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“Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction.”  2 Ti. 4:2

• 2015 Mission Report.

I am very thankful to God for his grace and privilege of calling an unworthy sinful man like me to be one of his disciples. Thank God for raising and using me as the chapter director for South Sudan. From the time I got a job with Oil Company, I faced a big challenge in serving God. I used to spend more time in oil fields than in Juba city. This affected my ministry as a chapter director and as a Bible teacher. Two years ago, South Sudan UBF and coworkers worldwide prayed for me to get a permanent job in office headquarters in Juba. God answered our prayer, and I was transferred to work in the HQ office in Juba. Thanks be to God.

Last year we studied the book of Genesis and the book of 1 Corinthians. God blessed us through these studies to learn about him who is the creator of all things for His glory, and to learn that he created us for mission. In the book of 1 Corinthians we learned that South Sudan UBF should grow and participate effectively in world mission vision through pioneering work. I delivered Sunday messages with shep. Johnson Deng in turn during the last year. Since then, we have been praying to pioneer the major five public universities in South Sudan. 

We held three conferences: the Easter conference, the leader’s conference, and the summer Bible conference. We first held a one day Easter conference on May 2, 2015 with 35 attendants. The title of the conference was, “The Gospel and the Power of Resurrection.” We had two lectures: “The Gospel of the Resurrection” and “The Power and the Glory of the Resurrection.” God blessed us to learn the importance of faith in the resurrection in Jesus. All of us accepted Jesus deeply into our heart as the one and only way of solving the sin problem in South Sudan.

On the 17th of July, we held a one day leader conference, in which we studied three lessons from the book of 2 Timothy chapters 1–4 under the title, “Good Soldier of Christ Jesus.” Dr. Oyor Moses lead all the studies, where a total of 13 leaders attended. Through this conference, we repented of our spiritual laziness and renewed our zeal and spiritual identity as soldiers of Christ Jesus.

On December 4–6 we had the Summer Bible Conference under the theme, “In the Beginning.” In this conference, we learned about God who changes useless sinners into great men and women of faith. In a sinful world living under the darkness of idol worship, God called one man to be the ancestor of faith and a source of blessing to mankind. Through this message, God planted hope in our hearts for South Sudan. Although we are living in dark times of civil war, God is raising UBF shepherds to be a blessing to the people of South Sudan and to the world. 

South Sudan is full of corruption, tribalism, immorality and hardship. Through Joseph’s life, we learned to stand firm and continue to live a godly life despite our difficult situation. Joseph was a slave but he did not live as a slave, instead, he lived as a good shepherd for the Potiphar household and the prisoners. Because of his life of faith, God could raise him as a blessing for His people and Egypt.

During this conference we could raise four growing Bible students as shepherd candidates. One of them is named Sabino Apar, who was a sheep of late Shp. Peter Angelo in Malakal. He is very active and loves God’s word, but he has a complaining mind. There is also Berthlomaus William who joined UBF in 2012. At first he was not faithful to Bible study, but when Dr. Oyor took care of him, he could fix his eyes, mind and heart on UBF bible studies. Bol Anayan is another candidate who despite joining UBF only one year ago, already has great zeal for Bible study. He studies the Bible and attends Sunday worship services continuously and he is a good example to growing sheep. He confessed and repented of his alcoholism and sexual immorality which began from a young age. Stephen Dak is another shepherd candidate. He lived a sinful life yet claimed to be Christian. However, after he joined UBF and had deep Bible study, God helped him to repent of his sins and live a new life in Jesus. Since then, he received new hope and direction for his life. 

On December 20, we held our Christmas worship service with twenty five attendants. Dr. Oyor Moses delivered the Christmas message based on Matthew 2: 1–12. We learned that we must seek Jesus sacrificially and devote ourselves to him until he alone become the purpose of our life journey. Afterwards, we had testimony reading time and eating fellowship to celebrate.

• Bible House Construction

On the 24th of July, I was informed by Helen Jung about a $50,000 donation from Chicago UBF, followed by a $8,347 donation from Canada UBF, and another $25,842.36 donation from Chicago UBF, as well as a $22,066 donation from Korea UBF. The grand total we received is about $106,215.36. We have used about $52,500 so far, with a remaining balance of $52,100, not counting a small amount in the local currency. Thank God and everyone who showed support for this project. Construction should have finished by now, but due to a cash withdrawal problem in USD currency, we experienced delay and the construction progress has slowed down. Currently, we just finished the concrete frame. Still, the progress of the building partition has started and I expect the USD currency problem to be solved soon because the margin rate between the black market and the government official rate is almost closed. May God bless us to solve the problem in order to finish the construction as soon as possible. May God bless this Bible house to be a source of blessing for South Sudan as well as other nations in Africa. Our plan is to complete and finalize the building process by the end of January 2016. Upon its completion, we invite everyone to come for a dedication ceremony to pray for the South Sudan ministry. It will also be a good chance for anyone to see the Juba capital of South Sudan. 

• 2016 Prayer topics:

• For all members to have spiritual zeal & new vision for God’s mission in 2016.
• For Peter’s PhD studies to be successful and for his self-supporting missionary life in Egypt.
• To have 30 1:1 Bible study and SWS in 2016.
• To raise 12 disciples of Jesus within two years.
• Raise three house churches within two years.
• Finish the Bible house construction.

One word: preach the Word in season and out of season.

Padiet Deng