Following a career in IT, Michael Strand responded to a call from God and since 2019 has been working with the Christian & Missionary Alliance (CMA) in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Michael’s role with the CMA in Sarajevo is to support the evangelical church that exists there by providing mentoring, leadership training and helping with church planting. Another essential dimension of the work of the church is with migrants arriving from the Middle East and North Africa.
In the Spring of 2020 a young man, from the Middle East, who Michael describes as a “natural evangelist” visited the church in Sarajevo. He didn’t have Bibles in the languages that he needed, and so to support his work Michael engaged with Biblica to get a number of copies of Farsi and Arabic Bibles. These Bibles have now been distributed, and recently Michael ordered some more for the young man as he continues to work in a migrant camp.
Recognising the difficulties of getting into some countries, Michael is acutely aware of the opportunity that has arisen for the church in Sarajevo as the Lord brings to their doorstep people with physical and spiritual needs, to whom they can share the love of God and provide the hope of the gospel.
To find out more about Biblica’s translation work, visit Translation & Access – Biblica Europe – Transforming lives through God’s Word
Did you know…..
Arabic is spoken by over 200 million people in 28 countries in Africa and the Middle East.
Arabic script reads from right to left with an alphabet containing 28 consonants.
English words of Arabic origin include “algebra”, “cotton”, “magazine”, “tariff” and “zero”
Farsi is spoken today primarily in Iran and Afghanistan with over 30 million Farsi speakers
English words of Farsi origin include “bazaar”, “checkmate”, “pyjama”, “kiosk” and “caravan”.
To find out more about Biblica’s translation work, click here.
