Our driving focus through missions is to fulfill the principles set out in Acts 1:8: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
It’s been a whirlwind tour… and a very meaningful time of ministry. Thanks so much for everyone for following us along the way… reading our blog entries, looking and “liking” pix, sending comments, and just praying. It’s great to know that we can travel together in this modern age, and support each other so specifically in prayer as each team progresses through the mission. It’s not too late to forward this post, or the picture album to others to get them to pray for Uganda!
It’s been such a privilege to travel with two young men of God. I’ve had some very proud moments watching each of them be filled with the Sprit, and stepping out in faith. The both delivered great messages, and many testimonies as God opened up doors around us. Matthew and I definitely grew closer, and I think that he began to understand in a deeper way his father’s heart for missions, and his heavenly father’s passion for his glory in all the earth.
Vic is definitely seeking a knowledge of where God wants him to serve in the world, and it’s been great praying him through that. I’ve watched his world-view continue to expand over these past four years of getting to know him, and having the joy of mentoring him even in small ways. He’s on fire, and it’s great to walk with young men who are filled with zeal, and hungry to see God work in their own lifetime… not just reading about the Acts of the Apostles as an ancient history, but rather as a manual for interacting with God’s missions in the 21st century.
We have met so many amazing people. And, of course we’ve known many of them for years because of our long-term relationship with Juna Amagara ministries, and doing so many mission trips with them in the past. I’ve met Rev. Ben many times in the past, but seeing him on his own turf definitely deepened my understanding of his passion for reaching Ugandans… from the weakest orphan, to the future church leaders who are being mentored in Abide. Godfrey and Roland were amazing guides, and I’m so thankful for new friends. I have a feeling that many of you are going to get a chance to meet them. Both, by coming to Uganda, and also when we are able to bring them to Sugar Grove/Aurora/Indian Creek, and introduce them to all of you in person. Their authenticity as servants of the Lord has been shown over and over. Thanks guys!
Seeing Matt and Crystal in their element also was on of the greatest joys of the trip. Just to relax with them in their home on Monday for Matt’s day off, and then to see ABIDE kick off was really a dream come true. We’ve been wanting to be a church that really supports our missionaries in critical ways, and they expressed just how much it means for us to take time to come and just visit. Doing ministry with them is awesome too, but just being together… in their home is something that is reciprocally encouraging. I hope the videos that I am brining home now of Juna Amagara, and their personal greetings will help all of our campuses at VBC get to know them better, and to deepen our prayers and concerns for them.
Now comes the long road home. I miss my wife and my kids dearly, but I am not homesick. I’m sure I could live here, or India, or Eastern Europe, or really anywhere if the Lord would made that clear. I can’t wait to someday bring my wife into these experiences of mission mobilization. The time for reunions are just around the corner, but these next 24 hours in the van, airplanes, layovers, etc.. will be important times for an inner percolation of ideas, and relfections of all that we have just experienced. Not just the three of us, but of all of us who find ourselves reading this post.
The missions field (both international, and our neighborhoods) is closer than we think. Technology is connecting the world in ways that we could never have really imagined when I was studying missions 20 years ago at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. There will be ways to touch hearts with the gospel 20 years from now that we haven’t even thought up yet. The most important thing is that all of us stay engaged in the mission until our Savior returns. We really ought to be praying daily, and we out to be stimulating each other continually to throw off the things that don’t matter, so that we can impact those souls who will join us worshipping in eternity around the throne of Grace. There will be some from every tribe, tongue, and nation… and WE will play a part in getting the GOOD NEWS to them. The invitation to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb is still open… for now.
This trip has been truly amazing. It is eye opening to see just how little these people have compared to us. We have so much. While traveling to the Juna Amagara ministries orphanage we saw adorable kids running after us, waving, and screaming mazungo (white man)! Often they would ask us for money. We really wanted to help them all, but of course we can’t hand out money to everybody. The people here are so nice, everyone I have met is friendly.
Teaching has been an awesome experience. I will now be better prepared to speak at school to my unbelieving friends and to more people than I was used to speaking in front of before I came. My own message (that I preached here from John 15) has spoken tome. I am learning how important it is to Abide in God, to confess sins to God, to read His Word, because abiding in God is the best way to push sin out of your life. If we stay in God’s Word it will keep us from sin. Sin has a spiral effect downward - but when you abide in God it has a spiral effect upward.
The scenery here is beautiful, every mountain is covered in green things and many other things that we don’t have in America. Many Africans have come to Christ already, please be praying for these people that they would stay in Christ. It is a blessing to be here, thank you for your prayers!
CLICK HERE to ear an audio clip of Matthew preaching!
Yesterday, January 11, I talked with a local youth worker named Aaron. He is in Kapchurwa for a pastor's conference, but he came with us to the youth conference because his passion is for young people. As we drove, I asked him questions about the church andministry here in Uganda. He told me that one of the greatest needs of the church in Uganda is training in the Scriptures. He told me pastors here are often untrained. As such, they lack a firm foundation in the Word of our Lord.
They receive salvation and the calling to ministry, but there is no one to mentor them and study the Scriptures with them. They often fall into the trap Paul warns Timothy about in 1Timothy 3:6–7. They preach what they hear, which is often laced with the deception of the prosperity gospel, which is no gospel at all. It has a form of godliness, twisting the Scriptures, yet it lacks true power to change and convict or preserve. They need a firm foundation in the Word.
I then asked him what the church in America, Christians and churches… can do to help. First he told me that they need people to come and teach the Word. He said they need people to come and teach their leaders and pastors the truths found in the Word of Lord as well as how to study the Scriptures themselves. They need us to send people to teach the Word. Secondly, he said they need resources such as Bibles.
Aaron continued and said there needs to be a partnership between the church in Africa and the church in America. He praised our knowledge and study of the Scriptures, and accurately pointed out that we have weaknesses too. Many of the strengths of the believers in Africa, correspond with the weaknesses of the believers in America, and many of the strengths of the believers in America correspond with the weaknesses of believers in Africa. If we build a partnership, form and develop lasting relationships with each other, we can begin to act as one body encouraging and edifying one another as we learn from each other. His vision corresponds with our vision. How great is the God we serve, that He can burden hearts around the World for His Kingdom, for His glory. Praise our Lord!
Thanks to everyone for praying for us while we're gone to Uganda this next two weeks… We've got a packed ministry schedule and look forward to telling you more about it as it unfolds. We spend the day today traveling from the capital of Kampala to the south-west region of the country, now we're getting ready to settle in for the night in Kabale (Ka-bah'-ley). So far the jet-lag has not hit us too bad at all…
We were greeted have had the treat of traveling today with Rev. Ben T., the president of the Juna Amagara organization… and we will also get to see his house near the orphanage at Kishanje tomorrow. We are also accompanies by some great guys… Roland and Godfrey. The spirit of hospitality abounds in Uganda!
This past summer, one of our short-term missions teams to Uganda spent time sharing Christ in public schools in the southeastern portion of Uganda (Kapchorwa Region). While there, a local pastor named Rev. Fred led us from school to school. We got to know Rev. Fred and his family - and God grew our heart for the children in the schools he is trying to reach. Because of extra donations from people back home, we were able to even buy Bibles for all of the students in one of his smaller schools (about 250 students).
As we departed, Rev. Fred asked us if we could send a team back in January to help teach at a week-long Bible conference he was organizing for students to attend during their holiday. We promised that we would pray about it and consider it, but didn't know if it would be feasible.
Well, God has placed the pieces together and today we sent off a small team to Uganda to teach at the Bible conference - Victor Epperson, Scott Capp and Scott's son, Matthew. They will also spend a few days with our missionaries, Matt and Crystal, and will briefly visit the Juna Amagara orphan school Kishanje (on the southwestern corner of the country).
Please pray for this team as they minister alongside of our friends and missionaries in Uganda!
After much travel and ministry in our first two weeks in Uganda, being able to spend a time of relaxation, learning, and growth was just what we needed. The Kehns graciously allowed us to stay with them in their home in Mbarara for the past week. Because they are leaving next week for 3 months in the states, we were able to help them with the kids and preparation for their time there. We were able to see the day-to-day life of missionaries and they ways in which the Kehns have completely poured into their community and the people there. It was such an encouragement for us to be able to play with their kids: Asher, Stephen and Adelynn and also spend time talking with Matt and Crystal about missions, parenting/adoption and serving the Lord abroad.
We were also blessed with being able to attend a “Team Meeting” with the Kehns and other missionaries living in Mbarara. It was such an encouragement to see men and women totally sold out for the Lord and living life away from home and the people and places they are familiar with. Having a sweet time of fellowship with these brothers and sisters in the Lord from all over the world was truly something that we will never forget!
David was able to spend much time talking with Matt about how to implement a ministry initiative like ABIDE within the context of Village Bible Church. The ABIDE program incorporates relationship-based discipleship that attempts to mirror the ministry of Christ. Life-on-life discussions and growth opportunities have proven to be a context in which God transforms the lives of his children.
It was a great experience for us to be able to see the missional ways in which the Kehns and others are living their lives for the Lord! We are excited to use many of the things that we learned this past week within our ministries at home as well!
After our restful day visiting the source of the Nile River in Jinja, we drove for a few hours to Mbale for a youth conference. We unpacked our bags at a guest house (hotel/motel), and drove the two minutes to the girls’ school where the conference was held. School was not in session, so they had accommodation and room for the 800 students attending the conference. While the conference was a student ministry conference, the ages of the attendees ranged from 10 to 27.
The theme of the conference was 2 Timothy 2:15, which encourages, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved.” Each day began at 5am with individual quiet times until 6:30am. Breakfast then lasted until around 7:45am, which was followed by a time of worship and Bible exposition. Then, from 8:30am-4pm, hour long sessions informed the students of the Biblical approach to understanding many different topics. Ralph and I chose two of the topics before leaving for Uganda, so we brought our prepared lessons. We were not expecting it, but when we arrived, we were seated on stage, even during the sessions. This is a cultural way of doing things with which we soon became more comfortable.
In my lessons, I encouraged the students in the area of evangelism and being the light in the darkness. My Scripture passage was John 1 because there we see Jesus Christ setting the pace as a light into the darkness. His journey to earth to bring the truth about God was the ultimate evangelistic action. We also see that John the Baptizer used his existence to point to the truth of Jesus. The phrase I repeated was, “If you have the light, then shine it into the darkness!” I also had the privilege of sharing is a second session about some practical tools for sharing the Gospel and being the light in the darkness of the world. This includes the G.O.S.P.E.L. acronym I mentioned in the previous blog post, as well as the Cause Circle.
Here’s how THE Cause Circle works, as described on the Dare 2 Share website:
You have 100 times more influence on your friends than a stranger does! THE Cause Circle is a simple tool that will help you be purposeful about sharing Jesus' message with your friends. It will help you identify your friends, and then remind you to pray, to pursue spiritual conversations, and to persuade them to consider Jesus' message.
Here's how it works.
Write the names of your friends in the center of THE Cause Circle. Identify three friends you want to share the gospel with, then write their names in the "pray" section of the circle. As you find opportunities to pursue spiritual conversations with these friends, advance their name to the "pursue" area of the circle. Then go back and add another friend's name to the "pray" section. When you have opportunities to go deeper in your spiritual conversations with your friends, move those friends forward along the circle to the "persuade" section. Your hope is that over time you will be able to persuade all your friends to:
Accept Christ
Belong to a Church
Commit to THE Cause
After I shared about evangelism, Ralph was able to put some flesh onto the structure that I had described to the students. He talked about his personal experiences in sharing the Gospel with his unsaved friends. In addition to this, he encouraged the students not to give in to the temptations of the world. He encouraged them to be the next generation that will stand up for God and for the truth.
For some of these sessions, Emily and Theresa sat with us on stage, but for some of the other sessions, they enjoyed working with the men and women who were preparing food and cleaning the dishes for the next meal. Through this, they were able to engage in conversation with the Ugandans and learn about some of the cultural cooking methods and strategies. Between the sessions, we enjoyed talking with many of the students and even exchanging email addresses and contact information.
It was a great encouragement for us to see the zeal and excitement of the kids during the sessions and especially worship time. We also had the opportunity to share the gospel with a few of the people we met at the guest house, including the owner who is a Muslim. He didn’t place his trust in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, but the truth was proclaimed into his life and mind. The Lord is working throughout the world!
