From left to right, Pastor Abdelaziz Aragi from Sudan; Pastor John Jock Beliu, Sudanese pastor in Atlanta; Nathan Kline of Friendly Hills Church; and Pastor John Nyuon of Great Commission International Church.
Packing your life into cardboard boxes, sending change of address forms, losing beloved items in transit, feeling excited and homesick at the same time: most people know the blessings and battles of a big move. The process of relocating is physically and emotionally demanding.
But for 117 million people in the world today, that move is not by choice. According to the UN Refugee Agency, violence, conflict, and persecution have forcibly displaced millions of people. Many who work as professionals like doctors, professors, pastors, or lawyers in their home countries are forced to take blue-collar jobs in an unfamiliar environment just to make rent.
This was the experience of John Nyuon, one of the millions of refugees displaced by conflict in South Sudan. In 1994, civil war forced him to flee South Sudan for Kenya, then Australia, then Virginia, then back to Australia before finally landing in Greensboro, North Carolina.
While settling into Greensboro, Nyuon met Nathan Kline, head pastor at Friendly Hills Church in Greensboro. By the time they met, Nyuon had become the pastor of Great Commission International Church, a congregation composed largely of other Sudanese refugees.
Introduced by David Hopper, a Friendly Hills ruling elder with experience in medical mission work in Sudan, the two pastors formed an immediate friendship. During the difficulty of cultural transition and some family illness, Kline served as Nyuon’s pastor, supporting his family in the midst of physical challenges and emotional discouragement.
In 2016, the two pastors struck a deal: GCIC would use Friendly Hills’ building for its worship services and meetings.
“I always felt like you could change the world from a small community,” says Kline, who grew up in a richly diverse Idaho town.
After seminary, Kline served a PCA church in Wisconsin for 17 years, ministering to people from many countries, including India, Pakistan, Mexico, and Sweden. From an early age, he understood that God intended to bring his people together across language and ethnic barriers by uniting them with the gospel, and this perspective has served him well during his time at Friendly Hills.
Once his time in Wisconsin came to a close, Kline says the move to Greensboro was a bigger transition than he expected.
It’s like I had to start all over, like trying to learn to ride a bike all over again. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be. But on the other hand, it also helps me understand what it’s like for Nyuon and other Sudanese people to migrate to another country and not know anything about the culture. … They were professional people back in South Sudan. They were doctors and lawyers and accountants, so for them to come into this country and have to take a blue collar job, that’s really hard.
According to the North Carolina African Services Coalition, Guilford County — where Greensboro is the county seat — is home to the most diverse refugee population in the state. Like many refugee families, Nyuon and his wife have both had to work multiple jobs, not including Nyuon’s pastoral work, while also sending money back home to family in South Sudan. The financial strain of working multiple jobs while supporting extended family is common for refugees, and it makes the transition to a new country even more challenging.
Friendly Hills and GCIC have learned to stay flexible when plans overlap, sacrificing convenience for the more difficult task of working together. Friendly Hills has a Christian Education building that GCIC often meets in, but if GCIC requests the sanctuary, Friendly Hills happily switches locations. Using the church’s management and scheduling program, it still takes great skill and effort to fit two churches’ weekly events on the calendar.
Even in the struggle, the partnership remains worthwhile to both churches.
“You have to work hard to work it out,” Kline says.
Kline is often invited to preach at GCIC’s worship services, though when he first agreed, he did not realize he was committing to a multi-hour worship service that has more movement than a presbyterian service. required him to dance for a majority of the time. After a particularly riveting Easter service in 2025, Kline says his Fitbit logged 6,000 steps just during the morning service.
After spending time with Friendly Hills and seeking the Lord’s leading, Nyuon felt a desire to grow more in his understanding of Scripture, God, and theology. The growing numbers of young people at GCIC also motivated him to seek more training and schooling.
“You need to have a faith foundation that can build the next generation,” he said.
Nyuon and the elders of GCIC want their children not to simply be Americans, but to remain Christian in America. Their prayer is that the gospel would spread in the U.S. through the teaching of God’s Word, and that Sudanese children would choose to return to their home country to spread the gospel in South Sudan.
As he and Kline discussed Scripture, neither one trying to convert the other, Nyuon felt drawn to investigate the PCA. Nyuon’s grandmother and uncle founded a Presbyterian church in his Sudanese hometown in the 1950s, so he was familiar with the denomination. Though it wasn’t an easy decision to join the PCA, it was clear to Nyuon that God was leading him in that direction.
Once Nyuon decided to transition to the PCA, GCIC spent the next few years being trained and shepherded by Friendly Hills and Piedmont Triad Presbytery. Friendly Hills paid for Nyuon and his elders to receive the training necessary to be licensed and ordained, and GCIC has since been officially accepted as a PCA congregation.
Over time, the two churches began to realize they shared more than just a building: they shared a heart for the next generation, a passion for international communities, a servant-hearted leadership team, and now a denomination.
Nyuon believes that Friendly Hills did more than what was asked of them, saying “they put in extra” — extra time, effort, finances, volunteers, and prayers. Friendly Hills has showcased biblical generosity in many ways, covering the electrical bills, helping Nyuon get his green card and work visa, hosting joint congregational services, welcoming GCIC youth to their Vacation Bible School sports camp, paying for Nyuon and his elders to be trained in biblical and theological studies, and more.
All of this training and excitement has caused GCIC to grow, and Nyuon couldn’t be happier.
“Church is crowded now,” he says.
It’s been nearly 10 years since GCIC began meeting at Friendly Hills, and even though the denomination of the church has changed, Nyuon says the mission hasn’t: serve the community, love neighbors, and support South Sudan.
With denominational support, theological training, and more resources, GCIC is more primed than ever to work toward this mission and effect real change in its neighborhood.
This impact begins by expanding GCIC’s footprint among the international people in Greensboro. Both Friendly Hills and GCIC are praying for God to provide a building for GCIC to move into, as well as the resources to maintain that building. Many of the congregants work blue-collar jobs because their professional careers or credentials did not transfer to the U.S., so raising funds has been a slow process and a sustained prayer request.
Still, Kline remains hopeful. “It’s a big ask,” he says, “but we know that God will provide somehow, someway.”
One mission priority for GCIC is sending mature Christians back to South Sudan to plant churches, start schools, and establish women’s health clinics that provide safe, suitable places for women to give birth.
The health clinics are a high priority, since many Sudanese women die at home during labor and delivery, often due to a lack of skilled healthcare providers. Nyuon sees this as practical assistance that the church can offer. He would love to send teams to Sudan and Ethiopia, too.
“My prayer is to go back and reach my people,” says Nyuon.
As the congregations work to find a building and a way back to South Sudan, Nyuon asks that the PCA join them in prayer.
Nyuon says, “Without you, we cannot do anything, but through your prayers, God’s will can be established.”