New Steps in Nebbi!

We had our first pastor training together as a married couple this past Saturday, and it was such a blessing! John taught on prayer, and I taught on temptation. We both really felt like Jesus gave us His words to say and His message to teach. Our lessons were TWO HOURS each! Jesus gave us both a lot to say!

I've always been willing to train pastors, as I was fully aware before we ever got here to Uganda that training pastors is our primary focus with WGM here. And I must admit, I was kind of nervous when I first volunteered to participate in my first one~ never having taught men. I’ve always done children’s ministry or worked with youth or young women, so teaching men was quite intimidating to me! But as soon as I started preparing, God gave me a real peace that He was going to help me, and a confidence that the day was in His hands!

We thought you would like to see what an actual pastor training looks like, so here are a few photos. The training takes place in a small brick church, with mud used for mortar, concrete

floors, and children peering through the windows. As we’ve mentioned in previous blog entries, there are five key pastors that attend our trainings in Nebbi (Cosmas, Benson, John, John Kennedy, & Andrew)- there are more that would like to be trained, but we really wanted to start with a small, core group, so that we can invest in their lives individually.

Thank you all for your prayers for this day! We definitely needed them in preparing, and we definitely sensed them in our teaching! Jesus really helped us both, and we are so grateful!

Precious Faces, Forever in My Heart

As some of you may know, I (Erica) have been going out to a university (Uganda Christian University) for the past few months and doing children’s ministry with the children of the theology students. It has definitely been a group effort, with so many people helping out- John, Coppedges, Banters, mission teams & visitors. Many people have invested in the lives of these children. And after spending almost every Tuesday and Thursday with these precious children for the past four months or so, they have really won a special place in my heart.

And I get tears in my eyes just thinking about it, but this Sunday will be the last day I will ever see some of these children. The university is just finishing up the semester this week, which means that a lot of the students are graduating! They will be moving back to their home villages to go and use their education, and they will be taking their precious children that are so close to my heart with them.

I have grown to love these children so deeply, and I just wanted to share their sweet faces and stories with you. There are about 15-20 kids who consistently come. The rest are in school, so I spend most of the time with the little ones who aren’t old enough for school yet, or with the older sisters whose parents or guardians require them to stay at home to take care of their younger siblings instead of allowing them to go to school.

Mauzu (pictured below) is one of the latter, and she is particularly special to me. She is the oldest one of the group, so she helps me a ton~ she helps me lead the music, plays the drums, listens extremely well, and is usually the one to answer most of the questions, as most of the other children are so much younger! Some days I feel like Jesus may have me out there just for her. We have a special bond, and I can honestly say that I truly love her. She is living in a bad situation right now, with her aunt, who mistreats her. It breaks my heart. She always asks me if she can come stay with me… meaning, can she come “live” with me. Oh, how I wish she could! But I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to see her again after Sunday. She is going home to the village to her parents next week, and I hope and pray that the situation there will be better. Please pray for Mauzu.

Amos (pictured to the left) is one of the fortunate ones who gets to attend school, but he always comes and participates in our lesson or activities when he has a break in school, or even when he is sick. He has a hunger to learn about the Lord. He listens more carefully than any child I’ve ever met and has an extraordinary memory! I wish I could see the future and see how God will use this precious boy!

Juliette (pictured to the right) touches my heart every time I look at her. She is ALWAYS smiling~ I don’t think I’ve ever looked at her once and seen her not smiling! And she ALWAYS has her baby brother tied to her back. And she never lets the responsibility of caring for her brother get in the way of having fun~ She loves to sing, and we always dance together! She has so much joy in her eyes and in her heart! I just love her!

Fred, Monday, & Benedict (pictured to the left) are three of my favorite boys! The faithfully show up every time we come, and they always bring so much joy to the day! They are always laughing and goofing around, and they just make my heart happy to see children with almost nothing materially, but with hearts full of the joy of the Lord!

John & I will be attending the students’/ parents’ commissioning service (a sort of “send-off” for the new pastors) this Sunday, so I will get to see the families and the children one last time. That day will for sure bring some sadness with it, but I know it will be a very sweet day at the same time! Please pray for these precious children, that they would know Jesus and feel His love in their families and sense His Presence in their lives.