I deeply enjoyed speaking to the youth at the conference at Mbale, Uganda in the East. I had the opportunity to speak to the students about the future of their country and to not get into the same moral pitfalls as the west has done! It was a wonderful trip and it was great working with Godfrey, the missions team coordinator for Juna Amagara!
The Shepherd Center was my major work:
1. We met with the executive board of the Shepherd Center Uganda to meet them for the first time and to talk about strategy for the ministry!
2. We brought bibles, soccer balls, toothpaste, and toothbrushes.
3. We took boys to have their teeth worked on at the clinic!
4. We enjoyed a day of outreach at the local Baptist church! What a great work of God that is happening!
5. We met all the boys from 5 years old to 19 years of age. These boys love Patrick, the leader of the Shepherd Center. These boys have also been taught about God’s plan of salvation. Just like all other people, they need much love and hard work!
6. We loved on them and feed them and shared the love of Christ with them!
7. God allowed a home to come available and we were able to put a down payment on it. Please pray that the remainder of the finances will come in the next 10 days. We may be able to house up to 20 street boys! Please pray hard!
If you are interested in partnering with The Shepherd Center, please contact me or Village Bible Church for more details. God is moving fast and I am excited about it! Praise God! I will see you all soon, God willing!
Our time on August 8 with Matt and Crystal Kehn enabled us to understand the ABIDE discipleship program, but our time since then has allowed us to see the results of that ministry.
The ABIDE program essentially invites hand-picked high school graduates interested in taking their relationship with Christ to the next level. During the six month period between high school graduation and the beginning of the university school year, these young men live, eat, learn, and minister together. Every week they attend intensive training on their relationship with Christ, their character, and leadership. They also travel around each weekend to practice ministry in each young man’s home church. In addition to this, they take on a discipleship role with a young student from the orphanage so that they can really grasp how to “make disciples who make disciples.” Because of this practical training, once they graduate from the program, many continue to make disciples and be involved in leadership and church ministry.
One of the ABIDE students named Patrick has taken this ministry training and applied it to his passion to reach street children in Kabale, Uganda. He is calling his ministry, “The Shepherd Center.” Most of the 70 children involved in his ministry have nowhere safe to live, do not attend school, and must beg or scrounge for food. They are considered the “outcasts” of society and need the love of Christ and a Shepherd.
The ministry and vision of the Shepherd Center is something that is very close to my heart because of my passions that the Lord has given me for underprivileged children. When I first heard about this ministry, I was excited because I wanted to use my God-given passions in a tangible way, different than that of what I am currently doing in the states with Wayside Cross Ministries.
The first day of outreach, Friday, consisted of taking some of the boys to the local hospital to get their teeth worked on. Because these boys have no one taking care of them, hygiene and health are things that are not taken care of. I was encouraged by the sacrifice of Patrick and those volunteers from the Shepherd Center that used their time and resources to get these boys essential care for their health. It was truly an honor to work alongside these people of God, as well as, love on these boys.
The second day of working with the Shepherd Center was a day of outreach for the boys at a local Baptist church in Kabale. By the time we arrived at the church that morning, there were already close to 60 boys at the church excited for the day’s activities. The morning began with breakfast and a time of encouragement and sharing of the Gospel from Ralph and Patrick. We then were able to take the boys outside on the grass to play with a giant parachute for the younger boys and soccer with the older. I had pure joy in seeing these boys, some as young as 5 years old, able to experience a short time of relief from the life they live in and simply be kids for an afternoon. After games, the boys had lunch and received gifts (consisting of soap, Vaseline, toothbrush and toothpaste). Because of the large amounts of rain that day, the outreach unfortunately was cut short, but the boys were still able to be encouraged.
Although many of the aspects of the day were incredibly hard to process in light of the sovereignty of God, I was put at peace by the fact that these boys are able to hear the Good News of Christ. Even if these boys had been born into a rich family, without the love of Christ, they would be in a worse state than they are currently. The smiles on their faces brought tears of joy to my eyes to imagine being able to worship the Lord with them in Heaven!
As our Uganda missions team travelled into the mountains, we wove back and forth along the mountainside. We looked forward to arriving at the Kishanje campus of Juna Amagara’s ministry. The children from this school were not in session because their weeks on holiday had just begun. This meant that we were able to relationally connect with the staff and leaders of the ministry.
The first night of our stay in Kishanje began with resting and talking over tea. Tea, we have found, is a regular part of each day which happens around 7pm and pushes dinner back to around 9pm. During this time we engaged in discussions about theology and Scripture with three university students named Paul, Peter, and Michael. These discussions continued through our flashlight-lit dinner consisting of rice, beans, pasta, and g-nut sauce (purple peanut sauce). These encouragements to one another turned musical when I, David, pulled out my guitar and worship binder to begin a session of worship. We worshipped God with about 12 songs and many of the staff members and then ended in prayer. It was moving to be able to worship God with other likeminded believers from another continent.
The next day, we met Harriet, the woman who supervises the children of the school. We followed her up to the school and received a tour of the school and the sewing facilities. During this time, the university students were teaching English classes to a few students who desired to learn more, even during the holiday break. Harriet brought us to her office and asked if we had recently learned any new teaching techniques or helpful ministry tools. I saw that she had some small group discussion materials that the school had just begun using. I encouraged her that student discussion is an effective way to help students process what they are learning. I also shared that in large group teaching times, allowing students to pair up for “Pair Share” discussion allows this to happen in a large group setting.
Our discussion with Harriet continued and I was able to describe the Deep and Wide Student Ministry Strategy that we use at Village Bible Church. I explained the G.O.S.P.E.L. acronym we use as an evangelism tool (see the end of this blogpost), as well as the evangelism Cause Circle. She was thrilled about these because of how useful they are in teaching the core elements of evangelism. I am excited to follow up with her about how she can further implement these tools.
I also connected well with Paul, the university student named Paul. As our conversation continued, we began to discuss how we could use the powerful medium of video as a way to advance the kingdom of God. One of Harriet’s frustrations is that illiteracy is a hurdle that is hard to overcome, especially when trying to send homework with the children to the homes of their guardians. Paul and I realized that Scripture memory songs would be an excellent way for children to learn verses from the Bible, and to bring those verses home with them. We plan to work with existing Scripture memory songs set to video footage with the Biblical text included to present a more engaging way for students to learn the verses.
Ralph was able to spend the afternoon preaching in a midweek service held at the school for the local residents. Part of the team was also able to climb a mountain for a spectacular view of the surrounding area. These and other positive aspects made our stay in Kishanje an enjoyable part of our trip.
GOSPEL Journey® Message
God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1–2)
Our sins separate us from God. (Genesis 3)
Sins cannot be removed by good deeds. (Genesis 4–Malachi 4)
Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew–Luke)
Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John)
Life with Jesus starts now and lasts forever. (Acts–Revelation)
After long hours of air travel, Ralph, Theresa, Emily and I have arrived in Uganda. We arrived around 11pm in Entebbe, but one piece of lost luggage lengthened our stay at the airport until 1am. The piece of lost luggage contains ministry supplies for the ministry to street children in Kabale We were met at the airport by Godfrey, Roland, and Isaac, three ministry partners with Juna Amagara. We then all drove to the hotel in Kampala for a short night of rest. One major praise concerning our travel is that God again allowed the fee for our extra luggage to be waived by the airline. Our team had prayed that God would allow the $200 for that expense to instead be used for ministry. He saw fit to answer that prayer, so praise the Lord!
On Sunday, August 7, we were able to worship the Lord with Godfrey at his church in Kampala. We attended the second service at 9:30am, but the church holds four services of about 500 people each throughout each Sunday. We were thrilled to sing along with some of the worship songs we already knew, including, “Everyday” (Everyday, it’s You I live for; Everyday, I’ll follow after You; Everyday, I’ll walk with You, my Lord).
The sermon at the church was the first sermon in their new series on cults. Unfortunately, many churches in Uganda have begun to preach a “prosperity gospel.” In these churches, the pastors teach that God wants Christians to experience much health and wealth. The pastor in the church on Sunday wanted to show that the cost of discipleship is high and that Christians shouldn’t be in it for money or physical comfort. This is what Jesus meant when he said, “So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (John 14:33 ESV)
After leaving the church, we travelled for 4 or 5 hours to Mbarara. Here we met up at a hotel with Lisa O’brien, Hayley Roberts, Linda Mallette, and some more friends from Juna Amagara. We all enjoyed dinner together, prayed, and then returned to our rooms to sleep. Please pray for the team to adjust well with sleep patterns, as well as for our stomachs to normalize and feel comfortable with new foods and malaria pills.
On Monday, we travelled 5 minutes to Matt and Crystal Kehn’s home in Mbarara. Lisa, Hayley, and Linda enjoyed tea with us all, and then said goodbye to the Kehns and to our team. Emily and I were able to connect with Matt and Crystal, as well as Shane and Katie, their friends from California who are finishing up a 6 month stay here in Uganda. Shane helped with the 6 month ABIDE program and has enjoyed discipling young men through that ministry venue. I really enjoyed talking with them both about discipleship strategy. I learned that almost all of the orphans and children who graduate from the children’s ministry will go through the ABIDE program and be trained to in turn make disciples of other Christians.
We are excited to begin ministry and continue to build relationships. Thanks for your prayers and support! Look for pictures soon!
Lisa, Haylely, and I just finished our 5th week in Uganda. This past week was spent in Kampala participating in a sewing party with the Uganda team: Lilian, Florance, and Lydia. It reminded us of the sewing party with the VBC women / girls as we sewed dresses for the Kishanje orphan girls the week before we left for Uganda. This time we were busy cutting, pinning, and sewing PJ’s and sports shorts for the children. Deb Mogel was a part of starting this project before we arrived and we continued on full speed.
One of the five days we were without electricity so we used our time cutting and pinning fabric. As soon as the electricity came on we worked diligently to catch up for lost time. We finished Saturday evening with nearly 100 PJ's and 50 shorts for the children. We hope to get some pictures of the children to post later in their dresses, shorts, and PJ's. God blessed us richly as we shared in sweet fellowship with the Ugandan team as we sewed together. His presence was felt each day as we prepared these gifts for the orphans. Thanks for your prayers for electricity in order that we would be able to accomplish the sewing projects. Also, prayers for our safe travels!
On Saturday morning, we had our final debrief in the hotel lobby of the Hampton Inn in Southfield, MI.
We answered 2 questions: "What was your highlight of the week and how did you see God work throughout the week" and then we closed our time praying, thanking God specifically for the ways he blessed us in Detroit.
Below is what each team member said:
Ben - There was a bunch of highlights. Monday the kids knocked me over it was funny. On Friday we had the whole cafeteria do the "breakdown" which is a cool hand pattern where we pound on the table.
Naomi - I had a great time ministering with the jr hi. I love going back to Detroit and reconnecting with people we met on previous trips. Seeing Anthony's transformation over the past 3 years since we lead him to Jesus was very impacting. Jaque on other team, with his disabilities, was always so happy and praising God.
Josh - I really liked the block party. I had the chance to talk with Camoni in our junior high day camp. Towards the end of the week he really listened and understood salvation. Camoni said, "I didn't know I had to ask Jesus, just thought I had to love him." I had the chance pray with him.
At beginning of week we went to Tony's church. Some guys were working on a lawn mower in the street. One guy, named "Iron Man" said to me If you are a real Christian, pray for me - so I did. I was really blessed by that time.
Allie - Every time I come to Detroit, I think this is my last time. Here I am 4 times later. I see why I love the people of the city. God loves his place. I saw God work through the jr hi. Every day God answered prayer after prayer. What broke the ice with the junior high students was when Robin said, "We don't have to be here." Then they listened. Everything fell into place. During the small group times, they were so receptive. If I come back, I'd work with jr hi again.
Kaity - My highlight of week was block party and seeing the kids again. They remember everything about me from the previous time I came to Detroit! I saw God working in how the 2 churches meshed really well in how we all got along.
Steve - The block party is always very powerful to see their thankful hearts for hot dog & chips. Meeting India, Anthony's wife and to see their apartment and the joy in their lives impacted me. See the blog from Tuesday night when Steve, Robin and Renee went to get dinner to see how Steve, Renee and Robin saw God at work.
