The mission of this trip is two-fold. First the team will work at our base in Akuak Rak with our long term partners. We will officially launch the Sewing Project by training a small group on machine care, stitching patterns, and more. These leaders will then teach others. This project will allow the people to repair their clothing, make their own school uniforms for the orphan and redeemed slave children there and eventually, to sew items that can be sold in South Sudan and the United States to develop a more self-supportive ministry. Additionally part of the team will cross the border into Darfur to share the good news and show the Jesus Film to an unreached people group known as the the Rezeigat or Janjaweed.*

We will begin this trip by continuing to minister to and train the South Sudanese team of evangelists. Our team will then accompany these leaders as we push into Darfur to reach an unreached people group there. This people group, the Rizegat or Janjaweed, number 300,000-400,000 and have received virtually no witness for Jesus. We will utilize both the Jesus Film and storytelling to communicate the Good News.*

The team will continue the work of carrying out relief efforts and telling the good news of the story of Jesus with marginalized communities and people groups like the Yazidi. Strategic locations and peoples will be targeted in a way that has long term implications with respect to ATC and our partners’ strategy in the region. A variety of methods of sharing the good news of Jesus will be employed.*

This team will continue Answering the Call’s ministry among the Yazidi people. This minority people group has historically experienced great marginalization and persecution, most recently suffering at the hands of ISIS. They have endured the traumas of loved ones being killed for their religious beliefs, having their children kidnapped and violence enacted against their wives and daughters. In contrast to this, the team enters to demonstrate the love of Jesus in word and deed. They will continue delivering relief in the form of food and kerosene fuel for the heaters in the camp. The team will take these opportunities to tell the story of Jesus and invite all into new life in Him. In addition the team will search out new opportunities for ministry at other refugee settlements in the area.*

Answering the Call’s discipleship program, Generation of Promise, is a two-week experience designed for young adults to discover of the heart of the Father, their identity in Christ and the battle that rages against His truths. This time also will include an exploration into missions and God’s call in each of our lives, all while adventuring, serving and resting in the lush Costa Rican rain forest.*

This team will join a local ministry that, alongside Answering the Call and other partners, has established a home for children whose parents were killed during the height of persecution in this country.The team will minister to these children. In addition the team will interact in villages surrounding this area to bring both the love of Jesus to the persecutors and hope for those who were so brutalized.*

The previous regime in Khartoum targeted this area in Sudan as the focal point of a genocide campaign. The bombing has ceased and for four years, Answering the Call has provided this region much-needed emergency relief, finally allowing the people to begin to rebuild. The team will minister in the area where ATC is constructing a secondary school. In addition to this, they will press into other nearby areas to share the good news by way of the Jesus Film.*

This trip will mark ATC’s first venture into an undisclosed country in Central Asia. While it is a new field, contacts have been established that will allow us to maintain our focus on telling the story of Jesus and coming alongside those who are facing persecution and oppression. According to Open Doors, the persecution in this country is very high and only increasing. Christians compose less than 3% of the population, but great openness to the Gospel and growth is being recorded. This nation has recently passed anti-conversion legislation, but this won’t stop the team from sharing the good news by way of the Jesus Film and in any other way possible.*

The team will encourage and accompany the local pastors and evangelists as they continue pushing further into Darfur to share Jesus with the unreached people group, the Rizegat or Janjaweed. The Jesus Film, storytelling and preaching of the good news will be accompanied by some humanitarian aid.*