Meet the Founders

Lucas and Morgan Duran founded Roots for Life in 2020 with the hope of moving overseas as missionaries and sharing the love of Christ with those who have little to no access to the gospel. They lived in Northeast Africa for 3 1/2 years before returning to the United States after training local leaders to take over the day to day operations of the ministry in South Sudan. The Durans now live in Jacksonville, Florida with their two children Selah Noelle and Annabelle Joy. They now lead mission trips from the United States to South Sudan and Sudan to support the bible school and church planting efforts that have been started by indigenous leaders. 

Who we are

Roots for Life was founded in February 2020 as a registered 501c3 in the state of Florida. Since its inception, our mission has been to make God known throughout the nations by building relationships, sharing the gospel, discipling believers, and equipping the saints for the work of ministry. We seek to accomplish this in specific ways; evangelism, discipleship, and training.

Our vision is to see Christians working together as a unified body, to equip and send out laborers into the harvest, while providing long-term discipleship and mentorship to those sent for the glory of God.

What do we do

In 2023, we started a bible school based out of Juba, South Sudan with the help of local pastors, leaders and church partners. Our focus is to identify South Sudanese and Sudanese men and women who are followers of Jesus and have a passion for reaching the lost with the good news of the gospel. Our year-long program exposes students to theological training, vocational training, worldview training, sustainable farming practices, and business and life skills training. The goal at the end of the program is to identify which of the students are called to be church planting partners with Roots for Life and then to send those graduates into a city or village that they feeled called to, that has little access to the gospel. We then support these church planters so that they can focus on ministry and using the skills they’ve acquired through our bible school to plant churches and disciple believers.
 
We also support other ministries in Juba who share our desire to see those without access to the gospel, cared for and shown the love of Jesus. This includes Wholehearted who ministers to sex trafficked women in and around Juba, South Sudan.

Partnerships