Renee - (Added details to Tuesday night's blog) Kathy is the grandma & Deann is the granddaughter. Kathy, the grandma also lost a grandchild at age 2 five years ago who would have been 7 today. So this grandma had a lot of tragedy in her life. My highlight was how we bonded so well with HarvestBaptistChurch. Having my husband Chet here to experience Detroit with me for his first time was also a highlight for me.
Robin - God gave me a peace that we were to be here. Every role was fulfilled by each person in each way. Like Renee with the food, Chet with technology, Anthony and his relationship with Steve. I feel humbled by the whole trip.
Nate - This is my 1st mission trip. One highlight was winning euchre series with Michael as my partner against RJ & Josh. I saw God work by ministering to kids that really didn't misbehave. This trip also furthered my walk with God.
Michael - One of my highlights was winning the euchre series with Nate and the block party, talking to a lot of kids. I saw God working through the kids at day camp. Sometimes don't feel like they are listening, but when you talk to them, you see that they actually were listening.
Cody - My highlight was block party and the cheese fries I ate on Wednesday night at the wave pool. When I couldn't swim at the wave pool because of an incoming storm, I was disappointed, but I saw God's sovereignty in all of this. He showed me His supreme power over everything.
Elyse - My highlight was seeing the kids’ think I was Hayley & I was able to meet the kids Hayley impacted. I met the girl that my sister Hayley has same birthday that Hayley writes to every year. I wasn't expecting to connect with Harvest's student ministry. I was crying when Harvest left & when left CDC left.
I also was blessed when I pray with the gentleman on his doorstep during our canvassing on Monday night.
RJ - The whole week was one big high. I was talking with a kid, Omar, about the gospel. I never saw a lot of emotion from him. I asked him about this week. He said that this is the best week out of all of them. I asked him why. He said because "You are all fun, never boring." He noticed a difference in us. He noticed our group was different. We are here to impact.
How I saw God work - It's awesome to see people like Anthony years after walking with Jesus. It's so encouraging to see how God works years after year. It was great seeing our team just being willing to serve.
At the block party - we all had a passion to share the gospel. One guy, Michael, was smiling after Josh shared, giving the thumbs up. Preaching in that area is not easy. This is such an encouragement to see Michael man encouraged.
Kayla - There were so many highs & God things. I loved getting to talk to Anthony. I sat there with Sam & Jessica and talked 20 - 30 minutes. Our connection with Harvest was also a highlight.
The way I saw God work was in sharing gospel with Calyse and Cree and leading them to Jesus.
Every time I come to Detroit, God points out his plan more and more for me. 1st time He told me to be a teacher. 2nd time in Detroit, it was to serve Him in Detroit for a short time. This is the 3rd time I'm in Detroit and I believe God may want me to serve Him here long term.
Chet - My highlight was the block party in seeing the playground getting used by the kids and how everything worked out well. I was really afraid that things with Harvest might not gel.
Kayla - On Monday night I was canvassing and gave a girl a flyer but didn't know she was deaf - her mom told her, and then she was really smiling and happy, and she showed up at our block party.
Mario - On Saturday, RJ told me how he received a call to go into work to clean up flooding in Chicago, and that he could have made a lot of much needed money if he didn't go to Detroit, but RJ didn't regret serving in Detroit for one second. I also prayed and saw how God gave us perfect weather for the block party and then saw it rain a lot on and off over the next week. I really saw God working in the hearts of every one of our team members and was blessed. There was such a willing humble heart that can only come from the Lord!
Every morning we have personal Jesus time from 7 - 7:30 am and then we share with everyone what God spoke to us from His Word. Steve is sharing verses with Robin at the top of the steps at TriedStoneBaptistChurch. Allie Free is enjoying her Jesus time on the front porch. After our personal Jesus time, we meet together from 7:30 - 8 PM to pray and share how God spoke to us. Kaity Calhoun is reading to all of us from the Bible what God spoke to her in her quiet time.
On Thursday night, July 28, we had one more night of worship with HarvestBaptistChurch and Joel Lindman shared with us a message on hope from Matthew 6:25-33. Worry is the concern about something that is potential. He challenged us to consider the birds of the air (doctrine of God's divine providence) and to consider the lilies (doctrine of God's divine love). We need to make sure we talk to our heart and not let our heart talk to us. If we take care of God's business, He'll take care of our business (Matt. 6:33)
Anthony showed up to our block party 3 years ago and prayed with Steve in front of Tried Stone on the corner of Taylor and Woodrow Wilson. Steve has stayed in contact with Anthony ever since then.
On Thursday, Anthony showed up at day camp. He married his beautiful bride, India, in August 2010.
The CDC high school staff wanted to challenge us in a game of basketball, so we played them. Anthony jumped in and helped us out by referring our game.
Here is a picture of the CDC bus that Tony drives to pick up kids every day for day camp.
It rained pretty hard on early on Thursday morning. We woke up to water flooding the entryway and hallway of the basement, where the guys were sleeping. Here are some pics of us our team moping and using a wet dry vac to get rid of the water. D'Andre, who does the maintenance at Tried Stone, the church we were staying at, said that this is the worst flooding he has ever seen in the church. Tony McDuffy said that these "incidents" only happen to our group when we come, and it must be because God is at work in what we are doing.
Naomi helped grill 720 hot dogs for the block party. We had 2 grills going & a team serving hot dogs, chips and lemonade in the food line. We had over (?) people show up. It was our largest block party ever.
Above is a picture of Cody helping a boy use the monkey bars.
Our two churches, Harvest Baptist and Village really became one team by Tuesday night. We had a sweet time of worship & sharing. Below are some of the highlights from our sharing time with both teams:
Blanca - The greatest moment was the unity we had today. We knew what we were here for.
Sam - When I shared my testimony at the block party, I thought that no one was listening.
Rachel - I talked with Damion who was impacted by Sam's testimony and he trusted his life to Jesus.
Kayla - I was in the basement lunchroom of Blessed Sacrament Church and there's a statue of Jesus in Mary's arms after he was taken down from the cross. One of the girls asked why Jesus wasn't in a casket. So I started to share the gospel with her, but she said, "Wait!" And she grabbed her friend and so I shared the gospel with both of them and they both trusted in Jesus.
RJ - I've never seen such servant’s hearts of any team I've been on in the past. Everyone was mingling and interacting so well. We can do so much when we work as one. I shared the GOSPEL acronym with my group and then 2 of them were asking me to write it down on a piece of paper so that they could really know it!
We cooked and served 720 hot dogs, chips and lemonade and ran out before Steve, Robin and Renee were able to eat dinner. So after the block party was over, the 3 of us drove to grab dinner at McDonalds. On our way there, we saw Austin, one of our middle school students in our day camp. He attended the block party and was walking 20 blocks home. He had asked us for a ride home earlier because it's not safe to walk alone 20 blocks in the dark, but we were too busy trying to clean up and get our team back to the church we were staying at. We drove Austin home and dropped him off and then headed to McDonalds. We found ourselves driving slowly behind a car with a flat tire, but we thought it would be better to turn around. When we turned around, we saw that Austin didn't get in his house so we picked him up and drove him to his granddads home 5 blocks away and we saw him get in the house.
We continued on to McDonalds and while we were in line Steve was approached by an older lady and a 2 year old girl and they asked if he would buy a hamburger for her and her granddaughter. Then as he was in line buying the food, Renee and Robin met the grandma and found out that she just lost her daughter, the baby's mom, 4 months ago to pneumonia, and she also lost her mom within the year. She asked us why were there, and Robin & Renee told them about CDC (Central Detroit Christian). She said she was looking for a church, and Robin happened to pick up CDC flyers at the block party to bring home to Emily to help her with her ministry in Aurora at Wayside Cross.
We realize that God had a purpose for us not being able to eat at the block party. It wasn't for us, but it was to help get Austin, a junior high boy home safely and to feed a meal to a grandma and her granddaughter and point them in the direction of a solid church.
Every day at 6 PM the men of the community play basketball at Derek Coleman Park and some of our guys joined in. Above is A pic of RJ taking a shot as well as a pic of the playground.
Each night, we share our highs and lows of the day, especially in what God did in and through our team.
Day #4
In the morning, on Tuesday, July 26, we had our morning educational rotations from going on nature walks to visiting the science museum downtown.
In the afternoon, we continued with our VBS type ministry. About 40 of us serve with the kindergarten through 5th grade. We are teaching through the armor of God in Ephesian 6:10-18. Our Village team, made up of Chet & Renee Kuryliw, Michael Free, Cody Hallebach, Nate Underwood, Ben Justus, Kayla Thompson, Kaity Calhoun, and Elyse Roberts taught the lesson, led the games and the crafts on Monday and Tuesday with the 3rd - 5th graders. Harvest Bible Church's team teaches the lesson, leads the games and crafts for the kindergarten - 2nd graders all week and for the 3rd - 5th graders on Wednesday & Thursday. As shared in a previous blog, 10 of us serve with the middle school students (6 from Village and 4 from Harvest) where we teach the Bible lesson & lead the games and crafts each day.
Yesterday we taught everyone in a large group on friendship. The "3 essentials to great friends" (Acts 1:13-15) are that great friends love Jesus; great friends pray together; and great friends talk about Jesus. Today we split the middle school students up into small groups for the lesson time and we had an interactive discussion about who is Jesus which was much more effective and impacting for the middle school students.
Wednesday's game time was water balloons and water fun. Mario was having a picture taken with Tony when Elyse decided to throw a cup of water on Mario, but Tony also was hit with water. Big mistake! Tony then plotted with Jessica from Harvest and others to get Elyse back. Tony had his staff prepare two 5 gallon coolers of water which were poured on all over Elyse when she came outside at the end of day camp.
Kayla and Preston (from Harvest) are leading songs during our opening at the elementary day camp.
In the elementary day camp, the kids are broken up into two groups, for kindergarten to 2nd grade and 3rd - 5th grade for Bible, crafts and games. Here we are teaching a Bible lesson on the armor of God.
After Bible time we either have games in the gym or outside in the parking lot. Ben and Kayla are happy to be playing with the kids in Detroit.
Cody and Nate are carrying water out to the kids on our hot day. What great teamwork!
Every morning, after our Jesus time and group prayer and sharing time we serve the CDC kid’s breakfast, usually cereal and milk. Above are Michael and Kaity sitting around tables with the Harvest team and the CDC kids.
Next is a picture of Elyse with Danni and Brittany. We all became really close with everyone from HarvestBaptistChurch!
RJ is talking with some junior high guys before day camp starts.
A bunch of us are hanging out on the steps in the morning before day camp starts.
After our Bible lesson from Joel, we spent time as a team debriefing our day and talking about our highs and lows for the day and what God did during the day.
Below are a few of the comments from our team:
Ben Justus I've been struggling with my faith recently and today, God has strengthened my faith and I am growing in Christ again.
Elyse Roberts A little girl asked if I knew Hayley, and I said yes, I'm her sister. She said, that's so cool, now I know two sisters!
When I went up to a house to give invitations - Can't come - is there anything I can pray for you? Yes, pray for safety - Prayed - Just seeing high schoolers come witness to us is a real blessing! (The picture of Elyse outside the van window is Elyse beaming because she just finished praying with an older man).
Kids wrote on their belt of truths that they made in craft time, and we were touched by what they wrote below:
"God is my heavenly Father
When I die I'm gonna meet my daddy"
Today was eye opening. The place they worship doesn't matter so long as they have a place to worship God as we thought about and saw the plaster coming off the walls.
RJ Hallebach
- There is more genuine love here than back home - that's why I love this city. Also, when I canvassed I stopped by the house of a boy who remembered me from 5 years ago.
Kaity Calhoun
There were 3 guys working on car right in front of our church. One was a guy 6'7" and he intimidated me. - Michael walked up to him asked - "hey you wanna come to the block party?" And he said, "Sure, I'd love to come!" It was great seeing God at work through my fears.
Mario's long time friend, Joel Lindman, who is the senior pastor at Bell Creek Community church shared the Word of God with us after we havd a time of worship and prayer. Joel spoke from Mark 1:16-20 talking about "Going Fishing" We learned that Jesus called when the disciples were in the middle of fishing. Jesus often calls us to follow Him when we are in the middle of somthing. When Jesus asks us to follow, it has to be immediately. When Jesus asks us to follow, it's unconditional. We can't follow Him at a distance, but we have to stay close. Also, if we follow Jesus it will be costly (Mark 8:34). When Jesus calls us to fish, it's about opportunity, not perfection. Anytime you fish, you will get smelly (I Cor 9:22-23).
