It was their legacy.
CAROLE WARD
(“I realize then fear is contagious, but so is faith. And so, I grew up in a home, that even though Abu Sayyaf was looking for my own father’s head for 45 years, he had no fear. He absolutely loved the people that burned the Bibles and threw them back in his face. And he was willing to lay his life down.”)
Today, Carole’s mission continues here in Chad—a country shadowed by the presence of Boko Haram, ISIS, and Al Qaeda.
CAROLE WARD
(“My heart is to move farther and farther north into more Islamic darkness with the gospel. Because if we’re not advancing as rapidly as they are, we’ve lost.”)
She’s launched a nationwide prayer movement, raising up local believers—Chadians who know the land, language, and cost of following and sharing Christ.
CAROLE WARD
(“We’ve had some Boko Haram come to Jesus in our missionary training school, we’ve done five of them in Chad now and are launching missionaries. We have over 150 launched in Chad, and these are Chadian missionaries.”)
Some of those missionaries have gone east, into the flood of Sudanese refugees escaping war.
CAROLE WARD
(“Many baptized, 202 of them, at the first missionary training school they had.”)
These aren’t outsiders—they’re locals. Trained, equipped, and ready to go where few others will.
People like Digba Katsala, a street evangelist. He doesn’t just preach—he rides straight into the chaos.
DIGBA KATSALA, Street Evangelist
(“Sometimes people are not very receptive, at times it gets a little confrontational, but afterwards when people see that you persist with the Word of God then they get used to you and when you preach at the end there are people that start giving their lives to Christ and that’s extraordinary.”)
GEORGE THOMAS, N’DJAMENA, CHAD
(George riding on back of motorcycle)
(“For the past 5 years Pastor Digba has been using his motorcycle to ride the streets of Chad’s capital city N’Djamena, and at a different locations, he would set up his audio system and get his microphone out and would open his Bible, either in French or Arabic, and he will boldly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”)
Chad is more than 50 percent Muslim, but that doesn’t stop Digba from openly talking about Jesus. His voice echoing through market squares and busy roads. People stop. They listen. And many respond.
DIGBA KATSALA
(“After I started evangelizing in the Muslim areas of the capital, the Lord placed on my heart another strategy. I started going out at night around 9pm till one, two, three in the morning. I would go to the nightclub areas and the bars. Why? Because there are people who only go out at night to have fun so it’s difficult to meet them during the day.”)
Then there’s Abdoulaye Mayangar, another missionary who once followed Islam.
ABDOULAYE MAYANGAR, Traveling Missionary
(“I was a fervent Muslim. I prayed 5 times a day. I fasted during Ramadan, and I did not like Christians at all.”)
His father trained with Islamic extremists in the Sahel to target Christians. Now Abdoulaye walks into the same regions—not with hate, but with hope.
While the world sees terror here, he sees something else.
ABDOULAYE MAYANGAR
(“There is hope because many Muslims in these countries are open today to listening to the Gospel. God is really working in the Sahel. We have Fulanis, Housa, Yoruba, Kanembu, the Gurma, all people of the Sahel, they are coming to Jesus in large numbers and their lives are being transformed. Some were visited by Jesus in dreams, others in visions
there are also missionaries that came and talked to them about Jesus Christ, and it’s really spectacular.”)
Carole calls Abdoulaye, Digba, and countless other Chadian believers, the tip of the spear.
Through prayer, sacrifice, and the reckless love of God, they are reshaping the spiritual map of one of the most dangerous places here on the continent.
CAROLE WARD
(“Prayer transforms us to be willing to lay our lives down and fulfill the Great Commission, no matter the cost. Prayer gives us the burden. It’s like being pregnant with something, and you fall in love with the nation. We actually get maps out and we map where are the unreached people groups, where is terrorism, where are wars and bloodshed and let’s go.”)
George Thomas, CBN News, N’Djamena, Chad.

Story Provided By:
Stan Jeter, GNA

Producing Organization
CBN News

Recording Location
Chad, Africa

Reporter / Producer
George Thomas

People Interviewed and their Titles
see script