Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Week in Review

Saturday, 9/15-
Erica had a Baby Shower for Joanna Coppedge~ Baby Elsie Jayne is due Nov 4!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Sunday, 9/16-
Billy & John took a trip out to the village of Yumbe~ Billy preached & John played some African music! (notice the streamers they hung from the ceiling of the church~ so cute!)



Monday, 9/17-
Erica's Birthday~ she turned 27 (I think I found my twin!~ my friend Kim below)



Wednesday, 9/19-
Our German Shepherd, Scout, gave birth to 9 PUPPIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (they are SO cute!)



Somewhere in the middle...
A big truck ran John off the road & our car got stuck in ditch! (John & the car are both okay!) &...
John & Billy enjoyed some soccer in our front yard with our Ugandan friends!



Saturday, 9/22-
The whole team went to Nebbi for a pastor training together! This is us pictured with the five pastors we are training in Nebbi. (We are missing the 5th member of our team, Jeannie Banter~ please pray that God heals her & brings her back to Arua in His perfect timing!)

Just another week in Africa! Thanks for praying! We love & appreciate you all!

***John also just added a video of him & Sam leading worship in Kampala~ you should check it out! ***

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

God's Economy

Waiting on the Lord is a phrase full of meaning and complexity at the same time. It raises the question, should I literally do nothing but sit here and wait? Or does it mean I wait for the Lord’s timing and as I am actively walking with Jesus He brings more clarity to how and where we should spend our time.

This is a question our team has wrestled with and I have found waiting on the Lord's timing means actively pursuing God as I daily walk with Jesus. The Lord has definitely gone before us and prepared a way that none of us were fully expecting to experience this first year of ministry.

This past Saturday we held 2 pastor trainings at two different locations, which was a first for our team here in Arua, Uganda. While Billy and Joanna were in Nebbi training pastors, I was in Arua training John Onek (pictured above) from Sudan. We had a great time and he is very well educated. He actually works for the Sudanese government, but his real passion is training pastors and planting new churches.

Both trainings are growing too!! The Nebbi pastors are now teaching 7 more of their fellow pastors the church membership manual, so that we will have a total of 12 pastors when we open the official pastor training in January. Our Sudan training, of the church membership manual, is now up from 1 to 4. So while it is not all about the numbers by any means, God does have a unique economy where HE multiplies the ministry. The Lord is really opening doors and providing the right people without us having to go and "make things happen." It is amazing to see how God is working in this corner of the world and what a privilege we have to participate with God in this work.

Billy and I also just returned from Nebbi this past Wednesday, where we were meeting the local government officials. In Uganda, as in most places, it is a good idea to introduce yourself and the work you are doing in order to develop true friendships and let the local officials know we are here to help and have nothing to hide. There have been some groups who have just shown up and started administering medicines, training pastors and giving out food without going through the proper channels and these types of people are viewed as cults or sects. So we wanted to make sure World Gospel Mission was NOT identified with this group at all. By the end of out visit we had been welcomed to work in the Nebbi Region and I think made it clear we are here to help the people of Uganda. Benson & Cosmos, pastors in training, accompanied Billy and I to these meetings (pictured above).

Not every week is a “red letter” week and often we can feel home sick for our own family and culture as we are faced with the real life challenges of living in Uganda. Then there are those weeks, like this one, that remind us why we are here and bring our focus back to how God sees the world.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Life of a Rock Star?

Life as a missionary isn’t all that similar to life as a rock star! This past week has been filled with less than glamorous duties, like fixing our car, getting our melted power lines fixed (we were the only house in Arua without power!), getting papyrus at the market to make a new fence from where our neighbors cut down a huge chunk of bushes that line our property (just so they could see our house!), and just loving on the people that Jesus brings to our door~ whether it’s taking them to the doctor when they’re sick, helping them budget their money, or just sitting and talking with them.

But last weekend, John and I got a little taste of what life as a rock star would be like! You may remember us mentioning our new friends, Sam & Kim Trenwith (pictured left). They are missionaries here from New Zealand, and Sam truly is a real-life rock star! He has a band in New Zealand called Radiator, and they are very well-known there! And John, loving music the way he does, had this great idea to do some worship leading with Sam in Kampala! And so they did!

It was a busy weekend, to say the least! John and Sam led worship at Kampala International University (KIU- pictured right) on Saturday evening. And it turns out that Kim has a gift in teaching, so she gave the message that night! It was so great! We were there from about 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm. Then we woke up bright and early Sunday morning to do it all over again! John worked so hard~ he and Sam led worship again at KIU on Sunday morning, AND John preached the sermon that morning as well to about 500 people! (pictued left) I was so proud of him! And as if that wasn’t enough, John & Sam led worship AGAIN on Sunday evening at a small, missionary fellowship service!

Three “gigs” in 24 hours, literally! It was pretty tiring for John, and even for me and all I did was work the Power Point! But Kim & Sam
said it just reminded them of what it would be like at home, in Sam’s life as a rock star! They were used to it! And even though we were all a little worn out, we were tired in a good way. It really was a fun, fulfilling time, and I don’t think we’ll ever forget that weekend! We look forward to more fun times like these and hope to do more ministry at KIU in the near future!