In the early evening of Monday, July 25, we divided up into teams, prayed in our groups and canvased the neighborhood with flyers inviting the people to our block party on Tuesday night, July 26 from 6-8 PM. We encourage students and leaders to not only invite the people to our block party, but also to engage in conversation with the peiple and ask how we can pray for them and then pray for and with them.
We have nine team members serving with grades 3-5 and six team members serving with the middle school students. In the afternoon, the middle school team played basketball with the guys while the girls made friendship bracelets. Then they taught a lesson on friendship. The photo with the students sitting down at tables is us teaching with blue shirts.
On Monday, July 25, we woke up at 6 am, had breakfast at 6:30, personal Jesus time at 7 and then group prayer, worship and daily prep at 7:30 and then left for day camp shortly after 8. That's our morning routine for the remainder of the week.
We took a group picture on the front stairs where we are staying. The picture with more people is our team along with the students and leaders from HarvestBaptistChurch. The picture with less people is just our team from Village.
Going into the trip, we thought we were just going to minister to the k-5 grades. At the beginning of last week, we were asked if we wanted to run the middle school day camp for 30 - 45 students, which we gladly said yes to. So where we had 3 months to prep lessons, games, and crafts for the k-5 grades, we had less than a week to prepare for Bible, games, arts and crafts. Six of our team members (Steve & Robin Steekel, RJ Hallebach, Josh Nilson, Naomi Haas and Allie Free) along with 4 students from Harvest Baptist are serving with the junior high.
In the morning, the middle school students and our middle school team worked at a ministry owned by CDC called Peaches and Greens, where they grow vegetables in a garden and sell fruits and vegetables in the store. See the above pics of the garden area and the store.
One thing we forgot to say in yesterday's blog post is that the original place that we were planning on having our solos (Henry Ford Estate) was closed to the public which we found out when we arrived there. (It was recently sold and closed as of July 1. So we had to find another park like area to have our solo times with Jesus. The next place we looked at, Elizabeth Park in Trenton had a festival called "Roar on the river", and since that park was buzzing with people, we had to look for a 3rd place, so we finally arrived at Bishop Park in Wyandotte, MI at 6:30 PM. It started sprinkling when we arrived there but then it stopped while we were having our solo Jesus time. We were to meet at the vehicles at 8 PM and as soon as we arrived at the vans, the rain started to down pour. It's great to see how God kept back the rain until we were finished with our solo time. God's timing is always perfect!
On Sunday, July 24, we went to Tony McDuffy's church, El Shaddai ministries. Tony is the Youth and Family Director of Central Detroit Christain (CDC).
After church, they fed us a delicious lunch consisting of fried chicken wings, mashed potatoes, gravy and meatballs, corn, bread and desert.
After church, we drove to TriedStoneBaptistChurch on Taylor street where we cleaned the church from top to bottom and spent time having final preparations for the week.
In the evening we had a time of prayer and worship and final challenges and instructions as we start our week.
On Saturday, July 23, we drove to the Detroit area. We had solo times for 90 minutes in Wyandotte, MI on the Detroit River where we all had our own bench or place where we spent time with Jesus preparing our hearts for the week. The first picture is the view we had and the land in the distance is Canada.
The second picture is us in our hotel room praying and worshipping God through song and sharing what God spoke to us. Below is what everyone sahred:
Michael Free - I was sitting on a bench reading my Bible near 2 young high school guys who were skateboarding. While I was reading my Bible, one of the guys asked me, "Is that a Bible?" I said "yes" and then I was able to share the gospel with both of them for the next 30 minutes. One guy was listening attentively to me and the other guy was an atheist.
Elyse Roberts - I was thinking about my drive to church (VBC) in the morning with my dad and he asked me a thought provoking question: "What do you want to get out of this trip?" I thought about that for a moment and then said, "I really want to get a lasting relationship with the kids." I also received an email from my sister Hayley who is on a mission trip in Uganda. I really look up to her. One thing that she shared with me that impacted me is to "cherish every moment Josh Nilson- I really enjoyed writing a letter to God, especially about my strengths and weaknesses asking God to help me in areas I am weak.
RJ Hallebach - I was reading in Proverbs about not relying on my own cleverness, that's something I do all of the time. I was humbled because I know I need to rely on God this week and not myself.
Nathan Underwood - As I read God's Word, I was reminded on how bad company corrupts good character. I was also able to share with a man in the park what we were going to be doing this week in Detroit.
Kaity Calhoun - It was hard sitting in the hot van with no air conditioning, so I prayed to God for peace, and He reminded me of all the things He is gonna do this week.
Renee Kuryliw - I prayed through Psalm 83, and I love the verse that says, "Oh God do not be silent."
Ben Justus - A verse from Proverbs 23 that really spoke to me says don't wear yourself out to get rich. And also the one in Psalm 53 which says, "The fool says in his heart, there is no God."
Cody Hallebach - I loved Joshua 1:9 which God says "I am with you always."
Allie Free - I was feeling emotionally and spiritually drained and the wind picked up & turned my Bible to 2 Samuel 22 and verses 2 & 3 really refreshed me "The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior."
Kayla Thompson - As we were waiting to leave Sugar Grove, I heard the VBC worship team sing "You are God of this city" and I was reminded that He is God of Detroit and He will work this week on our trip.
Naomi Haas - We had to memorize all of James 1 for our trip. My dad had it memorized and prayed the whole chapter for me all the way from my home until church.
We thank the Lord for the opportunity to serve in Uganda this summer. This short recap video shows a glimpse into our time. Thanks for your prayers and support!
One evening I was talking with one of the Juna Amagara students who in in our equillivant of 9th grade. His name is Isaac and he is an orphan. Six years ago, Juna Amagara found a sponsor for Issac which allowed them to provide a home and education for him. Isaac said that if it wasn’t for his sponsor and JAM, he would probably be a farm servant trying to earn enough money to survive. He said he definitely wouldn’t be in school or having any hope of attending a university. He said he was so incredibly thankful for his sponsor who makes it possible for him to live at the JAM orphanage, to learn about God and to attend school. He said his life has much hope because of that….
For less than $2 a day, you can literally save the life of an orphan child in Uganda. In a place where there is no working welfare system, where tens of thousands of children live in child-headed families, where they do hard, menial labor just to earn one meal a day, you can give a child hope. Look at these faces. $50 with Juna Amagara covers the costs of providing an orphan a home, meals, health care and education. (By comparison most child sponsorship programs do not provide housing or education, but rather focus on after-school and holiday Bible teaching programs along with health and nutrition services.) If you can't afford $50, then consider sponsoring at their basic level of $35.
Above are the pictures of orphans who are awaiting sponsors. Maybe you will be the person God uses to provide them with a home and a quality education. It sure is a great investment that bears many eternal returns. If you have questions, please contact Pastor Keith (630-466-7198) for more information today. You can also view additional children and sign up online: SIGN UP
Click here for my personal experience sponsoring a child.
Well, Keith, Max, Michael, & Natalie have left Uganda and now our team is now down to three! I think we would all agree that having our team gradually dwindle down has helped us adjust to our new, mini-team.
Before we dropped down to only three, together, we said goodbye to the ABIDE students, and enjoyed brunch & fellowship with Matt, Crystal, Asher, Stephen, & Adelynn Kehn on Monday. It was a great day for all of us.
Hayley, Linda, & I spent Tuesday visiting with some of our friends at Juna Amagara in Mbarara, and Crystal and the kids again. This time Linda gave some swimming lessons to Asher and Stephen & then some sewing lessons to Crystal.
On Wednesday, Linda was a teacher again: both swimming and sewing. Meanwhile, Hayley & I were able to spend the day with John Jude (or JJ), an ABIDE alumni God has given me the privilege to help with university fees. We were taken into the village of Karamurani, which is about a 45 minute drive outside of Mbarara. We were taken to the top of a mountain (or hill—it’s somewhat debatable) where we found one of our friends working at a radio station there. The four of us went on some hiking adventures before sloping down to JJ’s home to meet his family and eat lunch. We had a great time of chatting and sharing pictures of each other’s families. They sent us home with a giant basket full of watermelon, mangoes, lemons, grapes, and bananas….But since it was a bit heavy for the two of us women to attempt to carry on our heads, JJ’s mom followed us up the hill with perfect balance, carrying that heavy basket on her head: no hands. We are still in amazement…and still eating away at all of that fruit! JJ took tea with us at the hotel before going back home, so he was present for our Bible reading time. Yet again, God had our Scripture schedule perfectly aligned for the situation as we were reading Philippians 1:1-11. (Please take some time to read through it to see what I mean.)
This morning began bright and, errrrr, dark and early as we left our hotel by 6:10am to drive to Kampala with our friend Herbert. So, we are now in Kampala for several days and will be working with Lilian on some sewing projects. Before heading back to the hotel tonight we enjoyed an evening fellowship service at Watoto church, which is right across the street from where we are staying.
We are praising God for the all the different opportunities He is giving us during our time here, as well as all of the good people of Juna Amagara that are always taking such good care of us.
Matt and Crystal Kehn are our connection to the Juna Amagara ministry in Uganda. They have been missionaries with Juna Amagara for six years – and before that Crystal served as part of our Sugar Grove campus (the only campus at that time!) alongside Mario and the student ministry team.
JAM focuses` primarily on caring for orphan children through high school age. However, shortly after beginning with JAM, Matt saw a great opportunity to disciple high school graduates for six monhts prior to their entering college (similar to the one-year Nicolet Bible Institute program at Silver Birch Ranch). He began this program several years ago and called it ABIDE (Amagara Bible Institute for Discipleship and Evangelism). This program focuses on preparing young men to serve God in very intentional ways within their community and world. They spend much time on studying God’s Word during the week and most weekends live it out by doing outreaches to schools throughout Uganda.
Today we celebrated with the 19 young men who were part of ABID for these past 6 month as they had a formal graduation ceremony. It has been great to serve alongside the ABIDE guys a few weeks ago and to get to know them. What a great group of young men.
Please be in prayer for these young men as they await acceptance into university – and then strive to find ways to come up with the resources to pay for it. While university is inexpensive compared to our costs in the US, the $2,000 needed per year is far beyond the ability of most of these young men and their families.
And yes, if you’re interested in helping one of these young men attend university as he continues to prepare to serve God, you can certainly do that – you would be a HUGE blessing to him and to his community. If you’re interested, please contact Pastor Keith for more information.
When I was 14 years old, I took my extra lawn mowing money and started sponsoring a child. I’m not sure what prompted me to do that (it was over 25 years ago, after all!) but child I was linked up with was 5 years old and he lived in Uganda. Those were the difficult days following the rule of Idi Amin (1971-1979) who was one of the bloodiest dictators of the 20th century. Food was scarce, education almost non-existent, infrastructure destroyed…
That’s where my child, Walugeme Francis, lived. I began to write to him and he wrote back. Amazingly enough, our relationship has lasted 25 years! I sponsored him for 14 years of primary and secondary school, then he received a university scholarship and my sponsorship ended but the relationship continued. He graduated from college; then he got married; then he had a daughter… then last year when I led our first missions trip to Uganda, I met him face to face for the first time. (Yes, I did have some extra incentive to say yes when Pastor Scott asked me to lead a team to Uganda!) This year, I had an opportunity to meet his daughter, Prarthana, and to celebrate her 2nd birthday with her, her family and a bunch of neighbors and friends. I guess that makes Prarthana my adopted grand-daughter. Wow. Last year when I met Francis for the first time he told me that if it wasn’t for my sponsorship of him as a child he would likely not have had many opportunities – he and his family expressed a great appreciation.
Today, Francis and his wife are both university graduates (his wife just finished her PhD). Francis is serving with Compassion International, the ministry that ministered to him as a child, and his wife is working for a university. Francis’ sponsorship gave him the hope and tools necessary to raise above his circumstances and to grow into a young man who is contributing in great ways to the benefit of his community and the God’s Kingdom.
All of that and it only cost me about a dollar a day - or the cost of a movie and popcorn for two…
Some of the children who are sponsored by Village families live at the orphan school here in Kishanje. This week, we had the opportunity to visit the families of three of these children. All are orphans so at least one parent is passed away, and for most both parents have passed. During school vacations, the children return to their families - which are often aunts and uncles or grandparents who are still living. Visiting the child's family gives a great opportunity to learn more about the child and their specific needs. Plus, it's a huge honor to the family to receive a visit - and a lot of fun for those who do the visiting!
