Hope and Growth in Ezo: Ministry Updates from June–August 2025
Episocpal Diocese of Ezo
Western Equatoria Internal Province
Anglican Communion
Activity Updates for the Months of June – August 2025
Dear friends, greetings to you from Ezo in the name of Christ.
Thank you for your prayer and support towards our ministry as the Episcopal Diocese of Ezo. Here are the updates from what we have been doing in the last three Months.
Evangelism outreach including open air, door to door and institutional outreach
A week of outreach known as Week of Witness was well observed in the first Week of September where members and ministers of every congregation in the Episcopal Diocese of Ezo went out to reach every household, institution and market place with the Gospel of Christ in form of door to door, open air and institutional ministries. In the exercise, the Gospel was preached in almost every market place, institution such as hospitals, schools and both public and private offices. The ministry also involved prayer for the people facing unbearable situations in their lives, families and work. As a result, many made commitment to follow Christ and serve him. The pictures above were taken in Ezo main market and Nabiapai border market (the border of the three Countries namely South Sudan, DRC and CAR).
2. Many gave their lives to Christ and made commitment to serve after Evangelism outreach
After the Week of Witness, many presented themselves in our Parishes and openly came up in front of the congregations to repent of their sins and make commitments to follow Christ. They asked for prayer, counselling and Discipleship. The Parishes received them and organized lessons for them, some will attend for a Week, others who are due for baptism and confirmation shall attend lessons for Months. There shall also be a time to time follow up discipleship meetings for them. The above pictures were taken in St. Paul’s Cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of Ezo.
3. Made additional desks and benches for ECSS St Paul’s High School – Ezo
Made over 80 additional desks and benches for ECSS St. Paul’s High School which is a new High School just started as the only functional High School in the entire Ezo County to attend to hundreds of candidates who have completed Primary school in the area and have no access to High School. Many end up just roaming around, influenced by bad peer groups, face early marriages and unwanted pregnancies. The school has just been started and has no classrooms of its own yet. It is currently occupying 4 classrooms of ECSS Masumbu Nursery and Primary School. We appreciate you friends for your kind contribution towards the work of the benches. There is still need for more benches as the number of students continues to grow.
4. Supported Vulnerable and Internally Displaced people with basic items including clothes for children, bars of soap and packets of salt.
Supported 615 (205 Male; 410 Female) vulnerable and Internally Displaced Persons mostly from Tambura with basic items including clothes for their children, bars of soap, sugar and salt. They highly appreciated the kind support and gave thanks you friends who generously contributed the items.
5. Generous giving of first harvest for Church ministry
In the last week of August, congregation members across the Episcopal Diocese came to Church with the first produce of their harvest and presented them to support the ministry of the Gospel in terms of feeding the needy and providing meals during essential diocesan meetings. The food items are mostly groundnuts, rice, cassava, cowpeas, and beans. The giving is a tradition was started by the believers in Ezo years back and was accepted by Ezo diocesan general synod. The above pictures were taken in St Paul’s Cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of Ezo.
6. Completed construction of the wall of the Episcopal Palace of Ezo
To address the lack of residence to accommodate the Bishop of the Diocese and his family, the Parishes came together, worked jointly, made bricks and mobilized other resources such as water, sand, cement, aggregate, murrum soil etc for the work of construction of the Episcopal Palace of the Episcopal Diocese of Ezo. Members of the Parishes who have skills committed voluntarily to do the work and the walls of the building are now completed. The next step is roofing of the building, but it requires resources. Mobilization of resources has started though moving slowly. We appreciate your prayer for the work. Some of the above pictures were taken during communal work around the building.
7. The current residence of the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Ezo
The current residence of the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Ezo is a one room house which cannot accommodate him with his family especially children or any other bishop who have children.
8. Progress towards completing Mothers Union’s Office
Mothers Union made progress into completing their office building. The building now requires plastering and painting. They are making local fundraising for the work. The building is very important as it will serve as women centre for them to be discussing issues affecting women or families and help seek solutions to the challenges. It shall also be a centre where traumatized women can find counselling. The women can as well develop entrepreneurship plans and activities in the centre to help them build income generating projects for self-reliance.
9. Pastors fellowship with focus on Spiritual leadership
Had 3 days Pastors fellowship involving training mainly on spiritual leadership attended by 72 (52 Male; 20 Female) Church leaders including Priests, members of Lay Readers, Mothers Union, Evangelists and Youth. The fellowship was concluded with a big Sunday Service which brought together many people including government officials, community leaders and members of other congregations.
