Pastor Chuol

I was born and raised in South Sudan, Upper Nile Region, Akobo District, Gakdong Village. The village is currently in Jonglei State, one of ten states in the new country of South Sudan. My parents were the late David Chuol Jangjuol and Elizabeth Nyabiel Duoth. I went to Akobo elementary school in 1978 and then fled to an Ethiopia refugee camp fleeing the war between North Sudan and South Sudan. I stayed there from 1985 to 1992, then fled to Northern Kenya where I stayed from 1992 to 1994. In June of 1994, I was brought to the United States of America and lived in Des Moines, Iowa. I moved to Minnesota in 1998. Then in 2004, I took a long trip back to South Sudan and got married to my wife Nyadak Tap Koda. We were blessed with our beautiful daughter Nyapal, which means “prayer” in Nuer, my native language. In August 2008, we moved to Utah but moved back to Storm Lake, Iowa in December 2010 due to medical/health issues. I resided in Iowa and went through my health situation until September 2017, when I moved back to Utah to begin Seminary classes.

I was raised in a Christian family. My parents received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior back in 1969, when I was five years old. In 1975, my three siblings and I were baptized by Pastor Peter Lul Nguot, Rev. I have continued to grow in faith and sang in the youth choir beginning in 1978 and became choir leader soon after. In 1985, before I was forced to join the rebel army, I become an associate Evangelist and continue my call to preach the word of God as my army duties. In 1987, I become a full Evangelist. I lead the congregation in my high school in Ethiopia, about 95 Students at Bonga High School, then a 2,300 congregation at Ifo Dadap refugee camp in Northern Kenya from 1992 to 1994. When I came to America, I Jointed Trinity Lutheran Church in Des Moines, Iowa, and served under a senior pastor until 1998, when I moved to the twin cities area in MN.

In 1998, I joined the Evangelical Covenant Church, Fridley, MN, and was granted a Certified as Associate Pastor. In 1999, I become a United State Citizen and received my License for the Pastoral office. In 2000, I became an Employee as the East African mission associate for Evangelism and Church planting in East Africa in Kenyan Refugees camps, Ethiopian Refugees Camps, South Sudan, and Northern Sudan, until 2004, when the short-term mission ended. In 2006, my family, my wife and my daughter, my mother, and four siblings, joined me in Minnesota. In 2008, I decided to move to Utah to be reunited with my cousins, Martha Thiwat and Nyakume Jangjuol. We joined Christ Lutheran Church, Murray, then transferred our membership to St. John Lutheran Church, Salt Lake City, when Stephen Gatkek Thep died on his way to the Akobo mission field in Nairobi Kenya in September of 2009. As I mentioned above, I had to move back to Iowa for treatment after I was diagnosed with liver cancer. Utah Medicaid was not able to cover the treatment cost. I did continue my call to be an Evangelist and Lutheran Elder and served the Nuer congregation at St. John Lutheran Church in Storm Lake under Senior Pastor Bruce Lessman. In 2017, I went to the seminary in St. Louis and received a call to become an ordained pastor at St. John Lutheran Church and School in Salt Lake City, Utah. I was ordained on Jan. 29, 2022.