The Training Teams
After 8yrs of developing over 900 grads for the field, teams are taking their places in target regions of So. Sudan. These teams consists of a Team leader from the 4 yr. Missions Diploma grad program and a team of 7 teachers and trainers for training indigenous people for evangelism into un-reached areas. Phase 2 involves using these trainers educated at the Kakuma Interdenominational School of Missions from the Kakuma Kenya Refugee Camp to train leaders in the field in South Sudan to minister to the people of numerous dialects in the country.
Methods of Operations
Teams called FOB (Fixed Base Operations) are in place developing a core for training the actual outreach teams and developing Church Leadership Training centers on the mission field. The purpose of these training centers is to train people as leaders directly in the field.
Fixed band Micro Broadcasting is also used for electronic training of indigenous people. These transmitters are solar powered and used to educate in people in dialects which are unwritten. Thirty-four dialects have not been translated and have no outside communications. Fixed band broadcasting, therefore, is used to train these people by oral methods.
Tribal Arbitration Using Hi-Tech Methods for Low-Tech People
One of the most important needs for South Sudan to become an autonomous nation from the Islamic North is to develop peaceful interaction and economic development between the 97 basic tribes. This requires arbitration between the tribes. A project using a concept of Hi-tech methods for Low-tech people will help introduce the concepts of Christianity and change. This educational process will help develop the socio-economic development and interaction between the tribes necessary for the overall development of a unified and autonomous South Sudan.
One example of using Hi-tech methods is the “MegaVoice Project“. In 2006 Lifestreams International began a pilot program for Digital Bibles to be use by the graduate students of Kakuma Interdenominational School of Missions out of the Kakuma Kenya Refugee Camp.
The MegaVoice allows field workers to “transliterate” the Bible OT/NT with the Jesus Story and God Story(Biblical Apologetics) from English into unwritten Dialects. (Transliteration is thought to thought just like the paraphrased Bibles but into the proper figures of speech that are characteristic to the specific languages.)
Between 2007 and 2008, we have place approx. 500 field workers into target areas with this equipment. Daily the workers are able to verbally train and expose people groups to the Word of God before literacy. It is a fast track project and is incredibly cost effective at about $60.00 per unit by the time it gets into field use.
We have the expedient need of getting another 400 into field use in 2009. Once the equipment is in place, the cost to run the program is self-sustaining.
Of Special Concern: Young Sudanese Women
One of the greatest social help needs of post war southern Sudan is the young women who have war-time offspring and no husband. Most are under a displacement because of tribal and social rejection. Lifestreams International is developing a women focused broadcast which is designed to develop co-operative groups in various regions to care for and give an avenue of economic survival to the part of Sudanese community that is at risk. There is a need for support through contribution and partnership involvement in the areas of reproductive health, female educational issues. There is also a need for dedicated workers for short term mission training trips to specific locations and to specific people groups.
Out of over 900 students , we have trained 6 Sudanese women who are able to be involved in this specific training program. They need volunteer Christian female trainers. We are especially appealing to Afro-Americans who have a background for gender development.