A Day of Celebration!

This past week has been so encouraging! We had some friends from Kampala come visit us, and we had an unexpected trip back to Nebbi! The pastors from Nebbi, where we did a seminar two weeks ago, called back to say they wanted to speak with us. So the "A team" (Arua team pictured above) took a road trip yesterday. We were so excited to hear that this group of pastors wanted further training from us. Pastor Cosmas, the leader of all the other pastors, was very excited about the training and told us that they have had others offer pastoral training to their group, but have never had a peace about who has come to them. But now they feel that God has answered their prayers by sending our team to them! What a privilege and an honor!

They actually have 18 pastors that are ready to be trained! But we explained our vision to them, which is to train 8-10 key leaders over the next couple years, and really invest in these individuals' lives. This way, when we have moved back to the States, these leaders will be equipped to continue to train many more pastors over the years and the ministry will carry on without us! They saw the value and long term benefits of this vision and agreed to pray over two to four key individuals for us to train, starting in June! We are so excited for the doors the Lord is opening! He is so good!

After our meeting with Pastor Cosmas and other Ugandan pastors, they invited us to a crusade they were having at one of their churches out in the village! We were so tired, knowing it would be culturally inappropriate to just drop in and leave and that it would be an "event," but it turned out to be such a blessing! It is so amazing to be out in the middle of nowhere, literally, and just see a community of people praising God together! They sang, danced, prayed, had us introduce ourselves, and even fed us! And for them to feed us truly is a sacrifice, as food is scarce for so many, especially in the villages. We had goat, millet, and cassava (a common Ugandan meal). And the children were so incredibly precious! I took so many pictures of them and let them see themselves on the screen of our digital camera. They loved it! For most likely every one of those children, that was the first time they had ever seen themselves in a picture! That in itself could have entertained them all day!

It was truly a day of celebration and thanksgiving! We praise God for answering our prayers and bringing men along for us to train to be pastors! And what a blessing it was to see this newly planted church so alive! Seeing this church and meeting these pastors has been such an encouraging reminder from Jesus of why we are here!

***Check out the "UGANDAN MUSIC VIDEO" from the CRUSADE!***

Happy Easter!!!

Good Trip to Nebbi!

Thank you for your prayers last week for our trip to Nebbi! It went very well, and we are really excited about what may come from it in the future. Twenty-five pastors showed up to hear about World Gospel Mission and Africa Gospel Church (which is the church WGM has established here in East Africa). They welcomed us with open arms and open hearts! They were so excited to have “mzungus” (their name for white people) in their small town, but even more, they were thrilled that God has brought people in their lives that are able to offer them training. When we asked what their greatest need in their town was, they answered that it was pastoral training… above healthcare, food, shelter, or anything else, they said training! And we are so honored that God has given us the education and ability to be able to offer them what they most need. Please pray for discernment as we are seeking God’s will as to which of these potential Africa Gospel Church pastors that He wants us to partner with and train.

WGM Headquarters staff comes to Arua!

We had a very encouraging visit from the WGM Headquarters staff this past week! To have the leaders of our organization come visit us, all the way across the globe, in our small town of Arua, northern Uganda was quite a privilege to us! They had some very encouraging words and insights, which they shared with us. We were especially excited to hear about WGM’s vision to get people involved in missions from right where they are. As Christians, we are all called to missions. And we are very aware that you don’t have to move to Africa, or move anywhere at all for that matter, to be a missionary! And to hear that our organization is looking for creative ways to present ideas for how people can get involved in missions without even leaving their home, is very exciting for us! Praise Jesus that we belong to an organization who cares enough to travel so far to come love on us and that has a vision for every Christian to be involved in missions, not just their missionaries!

Children’s Ministry Possibility!

We had an extremely encouraging visit with one of the Christian universities here last week as well! They have a huge need for childcare, mainly with the toddlers. You see, most of the students are men, and they are living on the school property with their families… so the men are attending classes at the university, there is an elementary school on the property for the young children, and then the older children go off to junior high or high school. The university also offers classes for the wives of the students, but then that leaves the toddlers as the only members of the family who are not involved in some sort of schooling or program. The little ones have no one to care for them while their parents are in classes and their older brothers and sisters are also in school. They can be disruptive to the classes because they need care from their mothers, let alone, they are just not getting the attention and love that children need so much.

So we have been talking to the administration of the school about how we can get involved and help out. We have been working on setting up a one-week Vacation Bible School for the children. We have our first short-term missions team of college students coming in the middle of May, so we are hoping this will be a way for them to serve the children and families of Uganda. Please pray as we will be meeting with the Director of the University this Wednesday for his final seal of approval on this VBS!

Just Over the Horizon

Just like when you can begin to see the sun rise and anticipate it’s dawning so are we anticipating God’s working in Arua and beyond.

