Church planting among the Didinga of South Sudan
Across the valleys, along the plateaus and slopes, and on the adjacent plains of the Didinga hills in South Sudan lives a people group who are still waiting to hear the name of Jesus. Could you go?
South Sudan became the world’s newest country on 9 July 2011. It was the outcome of the 2005 peace deal that ended Africa’s longest-running civil war. The majority of the population adhere to Christianity. Only 18% call themselves Muslim unlike Sudan, which is 97%.
AIM’s work in Sudan began before the civil war, with our first members being invited to work in the country by the Church Mission Society (CMS) in 1949. The initial members were supported by additional couples and between them they quickly set up a medical clinic and a girls’ school. From the early days, the work in Sudan was also helped by African Christian workers sent out from Congo.
Over the years, civil wars and restrictions placed by the government created difficult conditions. Partial and full expulsions limited the number of AIM personnel in the country and then in the early 1960’s all missionaries were expelled. In 1972 however a peace agreement between south and north Sudan enabled work to be picked up again. The peace was not as permanent as hoped and fighting resumed in the early 1980’s. All AIM members left Sudan in the late 1980’s due to escalating insecurity.
In 2004, with the decline of the war, a gradual re-entry of AIM personnel began. With the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in January 2005 the door was opened wider. AIM provides a diverse menu of skills and ministries in South Sudan including nursery, primary, and secondary education, health, literacy in mother tongue, leadership development, theological education, and church planting.
Across the valleys, along the plateaus and slopes, and on the adjacent plains of the Didinga hills in South Sudan lives a people group who are still waiting to hear the name of Jesus. Could you go?
Opportunity to join a team based in the Torit district of South Sudan supporting the Lopit church. The Lopit practice traditional agriculture, as well as rearing livestock. Traditionally they believe in a supreme god, with spirits interacting with their day to day lives.
What has changed in 125 years? Missionaries from the early 1900s would not recognise much about the AIM of 2020. And today’s missionaries might not recognise the AIM of 2050. Or even 2030.
Historically, Christian missionary efforts in Sudan, like in other African countries, saw education in a dual role – to present the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ to those who have not heard and to facilitate personal and societal development.
Gord Sawatzky talks about the chapter of his cross-cultural ministry in South Sudan, as the AIM country leader.
There are still almost 1,000 African unreached people groups, mostly in the Sahel, north and west Africa. May Jesus find us faithful, even for the next 125 years. Or until he returns.