Sudan (MNN) — E3 Partners is sending out more mission trips over the next couple of months, including one to people in South Sudan with no written language.
In a village in Africa, a five-year-old boy stands surrounded by a group of people. The words he speaks have no written equivalent, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ is in them.
Jeff Johnston of e3 Partners says, “And in their native language, he’s sharing a story about Jesus healing the crippled man. And he’s sharing the story with these people. In the end, you can see in the video how everyone is captivated by it, and he shares the whole story. And then you hear them in their own native language at the end say ‘Praise be to God!’”
(Photo courtesy of e3 Partners via Facebook).
The South Sudan Trip
That’s why Johnston is so excited about the upcoming e3 Partners missions’ trip to South Sudan. “There’s unreached people groups there that are 99%, oral only meaning that if you hand them a Bible, they’re not going to know what to do with it. Because ultimately, their communication and their learning come through orality, it comes through speaking.”
E3 Partners has experienced orality teams that go to oral cultures, tell them the Gospel in their own languages, and share biblical stories with them. This is not a new program; Johnston says these teams have been doing this for over a decade.
He says, “And then the greatest thing about it is then they teach those people to be able to recite those stories themselves. So that when we leave and come home from those trips, they’re able to then go and continue sharing them with other people that our teams may have not been able to share with themselves.”
The South Sudan trip takes place in March, along with trips to Tanzania, the Philippines, and the Dominican Republic. “Those trips are really an opportunity. Ultimately, all of our trips are an opportunity to share the gospel with people, help raise them up as disciples for Christ, and then train them to teach others to do the same.”
Find your mission trip at e3partners.org/missions (Courtesy of e3 partners on Facebook)
Find your trip
While this is the primary goal of all e3 Partners mission trips, the Tanzania trips have an alternate purpose as well. “These trips, particularly to Tanzania, are opportunities for what we call community transformation. There are lessons that we can teach these communities, things that we may take for granted here, like just good hygiene practices, ways to bring your community closer together, all those kind of things.”
Johnston encourages believers to consider joining a mission trip from e3 Partners. To sign up for a trip, visite3partners.org/missions.
“We have . . . medical trips, sports . . . a lot of different things and so whatever your passion is, wherever you feel like God’s calling you, we have a trip for you.”
Please pray for the safety and health of all they send abroad in midst of scares like the coronovirus, and that e3 Partners would continue leaning on Christ.
Oral cultures can still be found around the world (Photo courtesy of e3 Partners)
