I'M OFFICIALLY ON STAFF WITH EMPOWER SUDAN

 Mong, Mong, Mong (Hello, Hello, Hello)          

            I’ve recently taken a part time staff position with Empower Sudan.  I’m in the process of raising monthly support for this position and wanted to give you an idea of what Empower Sudan does, how I fit into all of that, and what my funding will look like.

THE GOAL

            Empower Sudan’s (empowersudan.org) goal is to reach the 20 million people in South Sudan and Sudan who have never heard the good news of Jesus.  We do this by providing support to South Sudanese nationals to plant churches, disciple others, and create positive change in their communities. The reason we are called “Empower” Sudan is because our goal is to provide knowledge and resources to South Sudanese pastors so that they can do evangelism and discipleship in their communities. 

This map shows Sudan and South Sudan

Can you find Torit on this map of South Sudan?  That's where I go every year.

THE METHOD

             Our organization is made up equally of Americans who provide support and South Sudanese who live and minister in their local villages and towns.  We do not have any Americans on staff who live full time in South Sudan.  The reason for this is that we do not want to the South Sudanese to be dependent on us for leadership.  We empower them to lead and then we step out of the way and let them do so. 

            As a result of this model most of our work from the American side is done through short-term trips.  Teams of three to six will go and do a myriad of different trainings in everything from theology to community development to education to evangelism.  We have knowledge and resources that the pastor’s there do not have but they are more equipped to minister to the people in their country than we will ever be.     

These pictures were take at our community development training in Torit last October.

        
              If you visit the invest section of the website (http://empowersudan.org/home/invest/) you can see that we do a lot of things on top of training church leaders.  We operate a Bible School that provides theological training.  We provide physical resources to help pastors like bicycles and motor-bikes.  We even have staff who focus on educator training for church leaders who have started schools in their communities. 

 

WHO IS EMPOWER SUDAN

            To help you understand a little bit more about how the organization works I’ll tell you about some of our key leadership.

Mike Congrove is the head of Empower Sudan from the American side.  He takes frequent training trips and oversees all operations and fundraising.

Pastor David Kaya is the head of Empower Sudan on the South Sudan side.  He’s been church planting in South Sudan for at least ten years.  He and Mike equally share all decision making for the organization.

David Kaya (left) and Mike Congrove (right)

Brian Bain is the Regional Strategy coordinator for the Eastern Equatoria State (There are ten states in South Sudan).  He takes four to five trips to South Sudan each year to train pastors and teach at the Bible School.

Dominic Africa is the South Sudanese pastor of the church in Torit where I have visited the last two years.  He partners with Brian in the planting of churches in the Eastern Equatoria state. 

Then there is Me.

Brian (left) Dominic (middle) Me (right)

MY ROLE

            I will work directly under Brian leading one trip a year to support Dominic and the churches he has planted.  Each year we have four to five specific trainings that we plan to do with each of our South Sudanese pastors.  These trainings are designed to give the church leaders a solid theological foundation, leadership skills, and vision for planting churches. 

            A typical trip will have three to six people visiting from Monday to Friday.  Each day our mornings and early afternoons we do training with church leaders.  In the late afternoons we usually invite all the church members and people in the community to larger bible teaching.  We have a lot of children attend these teachings.  The well being of the children in South Sudan will have a major impact on the future of the country so ministry to the younger generations is a key part of our what we do.  My next trip is scheduled for the end of May this year and I'm still looking for people to go with me so let me know if you're interested.

            In addition to leading one trip a year I also take part in strategy development with the American team here in Dallas.   

Nothing is cuter than kids in suits........... so read on