lafon project
South Sudan
The village of Lafon is the county seat of Lafon County, which is home to the “Pari” tribe of South Sudan. The people of Lafon County have been devastated by the continuous wars plaguing the nation over the past several decades. The result is a severe lack of food, water, shelter, and basic medical aid. Many of these issues are exacerbated by poor infrastructure. During the wet season, Lafon village can only be reached with a bush plane due to the few main roads being regularly flooded and impassable. Very few people have access to quality schools or biblical teaching of any kind. Thousands of people in the county have been displaced due to food insecurity. With no other option, some are forced to live in refugee camps where living conditions are horrible, and abuses are abundant. When there is an extreme lack of food, violent cattle raids between tribes in the area are a common occurrence.
In April of 2024, a Hoplon team traveled to South Sudan to assess the needs in the country. During the trip, we met with government officials, parliament members, community leaders, spiritual leaders, and displaced refugees; all from Lafon County. We visited an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp where over 10,000 people from Lafon County have been living since 2013. We were blessed with the opportunity to speak with the refugees forced to flee their homeland, taking time to specifically document their needs. When asked what was needed in Lafon, the answers were the same across the board: “Our people need to learn how to farm so they can survive, but they first need to know God.”
While on our mission, we were able to travel to Lafon village in a bush plane to meet with local community leaders representing the surrounding area of Lafon County. During the meeting, our team listened to the community leaders as they explained their needs in the area. We also explained our intentions and visions to serve God and minister to people. After careful deliberation (and by the grace of God), the Pari community leaders in Lafon County decided to donate a sizeable portion of land for our team to establish an orphanage, school, and farming center. This compound and farm will also serve as a regional headquarters in the coming years as we conduct rescue operations and share the love of Christ throughout the country in the conflicts to come.
Lafon Mountain
Hoplon Ministries has established a relationship with our local partners, Okello Mark and Joseph Obur, who are originally from the Lafon area. At young ages, both were displaced from their homeland and orphaned by the fighting during the South Sudanese revolution. Since then, these men have surrendered their lives to Christ and now share a passion for the Gospel, orphans, education, and farming. Okello and Joseph are on the ground in Lafon leading the project, ministering to their fellow Pari tribe members and the surrounding communities.
Additionally, Hoplon is partnering with a local Pari church pastor in Lafon village named Angelo Otto. Angelo was also made an orphan during the conflicts in the Lafon region as a young child. Our partners, Okello and Joseph, grew up together with Angelo on the same orphanage in southern South Sudan. Years later, by God’s grace, they have reunited and are now be partnering together to share the love of Christ and minister to the needs of their people. Hoplon is proud to support these young men as they set out to serve God boldly.
Another critical branch of our Lafon project is our collaboration with farmers who utilize a farming resource called “Farming God’s Way.” Farming God’s Way is a holistic model of agriculture that teaches three integrated spheres of influence: Biblical, Management and Technology. It uses these central ideas and standards as an expression of the Kingdom of God, both physically and spiritually. In our farming training center, our teams will be utilizing this program to address the food insecurity and poverty crisis facing agricultural communities throughout the larger region.
Okello and Otto
Church destroyed by the Government of Sudan
Lafon Village