Mission ONE Partners Report
Increasing Persecution and Fruitfulness

It’s Personal

What makes a partnership healthy? Whether in business, family, or missions — a truly honest, trustworthy, fruitful relationship grows out of people caring enough to invest themselves in the wellbeing of one another.

The success of the recent Marriage Enrichment Retreat in Kenya with our key partners and their spouses was a dream come true. Over the years, my life has been deeply nourished by the heart-to-heart relationships that we have enjoyed with our dearest national partners — many of whom I’ve known since my first trip to Kenya 18 years ago. Seeing their marriages so enriched during the retreat was an indescribable joy.

While financial support is important, I believe the greatest treasure we enjoy as partners is an abiding, intimate friendship. I believe our African and Asian partners would agree. The personal investments we have made in each other’s lives, families, and ministries far exceed the value of dollars and cents.

Unhealthy dependency and poor accountability can be best avoided in intimate, caring relationships. I learned that truth growing up in a godly, nurturing family — and I’ve learned it in partnership missions.

We tend to live responsibly with those who have proven their love for us. That makes for a healthy partnership in any situation.

I Can Only Imagine

This popular Christian song talks about the glory that awaits believers in Heaven. Wonderful! But what about the heartache and spiritual need on earth right now?

During his recent visit, Pastor Severino told us stories about his life and vision.

I can only imagine what it would be like…

• to grow up in rural Sudan in abject poverty and inside a brutal civil war.
• to have uneducated, unskilled parents and to begin school at age 12 after being a hunter in the bush for many years as a child.
• to be raised in a culture that worships a goat as god—and then to hear about Jesus for the first time and watch a pagan community be transformed.
• to be a refugee from your own country for 19 years and to be reunited with your mother after 20 years of separation.
• to return to your home area and find no paved roads, bombed-out schools and clinics, and little infrastructure of any kind.
• to relocate your entire family back to Sudan, help establish the church, and build a bi-vocational Bible School to train leaders.

Severino’s story and his commitment to the Great Commission of Jesus Christ—in the face of such extreme obstacles—is truly beautiful, truly inspiring.

What if American Christians had that kind of commitment to Christ and His global mission?

I can only imagine.

Why “The Sudan Initiative?”

My heart has been deeply connected with southern Sudan ever since I met Idris Nalos on my first trip to Africa eighteen years ago. I heard stories of war, oppression, starvation, and persecution — perpetrated mostly by the Islamic government in the north. As Idris shared the gut-wrenching details that included his own wife’s depression and suicide, I marveled at his stick-thin physique, yet giant faith.

Over the years, Mission ONE has developed significant relationships with Idris and other consecrated national missionaries — like Hannington and Severino (quoted on the front page) — who have powerful ministries of evangelism, church planting, and relief and development in Sudan.

It is our honor to partner with such men of God and to work collaboratively to bless the long-suffering, beautiful people of southern Sudan. During this time of peace, historic opportunities are before us. Please pray about your role in “The Sudan Initiative.”

The Word Became Flesh

“We will believe you if one of you remains here.” Mission ONE partner Hannington Munyao said he was “pierced through” by these pointed words of the head elder of a remote village in southern Sudan. “The only time we will believe any church or organization is when they will leave somebody to live among us here.”

By God’s grace and design, the purpose of Hannington’s visit was to “deploy” a new missionary to this area. MUPE (Mission to Unreached Peoples) mobilizes churches in Kenya to send out their own missionaries to the unreached of East Africa. Mission ONE is honored to be their partner.

I have been reflecting on the statement of the village elder. His people wanted more than well-intended words and benevolent acts of compassion. They wanted someone to live among them — to identify with them, to understand them. Isn’t that what we all want…and need? Isn’t that why God — the Word — was made flesh and dwelled among us? (John 1:14)

Full of grace and truth, displaying the glory of God, Christ gave His life and shed His blood as a human. Now we humans have not only a Savior who forgives, but also a High Priest who is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” (Hebrews 4:15)

Our eloquence or benevolence will never bring lasting hope to a hurting world. Missions is more than passing through town on a short-term trip. Our national missionary partners understand this. Following the model of Jesus, many are leaving home and investing years of sacrifice and service in order to live redemptively among those who will otherwise never believe.

“We will believe you if one of you remains here.”

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