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!

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.

Two Pastors Ordained

This past Sunday we had the privilege of attending Kisugu Africa Gospel Church (AGC) where two more Ugandan pastors were ordained. Kisugu AGC is the very first church World Gospel Mission (WGM) planted in Uganda. It is now 1 of over a 100 flourishing churches and still growing. Martin and James, the two men ordained, have been a key part of the training of pastors almost from inception. These two men each partner with our missionaries and help oversee a region of the pastor training in addition to pastoring their own churches too. This was also very special for me personally because Martin was my translator during my first trip in Uganda and we became good friends throughout our time in ministry together. Both these men love Jesus with all their hearts and are committed to the ministry of making disciples of Jesus Christ and reaching every nation for Christ. It was truly a blessing to share in this wonderful celebration with these two Godly men and to actually be able to see the fruit of WGM’s ministry of training pastors after hearing and talking about it for so long.

The Greatest Gift!

This Christmas, God gave John & I possibly the greatest gift that He has ever given us for Christmas (besides the birth of His Son, of course)! He opened the door for us to be able to visit an orphanage on Christmas Day and share his love with 58 precious children! The name of the orphanage is “Uganda Jesus Village.” These children are displaced children from Gulu, a town in northern Uganda, who have suffered the horrible actions of the “Lord’s Resistance Army,” a terrorist group led by Joseph Coney. You may know them as “The Invisible Children,” which they have been called as many of their parents have been killed by this group and they were left and forgotten… Until this ministry came and took them in.

Some new friends of ours, the Ironside family, brought enough gifts from the States with them to share with many people over their time here in Uganda. And they were kind enough to let us share in the joy of giving! They got a list of each child’s name at the orphanage and their children made Christmas cards for each of the children, and we helped make a ton of sugar cookies! So on Christmas, we gave each of the children a gift picked specially for them by the head of the orphanage with their name on the package, and a cookie!

It was such an amazing blessing to just be able to love on these children and let them know someone cares. As they opened their presents of books, shirts, shoes, socks, jewelry, etc, their eyes just lit up! And the most precious (and surprising) thing about the day was their unselfishness and generosity among each other. We noticed right away that they would just approach each other and take each other’s gifts and just examine them… Our 1st reaction was, “Oh no, they are stealing each other’s presents!” But it wasn’t long before we realized that what the children were doing was celebrating for each other and sharing in the other’s joy! They would just admire it for a minute and then give it right back! There was no sign of jealousy at all! They were so patient as we called them one by one, and they even waited to open their gift until every child had one!

What an amazing reminder that everything that we have comes from the Lord, and it is all His anyways! And what a privilege, honor, and blessing it was for John & I to be God’s hands and feet and just show these children they are loved, cared for, and not forgotten! We hope to go back to this orphanage during our time here and visit these children again! Please pray for them as Jesus lays them on your heart!

Christmas the Uganda Way

I must admit that it is a little difficult to prepare our minds for Christmas in 80-degree weather and little sign of Christmas decorations around (although we do have a small tree!) However, I can tell this Christmas will be special, because we are much more focused on the true meaning of Christmas and celebrating the birth of our precious Savior, Jesus Christ! We were even able to see “The Nativity” in the movie theatre here to prepare our hearts for Christmas.
Ugandans don’t celebrate Christmas like we do in America, which actually is not all bad. There are no houses decorated with lights, families really don’t worry about getting each other tons of gifts but they do love to be with their family. Most Uganda’s will celebrate Christmas by having a huge meal together that can last even for a couple days.




Here are some fun pictures for you to get an idea of what Christmas in Uganda looks like, including the Christmas traiffice.