Keep It Balanced

Not all of missionary life is formal ministry (ie. leading Bible studies, vacation Bible school, training pastors), but I do believe all of life is ministry. Our days, like your days often feel and look like this picture of the woman to the left, a delicate balance. All of what happens in our lives is a direct result of God’s sweet Holy Spirit, often making a way where there seems to be no way. This is how we fill our calendar, one day at a time. Some days are filled with friends visiting from Kampala, others full of running errands, meetings and planning for mission teams to come from America. This was one of those weeks full of friends and planning for the Indiana Wesleyan University missions team to arrive.

The highlight from this past week was having our dear friends Brad & Annie Brown (pictured left) come and visit us from Kampala. They have such great hearts for the Lord and are just about to finish up a 5 months term in Uganda before heading back to Boston for seminary. Our time together was like a breath of fresh air. We ate good food, talked about their time of ministry in Uganda, played volleyball and laughed a ton!!!

The rest of the week, and this week too, are devoted wholly to final preparations for our missions team that is coming this week. Billy and I go to meet the team of 10 college guys this Thursday in a game park for safari, orientation and a spiritual retreat before bringing them to Arua on Saturday. We have been busy finalizing all the schedules, programs (VBS at Uganda Christian Univ. pictured left) and projects for them as well as anticipating the return of Billy & Joanna, who arrive home tomorrow morning.

In the midst of all this planning and daily life in Arua, I am constantly confronted with the fact that the only way I can keep my life balanced is if I let Jesus do something in my heart daily to love and live as Jesus. I have to guard against treating Him like someone who can just help me get my “to-do” list done. Jesus has to take the lead each day and we’re all privileged to be able to join Him in the work He wants to accomplish that day, whether in America, Uganda or anywhere else. This is how I prayerfully live life. It is in the “daily grind” of life where the Holy Spirit wants to meet each of us and if we are not careful we will miss Him.

Jesus, today help me live in such a way to move with You and accomplish your agenda for the day. Amen.

Bump, Set ... Pray

As I walked up to the volleyball court at the high school 200 sets of African eyes locked on to me and all activity seemed to come to a hault. "You are welcome", said Benteel (one of the students, tall one pictured left with Titus). "Come and play, you are most welcome to join the game." A few serves and spikes later I had some new friends.

In a country where soccer is king God has placed Erica and I next to a school where they play volleyball daily (a sport I love). It is amazing how God works and uses all our experiences and talents to help tell others about Jesus.
I have seen my new friends grow in their volleyball skills as they have asked me for some "coaching", but I have also seen our friendship move from guest to being one of them. Even the headmaster (principal) has asked to know more about our ministry here in Arua and encourages me to invest in the students both in volleyball and spiritually. Who knows what the Lord has for the next step in this friendship, but please pray for guidance and open hearts. Just remember God wants to use you right where you are to reach the world for Him. (Here are some pictures of our new friends)

Closed Window, Open Doors

Moyo trip
Jeannie, Joanna, Billy, Erica and myself (the “A-team”) took a day trip to Moyo (2 hours north of us) on Sunday to see the “Induction” of our friend, William Shakespeare Paschi! (Yes this is his real name) It was a very long, extravagant African celebration to honor William in his “promotion” to the position of Arch Deacon. There was a lot of singing, dancing, ceremonial liturgy, praying, preaching and more singing and dancing. We definitely got a full taste of Ugandan culture! (Ceremonial entrance of the Arch Deacon pictured above)


Children's Ministry
We also met with the Director of Uganda Christian University to finalize our plans for Vacation Bible School with the children of the students and area the week of May 14th. It will be the first “project” for the IWU team (Indiana Wesleyan University). Everyone at the university has been so welcoming to us. They have even been praying for someone to help them with their children’s ministry and training of Sunday School teachers (which we are currently looking into for the future and praying about)!

Meeting with the city council
This week we also met with the Director of Education for Arua. We started to discuss how we could possibly help with the literacy programs already going on here in Arua, as the mayor had suggested, but God had His own plans for that meeting! It turns out that all of the literacy programs are in Lugbara (local town language, not close to Swahili)- there aren’t any in English…so obviously we won’t be much help! However, during our meeting, we learned that the empty desk and chair in the room we were meeting in belonged to a veterinarian who is in charge of the Agricultural Dept of Arua! For those of you who don't know, our teammate Jeannie has a lot of experience, skills & knowledge in the area of agriculture and she has already contacted this vet and is very excited about the opportunity to possibly use her gifts in this area! As Jon Mayo says, “It’s not always your first meeting that brings you to the place God has for you to do ministry!”

HIV/Aids training
Later this same week we met with the Medical Officer of Health & the Director of Health for Arua town. The meeting was very insightful and promising, and it looks like there is a very good chance that Jeannie will also get to shine in another one of her areas of expertise… sex education! There is a need for sex ed to be taught in secondary schools here in Arua, and we will all help out of course…We are meeting some time in the near future to discuss and agree on what we will be teaching, and the Director of Health approved us teaching the students primarily abstinence! What a blessing!

We are so incredibly excited about the many doors the Lord has opened for us this past week in Arua, and we can’t wait to see His ministry unfold here! We know that the Lord has plans for this town, this team, and this ministry! He has reaffirmed throughout the week this is His ministry, and not ours. Jesus will make a way in His timing and in His surprising ways. Praise the Lord!(Below are more pictures of the celebration of the Arch Deacon cermony)

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!