The mission trips I took to South Sudan in 2025 and 2026 changed me in ways I am still learning to understand. I went thinking I would bring encouragement, help, and support, but I came home realizing that I had received just as much as I had given. In a land marked by war, hardship, displacement, and violence, I encountered a depth of faith, resilience, and quiet joy that humbled me and drew me closer to God.
During my 2025 trip, I saw communities carrying burdens that were hard to fully grasp from a distance. Families were navigating the effects of conflict, food insecurity, and rising waters that had damaged homes, schools, and places of worship. Yet even in those conditions, people welcomed us with generosity. We prayed under trees and in grass huts, worshiped in mud shelters and in open spaces, and listened to testimonies from believers whose trust in God had been strengthened, not weakened, by suffering. Their faith was not polished or performative. It was steady, honest, and alive.
Praying for Believers
I remember moments of ministry that seemed small on the surface but carried eternal weight: praying with mothers who asked God for daily provision, encouraging young believers who wanted to serve their villages, and sitting quietly with church leaders who continued to shepherd their congregations despite exhaustion and uncertainty. I learned that mission work is not about being the strongest person in the room. It is about being present, being faithful, and allowing God to work through willing hands and open hearts.
When I returned in 2026, the experience felt even deeper because the people and places were no longer unfamiliar. I was returning not simply to a mission field, but to brothers and sisters in Christ whose lives had already left a mark on mine. The needs were still urgent. Many communities were continuing to face severe hardship, and the strain of displacement, fragile services, and ongoing uncertainty was still very real. But I also saw seeds of hope. I saw local believers continuing to serve, children still eager to learn, and churches standing as places of prayer, refuge, and perseverance.
That second trip taught me to see mission in a more honest and lasting way. I was reminded that transformation is rarely dramatic in the moment. Often, it looks like showing up again, loving people consistently, and trusting God with what only He can do. South Sudan taught me to slow down, to listen more carefully, and to recognize the image of God in people whose circumstances the world may overlook. I left with a greater awareness of human need, but also with a greater confidence in the power of compassion, prayer, and faithful presence.
Amazing Grace
One man in particular I will never forget. To protect his identity, I will call him Brother B. Brother B is displaced from Sudan where his family still lives. His mother, however, has been kicked out of her home there by her husband for refusing to disown Brother B following his conversion to Christianity, and Brother B cannot go to her to help her because former friends threaten to kill him if he ever comes back home. Brother B was in tears as he described how his mother is now “sleeping under the trees.”
In 2026, as I sat with Brother B and listened to his story, he shared something that deeply moved me. He told me that in 2025 he had reached a breaking point. Because of the severe persecution, rejection, isolation, and hardship, he had decided he could no longer continue in the Christian faith. He had been abandoned by nearly everyone around him, left to survive on his own, threatened, and forced to keep moving in order to preserve his life. It was a dark and painful season, and in that place of suffering he had resolved to return to Islam.
But Brother B told me that when he heard me speak in 2025 about these very struggles—the cost of following Christ, the pain of rejection, and the grace of God in the midst of suffering—the Lord used that message to meet him at exactly the right moment. Instead of turning away, he decided to remain with Christ. More than that, he said he rededicated his life and ministry to Him. Hearing those words in 2026 humbled me beyond what I can fully express. It reminded me that God is always at work in ways we cannot see, and that even a message spoken in weakness can become an instrument of strength, perseverance, and renewed calling in someone else’s life.
Looking back on both trips, I do not primarily remember the difficulty of the travel or the visible weight of the challenges, though those were real. What stays with me most is the witness of the South Sudanese church: people praising God in the middle of uncertainty, caring for one another through loss, and holding onto hope with remarkable courage. These journeys reminded me that God is present in every place, even in the hardest ones, and that His love continues to move through ordinary people willing to say yes. South Sudan did not only become a place I visited. It became a place that reshaped my faith, enlarged my compassion, and renewed my sense of calling.
Frontlines International supports Bible distribution and training projects for pastors serving new believers.
Help support Projects in Sudan
- There is a great need for Bibles and for Discipleship training: Join us in our efforts to send more Bibles and engage more Discipleship training for believers in South Sudan and in the Nuba Mountains area.
