Reed Update

Welcome to our Blog! Will and I are excited to publicly announce that we just joined staff with World Harvest Mission and are beginning the process to move to South Sudan. We are hoping to move by fall 2014. Here is a little bit about the process that has led us to this point. 

After moving back from Nigeria in August 2012, we were unsure of what God had for us next. In the midst of looking into opportunities for jobs and further education in the U.S., God gently started tugging at our heart for overseas missions again in January 2013. After praying about a ministry to join, He led us to World Harvest Mission. One thing we love about World Harvest is their desire to minister in the midst of weakness, which if we are honest, we felt much of after returning from Nigeria. We don't believe we are ready for the mission field again because we have made ourselves strong, but rather because we are finding strength in God's grace. Throughout this process, God has been extremely faithful and gentle. 

After conversations with World Harvest and praying about where God would send us He quickly directed us to the need in Mundri, South Sudan.

South Sudan is the newest country in the world. After 22 years of conflict, South Sudan officially became their own country on July 9th, 2011. Due to the past conflict and infancy of the country, there is a lot of need! Will's focus will be in community development. His heart is in seeing people gain a better understanding of God's love for them. Through experiencing this love, he loves seeing people learn how to pass that love onto others, and therefore help break the bonds that have entangled them in the past. He is looking into different education and/or training opportunities to better prepare for the unique needs in South Sudan. I will be focusing on helping to meet the educational needs in South Sudan. Currently, the literacy rate is 27%. One way I will be doing this is by working with the missionary teachers that are already in South Sudan to help train local teachers in more effective methods of teaching. Through the trainings, we hope they will ultimately lead to higher standards of education for the children overall.

We are really excited for what God has in store for us! For more information or to ask any questions, feel free to leave a comment or e-mail us at: threed7@gmail.com or wcreed9@gmail.com. For more information on World Harvest Mission, please go to http://www.whm.org/. 

We will try to post more information as we continue the process and will update this blog regularly once we are in South Sudan.