Escaping Home

Adhanom Hidug, Missionary, South Sudan
The Call, July-September 2016

Nine years ago, my friend and I had to escape from a system that not only wanted to stop me from practicing my Christian faith, but also resolved to put me in prison just because I followed Jesus. We walked for four days and three nights to enter a Sudanese border city. It was a very risky journey. The Eritrean border patrol units crisscross the terrain near the Sudanese border, and they have a “shoot to kill or injure” order against anyone leaving the country illegally. If we were to try to leave the country legally, it would be like a rat teasing a cat in an open field where it cannot hide. 

God allowed us to walk through the camp of these units unnoticed. I wondered if He had made us invisible to them. We crossed a dry river without being physically aware of it. We only realized that it was a river bed after finding ourselves on the other side of it. God changed the route we had planned to follow and made us follow a route He planned for us. As we slept for three nights in the open semi-desert, He protected us from all sorts of fierce wild animals, and He made us survive the extreme heat. He was in charge of our lives.

Throughout my journey, I believed the words: “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared” as if they were said to me (Exodus 23:20 NIV). I kept remembering Jesus, who had to escape to Egypt as a baby. I would pray, “Jesus, You made a risky journey while You were a baby. Please keep me safe.” 

While I was living with my family as a refugee in Kenya, I would pray, “Jesus, You once were a refugee in Egypt, and we are now refugees. Please, take care of us.” 

As refugees we had many challenges, but our main challenge was harassment and extortion by the police. However, our challenges strengthened my faith in the Lord. Now that I am in my newly adopted home among the friendly Canadians in Edmonton, Alberta, I consider it a noble act and a ministry to regularly pray for Eritreans, Syrians, and people of other nationalities who are going through similar circumstances that I went through. The Lord delivers!

PRAY: Acquaint yourself with specific types of suffering and persecution that Christians face around the world today. Pray for these Christians and their persecutors as you read the Word, especially passages like the stoning of Stephen in Acts.

The Quest

An excerpt from...

The Quest: Community Transformation

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By Joy Phillips, Compassionate Ministries Coordinator
July-September 2015

“No one in my family got sick with malaria this year,” reported Alice, one of the Community Health Evangelism participants in South Sudan. After putting into practice what she’s learned, her family gets sick less often. Yay, that’s what we want to hear! Others are planting banana and papaya trees in their yards, enhancing their families’ diet. Another participant reported that they have formed a prayer group that prays for their community on Tuesdays and Saturdays. All of that must please the Lord, don’t you think?

This process of community transformation didn’t just happen. It took a team and lots of networking. John and Beth Muehleisen, in the role of Africa Regional Transformation Training coordinators, have mentored WGM international missionary Adhanom Hidug as a CHE facilitator. Volunteer CHE Champion Rick Morse joined the Mango Ministries training team and others have helped as well. I’ve also been able to use my experiences from serving with Tenwek Community Health and Development in Kenya to help develop this new ministry in South Sudan.

WGM’s central ministry focus is wholistic transformation. As you can see from the ministry in South Sudan, this is best facilitated when resources, personnel, and ideas are shared. One of my favorite books that has helped me gain a better understanding of transformational development is When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. It’s a great read for anyone interested in missions.

I’ve been connecting with many missionaries in WGM as I take on the role of WGM’s Compassionate Ministries coordinator. It’s been amazing to hear about where God is already at work. From Argentina to Arizona to Africa, WGM missionaries are involved in all kinds of creative ministries that are resulting in transformed lives and communities. I’m excited when I see people following Jesus and reaching their God-given potential.

If you look at the nightly news, it appears that communities in our own neighborhoods as well as around the world are in serious need of transformation. Will you join WGM in our quest to see communities transformed?

ACT: Is God calling you to share a kind word or deed with someone where you live or in a nearby neighborhood? The peoples of the world have come to us; who can you reach out to today?

