Scripture Engagement through Social Media (SESaMe)

“Do you believe that Isa Masih (Muslims’ name for Jesus Christ) died on the cross for your sins?” David* replied, “Yes…May God keep us from sins and forgive us. What difficult days and nights Isa Masih spent!”

How can a Muslim living in a certain South Central Asian Islamic nation where Christians face intense persecution hear the gospel? David is one of more than 28,000 people in that country who have received Bible stories from Scripture Engagement through Social Media, also known as SESaMe, in their heart language.

Christar workers started this project in April 2021, prompted by a continuing burden for the people of David’s homeland—a country where they ministered for several years before returning to the US. The stories they create and send encapsulate portions of Scripture in bite-sized pieces of text or audio content for easy consumption. This online outreach has enabled the project to share God’s Word among those with severely limited access to the gospel.

David has journeyed with these workers since the end of 2021, first reading individual passages and then reading whole books of the Bible, which he would delete for security reasons. He is now in direct contact with a worker and is being discipled virtually.

After several months of sending stories manually, SESaMe set up a chatbot, enabling the project to automate its lessons. Since then the number of audience members who have gained access to the potentially life-transforming Word of God has doubled.   

Ivan is another example of one whose life has been transformed from disillusionment (“The world is like a house with no master”) to hope (he shared with us from his own reading: “Come to me, all you who are weary…”).

Since professing faith in Christ, he has introduced 12 of his friends to our worker, three of whom have professed faith in Jesus Christ! Recently our workers have been encouraging Ivan to form an online worship group with two of these believing friends who are actively pursuing growth in Jesus Christ.

We praise God for David, Ivan and others who are responding to Scripture through this ministry. Your gift will enable this project to increase its capacity to send more stories and field more messages with those from least-reached countries and backgrounds who are asking to learn from God’s Word.

Supporting the Scripture Engagement through Social Media (SESaMe):

• $40 pays for a month of social media ads.
• $125 covers the cost of the project’s website domain.
• $140 a month increases the bot subscription limit, further expanding SESaMe’s ability to send the initial series of Bible stories.
• $225/month supports a national consultant to help workers create culturally relevant messaging.
• $4,950 funds the recording (with a native speaker) and editing of audio transitions to knit Bible stories together into One Story, a chronological telling of the theme of redemption. 

Participate by Praying for Scripture Engagement through Social Media (SESaMe):

• Pray that the Holy Spirit would convince people in Mo and Solomon’s country of the worthiness of Jesus in spite of the high cost of following Christ in their country. Pray they would not fear persecution—a common reality there, even in the early stages of investigating Christianity.
• Ask the Lord to give workers wisdom as they interact with people who want help leaving their home country.
• Ask God to move among the women of this culture. Women from this people group face different societal pressures and fewer use social media compared to men. As a result, less than 10% of those who respond to this outreach are women.
• Pray that men on the journey toward belief in the gospel would share what they are learning with the women and children in their families.