Visiting the Sent
This is my 3rd time in South Sudan. The first time was in 2019 on an exploratory trip. While my wife Pam and I filled in during a team transition, we were seeing if God would lead us to be a part of the Cush4Christ (C4C) team for two years. However, the Lord did not open up that door due to health reasons. The last two visits, in 2023 and 2025, were RPGM Board visits. I traveled with two other board representatives, Greg and Heather. These board visits are only about two weeks long but are packed with a lot to see and do.
The board’s primary purpose of visiting every two years is to see how the team is doing and encourage them in the good work they are called to. One way we encouraged them on this trip was to bring several suitcases of gifts and much needed items they requested. The trip was worth it just to see their faces, give them a hug, and see the smiles and joy of the children receiving gifts from loved ones back home. It was like Christmas in March.
During our visit, the C4C team consisted of 10 people:
The Smith family of five,
Scott Brinkerhoff, who has been there 16 years,
Megan Hanson, serving her second year,
The Blakston family of three, recently arrived from Australia.
The C4C team welcomed us warmly and provided us with lovingly prepared accommodations, provisions, and a schedule of activities and visits for us to capture the full scope of the ongoing work. We visited three Dinka pastors and had a meal in each of their homes. We worshipped at two out of three organized churches and one mission church. We visited three out of four schools, toured the relocated Weer Bei Radio station, saw a brick-making site for constructing a church building, drove more than an hour to visit a refugee camp, drove (again) about an hour and a half again to tour a compound built by a former team member and his family, and joined a shopping trip in the state capital of Aweil.
In the words given recently to the C4C team by team leader Zach Smith, we get a glimpse of their vision for this mission:
For as long as our mission exists, people will bring their needs to the team. That’s normal. As believers and partakers of the same Spirit we do also belong to the collective body in South Sudan. Yet, over time we want to see people turning more and more towards the church for help. Every time someone comes directly to us with a need or request, it ought to serve as a reminder that the churches are not yet where we’d like them to be. Won’t it be a wonderful day when people run directly to the church to receive help for their spiritual, emotional, counseling, and material needs?! This is our desire! In a very real sense, we are trying to work ourselves out of a job. We want the church to become so strong that they surpass our ability to effectively minister.During our visit, we also had meals and meetings with each of the C4C team members. We participated in prayer times for women and men, in team prayer and fellowship meal on Thursdays, and in team worship with an evening meal on the LORD’s Day. It was a pleasure to spend time with so many men and women I have known since 2019 and to see the progress of the work.
Pray for them as they work together to fill God's purpose in serving the Reformed Presbyterian Church of South Sudan (RPCSS). The goal is to see the RPCSS established as a self-governing, self-sustaining, and self-propagating denomination. There are currently three organized churches, six mission churches, and eight fellowships. It is of utmost importance that these three fully organized churches are established well enough in the gospel to help establish the other fourteen with committed, trained, and equipped men for ministry.
Dean F. is married to Pam. God has blessed them with four children and seven grandchildren. He is a ruling elder at 2RPC in Indianapolis and a board member of RP Global Missions.