PRAY: Grab a friend and ask them to join you in praying for the CHE participants from South Sudan this quarter. Pray that God will continue to grant opportunities to get this team involved in His transforming story.

Nobody has Told Me about Jesus

An excerpt from...

Nobody has Told Me about Jesus

By Adhanom Hidug, Missionary, South Sudan

October-December 2014

Akudhiar, a teenage Dinka girl, lives in my neighborhood. One early afternoon I had the following conversation with her.

Me: “Akudhiar, are you a Christian?”
Akudhiar: “Yes.”
Me: “So, you know Jesus?”
Akudhiar: “What is Jesus?”
Me: “Jesus Christ.”
Akudhiar: “I don’t know that.”

Malual, a boy I am discipling, was helping me with the translation of my conversation with Akudhiar, and he burst into laughter. Akudhiar didn’t feel good on account of his laughter. Then she said to me, “Nobody has told me about Jesus.” I wondered how she claimed to be a Christian without knowing Jesus.

“Okay, would you like to know Jesus?” I asked her. Malual, noticing my seriousness and Akudhiar’s feelings, struggled to control his laughter. I struggled not to let my tears flow. The reply from Akudhiar was positive—she wanted to know about Jesus.

Akudhiar’s case is not an isolated one. Many people in my village would tell me that they are Christians, but few manage to give me the right answers to basic questions that I ask them about Christianity. One of the main causes for this is the shortage of biblically equipped people who are capable to tell about Jesus. 

There are several pastors in the area, but most of them lack proper biblical training. As a result, their knowledge of the Word of God and their ministry of the Word is limited. But, if the number of biblically trained pastors increases, I believe the number of people who don’t know Jesus will decrease significantly.

To help this happen, Mango Ministries has decided one of our ministry areas will be the empowerment of local church leaders. We do this through Community Health Evangelism and Simply the Story (STS), an oral strategy of inductive Bible study. Besides those methods, I spend a lot of time with the church people, in general, and with the pastors, in particular. During such times, God gives me opportunities to empower the pastors and other church leaders. I see transformation in a number of the pastors and other church leaders. God is at work. I expect revival in our area and beyond from the empowerment of these leaders—a revival that will reach out to people like Akudhiar.

Editor’s Note: Akudhiar is now regularly attending church services, and she is growing in her knowledge and following of Jesus.

ACT: Have you shared Christ with your neighbors? Take time to affirm your belief in Christ during your next conversation with them. Let them know you will make them and their family part of your prayer life.

Prayer Calendar: October 12-18, 2014

Your missions prayer point inspired by the Oct/Nov/Dec issue of The Call this week is:

PRAY that those in South Sudan who claim the label “Christian” will come to a full understanding of the gospel. 

Adhanom Hidug, WGM Missionary to South Sudan, recently had a conversation that went something like this:
Adhanom: “Akudhiar, are you a Christian?”
Girl: “Yes.”
Adhanom: “So, you know Jesus?”
Girl: “What is Jesus? I don’t know that.” 

Pumpkins and Puppies

An excerpt from...

Pumpkins and Puppies

By Jon Steury, Regional Director of AfricaJuly-September 2014

My friend and colleague Adhanom Hidug serves with World Gospel Mission in South Sudan. He is from a small country in northeast Africa, but he has been living in Kenya for some time. Adhanom and his wife, Helen, were appointed as WGM’s first international missionaries last year.

In keeping with WGM’s central ministry focus—wholistic transformation—Adhanom’s ministry is wholistic, incorporating Community Health Evangelism, storytelling as a means of communicating the Bible, and relationship building to transform lives in the village where he lives in Aduel, South Sudan.

