Empowering Indigenous Content Creators: An Update on New Media Teams
/A vital part of MEM’s new strategy is our commitment to holistically empowering, discipling and training new media ministry teams made up of local believers. We started investing into this 3 years ago – and you may already be familiar with some of the groups we’ve been working with. Reflecting on 2022, Mike, our Director of New Media Teams, said, “It was not an easy year, there were a lot of challenges – but there were also many blessings. We are especially encouraged by the group of Libyan believers and the Gulf women’s team, as well as by a new partnership with a church in South Sudan.”
The Libyan believers we have been supporting outside the country began translating and audio-recording the Gospels in their dialect around 18 months ago. The completed books of John and Mark have been piloted and a distribution plan is being formed. They hope to translate and record the entire New Testament by the end of 2023!
The hard work and passion of the three women from the majority background in the Gulf has paid off, as their online social media space for Arab women launched at the end of December. We will continue to walk alongside them as they maintain the online space, create content, and engage in follow up. Mike commented on the need for this team to grow in order to reach its potential. “The hunger among the women in the Gulf is great, but there are very few believers from this background who are ready to give their hearts to this work.”
In 2022, our production team had the opportunity to deliver media training to an established ministry group of local believers in South Sudan, some of whom work for their national TV station. Our trainers helped them begin a regular radio broadcast and start producing Christian TV content. These believers now also have a regular slot on national television, through which they can air their Christian material.
Connections have developed, too, with a group of indigenous Kurdish and Iranian believers based in Northern Iraq, who want to use social media and radio to reach their communities. Mike hopes that their first training visit here will take place within the first quarter of 2023, if visas permit. “Those who go over to give the training need to get their visas approved first, even though we are Middle Eastern. Iraq can be a difficult place to get in to.”
Potential links have been made with groups in Tunisia, Mauritania, Morocco and Sudan, but these are still in their early stages. Mike hopes, God willing, for at least three new committed media teams to be properly established in 2023.
PRAY with us over the next few months for these teams:
For established teams
Libyan Team: as they work on the rest of the New Testament and for the impact of their work on native listeners.
Gulf Team: for native Gulf women to discover, connect and engage with their content and for new team members.
For young partnerships
Northern Iraq: for visa permits enabling the first training visit to go ahead.
South Sudan: for the impact of their TV and radio content and for wisdom as our team help them develop a media strategy.
For new connections
For God to lead us into new partnerships with committed groups of believers this year and for new people to join and grow the existing teams.