The photos above show pictures of our visit to the home of Costa, Ruben & Bruce. Also pictured are sponsored children Annah and Oliver.
As you can see, many times, the surviving relative often cares for 6-12 children. They can barely (if at all) afford the fees required to send their own children to school, let alone send other children they are caring for. Without a program like Juna Amagara, the orphan children would end up being household slaves without opportunity for education. Not because the relative is cruel, but simply because all they can afford to do is provide a home and food for the orphan child. Sponsoring such a child through Juna Amagara provides hope to an orphan who will be incredibly grateful!
In the afternoon several of us from the VBC team along with Juna Amagara staff members hiked up the mountain that is here. From the top we could see the Impenetrable Forest, looking like a lush green carpet stretching for miles. The fellowship we experienced was so great as we talked of many things concerning our mutual faith in Christ and our respective cultures. On the return trip down the mountain it was such a blessing seeing American Christians and Ugandan Christians paired up with each other and engaged in active conversation. It was a high point of our day!
We began the day at the elementary school where we performed some Elijah skits for the kids and then they performed some songs, dances, and skits for us. Great time!
Then in the afternoon part of the team went to watch the football (soccer) match at the pitch (soccer field). While they did that,
In the afternoon today, Linda and I went to visit the families of some children who have been sponsored by families within our church. We “sloped down” the mountain on cow paths about a foot wide. I know they were cow paths because I was gently encouraged to get moving by a bull who came up behind me unexpectedly!
One of the young men put the crowning touch on the day by sharing with us about the reactions he has heard from some of the students about our ministry here. He encouraged us that many people feel their lives have been greatly improved here in Kishanje and probably in all of the places where we have ministered. It’s a great blessing to know that God is using us to build people up for His service.
Today was the first day that the team was really able to spend with the children at Kishanje Highlands High School and what a great day it was!
Last year I really connected with many of the high school girls so being back has brought joy to my heart. The Lord’s goodness never ceases to amaze me. He has brought back together many good friends. All of the girls in the high school spent time on the lawn with us having girl time and cultivating even more relationships than we had before. Lisa, Natalie and I will be spending time with each class over the next few days while Keith, Dave and Michael meet with the guys. We’ll discuss their main struggles and questions they may have. We are excited to be able to have small group time and one-on-one time with the girls and pray that the Lord works in and through us over the next weeks at this school as we seek to educate and mentor these teenagers.
Sunday church service was quite different from our service. This Sunday they packed about 70 people in one room, plus 60 campers and 26 leaders. The campers were on the floor and the counselors in the front row. Mark McGee even got really technical and put live feed downstairs in the lunch room (the lunch room is right below the chapel). Not to compare things to last year, but they have really gotten high-tech this year. They have a huge TV screen instead of a projector and a really nice sounds system for it. They even got to do live feed. Most of this stuff was donated to them – God is awesome!
There was no real plan for the rest of the day. Our cabin time was spent playing Bible Mad Gab which was really cool because some of the things that they had to guess were Bible stories, and then they would ask what those stories were about.
Since this is my last blogpost, this is my last chance to share through the blog what God has done in my life while I was here. Before I left I had been struggling with where God wanted me – as in what He wanted me to go to school for. All my life I said I wanted to be a music teacher, but about a month ago God threw a curve ball at me and said, "Jenn, you’re going the wrong way! You need to be in Camp Ministry." It wasn't till I came here that He really opened my eyes. I got to talk to some leaders about it and they all really gave me good advice! Most of it was that they knew they wanted to do camp ministry but they didn't know how to use it either. But it’s not me that's using my Camp Ministry major, it’s God that's using it. Coming here helped me to put even more trust in God. It sounds weird, but I have a lot of trust in God with my life safety-wise, but now I have more trust in him with my future! Now even though I still feel like I'm going into my major basically blind, I at least know that God is going to guide my steps and lead me in His direction!
There is still so much to tell you all about the week and so many stories I didn't write. If you have any questions or want to hear any more stories, just ask me or any of the team members!
We have moved into a new chapter of our time in Uganda. We are currently in Kishange, which is a mountainous village in southwestern Uganda (see below). For those who were here last year, we have been longing to return. Before ending our day today we shared our high and low points of the day. Keith, Max, Hayley, Linda and I could not really think of a low because are so excited to be reunited with so many of our good friends. All day we found ourselves having many reunions that included big hugs, statements of disbelief, camera snapping, and even tears.
After our second service, Linda decided to walk up the hill from the village while the rest of us rode back in the van. On her way she was greeted by our friend, Gad, and she found herself making a five minute stop at his aunt’s house turn into two and one-half hours, including lunch and picking fruit to share with the team.
We are looking forward to spending the rest of the week with the village with a variety of ministry opportunities to fit each of our skills and passions.
On Saturday, Tanalian Bible Camp put on a carnival. The carnival was so awesome to watch. I think it was more cool to watch than watching water planes land (which is really cool, but we got to see everyone from Port Alsworth enjoy this carnival. I loved that they got to see what a positive influence camp can be! I got to talk to some of the locals and they said they really enjoyed this time because it’s like a block party for them and also that they get to see how Jesus can impact campers’ lives!
From Tuesday, July 5 through Saturday, July 9, a team of 10 students and 3 leaders served Jesus in Aurora. The team members were Mario Arindaeng, Kayla Thompson, Josue Valdez, Bethany Capp. Matthew Capp, Nick Oleno, Sabrina Pilkington, Samantha Pilkington, Jacob Schumacher, Tori Underwood, Jared Wentzlaff, Ray Williams, and Audrey Whybrew.
God really worked in our lives on the Aurora mission trip in the following ways:
1. God gave us team unity.
2. Our students learned how to clearly share the gospel and then put that into practice.
3. Several of the children trusted their lives to Jesus as a result of our junior high students sharing the gospel.
4. We saw several of our junior high students step up to the challenge in leadership.
5. Our students caught a passion for personal quiet time with Jesus.
6. We were a blessing to the Wayside Cross staff.
Each morning we started out our day with breakfast at the Pilkingtons. Then we rode to the Sugar Grove campus where each team member had 45 minutes to prepare himself/herself to serve Jesus by spending time alone with Jesus. We learned how to read the Proverb of the day (so if the date was July 8, we would read Proverbs 8) and pick out a verse to think on throughout the day to gain a heart of wisdom. We also learned how to pray the Psalms of the day to pray back to God. For each day, there are 5 Psalms we can pray back to God. You take the current date and keep adding 30. For example, if the day was July 8, we would pray Psalm 8,, 38, 68, 98 and 128 back to God.
We drove to Brady elementary school on the East side of Aurora and arrived there between 11:00 - 11:30 AM. At 11:30 AM, over 80 children from the surrounding community showed up to camp. The children were in grades k-5 grade with some junior counselors in junior high. We started out with lunch from 11:30 - 12:00 followed by free time from 12:00 - 12:30. From 12:30 - 2:45, the children were in groups of 20 - 30 and rotated through 4 different activities. There was Bible time, games, crafts, and academics. Then from 2:45 - 3:30, we finished off the day with free time.
To give our students exposure to different ministries, each day we changed what activity we ran. On Tuesday, we ran the craft, in which we had the children make a "Belt of truth" out of art foam and cloth. On Wednesday, we led the games in which we played dodge ball. The Bible theme for the week was the armor of God, coming from Ephesians 6:10-18. On Thursday, we taught the Bible lesson, which we taught about the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit.
On Friday, we took a field trip to Phillips Park, where the children had the opportunity to visit the zoo, play on the playground, play volleyball or play baseball.
We did work projects on the afternoons on Tuesday and Thursday. On Thursday, we cleaned out the Urban Youth Ministry storage room and on Thursday, we cleaned up around Brady elementary, mopping the floor, picking up trash around the school and organizing the storage closet.
Each evening, we went to a different student's home to eat dinner along with a time of worship, prayer and sharing what God did in and through our lives that day. On Tuesday, we ate at the Pilkingtons, on Wednesday, we ate at Nick Oleno's home, on Thursday, we ate at the Underwoods and on Friday, we ate at Wayside Cross.
We also were able to attend youth group on Wednesday night and on Friday, we had a fun day at the Pilkingtons. Each night the boys slept at Mario's home and the girls slept at the Pilkingtons.
At the conclusion of our trip, we asked the students 3 questions:
1. What was your favorite experience you had this week?
2. How did you see God at work this week?
3. What's one thing that God wants you to do different after this trip?
Below are their responses:
Jared Wentzlaff
1. Favorite experience was working with the kids and playing with them.
2. On Wednesday, we were challenged to pray and ask God to give us at least one opportunity to share the gospel with one child. Miguel, a boy who was around 6 years old asked me out of the blue who Jesus is and I was able to share the gospel with him.
3. God wants me to spend more time with Him in my quiet time.
Nick Oleno
1. I enjoyed playing with the kids.
2. I saw God work in the kids lives.
Matthew Capp
1. I enjoyed playing "jail" with the kids. The kids would "capture" us on the playground and then drag us off to jail.
2. God gave me an opportunity to talk to a young boy about who Jesus is.
3. God wants me to spend more time with him and pray more deeply.
Bethany Capp
1. My favorite thing to do this week was to hang out with the kids, especially the ones that I play baseball with on my dad's baseball team.
2. I was really impacted when I saw God at work using Tori to lead 7 kids into a relationship with Jesus.
3. God wants me to keep having "God and I time" each day.
Jacob Schumacher
1. My favorite part of the week was going to the zoo with the kids.
2. I saw God work through our team in how he helped us lead kids into a relationship with Jesus.
3. God wants me to go and tell my friends about Jesus.
Ray Williams
1. My favorite part of the week was getting to share the gospel with the kids. I was able to ask a boy if he wanted to know Jesus.
2. I saw the fruit of the Spirit work in and through our team. I haven't been able to swim all summer because of my allergies, but since the pool was 85 degrees, I was able to swim.
3. God wants me to pray the Psalms back to Him.
Samantha Pilkington
1. I really enjoyed hanging out and talking with the kids. They are all so cute!
2. I saw God work when He use my sister, Sabrina and I to talk to a girl about Jesus.
3. God wants me to continue to share the gospel with others.
Audrey Whybrew
1. I liked eating lunch with the kids because it was fun getting to know them in air conditioning.
2. I saw God work when I was with Karly on Wednesday and I told her about Jesus. She went home that night and talked to her mom about Jesus and the next day she came up to me and told me that she trusted her life to Jesus the night before.
3. God wants me to spend more time praying the Psalms back to Him every day.
Tori Underwood
1. My favorite thing to do this week was play outside with the kids at recess.
2. I saw God at work through the opportunities he gave me to share the gospel. I remember asking Denise if she knew who Jesus was. She said yes, but didn't know what Jesus did for her, so I shared the Gospel with her and she prayed to trust her life to Jesus.
3. God really showed me how I can have a deeper quiet time with Him through reading my Bible and praying.
Sabrina Pilkington
1. My favorite thing to do was playing with the kids.
2. I saw God at work because a lot of the kids were actually really open to hearing about God.
Our missions coordinator, Godfrey Dutki, insists that in the midst of our busy ministry schedule that it is important to take a day or two to rest and experience the beauty of God's creation in Uganda. And it is indeed beautiful.
We spent one day on safari at Queen Elizabeth National Park and an hour or two here and there at beaufiful stops along the way - like Sipi Falls - and also found time to have fun together at the end of our long days.
After breakfast this morning, we had chapel. For the first time ever my kids sat still and listened to Randy speak. It was so cool to see! They had their Bibles open and never bothered each other. It’s not that I don’t already love being a counselor, but when I’m able to see my campers sit still and listen to the message about the Lord, it makes me even more proud.
During evening chapel, my girls again paid attention. The message was about John 9 and the woman that was caught in adultery. James talked about we have all sinned and that we all need to repent of those sins. My girls of course had questions at the end about “Do all sins really need to be repented of?” That is a typical question, and I loved that they were open to ask questions.
Demonic oppression in this part of Uganda is very strong. Between witch doctors who are very common, dark spiritualism and a much increasing Muslim contingent (there are mosques everywhere in western Uganda) - there is a great deal of spiritual oppression. But there is great hope too!
