November 2008

When There Are No Preachers

Sound leaders in the church are critical! This is especially true in a country like South Sudan where all the congregations have been established only a short time and where all the members are fairly new Christians.

So what do you do when you have around 20 new congregations but only one trained preacher? What did Paul and other New Testament Christians do in similar situations? They taught the new Christians to be leaders!

This is what is happening in South Sudan. Until the planned preachertraining school can be built to more efficiently train greater numbers, Isaya Jackson, the one trained South Sudanese minister at this time, is attempting to not only preach but to train potential leaders by holding short workshops in individual villages.

Isaya Jackson has baptized about 3,500 people in the last 8-10 years. Many of these men he baptized have now become preachers and have established congregations in their homes along the border dividing the countries of South Sudan and Uganda.

For example, about 20 congregations exist among the Acholi tribe in South Sudan and Northern Uganda. These congregations are all new because most of the people lived in refuge camps in Uganda and Kenya up until a few months ago. The new churches have been meeting for only the few months since their members were resettled back into their homeland.

In order to try to train men to lead these congregations, Isaya conducts workshops for men who have stepped forward to become preachers and church leaders in these congregations. The classes last for a week and are held in between planting and harvest times.

During this time, men come together from these congregations for a time of study, learning and fellowship. One session was conducted in June, and another will be held in November. This process is good but very slow.

Twenty-two individuals attended a leadership program hosted by the Obbo, South Sudan congregation in June. Those who attended were leaders and preachers from eight congregations in South Sudan and six congregations in Uganda. The churches in Uganda are from the same tribe, speak the same language and are located near the South Sudan border.

This is the shelter where the workshop was held as well as the meeting place for the Obbo church.

The church has about 70 members, and almost all of them came from churches that formerly met in the refugee camps in Uganda.

The Obbo members provided accommodations for the men who attended the workshop. The Obbo Christians have only temporary huts for their own families but somehow managed to make room for all the visitors so that this training could be accomplished.
Each day began with a 30 minute devotional. All the men were asked to participate by presenting short messages, leading singing, or leading in the prayer time.The total number of preachers attending was 24.

Isaya purchased food supplies from another city and brought them to Obbo. The ladies of the Obbo church prepared three meals a day for everyone. Facilities were very limited as there were no kitchens, no tables, no electricity, and no running water! The closest water was a river a quarter mile away. It rained every day, which made it very difficult for the ladies to do this work.

These six brethren came on bicycles from Uganda to attend the training classes. Their trip took more than six hours each way.They will participate in the November training session also. Their commitment humbles us and tells us a lot about what brethren like these are sacrificing to make sure they are prepared to do the Lord's work among their own people.

Isaya is pictured here with two of the ladies who attended the leadership training. Both of them are named Rose.They came from a congregation made up of refugee members who returned to their home areas from Uganda and Kenya. Isaya has always recognized the need to prepare Christian ladies to teach other ladies.

Brother Sisto Mioara is seen encouraging the brethren with the Word of God in one of the morning devotionals. Because of your support, many leaders have been able to participate in this limited pattern of training; but we know it isn't enough. That is why an immediate and pressing priority is to start construction of the preacher training school that is to be located in this area. Then many men can receive thorough training by capable teachers to prepare them to carry the pure Gospel back to their villages.

John Ed Clark,DeWayne Griffin, (one of the elders of the sponsoring Mt. Juliet congregation,) and Don Humphrey will visit South Sudan in February with intentions of making arrangements for the construction of the school campus. Please pray with us for thisimportant trip!

The preacher training school will be a wonderful addition to the evangelizing of South Sudan. Many more preachers will be trained, and thus more congregations will be established. As our plans to also drill waterwells in Sudan progress,we will need preachers to be ready to walk through the doors that will be opened by this humanitarian work. Souls all over South Sudan will be saved as a result of the greater teaching provided through this new preacher-training school.