More Than a Building
Following the reconstruction of hundreds of churches across the Sudans, Samaritan’s Purse built up local Christians to help their neighbors.
Reminders of the agony that Christians faced years ago are all around Good Shepherd Church in Wau, South Sudan. The soil on which many lost their lives, however, is exactly where the church thrives today.
A tree where enemy troops used to hang Christians for their faith now shades schoolchildren running through the yard; the buildings littered with bullet holes that once housed soldiers now host Sunday school classes for the church—one built by Samaritan’s Purse.
“Samaritan’s Purse was sent by God to help us.”
Regional church leader Pastor David Steven was raised and educated within the Good Shepherd Church community, watching its property weather decades of instability. Nearly killed amid the violence, he knew the arrival of Samaritan’s Purse to build a central church marked a turning point.
“Samaritan’s Purse was sent by God to help us,” Pastor Steven said. He helped Samaritan’s Purse identify which burned churches to rebuild in the early days of the project. “I praise God that He wanted to do something in me to help my people. That is why I am alive today.”
“We transitioned from the construction of physical buildings to the ongoing work of building the body of Christ.”
But the work of Samaritan’s Purse didn’t stop with the last block laid at the 512th church. The reconstruction project continues to be a foundation of our work in South Sudan and Sudan.
December 2012
Church Reconstruction Program reaches completion
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Yargot Episcopal Church in Aweil, South Sudan, becomes the 512th and final church reconstructed through the project. While the project officially ends, Samaritan’s Purse continues to disciple and equip the church through various courses, programs, and seminars to serve their communities in Jesus’ Name.
“As we wrapped up the church reconstruction project, Samaritan’s Purse intentionally started designing other programs that would enable these congregations to do more ministry,” said Samaritan’s Purse staffer Dave Philips, who formerly served as South Sudan country director. “We transitioned from the construction of physical buildings to the ongoing work of building the body of Christ.”
Samaritan’s Purse ministry teams today work with churches to train pastors, Sunday school teachers, and youth group leaders to help raise the next generation for Christ. We show the JESUS film in churches around the country and also conduct Biblical marriage workshops, trauma healing and peacebuilding classes, and sports outreach programs. Through evangelism conferences, pastors and other church leaders are taught how to effectively communicate the Gospel to their neighbors.
“We continue to support churches to help them effectively fulfill their spiritual mission of reaching and discipling people for Christ,” said John Nkunge, the ministry team lead for Samaritan’s Purse in South Sudan.
“I said that when I grow up, I will go and kill the one who killed my father. But today when I received this training, now I will forgive that person.”
At the Samaritan’s Purse-built St. John’s Church in Wanyjok, our courses help hurting youth like James. He had been told to hate the people who killed his father. He’s harbored that hate in his heart until finally being shown how to release it through Biblical principles he’s learned through our projects.
“I said that when I grow up, I will go and kill the one who killed my father,” he said. “But today when I received this training, I prayed for myself and said now I will forgive that person. I understand that I have been sent by Jesus to go and call the people to the Word of God.”
The Savior’s Words for All to Read
“What has saved me all this time is the Word of God.”
Another class developed during the reconstruction project that continues today is the Biblical Literacy and Discipleship program (BILD), which teaches the young and old how to read the Bible in their mother tongue.
Children, especially young girls, in the rural regions of South Sudan and Sudan rarely attend school. Even the educated can only read and write in English or Arabic, rarely in their mother tongue. In 2025 alone, nearly 2,000 people joined the tens of thousands to graduate from our program in the last two decades.
“This program has expanded the reach of the Gospel,” said Christian Bester, current country director for Samaritan’s Purse in South Sudan. “The South Sudanese have an oral culture. Now the people are not just hearing it secondhand but reading His Word in their own language.”
Our staffers train men and women how to teach basic literacy using the local Dinka, Nuer, and Luo languages. Those trained then teach 25 others in their home churches. Upon completion, participants receive a New Testament in their language.
“The knowledge that has been given to me has made me stronger, and it’s touched my heart,” said Peter, a former BILD student who, after graduating from the program in 2012, now teaches the literacy program to others at Good Shepherd Church.
Among his students, Elizabeth is clearly the eldest. As a great-grandmother, she decided to join her church’s BILD program because she wanted to learn to read the Bible in Dinka and teach the three generations who follow her.
“What has saved me all this time is the Word of God,” said Elizabeth, who’s been a Christ-follower for decades but had never before read her Savior’s words in Dinka. “I was not understanding what’s exactly in the Bible. Even though I am old, I tell myself that I must go to the BILD program so that I can learn the Bible for my family.”
A Partner in Crisis
“The sheep are left without a shepherd. Let me give my life strongly so that I can lead this congregation.”
In an area near Wau, once surrounded by lawless militias sent to suppress any sprouts of Christianity, Samaritan’s Purse rebuilt Pastor Paul Lueth’s church in 2011.
“Samaritan’s Purse wiped our tears,” said the pastor who has led his church since 2004. “We were like orphans, but you came to us like a father and healed our wounds. God heard our prayers.”
Through persecution, Pastor Lueth was called to the ministry.
“When I was a young man, my pastor was killed and burned with the church. We lost a hundred of our people that day and they kidnapped my close friend. I am a survivor,” he recalled. “After that I said, ‘The sheep are left without a shepherd. Let me give my life strongly so that I can lead this congregation.’ ”
“The more the persecution, the more we come close to Jesus,” Pastor Lueth said. “My church was built in the blood of the Christians before me.”
July 2011
The Republic of South Sudan becomes an independent nation
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A referendum officially grants South Sudan complete independence from Sudan, becoming the youngest nation in the world to date. Samaritan’s Purse opens an office in Juba, the new nation’s capital, as our center of operations.
Following his church’s reconstruction, Pastor Lueth taught the BILD curriculum to church leaders in nearby congregations.
“People were learning the Word of God, and it changed their life,” he said. “They stopped practicing idolatry and stopped killing each other. Love and unity came in.”
Our partnership with Pastor Lueth’s faithful congregation remains intact today. Just last year, Pastor Lueth contacted Samaritan’s Purse after nearby attacks flooded his community with thousands of hungry, sick, displaced families. We supplied food; shelter items such as mosquito nets and sleeping mats; personal hygiene products; and emergency medicine for his church to distribute. When cholera broke out among the people, we installed hydration points. A similar attack earlier this year displaced hundreds of families into Pastor Lueth’s community, and Samaritan’s Purse is once again partnering with the church to serve their neighbors in Jesus’ Name.
Please prayerfully consider supporting the ongoing work of Samaritan's Purse in the Sudans.
