Field Guide 2025: Sudanese Arab Refugees
Hope and Revival in Exile
Nearly a decade of faithfulness has brought ministry among these Sudanese Refugees in Egypt to a place of ongoing evangelism and discipleship. This mission team's particular calling to equip Christians with Arab backgrounds to be trained to continue sharing their faith means the effort to multiply believers continues to grow. As these Sudanese Arab Refugees are encountering Christ, their brothers and sisters in the faith are being mobilized throughout their region and the world to share the hope of Jesus.
Sudanese Arab Refugees
Update from the field
In the shadows of Cairo’s towering minarets and crowded alleyways, a quiet revival is stirring.
Sudanese Arab refugees, once scattered by war, now gather by grace. They fled bullets and bloodshed, arriving in Egypt with little more than heartache and memory. Many came searching only for food or shelter. But some are finding something far greater than their material needs.
They are finding Jesus.
A woman named Zam, once a devout Muslim who had converted others away from Christianity, now follows Jesus after reading the gospels in a restless, spirit-haunted night. A young man named Faheem, hunted by his family across four nations for leaving Islam, finally returned to Cairo—protected by UN guards—and walked into a church meeting he'd seen online. He wept with joy to find that these believers, his friends, had never stopped searching for him.
Today, over 104 house churches meet regularly across Egypt, hidden but thriving. Believers, mostly from Muslim backgrounds, gather in cramped apartments and borrowed spaces. They whisper hymns, share Scripture, and pray for the families who now seek to take their lives. And amid the trial and suffering, the church continues to grow.
Demiana and Awney are two such disciple-makers. They were trained in orality to reach the many Sudanese who cannot read. What started as one group of five women has grown into nine active study groups. Sharing tears, tea, sweetcorn, and songs of hope, they open the Word of God together. Six new women are now trained to begin their own groups soon.
And there is more:
- Youth once trapped in gangs and violence now carry Bibles instead of blades.
- Women, once ashamed and traumatized, now lead and serve among loving church communities.
- Pastors gather for encouragement and remain faithful even as their congregations face daily risks to safety and security.
- Soccer fields echo with parables as truth is shared among teams and friends.
- Every month, the churches celebrate baptisms of new believers.
The team saw over 70 new baptisms in 2024. They now disciple over 200 people in multiple dialects. Mercy ministries have distributed food, blankets, and encouragement to over a thousand refugee families. And in places like Giza and Maadi, new workers are planting new churches.
Their faith is tested, refined as by fire, and is bringing revival among and through these refugees.
Prayer requests
- Pray for 100 new churches to be planted in 2025, especially among the Falata (Foulani) tribe.
- Ask God to protect and strengthen believers facing persecution from their families and communities.
- Pray for the trauma care and emotional healing of refugees and ministry workers alike.
- Lift up the PALM program’s expansion into oral languages, and the 400 expected participants.
- Pray for young men and women leaving gangs and addiction as they enter discipleship groups.
- Thank God for the sports ministry and its impact—pray for boldness, protection, and fruit.
