In one of the most perilous regions of the world, an American missionary is quietly building an army – not with weapons, but with prayer. Carole Ward has made it her life’s mission to follow God’s call and train fearless believers in Africa’s Sahel region.
The Sahel region of Africa isn’t the kind of place you just wander into. You’re called here.
“It’s very dry. It’s very sandy. It’s dusty. It’s desert. It can be 100, 115 degrees year-round,” Ward tells CBN News.
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This vast stretch of land cuts across 10 African nations, from Senegal to Eritrea. It’s a land of extremes – scorching heat, shifting sand and deadly danger.
More than half of the world’s terror-related deaths happen here. It’s the front line in a spiritual and physical battle.
“And now, here you are in the middle of one of the most dangerous swaths of land in Africa. What is wrong with you?” CBN News asks Ward.
“The call of the wild. I don’t know. It’s in my blood,” she answers back.
Ward runs toward the fire. She has been doing it for decades, starting in northern Uganda during the height of the brutal Lord’s Resistance Army. Then came South Sudan – civil war, destroyed villages, broken hearts.
While others fled, Carole stayed, bringing healing, hope, and the relentless love of Jesus.
“You can’t live here until you’ve already died,” insists Ward. “You’ve died to yourself, and the devil can’t kill a dead man because your life isn’t your own.”
This kind of courage runs deep.
“So, this map was my father’s map on the wall of his, of our missionary house in the Philippines,” Ward describes as she walks to a map of the world that hangs in her modest home on the outskirts of Chad’s capital city. “And he would lay his hands, particularly on Muslim areas, just weeping and weeping.”
Her parents spent 62 years preaching the gospel in regions terrorized by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines.
Her grandparents served as missionaries in China for 30 years.
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Following Jesus wasn’t just a decision. It was their legacy.
“I realize then fear is contagious, but so is faith,” Ward says. “And so, I grew up in a home that, even though Abu Sayyaf was looking for my own father’s head for 45 years, he had no fear. He absolutely loved the people that burned the Bibles and threw them back in his face. And he was willing to lay his life down.”
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Reprinted with permission from cbn.com. Copyright © 2025 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.
