A believer we’ll call Wol describes a third concerning development: “Islam is now invading South Sudan. They’re saying South Sudan is a strategic place and that [it] will be the gate to Africa [so that] Islam can go to all of Africa.”

Islamic leaders “are mobilizing money from different Islamic countries and they’re sending them to South Sudan,” Wol says. When South Sudan became a nation ten years ago, many believers fled persecution in Majority-Muslim Sudan to find safety in the south. More about that here.

Wol serves with MNN’s sister ministry, Streams of Living Water, in South Sudan. Streams of Living Water recruits, trains, and sends believers from the Middle East/North Africa region to reach the Arab world for Christ.

“Pray for us, that the Lord may raise believers in South Sudan to come and do the work of the Lord,” Wol requests.

“The harvest is plenty here in South Sudan.”

New plans are underway to adapt Streams’ training program for women leaders. “The women have a calling of God for their ministry, and without being trained they cannot do that calling,” Wol explains.

Streams of Living Water recruits, trains, and sends believers from the Middle East/North Africa region to reach the Arab world for Christ.
(Photo courtesy of Streams of Living Water)

“[This] is an opportunity to bring women to the kingdom of God through the ministry of women.”

Believers typically use two methods for evangelism in South Sudan, Wol says. “There is mass evangelism or one-to-one evangelism. This style (one-on-one) will not work with a different sex; you know, man-to-woman or woman-to-man,” he explains.

However, the one-on-one approach works well for women’s ministry. “There are some things that the women cannot tell the men. But when they are women alone, they can tell why they are hindered. Women that are well-trained and well-equipped with the Word of God can give answers to the women; they can convince them to repent and come back to the Lord,” Wol says.

“God wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. ‘All people’ should include the women.”

Pray for discernment for Wol and other leaders as they develop plans for the new women’s ministry. Learn more about Streams of Living Water here.

Header image courtesy of Streams of Living Water.

Streams of Living Water teaches Christians throughout the Middle East and North Africa how to share their faith. Learn more here. After a recent workshop, believers started sharing the Good News of Jesus in villages around Juba.

One pair of evangelists met a woman practicing witchcraft. “She was practicing sorcery, and she used [an] evil spirit to kill people who did not want to follow her and do what she wants to do,” explains a Streams worker named Wol*.

“Upon hearing the Gospel, she decided to join the believers.”

Occult members who came to Christ immediately burned all of their amulets and idols.
(Photo courtesy of Streams of Living Water)

She’s not the only one who traded evil spirits for the Holy Spirit. “There [were] three shamans who decided to give their life to the Lord Jesus Christ. [These] three shamans were leading a multitude of the people behind them in worshipping idols,” Wol says.

“They were claiming [to] have supernatural spiritual powers.”

Gospel workers trained by Streams began their community outreach at the end of December. By the end of January, 16,802 people accepted Christ – including an entire company of soldiers! “In one village, 49 people were baptized in one day,” Wol says.

He describes more in an email update:

There was a couple about to divorce but, upon hearing the Gospel, they both gave their lives to Jesus and reconciled and started going to church together. Another woman decided to commit suicide by hanging herself, but on that very day, the Lord sent gospel preachers, so she gave her life to the Lord.

Praise God for these changed hearts. Pray new believers will find churches to attend and pray mature Christians will come alongside and disciple them.

*– Full name withheld for security purposes.

Header image depicts believers sharing the Gospel and leading people to faith in Christ. (Photo courtesy of Streams of Living Water)

In fact, things have deteriorated so quickly that a delegation of South Sudanese bishops warn that the accord is bound to fail because the root problems remain unaddressed.

The ongoing instability created a new wave of refugees, explains  Philip Smith, a church planter working through Streams of Living Water and One Way Ministries. “More than a million have gone to Uganda as refugees—in refugee camps in Uganda—and some other refugees have gone back to the north.”

The confirmation: a recent $2.7 million dollar appeal made by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)  in an attempt to address the largest displacement crisis in Africa.

Creative Solutions

Opening of Tyrannus Missionary School, Juba, South Sudan (Photo courtesy Streams of Living Water/One Way Ministries)

If nothing changes in the next year, the UN estimates over 7 million people in South Sudan will need humanitarian assistance. Of those, 5.4 million are facing famine.  Smith says, unemployment is high, but even those who have jobs aren’t faring well. Plus, “As of the market itself, the prices are crazy. People are suffering.  Many people are not  able to get their salaries on time.”

Students settling down for lectures at the Tyrannus Missionary School, Juba, South Sudan. (Photo courtesy Streams of Living Water/One Way Ministries)

Smith says their ministry broadened their focus a bit to help create solutions. For example, the Juba branch of the Tyrannus Missionary School is nearly complete and opened last month with great anticipation.

The training hits two areas, explains Smith.  First, ”It’s a missionary training school to train church planters and send them after one full year of studies, both academics and vocational.”

Second, vocational training allows these church planters a way to earn their keep and provide a service to a community. “The one who has the skin color understands his own culture, has the language, the tongue of his own people, (and) has grown up among them,” Smith clarifies, which defines the end goal: “We send them at the end of the year, as church planters, among their own unreached people groups, mainly animistic people groups in the south.”

A Big Win for South Sudan

It’s an idea whose time has come. Its namesake is the school in Ephesus noted in Acts 19:9, where the Apostle Paul taught for two years during his third missionary journey. The dedication and opening ceremonies saw local authorities, including the governor, attending.

Plus, the faculty has a good mix of South Sudanese and Egyptians in place, lending credibility to the program. “If you have an indigenous worker trained to reach out to his indigenous people and plant churches that multiply itself [sic] among other unreached people groups in the same proximity, then this is a ‘big win’, notes Smith.

Providing the Grace to Do

It’s one way SLW/OWM can help change the few who will change the many, in spite of challenging circumstances. However, because of the difficult state of affairs, “Prayer is the key, so number one, we would love people to be aware that the Gospel is advanced in spite of the suffering; many people are hungry to be educated and trained in the Word of God.”

Number two, says Smith, consider something outside your comfort zone. “Intercede on behalf of the unreached people groups in the South of Sudan [sic]. Know more about it through Joshua Project.  At the same time, if someone is interested in giving a hand, come down and teach.”

Headline Photo courtesy Randy Fath/Unsplash.