Missionaries who enter a new culture quickly realize that creativity is an important tool to discover the best way to share Jesus with the people where God has called them. As I read Adhanom’s recent ministry report, I was intrigued by how he had creatively shared Jesus in his village, using a pumpkin and his puppy! Here’s Adhanom:

Pumpkin: Many people here grow pumpkins for their leaves, but not as food. They give different reasons why they don’t want to eat them. Some say, “People will say that we are like hyenas if they know that we eat pumpkin.” Others would say that it is not tasty, or it doesn’t have many benefits, or they just don’t like it. Due to this, there are many pumpkins in the village farms just spoiling. I can get nice pumpkins at a very cheap price or even free of charge. One day I bought a small pumpkin, and as I was walking with it from the market, everybody’s eyes were on me because they believed I was going to eat a pumpkin. People began to speak to me because of the pumpkin. When I realized this, I decided to walk with it all around the market area and in some neighborhoods. Everyone wanted to know what I was going to do with the pumpkin. That opened an opportunity to talk to people. As a result, I was able to talk to more than 50 people about the nutritional values that God put in a pumpkin and how God gives us good gifts. I never thought that a pumpkin would bring me such a golden opportunity to get a “ready-to-talk-and-listen” audience.

Puppy: Yomdit is my puppy! She is named in the Dinka language according to her color. People in the village who don’t even know my name, know her name—even those who haven’t seen her. The pumpkin gave me a one-day opportunity, but Yomdit has given me several opportunities to talk to people easily. People want to know why I care much for a dog, and that gives me a good opportunity to talk to them, starting from the direction of the discussion they raise and taking them to the direction I want. Yomdit has started to learn a few things, and people are surprised to see her following my orders. Now because of her, people don’t even wait until I say, “Kudual,” which means “Hello” in Dinka. This is another way of getting an opportunity to talk to people that I never thought of.

Pray for Adhanom as he shares Jesus with people, using pumpkins, puppies, and other creative ways!

ACT: What ordinary things in front of you could easily open the door to share Jesus with others in your neighborhood? Got a puppy that needs a walk or maybe some cookies that could be shared?

These Are Our Visitors

An excerpt from...

These Are Our Visitors

Putting down roots in South Sudan
By Jen Lavery, Volunteer, Kenya
January-March 2014

“These are our visitors, Joy and Jen. They are from the group that brought the gospel to my people in Kenya.” This was our introduction by Africa Gospel Church missionary Brian Mutai to the village administrator in Nyinbule, South Sudan. Brian is the fruit of the seeds that WGM planted among the Kipsigis people 80 years ago. Generations later, we get to share in the legacy.

Brian’s wife, Debbie, has been working in South Sudan for five years, serving as a clinical officer in the village clinic she helped build. After they married, Brian joined her to work with local church pastors and community leaders. When it was suggested they expand their work to target children and youth in the community, they agreed with the need but didn’t feel they had the expertise or skills necessary. They conveyed their concerns to Mango Ministries. What started as a simple conversation and prayer has developed into a working partnership.

I don’t speak Dinka. I am only beginning to scratch the surface of the culture. Because Brian and Debbie have been living among the Dinka for several years, they understand the culture more deeply, have some grasp of the language, have relationships, and see the needs more closely. They knew that churches needed more than just children’s choir directors; they needed leaders who could effectively teach the Bible and practical health lessons to children to reach the community. But they needed help to train the leaders. I can do that. We, in Mango Ministries, are gifted medically and educationally as well as in community health to help meet some of the vast needs of this new nation, but we recognize how much we need other’s vocational gifts and gifts of relationships, language, and cultural knowledge and sensitivity.

Mango Ministries’ motto is:  “Putting down roots, bearing fruit, and multiplying the harvest.” We are privileged to join in multiplying the harvest of WGM’s early efforts and putting down roots in South Sudan. None of us can do it alone.

ACT: Invite others to join the partnership of Mango Ministries through sharing. The WGM website offers you a free speaker outline that will give the details of sharing the impact and needs of this ministry. Download your outline at www.wgm.org/outlines.

The Path is Waiting

An excerpt from...

