MAF supports Chad’s Baptists, 50 years after predecessors martyred

David Mumford from Baptist Mid-Missions delivers training (credit: Paula Alderblad)

For nearly a century, Baptist Mid-Missions have been working with Chadian Christians to grow and equip the Church. 50 years ago, over 130 Chadian pastors were martyred for their faith. Despite the persecution which still persists today, MAF continues to support the Church. Baptist pastor David Mumford tells MAF’s Paula Alderblad, how MAF transforms his work

Pastor David Mumford and his team from Baptist Mid-Missions travel to Chad twice a year in two-week blocks to train Christian leaders, provide Bible teaching and strengthen the Church.

David (centre) & his team travel to Chad twice per year (credit: Paula Alderblad)

Without MAF, it would take nearly 16 hours by bus from the capital Ndjamena to their destination of Sarh in the south. David sets out their travel options:

‘We have a couple of possibilities – hitchiking is not one of them! The bus is a possibility, which can take up to 16 hours. To drive would be very difficult and very uncomfortable – I’ve done it before!

‘One significant help to our ministry over the years has been MAF. Instead of a 16-hour bus ride, a two-and-a-half-hour flight is very easy and quite comfortable from Ndjamena. We are super thankful for MAF!’

Pastor David Mumford from Baptist Mid-Missions and MAF passenger

MAF’s flight to Sarh only takes 2.5 hours from the capital (credit: Paula Alderblad)

MAF’s flight is ‘very easy and quite comfortable,’ says David. (Credit: Paula Alderblad)

Affordable Bible leadership training

Supporting a minority Church in a predominantly Muslim country, which has high rates of poverty is a challenge.

There is a strong appetite for growth, but church resources and quality training are limited, says David who helps deliver the pastoral leadership programme:

‘In my library at home in the US, I have many books, but the typical library of a pastor here in Chad would be a Bible and maybe one or two other helpful books. Many of them are very poor.

‘So we come with workbooks, which we hand to them. We bring books in French. It’s really our joy to be here to give them this material. We teach on specific subjects and important topics of scripture. We answer many questions and deliver many practical exercises – we try to be as practical as possible.

‘The training is very affordable – it costs the Chadians almost nothing.’

Chad has high poverty rates, so Bible training resources are limited (credit: Ben Bacheller)

A bloody history

Christians in Chad are no strangers to facing challenges or persecution.

Since the 1920s, most Christian missions in Chad were originally based in the south. Baptist Mid-Missions established themselves in Sarh in 1925.

When François Tombalbaye became the first President of Chad from the country’s independence in 1960, until he was overthrown in 1975, he started a cultural revolution in a bid to reclaim Chadian identity (source: Time Magazine).

The consequences were grim.

Tombalbaye decreed the revival of an ancient pagan ritual called ‘Yondo’ – an initiation rite which everyone had to endure involving floggings, facial scarring, drugging and gruesome tests of stamina. Many did not survive it. Those who resisted, were killed.

Both Christians and Muslims condemned Yondo, but it was the hundreds of churches at the time, which Tombalbaye saw as a foreign, divisive element in Chad.

When some 130 Chadian pastors preached against Yondo from 1973, they were mercilessly slaughtered. 13 of them were senior Chadian Baptist Mid-Missions pastors (source: Baptist Mid-Missions).

On 10 December 1973, the Baptist Mid-Missions organisation and their churches were closed down. 30 foreign missionaries were expelled from Chad.

Many reported cases of torture, arrests and Christian humiliation followed. Many Christians fled to neighbouring Central African Republic, Cameroon and Nigeria or were internally displaced (source: Global CMIW).

But within three weeks of the military overthrowing Tombalbaye’s government in 1975, Baptist churches reopened and the Baptist Mid-Missions returned.

Empowering the children of Christian martyrs

Some of the participants on this latest course are the sons and daughters of the martyrs who were murdered for their faith fifty years ago.

The time and place of David’s latest mission trip has brought home the significance of what the Baptist Mid-Missions organisation is trying to achieve in Chad, explains David:

‘The first 13 who were martyred were from here. This is where they were killed. Some of their children have gone through our programme and have benefited from it.

‘Since it’s been 50 years since those events took place, we are here on this particular trip commemorating those events and celebrating their faith because they stood firm until the very end and paid for their allegiance to Jesus Christ with their blood.

‘So this is another reason why we feel it’s important that we are a blessing to the Chadian people.’

Empowering women and the isolated

Women are treated like second class citizens in Chad (credit: Matt Dillingham)

In a country where women are treated like second class citizens, it’s important that females have access to Bible leadership training.

In Chad, girls are frequently denied an education and many women are deprived of their inheritance, possessions and child custody. They are also at risk of forced marriage, house arrest, sexual violence, female genital mutilation and ostracism (source: Open Doors).

Trainees travel long distance to access the leadership training (credit: Paula Alderblad)

As recipients of Baptist Mid-Missions’ Bible leadership training, a candidate’s gender or where they’re from are not barriers to their participation assures David:

‘We train pastors, deacons and deaconesses. People come from as far as a thousand kilometres away. They travel by motorcycle, bus or even by boat to get to this training.’

David and his team want to make up for the time when Baptist Mid-Missions were forced out of the country 50 years ago:

‘I consider this leadership programme – for those of us who had to leave back in the seventies – a way of coming back and helping the Chadians. We just do everything we can to be of assistance.’

Reaching remote locations without MAF would be very difficult (credit: Paula Alderblad)

Philemon Schelling (L) & Phil Henderson (R) flew the team to Sarh (credit: Paula Alderblad)