2015 UGANDA MISSION TRIP
The missionary journey from Astoria, Oregon to Kabaale
Village, Uganda is a long one. But not far-at-all
in comparison to the journey that our Savior made when He left heaven’s glory
for this sin-cursed place when He came into the world to save sinners. Though He was rich, for our sakes He became
poor that we, through His poverty, might become rich (Cf. 2 Corinthians
8:9). As His ambassadors we are
privileged to bear witness, wherever we are, of Him and His great sacrifice for
our sins.
Our team from LCBC flew out of Seattle on Friday, October 23rd
and returned to Astoria two weeks later.
It was my seventh trip to the village.
I was joined by my wife, Laura, and two teens, Sayla and Anna
Davis. It was Laura’s second trip and
Sayla and Anna’s first (and their first time flying). We had a layover in Amsterdam where we met up
with the other eight members of our team, all from Maine (Pastor Bob Emrich,
Julie Smith, Tiani Smith, Sue Hoffman, Nancy Van Dyke, William Cole, Zachary
Cole, and Jan Wood). All but Will had been to Kabaale Village before.
We arrived in Entebbe late Saturday night and then drove to
Kampala where we spent the night. On
Sunday morning we visited Glorious Church in Kampala and Pastor Bob Emrich gave
the message. Other members of our team
conducted children’s ministry in the church.
It is a very large church, unlike the ones we minister to in the
villages. We arrived in Kabaale later that day and were launched off into our
various ministries the next morning.
PASTOR
CONFERENCES
The chief task of Pastor Bob and myself was to conduct the
pastor conferences. What began as a
ministry to a couple dozen pastors in one pastor’s alliance six years ago has
expanded to include over 200 pastors in five different alliances. To ease the traveling burden of the pastors
we conducted three different conferences in three different locations. Each of the conferences was well attended by
eager listeners. Pastor Bob and I took
turns sharing from God’s Word. The main
theme of the conferences had to do with serving Jesus from the heart. Pastor Bob spoke of the hazards associated
with legalistic religion as opposed to living and serving according to the
simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
He also shared from 1st Thessalonians regarding the
characteristics of a model church and a model pastor (using the example of the
Apostle Paul). My messages were mostly
pertaining to the person and work of the Holy Spirit. This is a study that I’ve done recently both
in Sunday School and in the morning messages.
I was especially blessed in preaching a message I entitled “The Miracle
of Pentecost.” The gist of that message
was about how God birthed the church in miraculous fashion. Previously cowardly Peter was made courageous
and previously hardened hearts were convicted by the power of the Holy
Spirit. The church was borne according
to Jesus’ promise, not as a result of human planning or effort, but by
intervention of the Spirit who empowered ordinary and imperfect people to do
things that they never could have done on their own. Along the way, in preaching that message, I
came up with this quote: “The life and ministry of the believer lies in the
realm of the miraculous. It is
impossible for any of us to do what God has given us to do in the power of the
flesh. We are miraculously born again by
the Spirit and by the Spirit, in a similarly miraculous way, we grow and serve
and do everything else God has given us to do.”
In another message I worked through the passages in John
chapters 14-16 having to do with Jesus’ promise to His disciples regarding the soon-coming
Spirit. The main points of that message
were simple—the Holy Spirit is a Divine Person who indwells every believer in
Christ. He is the Helper and the Spirit
of Truth. His ministry is to exalt
Christ. We can discern a work of the
Spirit in this way—His work is always in accord with the truth; His work is not
to draw attention to Himself, but to Jesus Christ.
Our messages to the pastors raised questions, and Bob and I
would respond by going to the Scriptures for answers. The pastor’s wives were invited to join their
husbands for the final day of each conference.
This is something that we hadn’t done before. In a morning session the women met with women
from our team. The wives rarely have an
opportunity to meet like this, so it was a good opportunity for them to voice
some of their difficulties and concerns.
Ladies from our team, including Laura, were a part of this ministry to
the pastor wives. Laura enjoyed
encouraging the wives, by way of her experience as a pastor’s wife, in how best
to respond to the various challenges they face.
After lunch the wives joined the husbands and Pastor Bob spoke to the
couples regarding oneness in marriage and how it relates to life and
ministry. He caused a bit of a stir in
one of the conferences. The husbands
were all sitting in the front of the church and the wives in the back. He had the husbands leave their seats to find
their wives so that they could sit beside them
instead. It was a good opportunity to
reinforce the matters to which he was speaking.
