It started with an innocent Facebook post. “Words cannot describe how much I want to go when I see they need an English literacy teacher at Cush Christian School in South Sudan! I would pack my suitcase tomorrow! Anyone else want to go so I can live vicariously through you?!”

Not long after, I got a message from Daniel Faris, the missionary deacon and new team leader of Cush4Christ. Was I serious about wanting to join them?

It is amazing to look back at how God led me down a topsy-turvy road into missions work. As a freshman at Grove City College, I became deeply involved in Project Okello, a group that raised awareness about the use of child soldiers by rebel groups such as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in East Africa. In 2009, the summer before my senior year, I joined the RP short-term missions team to Karamoja, Uganda, where I worked with a group of Orthodox Presbyterian missionaries. I was frankly disappointed that I’d be so far away from “the action” in the war-torn northeastern city of Gulu, but I figured it would still be a great experience!

When I waved goodbye to Karamoja that summer, choking back tears, I realized that I loved it there, but I wasn’t sure if I would ever go back. Yet in October 2011 I heard that the missionaries in Karamoja were looking for a teacher for the teenage missionary kids (MKs). They asked me to consider joining them, and God opened the doors for me. I planned on going for three months. Soon that was lengthened to six months, then nine. I eventually spent two school years teaching the MKs, who became like little brothers and sisters to me.

Alongside our roles as MK teachers, my friend Erika and I started a Monday afternoon kids club, which later developed into Karamoja Education Outreach (KEO), a Christian pre-primary school. I taught Sunday school and village Bible studies on a regular basis. The Karimojong kids at Nakaale and Alamacar Primary Schools were also my students. I learned to adjust to the difficulties of teaching there: fluctuating groups of hungry kids without books, without a good chalkboard, who didn’t speak English, who still didn’t know the alphabet after several years of schooling, whose school roof had blown off years before and was never replaced. As tough as it was, I treasured those Thursdays under the tree at Nakaale Primary School.

When I left for an eight-week trip home in July 2013, I didn’t even say goodbye to my Karimojong friends. I was planning to return in September, this time as a full-time teacher at the brand new KEO preschool. My shelf was full of books and two suitcases were full of clothes I’d bought in the market, worn-out flip flops, school papers I hadn’t thrown out yet, receipts, Christmas presents, and more. I never went back.

I can’t think of any decision more difficult than the one I made to stay home. I put on a smile, but inside I was crushed. The hardest part was the fact that I hadn’t said my goodbyes, and the uncertainty of whether I’d ever see my Ugandan and Kenyan friends again. There were many reasons for my decision to stay home. I felt sure that, just as God had made the way clear for me to go two years earlier, He was now settling my heart with the decision to return to America, painful as that decision was.

The path that brought me to this next step on my journey into longer-term missions hasn’t been smooth. More than once, I was ready to settle permanently into a comfortable American life. Yet, at each point, what I thought was a dead end was simply a bend in the path. With each turn I’ve found God has placed a wider vista in front of me. This time, the vista is South Sudan! I didn’t know much about the country of South Sudan, although I’ve followed the particular ministries of Cush4Christ for several years. A European Commission fact sheet from Apr. 16 reminds us that the crisis in South Sudan is far from over. The more I read, the more convicted I am that choosing to go was the right decision.

South Sudan is embroiled in a civil war, with ethnic factions causing significant roadblocks in the development of this new republic. At least 1.5 million people have been internally displaced since the civil war began, and over 250,000 refugees from other countries, primarily Sudan, have fled into South Sudan. An estimated 2.5 million people face serious food insecurity, and about one million are expected to be in a state of severe starvation. The United Nations has declared South Sudan to be a level-3 emergency, which is the UN’s highest level of humanitarian crisis, and it is considered the world’s most fragile state. After the First Sudanese Civil War (1955-1972), the brutal 22-year Second Sudanese Civil War (1983-2005), popularized by documentaries on the “Lost Boys,” the tumultuous secession that carved the Republic of South Sudan from the country of Sudan in 2011, and the new tribal civil war that broke out in December 2013, it’s no wonder generations of Dinka men and women have gone uneducated.