10. PRAYER ITEMS:
Please, pray for the following:
Conflicts in South Sudan: After the arrest of the First Vice President of the Republic of South Sudan in March 2025 at the order of the president of the Country leading to his current court prosecution, things have been moving from bad to worse across the Country in terms of security and economy. The groups loyal to the Vice President and those loyal to the president have been targeting each other causing serious security problems and economic hardship almost everywhere. This includes road ambushes along lifeline roads such as Ezo – Juba roads where innocent civilian vehicles are shot at and burnt, drivers killed, people abducted and not accounted for, motorbikes burnt and travellers robbed on the roads hindering movement of traders and goods. They also include armed confrontations or attacks, arrest of key political figures or loyalists and assassination of key individuals among the conflicting parties. This has made some old existing conflicts such as communal unrest in Tambura become worse.
We in Ezo are working hard to see that our people keep away from conflict as they pursue peace. As a result, Ezo remained relatively peaceful and is hosting thousands of IDPs from Tambura and Refugees from the neighbouring Countries of DRC and CAR. However, The County is still affected by economic hardship since the lifeline roads that are used to help the County to access essential goods and supply or seek markets for local produce are affected by insecurity. Hence, there is too much suffering in Ezo as the big population in the area scrambles over the limited resources available at their reach.
IDPs and Refugees: The Internally Displaced Person (IDPs) and Refugees hosted by the communities in Ezo. The IDPs are mostly from Tambura and Nagero and the Refugees are displaced from across the South Sudan borders with Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Central African Republic (CAR) due to violence in the areas. Their conditions are dire and the NGOs that used to support them face a great cut of funding especially from the U.S. administration.
Peace conference at a grassroots level: Seven locations or Parishes are chosen for four days conferences which shall focus on strengthening family relationships as the matter of building peace from family level. The Churches around a selected location or Parish shall all gather in the location or parish to attend the four days conference which shall be concluded with a confirmation service, licensing of new members of Mothers Union and special presentations from youth and Mothers Union.
Education and Health: The situation in the area of education and health is that, UNICEF and WFP used to work with International NGOs in Ezo to offer support in the two areas which could reduce the challenge faced by internally displaced person and refugees. The NGOs including World Vision, INTERSOS, RDAA, JRS used to support with programs such as school feeding, education and medical supplies, provision of benches and desks to some schools, provision of scholastic materials and some constructions, but currently, all those are no more. The population currently depends mostly on the little services that the Church is trying to offer as the government claim they don’t have funds to run the programs.
High School: The entire area of Ezo County with a population of over 109,230 people has been without a single functional secondary / high school to offer access to high school education to the many children who complete Primary Education across the County. Without secondary school, the children who complete primary school end up roaming around with nothing useful to do for their future. This has forced parents who can afford the costs to send their children far away elsewhere to seek secondary school education. For example, some parents who are able to raise the costs sent their children to Yambio, Ibba, Maridi which are hundreds of miles away and some have sent them as far as Juba (400 miles) to get access to such learning. However, when a child is sent that far from his/her parents, he/she is exposed to so many challenges and dangers such as the need for accommodation, feeding, parental care, health care and etc. Those who cannot provide such basic needs leave their children to become so vulnerable and exposed to bad influences. Many of the children end up dropping from school or being misled by bad peer groups. The government in the Country is not able to establish and operate such schools in Ezo due to lack of funding to motivate teachers and other workers who can run the schools. The Episcopal Diocese of Ezo heard the cry of the community for access to high school and has mobilized resources to start at least one secondary school known as St. Paul’s High School. The Church mobilized community members and parents to contribute towards the school needs such as incentive for teachers and other basic school requirements. The school is now operating with 3 classes namely senior one, two and three, but lacks classrooms of its own and an office building.
Ministry of Mothers Union, Youth and Evangelists: they are working hard to improve on their income generating programs using local resources and to becoming self-reliant and sustainable. Pray that they raise more resources to establish the income generating projects that they have started.
Construction of Ezo Episcopal Palace: The Parishes working together to put up a residence that can accommodate the bishop of the Diocese of Ezo and his family. The family of the bishop is currently staying in Yambio as the bishop stays in Ezo. He is accommodated in only one room building in the diocesan compound.
11. APPRECIATION
We highly appreciate your prayer and every support you give to our people. Please, know that you are ever in our prayers. May our Lord Jesus Christ keep you and your families in good health.