At the end of every conference we heard reports of how
the pastor alliances were doing. The
chairman would report on ministry accomplishments and challenges. The reports shared some of the same
themes. The alliances were experiencing
much unity, and when not, were working to address the cause of their disagreements. The pastors were working together to conduct
outreach ministries and prayer sessions.
When a pastor had a particular need other pastors would work together to
help. In one instance the pastors assisted
a pastor whose building had fallen down.
In another instance, a pastor’s wife had died, so the pastors worked
together to come along side and help. We
heard in their reports of the progress made with respect to the piggery
projects. And they spoke of the various
challenges that they faced and steps that were being made to deal with these
challenges. These reports were
incredibly encouraging! We addressed the
various alliances and presented them with some gifts (notebooks, pens, gifts
for pastor’s wives, First Steps with Jesus books, Luganda gospel tracts) and
financial assistance. We also spoke to
them of the startup of Faith Bible School (more on that later).
Rain delayed the start of the last day of the last
conference. But after a great, albeit
hurried, afternoon of ministry, our team joined with the pastors and wives to
share in the Lord’s Supper. Pastor Henry
and I alternately read various Scriptures passages. Pastor Bob and Pastor Joseph joined the two
of us in leading the congregation in prayer.
We then spoke to how God has worked through Christ’s death on the cross
to join us all—regardless of nation or color or language—to His body, the
church. And how we anticipate the day of
His return when we will be gathered together around His throne in worship of
the Lamb who was slain, who is worthy (Cf. Revelation 5:9). It was a fitting conclusion to the last of
the three pastor conferences.
Right after the conference a pastor and his wife and
baby sought me and Bob out. They asked
if we remembered them from a previous visit several years ago. Pastor Bob and I had visited their
church—“What Doctors Cannot Do Jesus Can Church.” We met the Pastor, Immanuel, and his wife,
Gertrude. They asked us to pray for them
as they had been twelve years without child.
And so, at the end of the conference, with big smiles on their faces
they introduced Bob and me to their baby, which they had appropriately named
“Miracle.” They were so happy—and praising God—for their miracle baby!
FAITH BIBLE
SCHOOL
Hope and Mercy Mission is working on establishing a Bible
School for pastors. The announcement to
the various alliances regarding this effort was met with enthusiastic
response. The school will enlist four
English-speaking, well-qualified, Ugandan teachers. These men have all served in ministry and
teaching roles for many years. In its
first year, 20 students will attend—four from each alliance. Their course of instruction will include
classes in Bible Survey, Bible Doctrines, Bible Study Methods, Leadership
Principles, and Personal Spiritual Growth.
There will also be English and computer classes. The school will meet for one week per month
at Sunrise School in Kabaale Village.
Pastor Bob and I are either providing or preparing the curriculum for the
school. The school will start in January
2016. God has already provided much of
the necessary funding for the school (but if you’d like to help visit the Hope
and Mercy Website and designate a donation to Faith Bible School; hopemercymission.com). One of the great needs of the pastors in the
region is to be better equipped to study and teach God’s Word. Faith Bible School can work to address this
particular need in a profound and expansive manner. Please join us in praying for God’s blessing
on this important and strategic ministry.
CHILDREN’S
MINISTRIES
Under Laura’s supervision, Sayla & Anna Davis and
Julie & Tiani Smith were involved in ministry to children in three
different schools. They all conducted
their ministry with great enthusiasm and devotion. These schools varied in size from several
hundred to five hundred plus. Sayla and
Anna have had much experience in teaching 5-Day Clubs using Child Evangelism Fellowship
materials. They taught the lessons
regarding the wordless book to the children.
Children from the LCBC AWANA club raised funds to buy the materials for
wordless book colored bracelets. They
also helped to put them together in packets so that they would be ready to
distribute to the children. Besides the
lessons, the team also led the children in songs and games and verse
memorization. As always, the children
were eager to learn and participate. On
one occasion, because of rain, the team was delayed for hours in making their
way to a school. The school children had
been disappointed-- thinking that their friends from America would not come--but
were then overjoyed when the team finally arrived later that afternoon. The children in all the schools were very
glad to receive the bracelets. And many
in the three schools responded to the invitation to receive Jesus as Savior.
