Tech for mission

Tech for mission:

how cutting-edge tech is transforming lives

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You heard it here first. BMS World Mission is harnessing the powers of science and faith to transform mission, thanks to your giving.

Technology is transforming mission. Evangelists are using social media to reach those who want to know Jesus in places where it’s too dangerous to ask about faith. Scientific advances and faithful BMS supporters are improving antenatal care for South Sudanese women in Uganda. What if science and faith were not arch-enemies but actually long-lost friends?

Your faithful prayers and generous giving are supporting BMS in bringing science and faith together across the world to transform lives. Bidi Bidi refugee camp, Uganda, now a settlement the size of Birmingham with over a quarter of a million people, is one of those places.

A woman sitting in a plastic chair with her baby in Bidi Bidi refugee camp, Uganda.
Aya Joska arrived in Bidi Bidi refugee camp fighting for a future for her and her unborn baby.

South Sudanese refugees have fled a terrifying and brutal civil war, with hundreds of thousands arriving at Bidi Bidi camp. Aya Joska is one of the conflict survivors living there. She was pregnant when she ran from men armed with guns and machetes, escaping with the clothes on her back and her unborn baby.

Arriving at a refugee camp may have meant safety for some, but it wasn’t total security for Aya. With 99 per cent of maternal deaths occurring in low-income areas, the odds were overwhelmingly against her. “As a pregnant woman, you’re literally hundreds of times more likely to die from conditions such as pre-eclampsia, infections and haemorrhages in low-income countries,” says Dr Andrew Shennan, Professor of Obstetrics at King’s College London. “Often, it’s not because of a lack of sophisticated treatment, but because, in places like the UK, vital signs are regularly checked, and symptoms are discovered early on.”

A blood pressure monitor called the Cradle Device being used in Bidi Bidi camp.
Bidi Bidi camp needed an early detector that could be used by untrained people, that’s easy to use and understand.
A man with a blood pressure monitor smiling at the camera from an ante-natal care room.
A key component to antenatal care in the UK is to be seen regularly and have your blood pressure checked.

That’s where technology stepped in. Dr Shennan spent the best part of a decade developing a highly accurate, easy-to-use blood pressure monitor called the Cradle Device. Not only does it measure blood pressure, but it also identifies symptoms. It tells the user if action needs to be taken using a simple traffic light system. If a woman’s vital signs trigger a red light, then health work volunteers can get her to hospital as soon as possible. “By detecting these conditions earlier, than you can prevent the mother from dying,” says Dr Shennan. “Her other children are 50 per cent more likely to die if she dies.” So when you protect the mother, you’re also protecting her children.

The Cradle Device is relatively cheap and charges with a simple micro-USB charger which most people use to charge their phones and, cleverly, it also can be plugged into a solar or car battery. It’s a device perfectly suited to refugee situations. And your support for BMS has delivered 700 of these Cradle Devices to go into UNHCR camps in Uganda. Thanks to your prayers and giving now 7,000 women are having their blood pressure checked regularly by health work volunteers. It’s a life-saving measure for mothers and their unborn babies.

A baby sleeping wrapped up in cloths in the arms of her mother.
With the power of technology, Aya was given the antenatal care she needed to give birth to her beautiful baby, Blessing.
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And there’s more exciting news ahead for BMS’ South Sudan’s Conflict Survivors appeal. We’re exploring ways to help displaced people within South Sudan. So look out for an update soon! Right now, though, please consider taking a special offering in your church or making a donation now. Why not join churches across the country on 20 October, 27 October and 19 January who will be gathering to take a special offering as part of Survivor Sundays? Your giving won’t just help South Sudan’s conflict survivors. You’ll be helping to share the fullness of life in Christ among the powerless and poor, with those who never had a chance to hear Jesus’ name, all over the world.

#TECH FOR MISSION

There are even more ways that technology is being used for mission at BMS. In the next Engage magazine you’ll learn how social media is being used in evangelism. Live streaming platforms are being used to reach out to people in places where it’s too dangerous to ask about Jesus. You heard it here first, so watch this space.

BMS has always pioneered in mission. And technology is just one of the exciting tools we use to pioneer today.

Words by Melanie Webb. 

Pictures from the frontline: South Sudan’s refugees in photos

This is the South Sudanese refugee crisis. These are the people who survived the civil war in South Sudan. They’re helping each other, but they need you to stand alongside them.

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He was crawling. And when David Dunham met him, Modi Emmanuel wouldn’t shake his hand without wiping the dust off first. Modi’s story is not unusual.

In November 2018, a team from BMS World Mission visited three refugee camps in Uganda to film South Sudan’s Conflict Survivors. David was part of that team. These are his photographs.

Modi Emmanuel, a South Sudanese refugee, kneels on the ground in the Paloyrina refugee camp.
"It's hard to understand the reality and depth of the need in the refugee camps until you see it firsthand. We must respond."

“When I met Modi, he wasn’t in his wheelchair. He was on his hands and knees.

This young man who has suffered so much was so thoughtful and so conscious of the dust on his hands that he refused to shake hands until his were clean.”

