Nicola Limburger
Nicola worked with the Episcopal Church of Sudan (ECS) Rumbek Diocese supporting their health programme,
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.
Nicola worked with the Episcopal Church of Sudan (ECS) Rumbek Diocese supporting their health programme,
Our vision is to see Christ-centred churches across South Sudan; mature churches that are passionate about mission, reaching out to people groups like those in the Didinga hills who have yet to hear the gospel.
The Laarim share “We are here in darkness because from Sunday to Monday there is no one to read us the word of God or to pray for us.”
How do you prepare for a week living with people whom you have never met before and share no common language with, in a culture totally alien to your own?
Approximately seven people groups in South Sudan have never heard the good news of Christ. Why? Because they are some of the most difficult people on earth to reach.
Reaching the unreached often takes our missionaries to isolated parts of Africa, which makes getting from A to B a real challenge! The team working to reach the Lopit people in South Sudan had a first-hand experience of the headaches of travel on their return from their Christmas holiday in Kenya. Ashley recounts their journey.