Across the remote villages of Torit, isolation is one of the greatest obstacles to spiritual growth. Here, where land travel is fraught with severe security risks, poor road infrastructure and high transport costs, MAF can help bridge the divide.
Story by Suzie Anyuat Williams
“We had a big gap for most of us to travel to Juba by land—or for the trainers from Juba to Torit,” said Canon Peter Oduha, a pastor at the Diocese of Torit in South Sudan.
“It was a very great challenge because of insecurity, finances and the bad roads.”
For local church leaders in distant counties and villages, accessing basic pastoral training was once a nearly impossible task—with treacherous road journeys taking four to six hours. Today, a vital partnership between Agape Mission South Sudan and Mission Aviation Fellowship is bridging this divide, cutting that travel time down to just 28 minutes and bringing biblical trainers directly to rural church leaders.
Before this partnership took shape, many pastors in this area were unable to make the road journey to attend theological courses, due both to expense and risks. The lack of accessible training left many rural church leaders ill-equipped to address deep community trauma, economic hardships, and the spread of doctrinal confusion.
With the help of MAF, it has been easy and very good. The church members and pastors who are attending this course are very grateful and wish that MAF can continue bringing them here.
Canon Peter, a father of six, shared his happiness.
The training modules focused on solid biblical principles, equipping local Church leaders to move away from harmful prosperity gospel teachings and preach the pure message of Christ.
“Reformed theology is much needed in our community,” Canon Peter added. “This means that I must be reformed first. Then from there, I will take to the church what I have learned and train the congregation so that they must be reformed and take the gospel to the other members of the community.”
Training modules also covered critical social topics including Christian marriage, conflict resolution and effective communication among partners. Church elders were taught how to counsel young couples through financial stresses and material expectation gaps, helping build resilient homes and reducing domestic conflict.
When it comes to marriage, our young ones need to be trained and taught about it. We learnt from the training that marriage is very important, and marriage is a gift from God.
Elder Hellen Achiro Victor emphasised the importance of biblical guidance in building stable homes.
Grounding local church leaders in sound doctrine creates a far-reaching ripple effect of peace, transforming community mindsets and providing a life-changing opportunity for local youth to study, grow, and serve their communities.
Yohanna Habib, the youth representative for the diocese underscores the transformative power that this training holds.
When an opportunity like this comes, our youth take advantage to come in and be trained because most of them have finished secondary school and do not have the funds to continue with their studies. They will now have something to do and spread the Gospel to their people.
MAF and the Agape Mission South Sudan are working together to ensure that accessibility is no longer a barrier, empowering local church leaders to build stronger, peaceful communities and leaving behind an enduring legacy of renewal for generations to come.