Prayer Requests for the Coming Week:

• Saturday, Aug 18- John & Erica will be training the pastors in Nebbi! We will be teaching on "Prayer" and "Temptation." This is Erica's 1st time to train pastors! Please pray for effectiveness and clarity of teaching!
• Wednesday, Aug 22- We leave for Kampala for a field meeting and mentor meeting with Jon & Lisa Mayo (our field director)
• Saturday, Aug 25- John is leading worship at KIU (Kampala Int'l Univ) with our new friends from New Zealand (Sam & Kim- Sam will help lead worship & Kim will preach!)
• Sunday, Aug 26- John & Sam are leading worship at KIU again & John is preaching!
  

It's All About Being Flexible

This week has been full of surprises & being flexible (which in case you were wondering is one of the top five attributes needed as a missionary). Our friend Bokwa (a pastor and contact in Congo) who had been helping set up and plan our trip to Congo was coming through Arua on his way home, so we planned to meet him for dinner on Wednesday. At the same time, another pastor, John Onek, from Sudan, was also passing through Arua on Wednesday. So it seemed like we were going to have one big night of food and fellowship.

Well, in good African fashion neither of the guys showed up on Wednesday night, instead Bokwa came on Thursday and John Onek came on Friday. While at first glance this would seem like an inconvenience, it turned out to be a blessing.

Erica and I were able to have good quality time with each of these men. Bokwa (pictured left) has a real passion and vision for the people of Congo, especially the college age people. He really wants to disciple them and see each of them serve the Lord fully no matter what their vocation may be. He has such a great heart for the Kingdom and also has a good education. It is awesome how God continues to bring such quality people into our lives to partner with in ministry.

We also had a great time of fellowship with John Onek from Juba, Sudan. He has just recently planted a church there, and it is growing rapidly. His vision is to not only plant a church, but to train other Sudanese pastors to plant churches all over Juba and wherever else Jesus would lead him. He is a highly educated man, with a degree in theology and development and currently is not only one of our pastors, but works in the Sudanese government helping with social development. We had such a great visit with John (pictured above) too and just listened to him talk about Sudan and its history and how he has a passion to reach the people of Juba, especially the Muslims.

I'm often amazed when I stop and think about how God continues to bring people together to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. What a great surprise of a week!!!

P.S.~ We were finally able to upload the Safari Video to the Blog! Sorry it took a while! Our internet is slow! But it is there now! Enjoy!

God's Timing

“’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord”… what a comforting verse! We have seen this promise so vividly played out from the Lord this past week in making our plans to go to Congo…. Or should I say “changing” our plans to go to Congo.

As most of you know, John and I were supposed to leave for Congo this past Friday with Billy and Joanna Coppedge. In the beginning stages of planning this trip, it seemed like the perfect opportunity for a survey trip to a new part of Congo where we know two pastors who would like to possibly be trained by us. But as the days went on, it became apparent that this was not God’s timing for this trip.

First, on Monday, we found out that the more experienced missionaries who were supposed to be traveling with us were unable to come due to their insurance on their vehicle not allowing them to take their car out of the country. Soon after that, we heard from one of our pastor contacts that the guest house we were supposed to stay in was booked. At that point, we decided as a team that it would be best if Billy & John went without us girls for this trip. Then, late Thursday evening, we found out that the plane we had scheduled with Missionary Aviation Fellowship (MAF) for Billy & John could take them to Congo, but did not have a flight back for them! So needless to say, it was at this point that we sensed God was closing the door, and none of us traveled to Congo this week!

God has confirmed that this change in plans is totally of Him in so many ways. For example, one of the pastors we were planning to meet in Congo found out last minute that he had to go to Kenya right away to deal with some family matters and would not be able to have even seen us for one day in Congo. For us, we were quite tired from hosting visitors and traveling to Kampala. It would have been difficult for John to give 100% in preaching, as they had requested him to. Furthermore, we have some new friends here in Arua who happened to need our friendship more that day than ever. Their little boy, who is not even two, fell from his high-chair onto a concrete floor and got a concussion. (He is okay now.) They have had it kind of hard since moving here to Uganda, and because we didn’t end up leaving for Congo on Friday, we were able to have them over for the day and stay the night with us and just love on them and give them the R&R that they needed. Not to mention that I (Erica) had a little chest infection from the dust on our safari, so these past few days have given me time to rest and heal as well.