The Path is Waiting

By Billy Coppedge, Uganda/South Sudan
October-December 2013

A story* is told about a man who left his village for many years. He returned after accumulating great wealth. While everyone welcomed him, he wanted to know who were his real friends.

After calling together the village, he said, “I have hidden treasures for you along the path down to the river. Whatever you find, you may keep.”

Some of the villagers began racing down the path. “We know this path well,” they said. When they reached the water’s edge, they saw nothing. “There are no treasures; he lied,” they said as they walked away.

A second group became fixated on the soil making up the path. Discussing among themselves, they decided to return to the village and analyze the makeup of the soil. They never continued down the path.

A third group began to slowly move down the path. “We can trust this man,” they said. Sure enough, someone quickly pointed out an overgrown thorn bush had been cut back. They came to where a huge tree had fallen across the way, but it, too, had been removed.

Commenting on how their friend had made the path itself a gift, suddenly there was a shout. Sitting just off the path were several new cooking pots. Then a bag of sugar was discovered, followed shortly by several bags of rice.

By moving slowly and trusting the generosity of their friend, the third group discovered the true gifts the path had to offer.

In Bible Storytelling training, this parable illustrates how every story in the Bible is a path. Many of us race down these familiar stories or get sidetracked. We often miss the gifts waiting to be discovered.

The joy of our work is sharing these paths with African leaders, together discovering the gifts of our Good Friend. Our prayer is that as they share these biblical pathways, their communities will be enabled to discover the treasures that are waiting.

This week in your own walk, what gifts are waiting to be revealed along the pathways of scripture? Or with whom could you walk down a biblical path, enabling them to discover some of God’s awaiting treasures?

As always, the Path awaits.

*The Path Is Waiting story is an illustration taken from the Simply the Story Training. For more information, go to www.simplythestory.org.

Follow the pathway of scripture from the Word and Deed sections of the World GO! Manual this week. And if you have already checked the World GO! Manual off your missions study list, share this article with someone who needs to discover God’s awaiting treasure for them.

Biblical Transformation

An excerpt from...

Biblical Transformation

The benefits of using the CHE tool in South Sudan
By Joy Phillips, South Sudan
July-September 2013

World Gospel Mission has joined a global movement called Community Health Evangelism. Mango Ministries in South Sudan uses this tool that leads to transformed lives and communities. In 2013, we are training and mentoring nearly 75 leaders in four different areas of South Sudan.

We’ve seen exciting glimpses of transformed lives in both the spiritual and physical realms. In one CHE lesson, WGM missionary John Muehleisen explained the plan of salvation by drawing the Four Spiritual Laws illustration in the dirt, in lieu of a chalkboard. Here is a testimony from one of the participants:

“I had gone to different trainings. But this was very special. I benefited spiritually and physically. This is a lesson that I can’t ever forget. I used to believe that salvation is from my side. I was thinking that I can reach God. But when Pastor John explained to us, I realized that I was wrong. I realized that it was God who can reach to me and save me. I can’t forget this lesson all my life—never!”

Isn’t that exciting? Changing misconceptions about God is the work of the Holy Spirit. Our job is to pray. Will you join us in praying that God will continue speaking truth into the lives of the CHE leaders and turn their worlds upside down? It’s a slow process, but we believe biblical transformation holds the key to radically changed lives, families, churches, and communities. When a life is wholly submitted to God and His truth and God’s creative power is unleashed, no one can predict what amazing things God will do!

Partner with Mango Ministries through prayer. Print Pray CHE, a free prayer guide, at www.wgm.org/mango.

Learn more about the CHE movement at www.chenetwork.org.

What do you have? We have little girls.

An excerpt from...

What Do You Have? We Have Little Girls.

By Billy Coppedge, Uganda/South Sudan
April-June 2013

We have little girls. Our family, whether officially or not, is involved in loving little children, both ours and those around them.

