South Sudan (MNN) — Six Christians kidnapped by unidentified gunmen in South Sudan last month have been set free, praise God. 

A report from Morning Star News identifies these believers as Young Life South Sudan workers. They were abducted while traveling in late September. They endured about five days of captivity, suffering harsh treatment and the loss of their belongings before being released on October 1.

John* is a gospel worker focused on both Sudan and South Sudan. He reached out to a leader among South Sudan churches, who said they weren’t sure what had motivated the kidnappers, other than perhaps money. 

“They know that there’s always this motive of the financial needs,” says John. 

That’s because South Sudan is one of the poorest countries in the world, facing serious political and economic struggles. A report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) estimated that this past summer, 55 percent of South Sudan’s 14.2 million people were at crisis levels of food insecurity or higher. That number has likely only increased. 

“We’re on the verge of the greatest humanitarian disaster, some say, including the UN, in our lifetime,” says John. “What that breeds is incredible desperation. Violence, robberies… these kinds of things are on the huge uptake.” 

On the political front, South Sudan’s president dissolved the government last month to clear the way for elections in December. 

“[South Sudan] became a new country in 2011. This is 2026, and they’re having their first election. They’ve had less than six months to prepare for it. There were two times before they were supposed to have an election,” says John.

Armed villagers from the Dinka tribe in South Sudan.
(Photo courtesy of Randy Fath/Unsplash)

Pray that the world will pay attention to the crises in South Sudan. God is moving in the midst of people’s struggle to survive, says John. One way He is doing so is through Christians serving in refugee camps. 

“In the ministry I’m involved with, we have evangelism and trauma healing teams in all of those camps in South Sudan. We’re doing medical ministry. Muslims are coming, and they can’t believe that Christians would do this,” says John. 

He sees a pattern in the way that Satan seeks to destroy people. 

“He works to create loss, and then deep grief over loss, and then the bondage of fear over future loss — to drive individuals to the point where they believe all is lost,” he says. 

“The power of the gospel doesn’t begin by changing the outside circumstances. The power of the gospel makes a person whole on the inside. It’s why it’s such a threat to Islam and other religions.”

But opposition rises as the gospel spreads. John says that many Muslims have been driven out of Muslim-majority Sudan by war. They are often disturbed to find themselves in the minority in South Sudan. Some followers of Islam have disrupted Bible studies, destroyed businesses and homes of Christians, “all in a response to try to stop the movement of the gospel,” says John. 

“Pray for Christians to focus on the gospel and not on who is to blame for their suffering.”

*Pseudonym

Header photo: South Sudan (Stock photo courtesy of Speak Media Uganda via Pexels)