From Refugee Camp to Revival: How Pastor Moses Is Bringing Hope to South Sudan | On the Move Episode 40
A Facebook scroll, a 24-hour journey, and the sound of gunfire — inside one pastor’s determination to bring biblical training to a nation in crisis.
What does it look like when God takes something as ordinary as a Facebook feed and uses it to ignite a movement? For Pastor Moses, a South Sudanese refugee living in one of the largest refugee settlements in the world, it started with a scroll, a follow, and eventually a message that would change the trajectory of his ministry.
On the latest episode of the On the Move podcast, Leanne White sat down with her husband Steve White, president of 21C International, to tell Moses’ story—and to share how God is doing immeasurably more than anyone could have asked or imagined through the ministry of 21C.
A Pastor in a Refugee Camp With a Smartphone and a Calling
Pastor Moses was living in the Bidi Bidi refugee settlement in northern Uganda—one of the largest in the world—when he came across 21C International on Facebook. Like tens of thousands of other pastors across the majority world, Moses had felt the call to ministry but had no access to formal theological training. He had about a fourth-grade education. He couldn’t afford textbooks. He couldn’t travel to a seminary. But he had a smartphone. And he had a hunger for God’s Word.
21C’s Facebook page—which now reaches nearly 120,000 followers from around the world—posts short daily encouragements, Bible verses, and simple teaching. For pastors like Moses, it’s a lifeline. He followed the page, started commenting, eventually sent a message—and a relationship was born.
Steve connected Moses with Pastor Jabal, 21C’s national coordinator in Uganda, who had already felt the Lord leading him toward ministry among South Sudanese refugees. Jabal traveled to Bidi Bidi, introduced 21C’s training materials, and Moses was among those who began the program.
Leaving Safety Behind to Follow God’s Call
What happened next is the part of the story that stops you in your tracks.
Moses felt God calling him to leave the relative safety of the refugee settlement and return to Juba, the capital of South Sudan, to serve the growing church there. He left his wife and eight children behind in Bidi Bidi because, as he told Steve, it was too dangerous for his family to live in South Sudan. But he went anyway—because that’s where God called him.
Steve recounted a conversation with Moses during a walk along a dirt path on an island in Lake Victoria. Moses described listening to gunfire at night—sometimes from bandits, sometimes from broader conflict. The infrastructure in South Sudan is so poor that it took Moses more than 24 hours by public transport and motorcycle taxis (called boda bodas) to reach the team in central Uganda.
“These pastors humble me,” Leanne said on the episode. “Their love and their passion for the Word and their willingness to do just about anything to get further training—they know what they’re lacking and they are seeking it desperately.”
A Crisis Hiding in Plain Sight: 95% Untrained
Moses’ story is remarkable, but it’s not unique. According to current estimates, as many as 95% of pastors in the majority world have no formal theological training. The reasons are layered: low literacy rates, lack of financial resources, geographic isolation, the inability to leave subsistence farms for weeks at a time, and cultural learning styles that don’t align with Western-style academic models.
“You can’t take a fourth grader and put them in Bible college and call that accessible training,” Steve explained. “They can’t succeed with that.”
That’s where 21C’s model makes a difference. Rather than requiring pastors to come to an institution, 21C brings training to them—in their context, at their education level, and in a format that honors how they actually learn and process information. And the model is designed to multiply: pastors don’t just receive training, they learn how to share it with others.
What African Theologians Are Teaching the Global Church
The episode also took listeners to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where Leanne and Steve attended the ACTEA General Assembly—a gathering of more than 30 African nations’ top theological educators and academic leaders.
The conference wasn’t about inviting Westerners to educate Africa. It was about African theologians taking ownership of theological education on their continent—and contributing to global Christianity from their own rich perspective.
Steve shared a particularly moving moment: a woman in one of the breakout sessions questioned whether her commentary would have value since “the commentaries have already been written” by Western scholars. The room’s response was powerful—she wouldn’t be writing new truth, but she would bring an African perspective that Westerners simply cannot. When an African reads about the twelve tribes of Israel or communal decision-making in the early church, they aren’t translating ancient culture into a foreign concept—they’re reading about the way they already live.
“When an African writes a Bible commentary, they see things I would never see,” Steve reflected. “It kind of made me recommit myself to finding and reading more of the theological literature written by Africans, because they can see stuff that I just can’t.”
Immeasurably More Than We Could Ask or Imagine
When 21C International first set its growth goals, the team aimed for 25,000 Facebook followers by 2025. They surpassed 80,000 by the end of that year. Today, the page has nearly 120,000 followers, and more than 100,000 people have completed a live training course. The ministry is active across East Africa, Asia, and Latin America—and is now launching in the Philippines, with materials translated into Cebuano.
“God doesn’t waste experience,” Steve said. “He sets it up. He uses it. All of this, we can tie back to different things God put in our lives prior to this.”
And then there’s Moses—a man who wasn’t part of any strategic plan to enter South Sudan, but who God brought to 21C with a vision for training pastors in his war-torn country. He’s now launching leadership cohort groups in South Sudan, supported by Pastor Jabal in Uganda.
“We weren’t planning to start ministry in South Sudan,” Leanne noted. “But God saw fit to bring Moses to us with a vision for training the pastors in his country. And Lord willing, this is just the spark of something the Lord can fan into a beautiful flame.”
How You Can Get Involved
Steve closed the episode with a challenge: “Don’t just get the head knowledge—get involved.” Whether through 21C International, your local church, or another missions effort, there are countless ways to make a difference in the global church. When a pastor is spiritually healthy and equipped, it impacts an entire congregation—and, as Moses’ story shows, sometimes an entire nation.
Be praying for:
- Pastor Moses and the new leadership cohort groups launching in South Sudan
- The 21C team heading to the Philippines in April to launch the Cebuano Ephesians study
- The tens of thousands of pastors around the world still waiting for access to biblical training
On the Move is a podcast of 21C International. To learn more about how you can support the training of pastors in the majority world, visit 21cinternational.org.
