The Truth Will Make You Free

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Pray for truth to prevail.

One of the biggest problems I deal with here is the total willingness of people to lie. East African culture encourages lying, and praises lying (the ability to cheat others and get away with it) as a sign of cleverness. If they had an Aesop, he’d have written fables like “The Little Boy And How He Ripped Off the Mazungu”. It is very frustrating.

This makes it very hard to find out what is real. Ugandans, and East Africans in general, are very focused on public appearances. They want to save face and be the big man so much, that they will lie constantly, either to make themselves look good, or more commonly, to avoid the shame that comes from getting caught.

Another annoying habit is their desire to ingratiate themselves to me. So they will lie about one another and tattle on one another like a bunch of toddlers, in an attempt to drive wedges between me and others so they can rise (as they believe) in my favor. But what invariably happens instead is I find out what dirty liars they have been and have to boot them from the church.

I have a couple men in one of my churches that are conflicting with one another and lying about one another, and as is always the case with Africans, all Africans are always as innocent as the driven snow (which they have never seen BTW) and totally guiltless of all wrongdoing. Everything they have ABSOLUTELY done is always “that guy’s” fault. They have zero self awareness and take no personal responsibility.

I always have to interrogate people and hit them with overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing before they FINALLY admit anything. And even then more likely than not, as the shame begins to mount, they recant everything and start character assassinating whoever brought it to my attention in order to divert blame from themselves.

The short of this is that I can’t really ever trust anybody, because nearly everybody here habitually lies.

Pray for truth to prevail. Pray for reality to be known.

Pray for the secret things to come to light.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Post 02-12-2026

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Greetings!

We are in full blown “getting prepared to go on furlough” mode. We have a remarkable lot of work to be done to get ready to leave our house for several months. Anna and I both have our lists, and you just keep doing the next thing until you reach the end, climb on a plane, and begin the long flight back to the States.

We have several key life events taking place this year. Elizabeth and Gaelin are graduating college. Right after that, Elizabeth will be marrying our soon to be son-in-law Joseph Rosnick. Plus, our new grandson will be having his first birthday this year.

This furlough will get us back on track since COVID messed everything up. Pray for us in the months ahead as we travel hither and yon, for safety and for good health, both for ourselves and for our aged Honda Pilot.

Our year is pretty well fully booked with meetings in the Spring and Fall. If you have other times you’d like us to come, let me know and I’ll see what we can work out.

The construction of our Sangano Independent Baptist Church facilities is proceeding rapidly. The school buildings are all complete. They are making good progress on the sanctuary and baptistry. Pray that the work will proceed well, and for the safety of our workers.

Pretty soon, all construction projects will, for the moment, be complete. That is a big answer to prayer and a long time coming.

Pray for Sangano Independent Baptist Church. I discovered that one of our deacons, a good friend, and the headmaster of our school, was leading a sinful double life. He had been drinking, sometimes coming to work drunk, and had been seen visiting prostitutes. Plus, he was abusing his place as headmaster, and it seems, misusing funds. As of right now, he is unrepentant. He is now no longer a deacon, or a headmaster, or a member of this church.

I also chose to close the school for the foreseeable future. I always said that if the school ever became a problem for the church, I would close the school, and because of this man, it had become a problem. So, the school is now closed. We still have the fully restored buildings which will continue to serve as a library, and extra Sunday School classes.

Pray for Sangano IBC as they work through the fallout of this recent challenge. It is never pleasant to have to discipline people, but when they give you no options, you have to take action. You cannot cover sin.

The Sangano church people have risen to the challenges given them. They have redoubled their soul-winning and visitation, and are serving faithfully in the church. They have planted crops in the field connected to the church property. God will build His church. Please pray for His people not to be discouraged.

God bless you!

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MISSION: Uganda Blog Post 12-16-2025

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It has been a year.

If 2024 was the year of pruning, then 2025 is the year of building.

As you know, we had to discipline several people who were embedded in our churches and were causing divisions. As it turned out, they were all linked to a former deacon who emigrated to America more than ten years ago. Unbeknownst to us, he was trying to wield power over the ministry from afar through people who had attended when he was here. It explains why we had such difficulty over the subsequent years. God systematically exposed, and we removed, each and every person involved with this man, and now the churches are humming along like a well oiled machine.