I recently asked Scott Brinkerhoff, the missionary who runs Cush Christian School, to describe the state of education in South Sudan. His response was poignant, and I could sense both the pain and the opportunity of the situation. “It’s hard to imagine a more broken educational system anywhere in the world.…Maybe Somalia? Seventy percent of the people are illiterate, which means they can’t read or write in their own language, much less English….Our kids will be the teachers of effective schools tomorrow,…and all this has a profound influence when you consider the growth of the church, not so much in numbers but in the people being able to sink their roots into the Word.”

God has immensely blessed the church-planting work of Cush4Christ, with over 2,000 men, women and children attending the 3 churches, 13 mission churches, and 6 fellowships each Sunday. Scott explained that “numbers [of Dinka Christians] are not a problem, but knowledge in the Scriptures, understanding, and application are all ready to be scooped up by eager young believers…if only they could read!”

This is the heart of the Cush Christian School vision. We hope to not only better the lives of the 80 students in attendance, but also to see a huge growth in discipleship within the churches, as more and more young people are able to read the Bible for themselves and share what they learn.

Is it a coincidence that God led the RP Global Missions Board to begin a work in this incredibly broken place? The hearts of the Dinka people, who have suffered so intensely for decades, are fertile soil for the hope of the gospel. Is it a coincidence that God blessed the Cush4Christ team with a man like Scott, who has such a heart for Christian education? Not a coincidence—providence!

The exact description of my job at Cush Christian School matches my dream job. I will be assisting a Dinka teacher named Kuan, who teaches English to the youngest students. I’ll help him understand the lesson plans in his teacher’s manual, work on pronunciation, brainstorm creative ways to teach the material, and assist him in the classroom. Our goal is to teach the students enough basic conversational English to prepare them for the challenges of the next school year, when they will learn the English alphabet and work towards doing the majority of their schoolwork in English. I absolutely love working with children, and my experience in Uganda has shown me firsthand some of the challenges and thrills that lie ahead. This job fits me like a glove. Again, not coincidence—providence!

My bumpy path into missions has led to an incredible opportunity that exactly fits the gifts and interests God has been developing in me. I’m thrilled to join Cush4Christ for an initial 18-month commitment as a missionary associate. This opportunity is an answer to several years of prayer on my part. As the Ward family transitions out of their role as team leaders, I hope I can be a blessing to the remaining team members: Dan and Natalie Faris and their sons Samuel, Liam, and Isaiah; Scott Brinkerhoff; Joseph Njuguna; Jan Buchanan; and intern Henry Fang. In my online exchanges with the team, I can tell I will love living and serving alongside these brothers and sisters.

The Cush4Christ team and the RP Global Missions Board continue to pray for more laborers in South Sudan—especially another teacher to join me and Scott at the school, and a long-term pastor who will devote himself to training Dinka men for ministry and shepherding the missionaries themselves. There is a great diversity of backgrounds on the team right now—American, Canadian, African, Chinese, Australian—and a wide variety of gifts. Just a few days ago I was marveling with one of my future teammates at what a blessing it is to see the global RP church working together towards a common goal: “a gospel-centered church for every community in Aweil and beyond.”

Maybe God has been working on your heart to fill one of these pressing needs on the field, even if just for a few months. Would you join us? If you can’t join us on the ground, then please join us in petitioning God that the right people will be prepared and willing to go.

I am truly thankful for the many prayers already sent heavenward for me as I make my preparations, knowing full well that God has an answer for every prayer, and that He gives abundantly more than we can ask or imagine! I’ve seen that to be true in my own life. Please join me in praying that we will see continued and abundant blessings on Cush Christian School in the years ahead.

­­­Emily is a member of the Rochester, N.Y., RPC and has participated in several RP missions trips. She’s got the missions bug and can’t wait to get boots on the ground in South Sudan! If you’d like to follow her life as a missionary teacher, check out her blog at www.emilypihl.wordpress.com. If you would like to join Emily as a teacher at Cush Christian School, please contact RP Global Missions.