South Sudanese children sit in a make-shift church in this refugee camp.

“Not every child who flees war makes it to a refugee camp. Many of those that do arrive alone having witnessed the death of a loved one or companion on the journey.”

South Sudanese people in refugee settlements are already helping each other. Will you stand with them?

A South Sudanese pastor high-fives children in a refugee camp in Uganda.

“Patrick has been a refugee three times. He’s been arrested for no reason. Imprisoned in a shipping container. Lost every possession. And now he’s helping other refugees, like these children.”

Click here to help South Sudanese refugees
A South Sudanese farmer stands in the field of corn that he grew using seeds provided by BMS supporters.

“Dube fled his home with his three young children. He lost everything he owned. A friend allowed him to use a field to grow crops, and the seeds he planted came from UK Christians, acting through BMS World Mission.”

Since the civil war in South Sudan began in 2013, 4.3 million people have been displaced and hundreds of thousands of people have died. Most of the refugees are women and children, who have walked hundreds of miles to find safety in neighbouring countries like Uganda. Disease and malnourishment mean hundreds of thousands of people are still at risk. And you can help them.

Give today and hold a South Sudan’s Conflict Survivors service at your church. Find all the resources you’ll need here.

“The people living in these refugee settlements are probably some of the most courageous and beautiful I’ve ever met,” says David. Thank you for helping South Sudan’s conflict survivors.

Support South Sudan's Conflict Survivors Click here
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Words and interview by Laura Durrant

Humans of South Sudan

Humans of South Sudan

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How can I help South Sudanese refugees?

There are still more South Sudanese refugees who need your help. You can help refugees from South Sudan by showing South Sudan’s Conflict Survivors in your church or by giving today.

Thank you for your prayers and giving which are already making a difference.

The people you’ll meet in this story have survived the conflict in South Sudan. Now in refugee camps, they’re still in danger from disease and starvation. And there are thousands more like them.

Susan

A woman in a wheelchair outside a shack made out of straw.
Susan's joy is amazing. She lives an isolated life, yet her faith is unwavering.

After driving through shrubbery, we abandon the car and walk for almost an hour. We fight through the grass and branches as we head further away from civilisation. I am about a mile from the border with South Sudan. Surely no-one can be living here.

But I am amazed to find a hut, providing barely any protection from the rain. And inside, a solitary woman. Susan.

Susan has leprosy and her hands are beginning to curl in on themselves. I ask her how she ended up here. “I was chased by the government and the rebels,” she says. “I am not able to walk, so I started crawling. I never made it to the camps.”

Because Susan hasn’t made it to an official settlement to register as a refugee, she’s not eligible for UN food relief. You’ve been providing her with emergency food rations – support that has most likely saved her life.

Click here to watch South Sudan's Conflict Survivors

South Sudan's Conflict Survivors DVD featuring a group of boys high-fiving

You’ve also helped train the pastoral activists who found Susan. “I don’t get many visitors here. The team share the word of God with me, and they pray with me. That is how I get my strength.” As I walk away, I know we’re leaving her lonely, but never alone.

Joice

Family: Mother of four children, including five-month-old twins, Sarah and Sharon.

Location: Bidi Bidi, the world’s largest refugee camp with a quarter of a million South Sudanese refugees.

Condition: Suffered from edema and pre-eclampsia while pregnant with her twins. Untreated, these conditions can be fatal.

How you helped: Joice’s conditions were detected because you paid for a highly accurate blood pressure monitor to be given to a volunteer health worker in Joice’s community. The volunteer found out Joice had dangerously high blood pressure. He kept monitoring her throughout her pregnancy, and at eight months she was given a C-section which was vital for her survival.

What Joice says: “Without this device, I was going to face death. I am giving you thanks. I am now okay, and my children are okay.”

A South Sudanese mother hugs her twins in Uganda

Nancy

Fourteen-year-old Nancy hops up to us at impressive speed, her foot scuffing along ground. Her right foot is twisted and she can’t walk on it. The uneven ground is hard to move across. It’s clear Nancy can’t move far from the temporary home she is living in.

Because of her disability, Nancy couldn’t go to school. “Children would tease me because I’m not able to move,” Nancy says. You’ve helped BMS partner Hope Health Action transport wheelchairs to people like Nancy, and now Nancy can get to school.

“I am very happy with my wheelchair. It can take me anywhere,” says Nancy. “I want to be a nurse.” It’s the most confidently she’s spoken.

A South Sudanese girl in a blue wheel chair in front of a tree in Uganda.

We want the UK Church to be at the forefront of raising awareness of the conflict in South Sudan. You can help. Our 2019 appeal resource South Sudan’s Conflict Survivors is now available to share with friends and to run at your church’s harvest service this year. You can also download this story to share with others or subscribe to Engage to read more about the humans behind the South Sudan crisis. Together we can make sure these incredible conflict survivors are not forgotten.

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Want to share this story? Why not print it out to share with your church!

Original article featured in Issue 44 of Engage, the BMS World Mission Magazine. Edited for the website by Melanie Webb.