In 2025, we got a harvest. God was clearly withholding blessing because of sin in the churches. Once this was rooted out, the floodgates opened. We have seen increased growth in our members. We have seen people choosing to live for God in their communities. We have seen our deacons (the ones remaining after all the struggles), step up and take their responsibilities serious AS deacons per the qualifications given in the Pastoral Epistles. We are seeing people saved and baptized (I have many to be baptized at the joint Christmas service next week).

God has supplied everything we needed financially to be able to rebuild and refurbish our church buildings. We are finally beginning to rebuild the church building at Sangano. That was always going to be the biggest and most expensive job, and God has provided all. I am hearing that we may finally have obtained a piece of property to restart the Isanja church with the members who remained faithful. So never fear. If you were wanting to assist with building projects, we will need to build a new church building at the new location eventually.

Pray for us. Uganda is about to experience another African election. As with all such things, there is the potential for things to go wrong. If there was to be a coup, or if the President were to die (he is very old), it would have a serious affect on the country, and by extension, on us. Please pray for a peaceful election in February, and safety for us. Pray for our churches, for our deacons and their families, and for our members. Pray for souls to continue to be saved and baptized.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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MISSION: Uganda Blog Post 09-04-2025

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Greetings!

The training with our men and deacons went very well. I focused on the art and science of preaching. Qualifications, methodology, goals, how to study the text, delivery, invitation, and so forth. My goal is to produce qualified men who are able to preach, teach, and lead in the services. Per the request of our folks, we have gone to a one service a week approach. In this way I can be at each church longer, counsel with people after, and be there for the whole service. This of necessity requires that we must have people who can preach and lead the services on the Sundays I am at one of the other churches.

To that end, I am having all the men who attended the class practice what they have learned by taking turns preaching while the others listen and give feedback, and also lead the singing, lead in prayer, and read the text. They will be rotating them around to the other churches so the other men can hear them preach there as well and give feedback. Pray for our men as they work on practicing this important skill.

The churches are growing well. Not long ago, I had a baptism service, new member service, and Lord’s Supper all in one day. This is not something I often do (all in one day), but it provided a great opportunity to show the whole spectrum of what it is to be Baptist. We baptize because it is Biblical, in imitation of Jesus Christ. Once you are baptized you can join the church, because we have vetted you to know you are indeed born again and your doctrine is correct. Then as a member, you can take the Lord’s Supper, again, because it is Biblical and in imitation of Jesus Christ.

Pray for folks to continue to hear the Gospel and be saved. Pray for the leaders and their wives, that they will continue to be godly examples in the church. Pray for their families. Pray that the Pentecostal cult next door to our Sangano church will be closed or forced to move. They disturb our services every week with their screaming and demonic worship.

God bless you!

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MISSION: Uganda Blog Post 06-03-2025

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Greetings!

Things are going great here. The churches are doing well. Everybody seems to be peaceful. No drama that I know of. We are growing again, slowly. We are seeing visitors. People are getting saved and baptized. After all the ruckus last year, it is refreshing to get a period of time without issues. Of course now that I said something, I have probably jinxed it, but I try not to be superstitious. Please continue to pray for our churches, our leadership, and for souls to be saved and then to grow as Christians.

I am preaching through Ephesians, as this book deals directly with confronting spiritual darkness. We have a lot of that in the refugee camp. Every week when we prepare to go out there, we can feel it – the opposition of the Enemy. I am trying to teach these people to reject the power of the Enemy, and to recognize the truth. The Enemy has little power apart from his ability to deceive and to tempt. He has nothing like the power that the numerous witches and other “traditional healers” claim. If you no longer believe the lies, it is much harder for him to disturb you. We have to stand in our identity as Christians, with all that entails. It is, however, difficult to get a superstitious and fearful people to change their minds. Pray for them to see the power of God in their lives, and to then stand in the truth, with courage.

Thank you to everyone who sent money to help with the repairs out at Sangano IBC. The toilet there was wholly inadequate to their needs, and has become dangerous to use. Enough money came in that we were able to begin construction on TWO new toilets, with sufficient capacity for years to come. We still need much more to finish all the other repairs, but this met the most immediate and serious need. Thank you very much!

Also, money came in to put tires and shocks on our car, known affectionately as The Beast. The Beast has had its rims shod with the preparation of the steel belted radials of Pirelli. And the new shocks have made it so we don’t get quite so seasick driving in the camp. The roads there are very bad, worst I’ve seen in years, so the new shocks are helping a lot. Plus we repaired a bunch of other little things that needed repair. Thank you for the help!

God bless and keep you!

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