WEC Chad’s History
In 1961 the desperate needs of the northern region of Chad came to the attention of the WEC leadership through a letter written by a Chadian reader of the French gospel broadsheet “Bientot” crying out for more workers for his country. In response Leslie Brierly, the WEC International Research secretary at the time, did an extensive survey in Chad and was moved by the strategic needs of the Ouaddai region in the north-east of Chad. That year at the WEC International leader’s conference the region was officially adopted and a call went out for workers. By 1962 the first recruits were preparing to move. The first workers went to Abéché, the focal point of that entire region. Initially the work was orphanage work in collaboration with French SUM, but the WEC work quickly expanded to other ministries such as agricultural development, wells, and cassette ministries and to other locations such as Adré, which is in the same region but to the east on the Sudanese border.
In the late 1970’s the work was hampered by the increasing violence of the current civil war in Chad and all WECcers from Chad were forced to flee except for one courageous WEC lady who remained in Abéché with the orphans, isolated from the outside world for many months. After the conflict resided in the early 1980’s WEC missionaries began to rebuild the work and looked to additional sites of ministry. God gave a call to WEC for the Bagirmi people and two single ladies moved into the rural village of Balanyéré, south of Chad’s capital, N’Djaména. The 1980’s were a time for perseverance and faithfulness on the part of a small WEC team in the deplorable post war conditions of Chad, but many seeds were planted and many doors opened for the future workers to come.
In the 1990’s WEC Chad began to see a new influx of workers as God called new team members from countries as varied as Sweden, Fiji, Holland, Australia and others. Previous regions saw new workers and old areas of work such as Adré were reopened. In addition God began to bring forth fruit from the previous years of faithful service and two new communities of believers came into birth.
During this time the learning centre ministry began in Abéché. Called in French “Centre de Connaissance” these libraries and English course facilities were a great success and have enabled WEC to move into new regions such a Biltine as the communities demand these services. A new region, Guéréda, is currently being entered and WEC continues to seek God’s moment for movement into other regions so needy in this vast untouched North of Chad.
