~ Make sure you check out our latest video of driving in Uganda located in menu to the right.
This week has been full of ministry meetings and Swahili. We are making good progress in Swahili, although our brains feel as if they are at their limit. We have been exhausted at times, just thinking that in one week, we are supposed to be able to speak Swahili conversationally! Jesus is definitely helping us though, and in one week we will be finished with our formal training and pushed out of the nest into the real Swahili speaking world!
Our ministry highlight of the week was meeting with Stephen, a man from Congo that we may potentially train to be a pastor! We met Stephen a couple of weeks ago at church, and he mentioned he was very interested in planting a church where he is from in Congo! This immediately got my attention since this has been what we have been praying for... potential pastors to train and to eventually reach Congo and Sudan! He called us relentlessly over the past 2 weeks, trying to set up a time to meet with us! He is so excited about this opportunity and that the Lord has brought our paths together!
This past Wednesday I interviewed him and further explained our pastor training program and church planting ministry. We covered all the theological basics to make sure we were on the same page, and we were! It was very encouraging to meet someone else who has a heart for reaching out to people who have never heard about Jesus. Stephen told me he has been praying for almost 10 years that God would send him someone to train him to be a pastor and plant a church in his home town in Congo. It seems almost to good to be true! I will meet with him a few more times before heading to Arua, and if things still look good, Stephen will begin meeting with a local Africa Gospel Church Pastor to be discipled until he returns to Congo. We are praying that Stephen's heart and call are truly as genuine and sincere as they appear to be and that this is one of God's divine appointments!
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Friday, February 16, 2007
God is Making a Way!
God has Provided a House for us!Thank you so much for your prayers! God has provided for us above and beyond what we ever imagined! We loved the pink house when we went to see it in Arua this past weekend, and on Tuesday, we signed the contract with our new landlord! We will be moving the weekend of March 17th! This is such an answer to prayer, and we are so grateful to God for providing the perfect house for mission teams and us!
Also, when we arrived in Arua, Joanna Coppedge picked us up from the airport with some great news: A missionary family needed us to “store” some of their furniture and even their two German Shepherds while they went home to Canada from May of this year until November of 2008 (which is almost exactly the time we will be in Arua!!!) They have some beds and desks and bookcases, which were much needed, as we have mission teams staying with us in May, June, July, Sept, Oct… and more! This is definitely Jesus’ perfect timing and provision! I (Erica) have especially been wanting a dog, so I am so excited about “Scout” and “Joque!” This weekend, Jesus gave us not only a house, but beds and desks to furnish it and dogs to guard it! Praise the Lord! He is so good!
Flying in Uganda…
Just thought you may enjoy some pictures of an “airport” in Uganda and the plane that we flew on to make our trip to Arua! We were the last 2 people to get on the plane (along with a precious Italian nun in her 80’s), and the only seats open were the 3 in the front row!!! So, as you can see from the picture, we were literally sitting right behind the pilot and got to watch him drive the plane! It was pretty amazing! There was no flight attendant… only the co-pilot who told us to fasten our seatbelts and not to smoke and then crawled over our legs into his seat! 
The airport you see is in Moyo, Uganda, which is a very small town right outside of Arua where we stopped on our way. A dirt runway, a field to “taxi” on, one small building, and several huts made up the “Moyo Airport!”Meet Josh…
(We have uploaded a video of Josh to the right for those of you who would like to “meet” him!)
Josh is still asking questions about Christianity, Jesus, and the Bible, but he has not yet come to a decision to accept Christ as his Lord and Savior. Please continue to pray for his salvation. He truly is thinking so hard and pondering what he is learning, and for that, we are grateful. He has been reading in John, and he prays with us when we have meals together. It is so precious to watch him realize that he can just talk to God just like he talks to anyone else!
Thursday, February 08, 2007
House Hunting in Arua
Hey!!! Make sure you click on the new video link to the right! This is a video of our first trip to Arua!
Photo: This is our field director and his family (The Mayos) with Billy and Joanna Coppedge from our last trip to Arua to help Billy and Joanna move in.
This Saturday we are off to Arua again to hopefully pick out a house to live in for the next two years!!! We have been back and forth between a few houses and are now down to two. Both are very nice, but the first house is a little small. especially when we have mission teams come and stay with us. The second house is bigger and great for teams, but one draw back is the fact that the outside is pink! I'm affectionately calling this house the flamingo house. Please pray we have discernment on which house would be best for the ministry in Arua. Either house would be a blessing and much better living conditions (i.e. running water and toilet that flushes!) than we expected to have here.
Meet Sharon...