Today our team headed off to a new Christian secondary school in Kawowo (in the kapchorwa district) to bear witness of the love of God our creator to all peoples. The enrollment was around 300 students, half professing Christian faith and the other half Muslim. The day was bathed in prayer prior to entering the school; trusting that God would prepare the hearts of all the students to receive the gospel message. Dave, Haley, Keith and Godfrey were able to share the gospel with power - proclaiming that Jesus is fully God and the only way to God. The hearts of the students seemed to be very positively stirred so we will continue to pray that the seeds planted will be harvested in God's timing. The teachers of the school are all Christian and were very thankful for the gospel proclimaion from new faces that the students were anxious to hear from.
I want to tell you about one particular girl in the student body. I don't know her name nor did I get the opportunity to to share with her on a personal basis. As the gospel and testimonies were being shared both Keith and I independently observed her attentiveness. We both began praying for her and were lead to present her with a personal Bible. Her response was one of gratitude and excitement. I was able to make eye contact that expressed her intent to read and gain knowledge of God's Word for her life. Tears in her eyes reassured us that we had made the right decision to present her with the Bible.
After our time, one of the students who is a born again Christian approached Keith and asked if our team would pray about providing Bibles for the 270 students in their school. He said that very few of the students had a Bible and he believed that if they all had one they would be treasured and read - and that the Christian students would grow greatly in their faith and that the 150 or so Muslim students may come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. Keith promised the young man that our team would pray about this opportunity.
In order to each student in this school a personal copy of the living Word of God, we need $1,350. As you read this could I wonder if you would be the one to provide us with $1,350 knowing that these Bibles will receive much use... Or maybe you'd be willing to give half and find someone else to give the other half... Or maybe something else. If God leads you to help with this, please call Missy at the church office and she will get word to Keith so that we can work to purchase and get the Bibles to the students before we return home!
Devotion time after chapel on Thursday was my first time receiving theological questions. Someone on campus told my girls about the Lake Clark Monster and started believing it was true. Then they started asking about ghosts and spirits and where they come from. It was a quite tricky one, I do have to admit, because its hard to talk about something that scares them, but I knew I had to be honest.
After devotional time it was the annual trip to have a picnic at Dry Creek. Dry Creek is really amazing to see! I’ve been there before, but I just can’t get over the sight of the mountains! I have officially declared God a show off when it comes to the mountains. Though when I talked to a camper about the view, he just rolled his eyes and said, “They’re just big rocks!” I guess he’s young and all and just doesn’t understand, but even though those are “just rocks,” they are fingerprints of God’s creation!
Each week they have competitions on who can get the most points. They earn points by Bible drills (who can find the verse fastest), cabin clean up, creating lyrics to a song called Butterfly, and reciting verses. Each kid had to memorize Romans 8:30-39. Although my kids misbehave a lot, they are AMAZING at memorizing verses! They are so excited about memorizing verses. As of Thursday we have already memorized verses 30-37! Which puts my group in 2nd place! Kim’s group is doing really well as well. They’re just as excited about verses; as of Thursday she was in 3rd place!
This evening was quite a nice surprise. While traveling from the east part of the country to the west, we spent the evening in beautiful grass huts on the Nile river. We had a very pleasant dinner and breakfast while overlooking breath-taking views of rapids on the river.
We all agreed that this would make for a great retreat location some day!
Every morning we have a counselor meeting at 7:30, and we have been reading Genesis 20-40. It’s also a time to share if we have had any theological discussions with our cabins. Whitney, one of the counselors, shared that one of her girls has accepted Christ into her life as her Savior! Praise God!
After morning chapel is devotional time and I got a huge opportunity to talk to my girls about Jesus. Three of them had already accepted Christ as their Savior earlier in their lives but, back home it’s rough for all of them. One of my kids is being raised as a Catholic and tells me stories about how her parents drink a lot and tells me stories that made me quiver. Another girl was adopted and lives in a huge family now which is great, and they’re raising her in a Christian family.
Two girls in my cabin are cousins. One told me she lives with her cousin because her family tried selling her off as a slave. I had to step out for a moment to compose myself. I can’t even begin to imagine what she was/is going through. She has not accepted Christ yet so she is one of the girls I’m hard-core praying for.
Well, we have had quite a busy day today here in Kapchorwa, Uganda. We arrived last night and were welcomed by Reverend Fred, a youth minister in the area. He had made arrangements for us to visit six different schools over the next two days (we actually visited 7). He spent some time with us, explaining some of the big issues the youth are facing in this area. Among the problems he brought up are drugs, alcohol, sexual immorality, poverty, and HIV. One really heartbreaking reality is with the teenage girls specifically. If girls are pregnant, they are not allowed to go to school. As a result, often times pregnant girls abort their babies. But these abortions do not happen in clinics, they happen in the villages, performed by local women. So, not only is the baby killed, but also the young girl often does not survive either.
After hearing this, and having my heart broken over it, I sensed that we needed to adjust our plans for presenting in these schools. Since we would be going to five schools, usually with three people sharing at a school, I decided to encourage everyone to be ready to share at least once. So, everyone took time throughout the evening to prepare a message that would address Reverend Fred’s concern for the youth in eastern Uganda. In the morning, over breakfast, we did our daily devotional reading. Today we read Matthew 10:11-20, which focuses on how God will speak through us. God has not ceased to amaze us every day, when the Scripture we are scheduled to read is perfect for either what we have just experienced, or what is in the day’s plan. Everyone shared what God had put on their heart and mind for their messages and we made a plan for each school.
The first school we ministered at had about 1,300 students, sitting under large trees. Here Natalie, Dave, & Keith all shared different messages from Scripture and their lives. It was a good time and the Gospel was proclaimed, with students responding. As we were sitting on the chairs students brought out for us, I couldn’t help but notice that no adults from the school came to listen.
The second school was a vocational school with about 100 students crammed tightly in one room. Each time we enter a school, we take a few minutes to visit with the Headmaster in his office & sign the school’s guest book. Immediately when we entered this man’s office (Johnson is his name), I sensed something different compared to where we had just been. Johnson clearly loves the Lord and has a heavy burden for his students. He shared with us many of the same things Reverend Fred had shared the night before, especially concerning sexual immorality and abortions. Before leaving his office, I sensed the need for us to pray for him and his school, so I asked Keith to do that before moving on. It was a good start to the program there. In that small room, not only were the students jammed together, but the teachers and headmaster attended as well. This was very different from the previous school. Here I shared a message based on John 8:1-11 where the adulterous woman is brought before Jesus. Can you imagine being brought before your entire community by the religious leaders and having your darkest sin exposed? How humiliating….But Jesus showed her such love. He loved her when others judged her. And he loved her so much he didn’t want her to remain in her sin, so he charged her to go and sin no more. Deb & Linda also shared, and it was incredible to see how God really orchestrated what he had put on each of our hearts to flow so perfectly together. God was certainly at work. One way that was apparent was through all the distractions that came at a critical time during the testimonies. You would not believe how many cell phones rang within the pockets of students, teachers, and pastors during those few minutes! Yet, God undoubtedly was at work and used us as his tools to penetrate many hearts. When we were leaving, Patrick (an ABIDE staff manner traveling with us) took the words out of my heart when he said, “wow, that was a really powerful time.”
Then Fred took us to the school he had attended when he was younger. Here Michael, Molly (one of our team members from West Chicago), & Keith spoke to about 800 students. Again we enjoyed sitting outside under enormous trees as we shared the Gospel. Before leaving we were treated to biscuits (cookies) & soda.
We ended our day of ministry at a girls’ school. Unfortunately we were running a bit behind scheduled, and only about 50 of the 150 students stayed after school was over to receive us. Yet, we were not disappointed because we were confident that these were the girls who God wanted to hear his message. It was nice to have such a small group lounging, yet very attentive, in the grass in front of us. Since it was an all girls’ school, we decided only girls should share while the men of our team listened. Arianna (our other West Chicago teammate) shared her testimony, then Deb, Linda, & Lisa shared again.
Several weeks before returning to Uganda, God put a simple song on my heart that was often sung during chapel when I was in college. The words are very simple (see Hayley's blog on 7/4).
I had been thinking that this would be a good way to end our program when we visited schools, but I didn’t know if anyone else on the team would know the song. So, a few days ago I asked the team if they knew it, and no one did…..I decided I couldn’t ignore that God had put it on my heart, so the team quickly learned the song and we have left every school by singing that song at the end of our program, and asking the students to join us. I have looked forward to that every time. At the girls’ school, since it was a smaller group, I had all of the students get in circle. We spread ourselves out, taking the hands of our new friends and sang together. It was a good visit, even if we did have a small herd of goats run through when Linda was sharing…
Tuesday is the first real day of camp. Camp includes activities such as knot tying, riflery, gagaball (a game most people in Illinois knows as Octoball), crafts (where we got to make some awesome tie-die shirts), orienteering, rock skipping, canoeing (no one has ever tipped a canoe yet), and fire building. Each counselor has to teach at least 3 things.
Today we shared about Jesus at 5 different secondary schools (jr. high & sr. high). At the last school my dad and I got out of our van and were welcomed by a bunch of kids so I got out my soccer ball and threw it up in the air. The kids began screaming with excitement and began kicking the ball around. There were probably 150 kids. At one point they all jumped on the ball to try to get it and one kid finally got it and then the teacher came and disciplined them for not staying at school – the kids disappeared and so did my soccer ball... After that we went back outside and there were a couple of kids sitting outside the fence and they said the boy had taken the ball back to his house. I felt kind of bad because it shouldn’t have just gone to one kid.
Then we went to teach at the secondary girls school all the kids from the primary school were hanging on the fence being kind of loud, trying to hear what we’re talking with the older girls about. So I went with Mr. Patrick, Hayley and Michael to entertain the kids. Just as we got them all together, the teacher rang the gathering bell and so he took all the kids back to the school, from the soccer field, and he invited us to come too.
And so we sang two songs they liked and then Mr. Patrick said a little bit about John 3:16 and about obeying your parents. Then Mr. Godfrey and Natalie came and Godfrey shared about Jesus too.
Then they told us that someone had just given them a soccer ball and they said two weeks earlier they had bought a ball for the boys and needed a ball for the girls but couldn’t afford one – and the kids had all been praying for one and were really happy that God answered that request.
Then we said that I was the one who had given them the ball a little bit ago and they all wanted me to stand up and talk so I told them my sister’s names, how old I am and what grade I am in (“Primary 6” here) and then sat back down. Then they all wanted to shake my hands and then went outside and sang a couple of songs. I thought that was really cool that God answered their prayer through me and that we had the opportunity to share the gospel with them while playing with them – especially since it wasn’t even planned that we would stop at their school.
Happy Independence Day from Uganda! The team and I all pray that you have a safe and enjoyable day and hope that you “Ooo!” and “Ahhh!” over all the fireworks because there will be none here! Instead we will be listening this pack of dogs howling all night long. The dogs are a bit more of an intimidating sound to fall asleep to than the mice that have been squeaking above mine and Natalie’s ceiling for the past few nights.
This morning we said goodbye to the ABIDE team (Matt Kehn’s students) as went to minister to two schools in the area. The first school we went to was a secondary school that is nearly divided between the amount of Christian and Muslim students. We had been told of this earlier in the morning and, sure enough, as we entered the campus there were two signs, side-by-side, welcoming us – one from the Scripture Union, which is a Christian club, and the other from the Muslim Student Association. This first school was a tough crowd. The teachers that we encountered at the high school were God-fearing and we could so clearly see their heart and their passion to see their students come to know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. Lisa, Keith, and Molly (a team member from West Chicago) all spoke at the secondary campus, while Deb narrated a skit at the primary school. While it was evident that some of the students couldn’t care less about what we were saying it was apparent that others were soaking in every word that was spoken (or at least every word that was understood because we are Mzungus, white men, and have strange accents!). We are confident that God is at work in this country and in these schools and He has a big plan for those who are willing to confess with their mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in their hearts that God raised Him from the dead.
One thing that Lisa and I were talking out today was how God has so perfectly orchestrated each and every experience and conversation we have had on this trip so far. Each and every one of our devotion passages has directly coincided with what we have been experiencing or what we have been feeling that we may need to hear at that moment. We have already seen God do some amazing things and have befriended some people who have had such powerful, God-filled experiences that we cannot argue against His grace, His goodness, His love, and His power. As the Ugandans would say, “God is good – All the time. All the time – God is good. That is His nature. Wow!”