Joanna’s mother sent a children’s magazine for our two oldest girls, Elsie Jayne (4) and Lucy Mae (3). It had a picture of a children’s Bible club. The girls immediately wanted to do a Bible club with their friends. Joanna decided they could plan something for the next school holiday. The girls told me all about it, but I was actually quite insincere in my enthusiasm and expectations.

My conviction came when they assembled the invitation list. They wanted to invite two Hindu boys, Kitron and Hersh. Now, Kitron had been previously very mean to Elsie Jayne. I felt uncomfortable with him being at our house. But Lucy Mae said Jesus had put Kitron on her heart, so Kitron was invited.

The week for the Bible club came and anywhere from 40 to 60 kids came daily, including Kitron. Organized chaos would probably best describe our “program,” but at the end of the week, 19 kids prayed to make the decision to follow Jesus!

What do we have to offer Jesus? We have little girls.

Those little girls are being used by Jesus, not only to stretch their father’s faith, but also to share Jesus with other children. Did I mention Kitron was one of those 19? Hallelujah! Praise God forever! The kingdom is a little more crowded because of two little girls’ desire for a Bible club.

ACT: Does this story inspire you to get your little ones involved in missions? WGM can help with ideas at www.wgm.org/kidsworldgo.

The Love of a Lost Boy

An excerpt from The Love of a Lost Boy
By Tracy Dubois, Support Staff

July-September 2012

While most 5 year olds are learning to read and ride a bike without training wheels, Deng Jongkuch was running for his life across the African desert. Sudan’s civil war claimed more than 2 million lives and caused Deng to be separated from his family for 18 years. Deng is one of the Lost Boys of Sudan.

His horrific past started in 1987 when he walked for three months to find refuge in Ethiopia. Roughly 20,000 unaccompanied minors began the journey, but only 16,000 remained when the group arrived at the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya in 1992.


The Lost Boys created makeshift families to survive, and the refugee camps provided security, food rations, donated clothing, and basic education. Deng began his schooling in Ethiopia but completed high school in Kakuma.

After living in refugee camps for 14 years, Deng’s life took an unexpected turn when he was given the opportunity to resettle in the United States. Through a government bill sponsored by the United Nations, Deng moved to San Jose, California, in March 2001 with 58 fellow Lost Boys. He earned an associate’s degree before graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in health services administration and a master’s in public health.


Deng lived in America until 2011 and now serves as site administrator at Memorial Christian Hospital in Werkok, South Sudan.

“I returned to Sudan for the first time in 2005 after 18 years,” Deng stated. “The war destroyed the healthcare system, and people are dying from preventable diseases. This tragic situation inspires me to be part of the change in Sudan. I am showing them love by praying for them and taking care of their needs.”

MORE: Watch the docu-mentary God Grew Tired of Us to learn more about the Lost Boys of Sudan and to see firsthand how love helped them survive.

I'm a Blogger

An excpert from I'm a Blogger
By Joy Phillips, South Sudan

April-June 2012

I’m a blogger, and I’ve been blogging about my life and Mango Ministries in South Sudan since March 2009 at www.joyphillips.blogspot.com.

My blog was born out of extreme frustration in formatting newsletters, some forced down-time while waiting for back surgery, and a lifelong desire to write for a public audience.

In this world of instant-everything, I believe the most important tool blogging can be used for is to mobilize prayer. Each time I update my blog, I update the prayer and praise section. I firmly believe that without prayer, even the best programs we implement will fall far from God’s intentions. Without prayer, peace will not prevail. It’s so easy to forget that prayer is the work. I consider it a real blessing to be able to communicate prayer needs and praises to you in an instant and know that God is using a virtual community to do His work in South Sudan.

As you read “Journey with Joy” and other missionary blogs, my prayer is that you will be challenged by the condition of our world and respond to invitations to be a part of His kingdom-building activities.

ACT: Add Joy Phillips to your prayer list by visiting her blog at www.joyphillips.
blogspot.com.