Another exciting thing happened this week! Josh, our Swahili teacher, brought his 8 year old daughter, Sharon, to our home so we could meet her. She was the most polite, precious girl! She does not speak very much English, so we got to practice a lot of Swahili with her! She was also very shy... she had actually never been around a "muzungu" before! (That is what they call white people here) So she was very quiet around us. Josh compared her being in our home to what we would feel like if we got to be in a celebrity's home! We both found that pretty amusing! She stayed the whole day with us while we had class (for 8 hours!), and she never complained of getting bored or anything. The children here are just so incredibly well-behaved. She was actually very entertained by the "Build-a-Bear" Giraffe that my brother, Ryan, gave to me for our going-away present! (you can see it in this picture). When you push the giraffe's foot, it plays Ryan's voice saying how much he loves and misses us! I probably heard his voice at least 20 times that day! It was precious!One thing you could please pray for is that Josh would be brave enough to share what he has heard about Jesus with his daughter. He has not told her what he has been learning yet. Please pray for Josh and Sharon to come to a decision to know Christ and have a personal relationship wtih Him.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Bwana Asifiwe! (Swahili for "Praise the Lord” )
We are making progress...
With Joshua!!! (Update- continued from last posting)
Josh has continued to ask questions about God, Jesus, the Bible, Creation, and so much more every day that we are with him! It is so amazing to see him discovering Jesus! He had never even heard the story of Adam and Eve, or any of the Creation story for that matter. He only knew of Evolution, but his response was something like, “Now that I know this, this ape theory sounds crazy!” And telling him the story of Jesus… that was priceless.
One of my personal favorite things about Josh is his child-like faith, excitement, and honesty. It is a common response of Africans in general to immediately accept Jesus the first time they hear the Gospel. I believe that, for most, this is because it is the “Good News” that so many of them have been longing to hear all of their life.
But I would also venture to guess that there are many who don’t take their decision to accept Christ to the next level, to a deeper relationship with Him.
This is what I love about Josh… John asked him last week if he had accepted Jesus into his heart as His Lord and Savior yet. He said no… but not because his heart is hardened, but instead, because he wanted to make sure he fully understands what it means to be a Christian before he becomes one. He tells us that he goes home every night and reads His Bible and processes all of the new information we have given him earlier that day, and that he will continue to think on what we have told him. It is amazing to me that he is so thoughtful and so conscientious of this huge decision he is making. I think that we could all probably learn from Josh in just how seriously he takes God’s Word and how he is putting so much thought and consideration into this decision, from the very beginning!
Please continue to pray for Josh’s salvation, and that in God’s timing, he would make the decision to come to know Him in a deeper way.
With Learning Swahili…
Praise the Lord! We truly are making progress in Swahili! We are now at a level where we can speak conversationally with the Ugandans. For example, we know how to greet each other, introduce ourselves, shop in the market for groceries, say simple Christian phrases, and we have even memorized Joshua 1:9 in Swahili (together with Josh!) and translated “God of Wonders” into Swahili with John playing the guitar to it!
And With Driving…
Praise the Lord! I (Erica) can finally drive a stick in Africa!!! Well, at least enough to get around and do every day errands or give other people rides all by myself! I used to have to have John in the car with me to tell me when to shift and what to do when I stalled, but I am finally figuring it all out! Thank you so much for your prayers, because if you would have seen my trying to drive 2 months ago, you would know that this is nothing short of a miracle and an answer to prayer!
With Joshua!!! (Update- continued from last posting)
Josh has continued to ask questions about God, Jesus, the Bible, Creation, and so much more every day that we are with him! It is so amazing to see him discovering Jesus! He had never even heard the story of Adam and Eve, or any of the Creation story for that matter. He only knew of Evolution, but his response was something like, “Now that I know this, this ape theory sounds crazy!” And telling him the story of Jesus… that was priceless.
One of my personal favorite things about Josh is his child-like faith, excitement, and honesty. It is a common response of Africans in general to immediately accept Jesus the first time they hear the Gospel. I believe that, for most, this is because it is the “Good News” that so many of them have been longing to hear all of their life.
But I would also venture to guess that there are many who don’t take their decision to accept Christ to the next level, to a deeper relationship with Him.This is what I love about Josh… John asked him last week if he had accepted Jesus into his heart as His Lord and Savior yet. He said no… but not because his heart is hardened, but instead, because he wanted to make sure he fully understands what it means to be a Christian before he becomes one. He tells us that he goes home every night and reads His Bible and processes all of the new information we have given him earlier that day, and that he will continue to think on what we have told him. It is amazing to me that he is so thoughtful and so conscientious of this huge decision he is making. I think that we could all probably learn from Josh in just how seriously he takes God’s Word and how he is putting so much thought and consideration into this decision, from the very beginning!
Please continue to pray for Josh’s salvation, and that in God’s timing, he would make the decision to come to know Him in a deeper way.
With Learning Swahili…
Praise the Lord! We truly are making progress in Swahili! We are now at a level where we can speak conversationally with the Ugandans. For example, we know how to greet each other, introduce ourselves, shop in the market for groceries, say simple Christian phrases, and we have even memorized Joshua 1:9 in Swahili (together with Josh!) and translated “God of Wonders” into Swahili with John playing the guitar to it!