Uganda is the most beautiful place I have ever been. His majesty shines throughout this nation. From the landscape to the people, to those mice that were in our ceiling for the past few nights, He created it all! After bringing the Good News to the schools this morning we traveled to Kapchurwa where we will be ministering to five schools within the next two days. This city is located on the top of a mountain and we were able to stop at several lookout points along the way. WOW! The green valley that we looked down upon took our breath away. With huge cliffs, stunning waterfalls, colorful flowers, banana plantations, and various crops planted below, we were completely captivated and in awe of God’s creation. No picture will ever do this country justice – another thing that so clearly shows God’s overwhelming power. Only He could create such a picture. Nevertheless, we could not stop taking those pictures! Juna Amagara rented a van that is often seen driving on safaris. The entire roof popped up so that we could stand and look out without having to peer through the dirty windows. As we drove along, standing in the back, taking pictures, and chatting we encountered many people along the road. The children were filled with laughter as they ran after our van waving and shouting, “Mzungus!!” while the adults tended to stare at us and occasionally wave. Some of us were feeling like total tourists about snapping the cameras every six point two seconds but this feeling drained when Keith saw a man along the road whip out his cell phone and take a picture of us!
With five days under our belt we ask that you would continue to be in prayer for both our team and for this country. There are so many people seeming ready to accept the Word and yet there is still so much darkness. We ask that you would pray for God to continue to work in and through us during this trip. We ask that you would be praying for our safety as we are, and will be, traveling a lot over the next few weeks. And finally, we ask that you would continue to keep this team unified and to continue to stretch us and push us out of our comfort zone in order that we may have a part in His plan to further the kingdom.
And finally, I leave you with this song that we have been ending our ministry at the schools with:
My friends may we grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior.
My friends may we grow in Grace, and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
To God be the glory, now and forever, now and forever. Amen.
To God be the glory, now and forever, now and forever. Amen
Usually Monday is the day we send off the last week’s campers and our campers arrive, but due to God having a different plan (different plan as in having it rain most of the day) Kim, Al and Dave didn’t get their first campers until about 4pm (normally they arrive between 11:00 and 1:45). I however didn’t have any of my campers until after supper (about 6:00). By the time everyone had their campers it was about 11 at night. By the end of the day we had 60 campers – so 13 cabins with about 4 to 6 kids in a cabin.
Being the Sabbath we took a bit of a rest today. We attended worship services at St. Andrews Cathedral in Mbale where I had and opportunity to preach during their English speaking service. Personally, this was a lot of fun as the congregation was very warm and engaging and seemed receptive and responsive to the message. Not to mention that there were several firsts for me - first time preaching in a cathedral (Anglican church), first time preaching in an African church and the largest crowd I've had the opportunity to preach to (somewhere around 1,000 people). For those who were praying for this for me, thank you.
In the afternoon our team was part of a fellowship worship service at the cathedral - except for Max who decided to grab one of the soccer balls he brought and get a game started with the kids in the area. He learned that a soccer ball is a great way to quickly make many friends!
We were also part of a deliverance service for people caught up in demonic witchcraft activity. This was something new for our team to experience and very powerful. Demonic activity can be very intense throughout Uganda and especially in the area we were today.
Tomorrow we're off to do some outreach in public schools in the Mbale area.
After church we overheard Randy Karlberg (a youth pastor at one of the Anchorage churches that came to volunteer the same week) say a group from California was coming in, but to our surprise it was a group from Illinois. So a group of about 12 people from Illinois are here with us and working as counselors and work crew.
When I met them I had no idea where the area they came from was, but either way, it’s cool to have more people from Illinois because then we have more friends in Illinois that are living there supporting Tanalian Bible Camp.
I’d like to share a little bit about the experience I had at church here.
When we woke up, we all ate breakfast and waited downstairs for all of the community to get here before we went up stairs into chapel. I was shocked to see people pulling up in four wheelers, boats and planes just to get to a normal church service. It was so sweet!
When we finally got to go upstairs it was amazing to see just how many people had made it to church, there had to be at least 150 people in the service. The service went really well and Pastor James gave a great sermon and really knew how to make the crowd get interested in what he was talking about.
We arrived in Mbale late last night after a three hour ride from Kampala. Awaking to a bright sunny day, the team was informed over breakfast that we would be engaged in door to door evangelism in Mbale and surrounding villages today. Our VBC team was partnered with the ABIDE ministry group of young men with whom our missionary Matt Kehn works.
The group to which Deb and I were assigned met at Busagama Church of Uganda. Pastor Fred Waniaye accompanied us to several of the homes near the church. It truly was an amazing time for us as the Holy Spirit went ahead of us and prepared the hearts of many we would talk to. We met both believers and unbelievers along the way. The difference was striking as we witnessed such joy and peace among those believers we encountered.
On one occasion, our group was drawn to a group of men repairing their boda bodas (motorcycles) along the roadside. Our group, made up of Ugandans and Americans, was able to share the gospel. At least one man received Christ on the spot. Others showed interest and asked several follow up questions.
The highlight of the day for Deb and me was when Pastor Fred announced that he was scheduled to speak at one of his parishioners’ 70th birthday celebration. To our surprise he asked me if I would be willing to give a greeting and speak from the Scriptures at the celebration.
We learned in our pre-trip orientation sessions that being asked to speak with little or no notice was the norm, and that we should always be prepared to say “yes.” So, I did.
The next thing I knew was that Deb and I both were whisked away on the back of a boda boda. (That’s right: Both of us and the driver on the same bike.)
While we were in transit and I was wildly trying to think what I would say, I asked Deb if she remembered where in the Psalms it spoke of God watching over the “man with gray hair.” I thought it would be appropriate for a birthday celebration of a 70-year-old man. Deb could not remember, and suggested that I just mention it using my own paraphrase and not worry about quoting chapter and verse. We arrived at the party, and we met the excited birthday boy.
Now, you must understand that I do my best to avoid exaggeration, especially in spiritual matters. So what I am about to write is no exaggeration.
As we were waiting for the program to begin and I was prayerfully preparing in my mind what to say, I simply opened my Bible randomly to the book of Psalms, hoping that I could perhaps find the Scripture about which I had been thinking. I opened to Psalm 71 and began to read it to myself, and I came across just what I had been searching for—Psalm 71:18 “So even to old age and gray hairs oh God, do not forsake me until I proclaim your might to another generation.” So, I was able to share this scripture and speak of it to the celebrant.
From Deb: While Dave was preparing and speaking, I was looking through various Scriptures and trying to recall appropriate songs in case I would also be asked to offer something. None of my ideas were coming together, so I just rested. After Dave finished, I wasn’t asked to speak or sing, but only to lead in prayer. I am always ready to do that! The Holy Spirit gave me the words.
These may seem like small matters, but it amazes the whole team how God through His Spirit seems to script our interactions with people to bring glory to His name. It also greatly encourages us and confirms that we are indeed in the middle of His will as we minister in Uganda.
We woke up super early to get a flight out to Port Alsworth this morning but couldn’t get out because of bad weather. The clouds were too low. We weren’t able to leave until 12:30, and when we finally got there we couldn’t even see any mountains. When we finally landed in Port Alsworth, we literally had nothing to do but sleep, read the Bible, or talk with other team members.
After flying through two sunsets we arrived in Uganda late last night - with all of our bags and all of our teammates! We met up with Dave and Deb Mogle who have been in Uganda doing ministry already for the past two weeks.
Already I am overwhelmed already with how God is working.
While sitting in Brussels airport, we all began checking our seats for the next flight. That was when I realized that I would be sitting alone. Sure, I was nervous for that because I’m a wimp and on the first flight I had to hold Hayley’s hand during take-off. So we boarded the plane or “airbus” and were headed to Rwanda before Uganda.
There were unfamiliarities all around me; to my right, Europeans speaking languages I didn’t know and to my left an American girl was speaking with a Rwandan. I hardly could gather much from the conversations. After an hour of silence (which is hard for me), I finally put down my book I was reading, and wondered if the gentleman to my right could understand me. So I asked him, slowly, “what brings you to Africa?” He said, in broken English, “the trees”. He further explained and what I could understand was that he is with a team going to plant trees to help start that as a business for individuals that need work.
I found out that he, Per (pronounced pear), is Swedish and I said, “Oh wow! I have Norwegian in me!” Not sure why I said that, because he said Sweden, not Norway. But because of that comment, he introduced me to his friend, Perdy (pronounced pear-day), who happens to be Norwegian. So they then asked me why I was going to Africa, and I said to teach the children about Jesus and preach the Word of God. Per smiled at me and stated that he likes Jesus. At that moment, alone, in an uncomfortable place, miles in the sky, that didn’t smell the greatest, and where we didn’t speak the same language, I was able to share with them the Word of God. I knew that I couldn’t pass up an opportunity, but didn’t expect the “missions” part of the trip to start until we landed.
In the conversation, they were both talking about struggles in their lives, even after they knew about Jesus, and so I opened my Bible to John 16:33, “…In this word there will be trials, but take heart! For I have overcome the world.” We talked about that for some time and Keith, in passing, had given me a Bible to give to Per. So Per looked at it, and since it wasn’t in Swedish, it was hard for him to read. By the time we landed, I had met almost their whole “tree” team and he was telling everyone that I’m Norwegian and know how to count to 5. They were pretty impressed (thanks Dad!). I was able to get Per and Perdy’s addresses so that we can mail them Bibles in their native language. That was such a humbling experience to start the trip off with. I know now to “Expect the Unexpected,” and that was definitely unexpected, but seeds are being planted in the “tree” team’s hearts.
Thank you all for praying for us, for God is doing great things! Today we will be traveling to the eastern Uganda to the source of the Nile and traveling around for a week before we go west. Please be praying for the health of our team as hydration and nausea have been issues. We covet your prayers!
The Alaska team left early this morning to fly to Anchorage by way of Dallas. The flight to Dallas was uneventful. From Dallas to Anchorage, Al shared a row with a newly married couple. Al talked to them the whole flight and learned they both had a relationship with God and that they are spending their honeymoon in Alaska fishing. Before we got off the flight Al even prayed with them.
Hi, everyone! We're on day 4 at the orphanage, and it's so wonderful! Each one of us has formed a bond with a baby, and the nannies hand us that baby when we get there. The nanny in my room has started calling me "Mama" when she hands me Pom Pom. It's so cute! She let us bathe them yesterday and everything. I found out today that Pom Pom means "fat" in Chinese! The nanny kept saying it and squeezing her little legs and arms and laughing. Now I know why! She thinks she's fat! She does have very chubby cheeks, which remind me of Charlotte's when she was a baby. The attached picture is me trying to give Pom Pom some tummy time on my lap to practice holding her head up. When we arrived Monday, she couldn't hold her head up at all - it just flopped back. Look at her now! The toddlers can't hold themselves up on their legs, so we're trying to exercise them. They're used to sitting in walkers, so the seat of the walker holds all of their weight. Their legs and arms are weak.
Pom Pom is a very serious baby, and rarely smiles. She always wants to eat, and it always sucking on her hand, arm, or clothes. Today, I finally made her laugh for the first time! It was the most beautiful little sound.
We're preparing for our good-bye party at the orphanage tomorrow. We have gifts for everyone and are buying things for the orphanage with our donation money. One thing we're getting is a refrigerator for their medicines because they don't have one. We're also getting electric fans for the nannies and for the foster homes. The children go to foster homes when they learn to walk, and those homes don't usually have a/c or fans or anything. We're also getting those foam puzzle mats for the floors of the babies' rooms so they can get out of their beds some after we're gone. We hope the nannies will let them out to play if the mats are there.
Please pray that we will honor them with our gifts and provide them with things that will be a help to them.
Just wanted to let you know that we got through check-in and security just fine. We prayed that none of our bags would be overweight they were all cleared without any problems. We found out last Friday that we were going to be charged an extra $60 for each of our second checked bags. (The team was bringing much extra clothes, fabric, etc. to give away to the people there). Somehow, that didn’t happen, because we all know that God was watching over us. We were spared the $540 that we could have been charged. The lady at the counter was saying 99% of the time the computer catches those second bags, but she indicated it didn’t catch it for our team so, she would just let it go and not charge us… and we didn’t have to pay the extra charges! Keith told her that we were had been praying that we could use the $540 for ministry in Uganda rather than for checked bags. She suggested that we "must be living right" because the computer did what it never does (not charging for the second bag) and did it 9 times!
