Our Women Empowerment group near the town of Magwi, South Sudan is celebrating their first big success together!

Last week the group of women with a few extra helpers harvested seven acres of cassava, yielding 42 full bags that were promptly bought and exported to the local market in Magwi. The sum of all sales added up to 840,000 SSP.

The current average salary for a decent-paying job in Juba (South Sudan's capital) is 41,000 SSP. Each Women Empowerment group averages about 50 women per village. Dividing 840,000 (total cassava earnings) by 50 women comes out to each woman having earned an average of 16,800 SSP - a little over a third of the average yearly wage in one harvest! Talk about empowering! The women are planning to plant beans next.

Many of the women in our Women Empowerment Programs use their earnings to pay for their children’s education and health care, which is critical to rebuilding impoverished communities.

We celebrate not only for the physical harvests and successes these women have had as a step out of poverty but so much more the spiritual harvest that God is developing in each one. Already this year we've seen 55 women come to salvation through the women empowerment program! More than this, through our Women Empowerment program, we've also seen amazing growth in the spiritual walks many other women already have with the Lord!

For all of this and so much more, we celebrate the Lord!