And With Driving…
Praise the Lord! I (Erica) can finally drive a stick in Africa!!! Well, at least enough to get around and do every day errands or give other people rides all by myself! I used to have to have John in the car with me to tell me when to shift and what to do when I stalled, but I am finally figuring it all out! Thank you so much for your prayers, because if you would have seen my trying to drive 2 months ago, you would know that this is nothing short of a miracle and an answer to prayer!
Friday, January 19, 2007
A Great Week!
Erica and I are doing well here in Uganda. Thank you so much for your prayers!!! We are making progress in learning Swahili and getting a chance to do some ministry with the nationals as well. It has been really amazing to see who Jesus brings into our lives.
This week, for example, we have had a substitute Swahili teacher and it turns out he is not a Christian. His name is Joshua. Part of his teaching dealt with learning to ask and answer questions (in Swahili) about the kind work we do. We told him that we are missionaries and that our job is to train pastors. This caught his attention, because people always tell him that his name is the same as a great man in the Bible. He has always wanted to know the story of Joshua and what his name means, but never been able to find anyone to tell it to him. He told us that he has asked other missionaries what his name means. But he said the other missionaries never really answered his questions, but instead, they always "preached at him," so he said he never really listened to them.
We told Josh we would not preach at him, but if he had questions about God and the Bible he could ask us. So... all this week Josh has been asking us questions about the Bible, Joshua, and Jesus and we have been able to help answer his questions. It has been so amazing to see Josh seek the truth so fervently and to see God speak to His heart as well. For example, he was so interested in Joshua at first and didn't really care to hear any other part of the Bible. But when we told him that the Greek of "Joshua" is Jesus, the Holy Spirit gave us the perfect opportunity to introduce Jesus to him. It has been such an amazing privilege and honor to see the Holy Spirit moving in his life. He is thinking seriously thinking through verses like John 3:16 and about a God who loves us so much that He would give us His only Son. As we described the Lord's love for us, his exact words were, "I want to be loved." It is so precious to see God at work in Josh's life and see the Holy Spirit prompting his heart and mind to read the Bible and think about who God is.
We have given Josh his own Swahili Bible. On the front it says, "Habari Njema," meaning "Good News." At first, he was a little confused as to why it said this instead of "Holy Bible." But now that he has heard, all he can keep saying is, "Thank you for this Good News," "My friends have told me Good News." It is so precious to witness him discovering Jesus!
He has gone home every night and read either his Bible or other information we have given him, and he has even talked to two of his Muslim friends about this "Good News." His friends were less than warming to the Gospel, but he is staying courageous and holding onto Matthew 5. We are planning to continue to build this friendship and meet with him weekly. Please pray Josh comes to accept Jesus into his heart as Lord of his life. We pray he will come to know Jesus very soon as he gets his questions answered and God's grace takes root in his heart, so please pray intentionally for him. We love you guys and hope to hear from you soon.
This week, for example, we have had a substitute Swahili teacher and it turns out he is not a Christian. His name is Joshua. Part of his teaching dealt with learning to ask and answer questions (in Swahili) about the kind work we do. We told him that we are missionaries and that our job is to train pastors. This caught his attention, because people always tell him that his name is the same as a great man in the Bible. He has always wanted to know the story of Joshua and what his name means, but never been able to find anyone to tell it to him. He told us that he has asked other missionaries what his name means. But he said the other missionaries never really answered his questions, but instead, they always "preached at him," so he said he never really listened to them.
We told Josh we would not preach at him, but if he had questions about God and the Bible he could ask us. So... all this week Josh has been asking us questions about the Bible, Joshua, and Jesus and we have been able to help answer his questions. It has been so amazing to see Josh seek the truth so fervently and to see God speak to His heart as well. For example, he was so interested in Joshua at first and didn't really care to hear any other part of the Bible. But when we told him that the Greek of "Joshua" is Jesus, the Holy Spirit gave us the perfect opportunity to introduce Jesus to him. It has been such an amazing privilege and honor to see the Holy Spirit moving in his life. He is thinking seriously thinking through verses like John 3:16 and about a God who loves us so much that He would give us His only Son. As we described the Lord's love for us, his exact words were, "I want to be loved." It is so precious to see God at work in Josh's life and see the Holy Spirit prompting his heart and mind to read the Bible and think about who God is.
We have given Josh his own Swahili Bible. On the front it says, "Habari Njema," meaning "Good News." At first, he was a little confused as to why it said this instead of "Holy Bible." But now that he has heard, all he can keep saying is, "Thank you for this Good News," "My friends have told me Good News." It is so precious to witness him discovering Jesus!
He has gone home every night and read either his Bible or other information we have given him, and he has even talked to two of his Muslim friends about this "Good News." His friends were less than warming to the Gospel, but he is staying courageous and holding onto Matthew 5. We are planning to continue to build this friendship and meet with him weekly. Please pray Josh comes to accept Jesus into his heart as Lord of his life. We pray he will come to know Jesus very soon as he gets his questions answered and God's grace takes root in his heart, so please pray intentionally for him. We love you guys and hope to hear from you soon.
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