So now, were all checked in and ready to board at 4:30 PM, we are taking off at 5:10 PM. So, we are already seeing God at work in our process, and in our travel. So, thank you for your prayers!
Hello! I only have a minute before going down to breakfast, but wanted to give a quick update. Today will be day 3 at the orphanage. We can't wait to see the babies again every time we leave there! They have warmed up to us and are so happy to see us when we come. We have each sort of picked a baby to attach to. They are very low right now - only 15 babies - and there are 13 of us. A few of them are newborn, so the nannies never take them out of their cribs.
Yesterday, the nanny in my room let us bathe the babies! It was SO incredible. She trusted us to help with that, and it was just so much fun. Then of course, they smelled a little better. :) The nanny told us that we have kind hearts, which is ironic, because it's she that has the kind heart to give her life to care for these children day in and day out. So, I said it back to her (in Chinese), and we had an argument back and forth about who had the kindest heart. It was so funny!
The babies also got their immunizations while we were there. Very cool. They have their own little doctor's office.
I'm attaching a photo of one of the favorites, Jin Jin. She was fascinated with the cameras and was looking at pictures of herself. So sweet!
Love you all, and keep praying for our endurance and for God to move through us.
Stephanie
June 28, 2011
Here are some prayer requests for us:
Leticia is feeling a strong connection with one of the babies. The baby is extremely attached to her, and she is fearful of everyone else. Please pray for the coming separation Leticia will go through, and for God's guidance about the pull on her heart to care for this child.
There is one baby that when we bathed her, we found out she has both gender parts. When we asked, we were told she is more of a boy and that the Chinese government is paying for her surgery in 2 months to correct it. Please pray for the health of this child and for God's hand in that surgery. The child is already having a rough start to life, and having this anomoly corrected would be a big praise. We were overjoyed that the baby wouldn't have to wait to be adopted before getting medical attention.
Beth was ill last night, but she is recovered this morning. I was experiencing some bad ankle swelling, too, but it's improved. Please pray for continued health for our team so that illness won't stand in the way of God's work. It's very hot and humid here, and there's little relief from it, especially at the orphanage. We're struggling a bit with the hot, salty Chinese food at every meal coupled with the heat and humidity.
The orphanage director pulled out framed photos of the team from last year to show us! He is so wonderful in his hospitality. We could learn some lessons from these people. :)
Hi, everyone! I'm in CHINA! My room was supposed to have a computer in it, but it doesn't, so I'm having to use someone else's. My updates will not be as often as I had planned. You can check our team blog, though, where our team leader is posting updates, and I'm posting pictures: reachingheartsinchina.org
We are in Heng Feng right now, and we visited the orphanage for the first time this morning. It was amazing! The babies are precious, and the nannies are so sweet and happy. We have been welcomed so graciously by the director of the orphanage - he even came 3 hours to meet us at the airport! They have been trying to provide us with everything we could possibly need. I have to say, I've never eaten so well in my life! It's 2:00 p.m. on Monday right now, and we're having a break in our hotel while the babies have their naptime.
Holding the babies this morning was incredible. The nannies gave them right to us, and most of them just looked at us and smiled when we talked to them. In one room, the nanny actually left when we were holding all of the babies, which made us feel like we were maybe giving her a little break. They seem so grateful. The nannies live and sleep in the room with the babies all the time. I was holding one little girl, Jin Jin, when it was time to go, and since it was almost her naptime, she snuggled up to me and put her head on my shoulder! It was so sweet, I didn't want to leave for lunch. We are very excited to go back and love them some more.
I've been learning some Chinese from our guide, and he makes me practice on the people here, who don't speak English at all. The inflections are the hardest thing to get down. But it's so rewarding when someone understands what I said! I asked for some water and asked where the bathroom was, and got the correct responses! :)
We are all doing great, and just looking forward to more time with the babies. I'll write again when I get a chance, but please check the website and post comments to us!
My mom wants [the church family] to pray for her as she is going to teach for 3 hours on Friday night to a large group of teachers about youth ministry. She is nervous and would really appreciate your continuous prayer. .... This picture is of daddy after a long day of working yesterday. I'm going to only send this 1 and maybe one or two tomorrow. I'm not sure. We will see. Things are going very well here because dad gets to work and mom, Nate, and I get to talk to the students that come and visit us and there has been a constant stream of them while we are here. It is a lot slower pace then before and it is very different even from last week. We are going into Gbanga on Sat morning and coming back that night. I'm not sure what next week holds but we will just wait and see. I think that swimming again in the ocean is on the schedule for the Dunah and Wood family for all of next Sat:) See you all in a couple weeks. Praise the Lord! Amen!
Thoughts from Jay Gembeck (Grace Campus team member) :
It has been a pleasure being here in Liberia serving Christ! Whether it was by digging in the ground, moving a sack of concrete, making a run to the marketplace, or standing at the pulpit and sharing my testimony, God has sure been using me here! To Him be all the glory!
I know I couldn't do any of it on my own, that's for sure. But God can do all things, and He can even use a brittle clay vessel like me to do this work. Praise the Lord for that. And if He can use me, then He can use you too!
Chris & Buddy Scott, Jay Gembeck, Brian Lakin and Scott Capp head home this evening after worshipping the church in Monrovia today. Rich, Laura, Liz and Nathan Wood, and the Dunah family will remain in Liberia for the next two week. The Wood's will continue with ministry, as the Dunah's take a much needed break, and travel doing some reunions with family they have not seen in a very long time, along with introducing their children to the country where they came to America from. Thanks for keeping everyone in prayer!!
The team has left the city of Ganta, and traveled the 5 hour road back to the capital city of Monrovia. We’re sitting out on the balcony overlooking the city, and getting ready to spend our last day and a half together before five of us travel back, and six of us prepare to head back north to stay for two more weeks.
Today is Liz Wood’s 19th birthday, and we intend to help her celebrate with a little shopping, going to the beach, and having a special dinner together at an area ocean-side restaurant. Tomorrow we will worship with the church here in Monrovia. Because we were only here for a brief overnight when we originally landed in Liberia last week, we have not had a chance to meet most of them yet. Scott Capp will preach the morning sermon, and there will probably be opportunity for other team members to give testimony of what God’s been doing in their lives.
The plan is to connect via Skype with the church family back home in Sugar Grove, and Aurora. We can hardly wait to tell you all of the cool things that have been going on here. The physical work project went much slower than we were hoping, but the spiritual and relational opportunities abounded. It was really cool to watch Brian Lakin, who came focused in on digging, and building… to open up, and to begin making friendships, sharing with the locals. At one point he got left behind when the construction truck left for a sand run… he headed off down the path convinced that he knew were it was… a mile or so away down a couple of different roads. A new “friend” found him wandering down the road on foot… and offered to give him lift on the back of his motorcycle. Brian pointed him down to road, and the two of them proceeded to end up NOT at the sand pit, but a Christian ministry for the “Concerned Women of Liberia” that we had visited, and toured the day before. Needless to say, it ended up only being a joy-ride…. As they headed back to the campus of the L.I.C.C. (Liberia International Christian College) where the rest of the team awaited.
God has certainly been working here in Liberia and we are encouraged.The hand-dug process of the foundation work for the new library is certainly slow… but we have also had lots of help, and so it is really coming along. We have faced some challenges as a team, including the brake-repair of our truck for moving construction materials (moving bags of cement, sand, 5/8” re-bar) which put us behind a bit (it was in the shop for an afternoon, and into the next morning Tuesday pm into Wednesday am)… but overall the team has trusted the Lord through it all. We have remained flexible, improvised, and used all of our time for ministry of various sorts.
It has been great to watch Laura and Liz Wood in their ministry to the area children. Laura has been “practicing” on us, during some of the evening, and off hours with her storytelling. Then, yesterday when we were waiting for the truck arrive… we began reaching out to the neighborhood children by playing games, and drawing a crowd. Laura then grabbed her flannel graph storyboard, and began sharing from the Bible as the children eagerly crowded around to listen.
The countryside here is beautiful, and the team has enjoyed the bumpy 15 minute ride back and forth from the guest house to the construction site each day. Getting caught in the rain on the way home the other day was extremely refreshing, and as we got soaked we were all laughing hysterically, as we bonded, and rejoiced.
The faculty of the Bible school has already told Karney Dunah they really want me to come back again, and continue the training in the Bible school. The classroom has been an invigorating challenge, and one component of the ministry schedule that has not been dependent on outside contractors, weather, or availability of vehicles. Even Jay Gembeck got a chance to open the Word of God last night as we were invited to the evening church service, and he shared his testimony.
In addition to the building project, Chris Scott has worked hard on building a friendship with a national volunteer who is building a 4H program here in Liberia. Chris’ former experience with the program, and knowledge of agriculture, etc… has put him on a mission to find partnerships and synergies to enable ULICAF to have socio-economic impact in the area, in addition to the wonderful gospel, church, and bible school ministries that are already well-developed and thriving.
Thanks so much for keeping us in your prayers, and supporting all that the Lord is doing here. We look forward to coming back, sharing the vision, pictures, and stories that will ultimately deepen the connection between our church families back home, and the incredible community of faith growing here in Western Africa.
Teacher seminar for the professors of the Liberian International Christian College, and area Christian Educators. It was pretty hot (maybe 90 or so in the classroom, nothing compared to the 109 in 2009).
I preached in the Ganta church this morning, and everything went gloriously.... I love the sound of African worship going up to the Lord. Now we're heading out for a hike to the border of the country of Guinea.
Hey... Thanks for praying everyone. We spent the day traveling down the long and bumpy road to Ganta, Liberia. We are only a couple of miles from the Guinea border here, we may hike there tomorrow. For tonight we're settling in, had a great dinner with some great new friends, and several of us got into the Atlantic ocean this morning... so warm!! I hope to upload some new pictures soon.
We have arrived at the guest house in Monrovia!!! Thanks for the prayers for safe travel. We are now here, and we're hungry! Time to eat!! Liberian feast!!
It’s hard to believe that the day is finally here, in one way! In another way, none of us can believe that it’s already here. And, ready or not here we go!!!
The team is ready… Karney and Lydia Dunah are already in Liberia (they have been there for nearly a week making arrangements for the team) and they are awaiting our arrival. Exciting things are planned for the next couple of weeks, and we are thankful that we have so many people who are following and praying for us along the way. We will try to keep you posted on a regular basis… check back here regularly for pictures and God–stories of his working.
It looks like we have a rainy day for departure, but by the time our plane leaves at 6:04 this evening … things should be drying up. We hope that the departure schedule at O’Hare international Airport does not get to back up through the day as we prepare to take off!
The team consists of Karney & Lydia Dunah (their four kids are there as well, Dee, Kehleh, Kardia, and Albert) , Rich & Laura Wood, and Liz and Nathan Wood, Chris Scott, and Scott Capp from Sugar Grove Campus. Jay Gembeck and Brian Lakin are from the Grace Campus, and Chris’ dad Burt Scott, is joining the team from Texas.
Much of the team will be focused on the construction of an addition to the Bible School. There will be opportunities for many of us to be reaching out to the local public schools, along with some teaching / seminars for the professors and areas pastors!
This past summer, one of our short-term missions teams to Uganda spent time sharing Christ in public schools in the southeastern portion of Uganda (
And so we sang two songs they liked and then Mr. Patrick said a little bit about John 3:16 and about obeying your parents. Then Mr. Godfrey and Natalie came and Godfrey shared about Jesus too.
I found out that he, Per (pronounced pear), is Swedish and I said, “Oh wow! I have Norwegian in me!” Not sure why I said that, because he said Sweden, not Norway. But because of that comment, he introduced me to his friend, Perdy (pronounced pear-day), who happens to be Norwegian. So they then asked me why I was going to Africa, and I said to teach the children about Jesus and preach the Word of God. Per smiled at me and stated that he likes Jesus. At that moment, alone, in an uncomfortable place, miles in the sky, that didn’t smell the greatest, and where we didn’t speak the same language, I was able to share with them the Word of God. I knew that I couldn’t pass up an opportunity, but didn’t expect the “missions” part of the trip to start until we landed.
