Stacey D. Wheeler | EFC-MAYM Director of Communications and Church Planting Support
On Sunday, November 24th, Tony and I returned from a ten-day Evangelical Friends Mission Luke 10:2 Prayer Trip to South Sudan, East Africa, a country of 11,546,000 people. As we went to different cities and villages, people would frequently smile at us and say, “You are most welcome here!” For six days, we had the great privilege of joining a multinational team, a group of people who all desire to see the Kingdom of God come in an even greater way to the beautiful people of South Sudan. This was a life-changing trip!
After three days of traveling with the American/Mexican team of Matt Macy, Samuel Vasquez, and Kevin and Melissa Hoppock, through Chicago to Ethiopia, we arrived in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, where we met up with the Rwandan team of Brad Carpenter (EFM missionary), Jean Paul Nsekanabo (Associate Superintendent for Rwandan Yearly Meeting and Missions Team Chair), and Nicodeme and Annonciatha Basebya with daughter Joy (approved missionary candidate family from Rwanda). This mission field is unique in that it is EFC-Rwanda who will be taking the lead in sending the first missionaries into South Sudan. They’ve felt a sense that God wants to start a mission there since 2013. This is when EFC-Africa and EFM began discussing EFC-Africa sending their own missionaries out. Many different times of sharing, prayer, and travel have occurred since these initial meetings over ten years ago to get to where we are today—ready to send out the first missionary family in 2025.
There were several key goals for our six-day gathering in Juba, with the number one objective being to pray over the land, the people, and over the Basebyas who are planning to move from Rwanda to Juba Two (an up-and-coming suburb of Juba). We had many different times of prayer including one morning before breakfast when we met on the roof top of the hotel to pray out over the city. At other times we layed hands on the Basebyas and on Jean Paul, asking God to direct their steps. Another key goal during the trip was to visit schools for the Basebyas 12-year-old daughter, Joy. The family toured several private schools, prayerfully looking for the one they felt would work the best to keep Joy on the educational track they’re desiring for her. Another concern was housing for this special missionary family, which they are also continuing to pursue.
Juba Two is a fast-growing suburb of the capital city, Juba, where many refugees are returning in this peacetime era to reestablish residence in South Sudan. The South Sudan Field Study Group senses that the mission will likely launch in Juba Two. As well as visiting Juba Two, our group while in South Sudan flew to the remote village of Kapoeta for most of the day to discern if this might be an area of ministry and missions for the Basebyas. Annonciatha Basebya was able to meet and talk with a shop owner in the main marketplace who is also originally from Rwanda. He is a Catholic who might like to help with future missions work alongside the Basebyas. We ended our time with him by gathering and praying. During this encounter it felt like God was moving and leading us. We also visited a remote tribe where they allowed us to help them pump water into their containers at the water pump in their courtyard and go inside one of their enclosed fenced areas to see their homes. The children gathered around us and enjoyed peanuts given to them by Kevin Hoppock. Kapoeta is a more remote town with many rural villages in the area that are unreached people following animistic traditional tribal religions. The exploration and pre-launch planning teams have had their hearts drawn to the many remote areas of South Sudan, where few have heard that Jesus loves them.
It’s an exciting time to be a part of Evangelical Friends Mission as the Luke 10 Initiative five-year goal is coming down the final stretch into 2025. In October 2023, in Portland, Oregon, EFM held a think tank where six new mission fields were approved: Mexico, Ecuador, Greece, Northeast Brazil, Persian Gulf States, and South Sudan. Tanzania and an unreached people group in Southeast Asia are continuing to be explored as well. By November 2024 EFM had made a commitment to launch seven of the nine fields that were under exploration (the Balkans were recently approved). Those seven fields are now moving on to the prayer and pre-launch planning phases.
From November 5-8, before flying to South Sudan, Tony and I were able to attend EFM Board meetings in Brea, California. Tony is on the board, and I feel a deep passion to see missionary families cared for as well as to see the light of Christ go out to those who are hungry and thirsty for God, so I enjoy attending the meetings that aren’t closed to non-board members and this helps me to better know how to pray. Lead Superintendent Thayne Thompson and Kevin and Melissa Hoppock were also there, along with other board members. There were times of eating meals, praying, worshiping, and breaking up into groups to better discern the challenges and opportunities before us within each mission field.
EFM Executive Director Stan Leach, Matt Macy, and Dan Cammack led us in processing how best to go about the business of finding missionaries. Stan led us in a time of breaking into small groups and analyzing a passage of scripture to find the scriptural DNA within it to help us discover the ways God moves and calls us to become a part of what he is doing in seeing the Kingdom of Heaven come to earth. Evangelism, healing, and discipleship were frequently mentioned as each group shared what they discovered from their scripture passage.
We have 7 newly approved fields and few missionaries to go out into them, with the goal being to have at least two missionary families on each field. Our great need now is to find those who are called to GO. Prayer is becoming crucial in that we, alone, cannot “cast out a worker into the field.” As Matthew 9: 37-38 explains, . . . “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Only God can do that.
During these important board meetings, a new mission field was approved in the Balkans. Fred and Jonelle Liddell from the Northwest are approved missionaries who feel called to the area of Croatia. The interesting thing about this couple is that it is Jonelle who feels called, and Fred is supporting Jonelle and in agreement with her calling. They have two young children, a boy and a girl. They are currently building their prayer team and raising their funds to be able to set a date to move to the Balkans.
EFM has created the new role of Missions Ambassador to help get out the word by appointing those called to visit churches to help people know about the incredible opportunities to serve through missions and EFM. This will include regions organizing and naming people at crucial moments to physically visit and verbally announce a brief missions message from EFM to each local church. They are the ones with the “Help Wanted” signs, going into the churches to see who might be called by God to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (NIV, Mark 16:15).
As the newly appointed Prayer Coordinator for Friends Women, I’ve been asked to help establish three new area prayer teams to regularly cover Mexico, South Sudan, and Tanzania. A big thank you to Janet Penna (Northridge Friends/Kansas/South Sudan), Shelda Cay Kearns (Booker Friends/Texas/Mexico), Diane Newman (Bayshore Friends/Texas/Mexico), and Anna Cyr (Hutchinson Friends/Kansas/Tanzania) for agreeing to step up and lead prayer groups to cover these three mission sites given to MAYM to pray for. I’ve also started an Online Hour of Prayer that will meet once a month, January through October, on the fourth Tuesday of the month from 6:00-7:00 P.M. Our first meeting was on October 22nd with 11 intercessors joining in. Twenty-two women have signed up to pray with us. This meeting is not just for women—we just don’t have any men signed up yet! If you would like to join this Zoom prayer group, please email me.
According to the Joshua Project, there are still over 7,000 unreached people groups who have never heard about the gospel of Jesus Christ. In South Sudan there are more than 63 different ethnic groups with varying cultural and linguistic differences. There are 4.5 million Dinka, the largest tribe, followed by the Nuer with 2 million. Many of them have never heard about Jesus.
Matthew 19:26-30 has a lot to say about being sent out to tell people about the good news of the gospel: “Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’ Peter answered him, ‘We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?’
Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wifeor children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.’”
Is God calling YOU to GO? If not, what is he calling you to DO to help those called to go?
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