God is so good, and His plans are always better than ours. We are so thankful that His hand was so evident in where He was leading us this week. We couldn’t ask for a better Counselor, Father, Leader, or Friend than sweet Jesus! He is so faithful! And THANK YOU ALL so much for your prayers! Although we didn’t go to Congo, Jesus definitely answered your prayers by leading us into His plans, rather than ours. We would love it if you would continue to pray for His leading as to when to re-schedule this trip!

SAFARI VIDEO!

We had the amazing blessing of taking our two friends that visited us from NJ last week, Kristen & Jenna, on a Safari in Murchison Park, just a couple hours from our home! We made a short video of some footage of lions, elephants, & giraffe for you! If you’d like to see it, just click on the “Ugandan Safari” link to the right, under videos! (My favorite is the lion walking straight towards us! It was kind of scary as I was on the roof of the car, but of course it was incredible at the same time!)

Rinehimers’ “First” Pastor Training!

This past Saturday, July 14, was a very special day for John and I… after only four months in Arua, we were able to participate in our first pastor training for our new ministry up here. Although the Coppedges did the first training in Nebbi and John has also been a part of training pastors in southern Uganda on previous trips, this was his first opportunity to teach this time around and up here in northern Uganda! And I had actually never had the chance to even attend a pastor training before, so it was amazing for me to witness John & Billy teach these men who are so eager to learn how to be the pastor God created them to be and to dig deeper into God’s Word! I mainly just observed since it was my first training to see, but in the near future I will be training as well!

The training took place in Nebbi (a small town one hour from Arua). We asked the leader, Cosmas, to choose five pastors to participate in our training so that we can really disciple and invest in a few, rather than take on a big number where they won’t get as much one on one attention. So on Saturday, it was Cosmas, John, John Kennedy (yes, that’s his real name!), Benson, & Andrew. (pictured above) These men are so precious to us! They have such amazing hearts for the Lord and are hungry to learn more. And they ask really great, challenging questions. They are so intelligent and so sweet spirited!

Although we are only going through the “Membership Manual” right now for Africa Gospel Church (AGC), which is the church WGM has established here in Uganda & Kenya, we are hopeful that these five men will be in agreement with what we believe once we have gone through the entire manual with them. We may have an official training center in northern Uganda by January, 2008! Please be in prayer for these five men and for God’s will to be done here in northern Uganda for AGC!

Please Pray for Jeannie!

Our great friend and fellow missionary, Jeannie Banter, left Arua for the States last Saturday, July 7, for medical reasons. She had malaria, which worsened and went into her lungs and gave her double pneumonia. The physicians here in Uganda said her liver looked horrible as well, and she has a history of liver problems in her family. She was receiving medical care here, but there was no sign of improvement after a month of medication. So she really needed to get home to the States to get checked out by a specialist.

Since she has been home the past couple weeks, the doctors also discovered that her asthma has resurfaced because of the pneumonia, so she is on medication for that which is helping. And her blood work came back normal, which is a huge praise! She is currently on a swimming regimen which is helping to build back up her lung capacity and get her strength back. As the Ugandans say, “she is improving, slowly by slowly.” She is tentatively returning to Arua on August 10. Please keep her in your prayers as you are praying for Uganda. Please pray that God would heal her body and bring her here in His perfect timing! We know she would greatly appreciate it, and we would too!

Visitors & Voyages:

This past weekend, we also had the awesome blessing of our two friends, Jenna Gaventa & Kristen Fogg, arriving in Arua from New Jersey to visit us! Jesus brought them to us safely, and they are seeing first hand what our life is like here in Arua and are helping us out with many of our ministries here! (pictured right with children they are ministering to at UCU.) Next Tuesday, we will be taking them back to Kampala and saying good-bye. And then, we will get home to Arua on Friday morning and leave Friday afternoon for another trip to Congo! We are going to a different part of Congo this time, and we will be traveling with two Congolese pastors that we hope to work with! We are very excited about this trip! Please be in prayer with us over our schedule, travels, and safety!

July 21- Sunday School Teacher Training at UCU
July 24- Take Kristen & Jen to Kampala
July 27- Morning- Arrive back in Arua
Afternoon- Leave for Congo Trip!
Aug 10- Al & Beth Coppedge (Billy’s parents) & Jeannie Arrive in Arua!
Aug 18- Training #3 in Nebbi!
Aug 27- Field Meeting in Kampala