OPERATION
CHRISTMAS CHILD
Our team was privileged and blessed to be a part of an
Operation Christmas Child shoebox distribution in Kabaale Village. About 500 children were there. Big boxes full of shoeboxes had been
brought. Discipleship booklets were
passed out. The team worked to
distribute the shoeboxes to the children according to age and gender. There was much anticipation as Paul Mwesigwa
did the countdown—three, two, one and a half, one—then finally the children
excitedly opened up their boxes. There
was much joy and plenty of smiles as the children dug into their boxes full of
gifts. We learned something about good
and not-so-good gifts in that experience.
Many boxes contained toothpaste, and while a toothbrush might be a good
idea, toothpaste will only last so long and many children
won’t know what to do with it. The
operation of some toys was not easily or readily understood. We need to think of such gifts from the
standpoint of a child who has never had a toy or operated anything with moving
parts. Balls and dolls make good gifts,
as do simple toys that need little or no explanation. Clothing is good, but sometimes boxes had
clothing items that were at the low end of the age range—too small for the
recipient. Better to err on the side of
being too big as the child can then grow into it. Some boxes contained stocking caps. The children will probably use them, but
there is not so much need for stocking caps in Uganda and there is no way to
know exactly to what climate a shoebox might go. After the distribution the team helped to
clean up things. It was a great experience!
DRESSES AND
T-SHIRTS
Churches in Maine and Oregon both worked to prepare
dresses for girls in Uganda. LCBC ladies
worked hard in a series of workshops to make over 100 dresses. Some of these dresses, along with some
T-shirts for boys, were distributed to the children of People of the Way
church. That little church was
overflowing with expectant girls, boys, Sunday School teachers, and church
leaders. We lined up the girls and boys
from small to tall and distributed to them the T-shirts and dresses. There was much energy and excitement in that little
building as the clothing items were handed out.
After the distribution we had opportunity to view the progress being
made on the construction of a new building for People of the Way Church (LCBC
has given funds to help with this project).
The brick walls have risen substantially in height and good progress is
being made.
Emmanuel Bible Baptist Church ladies made hundreds of dresses
for the girls in Sunrise School. With
help from teachers and team members, Sue Hoffman led in the distribution of the
dresses on the morning of our departure.
There was time for the girls, group by group, to change into the
dresses. Shouts of joy and excitement
overflowed from the school as the girls received their beautiful dresses.
HOME VISITS
The team made dozens of visits to homes. First timers were amazed regarding the
hospitality of those that they were visiting.
Though they lived in quite humble circumstance, they were always eager
to have visitors come to their dwellings.
Team members would go to these homes and provide food staples and other
items. They would ask for permission to
share the gospel and leave Lugandan gospel tracts and First Steps with Jesus
books. In many occasions folks responded
to the gospel, receiving Jesus. On one
occasion, as Laura was sharing the gospel, a man passed by on the path in the
front of the home. He heard the second
half of what Laura was saying, but asked if he could hear the first part. The team shared the gospel with him and he
received Jesus. Later he came to the
Operation Christmas Child shoebox distribution.
He brought his little 3 year old daughter. She hadn’t been able to speak at all. Nancy determined that the little girl cannot
hear. Pray for the Dad that he will be
able to find help for her.
Nancy visited Ronald (12) on one of our first days
there. He was bedridden and suffering
from life-threatening bed sores. Later
Jan joined Nancy on a visit and together they discussed what needed to be
done. It was later through the father
that we learned the rest of Ronald’s story.
One day at school, months ago, Ronald began to suffer a paralysis. It grew to the point that he was no longer
able to walk. The family proceeded to
seek medical help. They took him to the
hospital but they couldn’t identify the source of his problems. Over the course of weeks and at much expense they sought help from other
doctors, but to no avail. Distressed and
losing hope they went to the witchdoctors.
They likewise were of no help, and as a result of these visits Ronald
was thought to be demon-possessed. The
distressed father took Ronald to a pastor.
The pastor and the congregation swept up dirt from the floor of the
church and put it on Ronald’s wounds, promising that it would bring
healing. Ronald told this story to Paul
Mwesigwa, Justine, Nancy, Jan, and myself.
