By Fall 2023, 17 teams had been sent out to explore 11 different potential new mission fields since EFM’s Five-Year Goal launched in 2021. In November 2023, EFM made a commitment to launch 6 of the 9 fields that were still under exploration. Those six fields are now moving on to the pre-launch planning phases. See more information aquí.
A Luke 10 Pre-Launch Planning Trip occurs after EFM has made a decision of commitment to launching the mission field. EFM commissions Field Study Groups to complete a Pre-Launch Planning Report, which often requires further trips to obtain the details necessary for EFM to be able to deploy missionaries to a location to launch a new field.
In June and July 2024, a pre-launch planning trip took place in South Sudan. The following is a report written by team memner Matt Macy.
| Who Was on this Trip & Where Did We Travel? |
There were eight total on this team: six future missionaries and two missions-sending leaders, which included three from Rwanda, one from Mexico, and four from the U.S. The team was made up of Pastor Jean Paul Nsekanabo (EFC-Rwanda Missions Board Chair), Nicodeme and Anoinciata Basebya (EFC-Rwanda-selected future missionaries to South Sudan), Ximena Maldonado (future missionary from Mexico Yearly Meeting North), Ellie Ware (future missionary from EFC-ER), Luke Macy and Nathan Macy (future missionaries from EFC-MAYM), and Matt Macy (EFM Director of Mobilization).
We started with visit to the missionary training boot camp in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, followed by visits to several boot camp student graduates who are serving among the unreached in Tanzania (June 23-29). Then we went to South Sudan, where we spent time in Juba, Sherkat, Juba Two, Kapoeta, Gemueza, and Tarit (June 29- July 8). Nicodeme and Anoinciate Basebya stayed a few more days in the vicinity of Juba to gather more information.
| A Few Trip Highlights |
We made our third visit to the town of Juba Two, which is a very quickly growing suburb of the capital city of Juba. Many refugees who were internally or externally displaced are moving home, and this is one of the places where many of them are building simple homes and businesses. For the third time, we had future missionaries who were with us who felt a sense of peace and even a sense of “I feel like I am home” when visiting there. It seems like a great place to start the mission. We enjoyed fellowship with local people there, visiting a couple of homes, and spending some time at the water well helping run the hand pump to fill jugs.
We made a two-night trip in Kapoeta, our first time there, which required a flight on a 14-passenger Cessna Grand Caravan. We met the Tiposa Tribe, and we were deeply touched. This is an unreached tribe where child marriage, child labor, and each man having many wives, is the norm. Access to education and other basic services is a challenge in the area. Identity in the traditional tribal way of life and African traditional religions and worldviews are very important to them. This is a town that represents countless towns in “the bush” of South Sudan, where road access is limited/seasonal or non-existent. During the low-altitude flight to/from Kapoeta, we saw countless clans and villages throughout the countryside and felt our hearts drawn to taking the Good News of Jesus to them, in a spirit of humility, learning, and service.
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Our team had several visits with groups of people in Kapoeta. We were not allowed to take pictures, but it felt like we were walking amongst the pages of National Geographic, African bush tribes. Upon arriving at the town market, our girls talked to several girls, heavily adorned in jewelry around their necks, wrists, waists, and multi-ear and face piercings, who were happy for conversation as they rested in the shade. They appeared to be around age 16-17 but wouldn’t admit it or didn’t know their age and had their second or third child in their arms. We also had rich conversations of learning with a family outside of town, and also with people leading schools and a local hospital.
| What Did We Discover on Our Trip? |
As this was our third trip to South Sudan, after Luke 10 Exploration Trips in 2022 and 2023, the poverty and lack of infrastructure stood out, as we were thinking about how and where missionaries would live and what future strategies might look like, especially long-term. The Rwandan missionary family, Nicodeme and Anoinciata, are discerning how they would provide adequate education to their 11-year-old daughter. Also, in earlier trips, our minds were on immersion and homestays for launching the mission, but on this trip, we were also thinking about what minimum needs our missionary families will need for housing for long-term sustainability in areas where existing housing may lack in ventilation, water, electricity, sewer and even roads or security in some places.
We can see that the EFM South Sudan Field Study Group may be recommending that the mission look at sustainable options for starting schools, even before churches are planted. We also discovered that in order to pursue going to the vast areas of unreached peoples in South Sudan, we will need to be prepared to go to towns that can’t be reached by roads most or all of the year, but instead will require travel by small airplane. Discernment will require missionaries to immerse into communities in order to gain access to the information EFM will need in order to make long-term decisions and plans, but there is a growing sense of peace about Juba Two being a newer town that we could move into to get started in establishing an immersion presence and learning language, if not also getting a home base started for the mission there near the capital city of Juba.
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| What Are the Needs? Who Should Go? |
We believe that people with business experience, school administration, teaching, gardening or farming, hospitality, and organizing skills would fit well on this team. These roles, along with a variety of other physical and spiritual support roles for establishing a presence for this disciple-making work, will be needed by both short-term (two-year) or long-term (four years plus) workers. People from the U.S. or other countries who are ready to serve in humility as learners alongside and under EFC-Rwanda’s leadership will be needed.
Pastor Nicodeme and Anoinciata Basebya from Rwanda have been chosen by EFC-Rwanda to move to South Sudan as early as the summer of 2025. We also have young adults from the U.S. who are considering the possibility after further preparation and training. We are praying that the Lord of the harvest would send other mature persons with personal and professional life experiences who could be a part of this work to go to people who may not hear the Good News if we don’t go!
| Are you Feeling Called to Join EFM?
Are you interested in exploring missionary service? Do you know of anyone of any age who might be interested in exploring the idea of serving as a missionary overseas for two or more years? EFM is currently looking to contact and connect with people about opportunities to explore serving as missionaries with the Friends Church! To learn more, visit aquí or fill out this interest form. |
We look forward to sharing more news as it becomes available about what we are finding and discerning in EFM’s Luke 10 Initiative.
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