Partner Stories: February 2024
Milton and Scovia are seeking to bring the hope of Jesus to the women and youth of South Sudan. Their mission is to offer hope to those who feel hopeless, healing to those who are hurting and love to those who feel unloved. Together, they are committed to showing God's love is tangible and available to everyone.
Last month Milton had the opportunity to lead a discipleship session for 450 students at St. John Paul Secondary School in Gulu.
“Our focus was on "Walking Wisely" from Ephesians 5:15-17. God is opening opportunities for us to share the gospel in ways we could not imagine.”
Read more from Yenet:
Ibsa Abdia Ministries
Shadrach* ministers in predominantly Muslim areas where following Christ often meets some form of persecution.
He shares, “Last month, I was able to go to the villages where some believers stay. I was able to do some teaching of the Word and we encouraged one another. Through this I saw God moving in the lives of the people. Despite persecution and abuse, they decided to stick to the Word and the Lord. We spent time studying together. Disciple-making is our objective so they can grow strong.
Ministry is growing and multiplying. People are coming to the knowledge of Christ. Continue praying for us as we reach more people for Christ.”
Next month, Shadrach will travel to a difficult area with plans is to visit nine villages. He will spend 1-2 days in each village building relationships with village elders and officials as well as sharing the gospel one-on-one with families.
“The plan is to visit all nine villages unless led by the Spirit to stay longer in an area. The goal is to faithfully share the gospel with the hopes of at least 3 placing their faith in Jesus.”
Read more from Ibsa Abdia:
Community Network Ministries (CNM)
As a network of like-minded churches, CNM is committed to providing greater access to the gospel through Sudan and South Sudan. They have set an ambitious goal of each member church to plant a new church by the end of the year to double their church number to 40.
Recently CNM completed the process to successfully register as an official organization. This will provide them with greater visibility and legitimacy to expand ministry efforts.
This past month, we continued our training with CNM on biblical characteristics of a healthy church. Pastor David Lual has been evaluating the current health of the churches based on these biblical characteristics. Church membership (or commitment) and baptism stood out to Lual as areas that need addressing.
“We don’t have church membership,” he shares. “People come and go and are not committed. Asking people to commit to the local church would be so helpful. We also baptize by immersion, but sometimes it can be a long time before we baptize. We need to see how to empower leaders to baptize new believers sooner.”
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Ever on Mission (EOM)
As a young ministry, EOM is seeking to establish a strategic church planting and mission hub for the Salia Musala Region where Uganda, South Sudan and the DR Congo come together.
Being self-sustaining is a priority of EOM. Recently, Taban and the leadership team discussed economic development of the church and individual members through savings groups. The desire is for each church member to be able to help those in need as well as contribute to the vision of establishing Busia as a training hub.
Taban also discipled and baptized five new Christ followers last month.
Read more from CNM:
Ecclesia Ministries (EM)
This year, EOM has a goal of establishing a strategic mission point in JM* as part of its overall vision to provide greater access to God’s Word in Sudan. Paul* shares,
“Local leaders have invited us to come to JM and share God's Word through the schools. This is a great opportunity. We will appoint leaders throughout JM to conduct evangelism, make disciples, and plant new churches.
With the invitation to share the truth of God in the schools, we will help strategically place teachers in the schools to teach the Bible as a course subject offering for the students. This next month, I will travel to JM to encourage the existing Bible fellowships, cast vision with and train the leaders, and together develop a plan for this opportunity we have been given.”
Read more from Ecclesia:*Names altered to protect the identity of those working in areas of increased persecution.