With medical records in his hands and tears in his eyes he explained how
he had tried everything that he could to help his son, but to no avail. They had lost all hope. After much discussion, we decided on a course
of action. I spoke to the father about
the woman who had spent all that she had on doctors in looking for a cure, but
was finally healed when she touched the hem of Jesus’ garment. I asked him if he was willing to forsake the
witchdoctors and trust Jesus to heal his son inside and out. We decided that we would help him by paying
the costs for a doctor to attend to his son’s immediate health needs, if he
would be willing to do that. He said
yes. Some days later Nancy, Will, and
Zach went back to the house. Will and
Zach installed a trapeze so that Ronald could pull himself out of his bed. Nancy had already made other visits and
befriended Ronald. He even called her
“Mom.” But on that day—when Will and
Zach were there—they shared the gospel with the family. And they all received Jesus!
MINISTRY TO
MIDWIVES
Janice Wood is a nurse and in her trips to Uganda she
has ministered in particular to the midwives.
She works with 5 midwife groups, each having from 8-10 women. In spending time with them she discussed the
various problems they were confronting in assisting pregnant women, things like
hemorrhage, infection, and eclampsia.
She spoke to them of specific solutions for each and provided training
to screen for proper blood pressures.
She also gave them instruction regarding when they should seek outside
medical assistance. The midwives were
glad for the gifts of gloves and various medicines that were provided. They were also glad to receive the Lugandan
gospel tracts and First Steps with Jesus booklets. These generated much discussion amongst the
midwives as they read about the good news.
Jan also worked in the clinic. On
one occasion a man seriously cut his leg with a hoe. She was able to clean and dress his
wound. She helped others in the clinic
with problems like high blood pressure and ulcers.
SEWING
WORKSHOP
Sue Hoffman has worked hard in recent years to establish a sewing
workshop in Kabaale Village. Treadle
sewing machines have been provided. Sue
has led students in learning how to sew.
The ministry helps in two ways.
The students learn how to sew uniforms for the students in the school,
alleviating the need to purchase the uniforms elsewhere. It also provides for the seamstresses an
income source.
OTHER
ASSISTANCE
Will and Zach have a lumber company in Maine. They were glad to help with related
projects—albeit with far less tools—in the village. They built and painted some picnic tables for
the school. It was thought that that
project would take many days—but they were finished building them in just a
few. Once painted they looked
beautiful. They also worked to cut up
some firewood (used all-the-time for cooking).
GIFTS GIVEN
AND RECEIVED
We’ve been given some gifts in our visits to churches
and ministries to pastors. On a previous
visit to a church Heather, Zach and I were given a goat. Since we weren’t able to stay for dinner
after church the pastor and wife gave us some bananas and a goat. So we decided to name the goat “To Go.” And I’m happy to say—and Heather will be glad
to know—that To Go is still happy and is fatter than he was before. On the morning of our departure another
gift—a goat—was delivered to us by the pastor alliance. Bob named the goat “Deacon.” I’m not sure if it is named after any
particular deaconJ. But now we have two goats in the
village—along with some chickens (though I don’t think their life expectancy is
very long).
But there are other things we have received in our
visits. Some might erroneously suppose
that we go there and give without receiving, but that is hardly the case. The Ugandans are generous in their
poverty. They are so very thankful for
everything they receive, not just to us but to the ultimate source, God
Himself—from whom proceeds “every good gift and every perfect gift” (James
1:17). They give not only their thanks
but invaluable lessons regarding the things that truly matter. They may be impoverished, but they are rich
in faith and generous in love. One of my
favorite Ugandan phrases is “Jesu Amala,”
which means “Jesus in enough.” It’s more
difficult for those living in prosperity to live according to this
reality. In dirt-floor churches having
no windows or doors they gather to worship the One who was rich but became poor
that they might become rich. They might
be poor in one sense, but in Christ they possess “unsearchable riches” (Cf. Ephesians
3:8; Revelation 2:9). They are rich in
the things that truly matter! I’m glad
that they consider us to be their friends.
And that God has privileged us all to have a part in ministering some
assistance to them.
PRAYERS
ANSWERED
Thank you for praying for us!
We were incredibly blessed in so many ways. We experienced great teamwork. God provided for us a wide open door for
ministry. Many responded to the gospel
message. The pastors were attentive to
what was being taught. Church leaders
and members were helped and encouraged.
And God taught us invaluable lessons that will prove helpful in serving Him. Thank you too for your continued prayers for
the pastors and churches. They face many
challenges, but God is at work in the Masaka Region and He is “able to do far
more abundantly than all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20).
Webale Nnyo!
Thank you very much!