This past week our team was able to meet with a Congolese man named Bokwa. (pictured above with Erica and I) He is a good friend of Jon Mayo’s (our field director) and a friend to World Gospel Mission over the years. We have been hoping he could be the kind of man who can really set up some pastor trainings for us in Congo. As we ate dinner together Bokwa shared his story of meeting Jesus and of how the Congo rebels had destroyed his home and murdered many of his family and friends. He also shared about his passion for ministry to train college age students to be pastors as well as knowing several others in Congo who wanted to be trained but had not been able to receive training due to the war that ended in 2004. “Now the door is open” said Bokwa. We made no formal plan other than to continue to pray about how the Lord might connect us and lead us to help train these pastors and students. There could potentially be as many as three cities for us to train people in. This would be a large step for us so we are moving forward slowly, but also want to move with God where He leads. This most likely will take several months to come about, because things in Africa just move slower than us westerners would like, but until then we are praying for God’s best and His guiding us into the right places for ministry. (Billy, Bokwa & John pictured above)


One place God has opened up for us this weekend is a town called Nebbi. This Saturday Billy and I will be driving about 1 hour from Arua to begin to teach some pastors who are wanting more training in the Bible and church planting. We are praying this will also become a training center for the ministry, but we still need to see where they are at theologically and Biblically. The potential seems very bright as there are around 8 pastors wanting to be trained with Africa Gospel Church. So we will walk in the Spirit and trust God to give us discerning hearts.

On a totally different note, this has been a crazy week as far as “normal life” goes. We have been to the airport 4 times and hospital twice. Our good friend Jeannie (pictured to the left with Erica) broke her arm while riding her bike on a rocky path here in town and one of the Coppedges guards (Christopher) has become very sick very suddenly. Both are doing better and recovering, but it has made life a lot more of an adventure especially with the power going out unexpectedly for around 35 hours. (It’s back up now, thank God!!)

Thanks for your continued prayers and know that Erica and I are thinking and praying for you all the time. Please pray specifically for safety as we travel and for Jesus to bring the right people to us to train to be pastors. We love you all!!!

New Places … New Faces

Our two-year dream of moving to Arua is now an actual reality. Thanks to a large moving truck, many friends and of course the grace of God we have made it safely to Arua, Uganda and are now settling in. It was about an 8-hour journey north from Kampala and thank God there were no major complications along the way. Arua is a small town where the people are friendly and the sun is extra hot. The days so far have been full of unpacking, hanging pictures, getting to know our guard, and learning our way around “down town” Arua.

We are so excited to finally be here with our dear friends Billy and Joanna Coppedge after talking about it for so long. Billy and Joanna have been living in Arua for the past two months and have done a great deal to get our house ready and help us get settled in Arua. Also our good friend Jeannie Banter moved here the same time we did, so the team in now complete. We are so thankful to be able to serve Jesus with such great friends and count it a personal privilege and blessing to be serving Jesus together. Please be praying as we learn to work together in Arua. This is a new ministry for all of us and things aren’t done the same way here as they are in the States. Please pray that Jesus would guide and direct pastors to us and that we would be sensitive to His leading on where to be spending our time and energy.

Thanks again for all your prayers and for being excited about our new house and new ministry of training pastors.

(Here are some more pictures from the move)

Salvation is Here!!!

This past Sunday, March 4th, our Swahili teacher Josh (tall guy upper right corner of picture) made a decision that changed his eternal destiny. Josh accepted Jesus into his heart & life!!! Erica and I had taken Josh and his nine-year-old daughter, Sharon, to a Swahili church service. The sermon was on Christians being salt and light in this world and also talked about the parable of the weeds. It made for some good conversation on the way back to his house for sure. Once we got to Josh’s house we continued talking about God. Really he was just thinking about how his life had been changing ever since he began to learn more about God and read his Bible. As he talked, he said, “I can no longer call myself a pagan as I did when I first met you and Erica. I feel like I was walking in darkness before, but now I have made a turn in my life and I am walking in light.”

This totally blew us away, because Josh has not spoken like this before. I asked him if he considered himself a Christian now. “Yes, he said, but I can only hope to know God in heaven someday.” We went on to tell Josh that he could know today that he was a Christian for sure, that he will definitely see God in heaven one day and that he could have a new life with God today if he wanted. Josh replied, “You have gotten what I want to do.”

So we began walking Josh through the “ABC’s of salvation.”
(John 3:16, Romans 3:23, 5:8, 6:22-23, 10:9-10, Acts 3:19, Romans 10:13)
We explained to him that he must admit he is a sinner in need of a savior and accept that Jesus died on the cross for his sins, making it possible to live life with God. Then he must believe in his heart that Jesus is God’s Son and his personal savior. And finally, we explained that he must confess with his mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and commit his life completely to God. We prayed with him, and that day, Jesus gave us the precious gift of being able to witness one of His new children enter into His Kingdom! What an amazing privilege and honor that it was for us! Praise the Lord (Bwana asafiwe!) We are so honored that He included us in His work!

And last, but definitely not least, Josh finally promised to share with his daughter Sharon everything he had learned and experienced with God these past several weeks! God is so amazing and so good! And thank you all so much for praying for Josh and Sharon over this past month and a half. This is truly an answer to prayer, and we know that you have been faithfully lifting Josh up to Jesus! Praise the Lord!


(Here are some other random pictures from our time here in Uganda)