MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 09-20-2010

Greetings! I'd appreciate your prayer for my Mom and Dad. They were involved in a t-bone, rollover accident last week. Dad was bruised up pretty well, but was able to come home from the hospital on Friday. Mom sustained several broken ribs and severe bruising. She survived, but the recovery will be lengthy (6 to 8 weeks). There is the potential for pneumonia, and it doesn't help any that she's a diabetic. Dad's in an empty house at the moment, when he's not at the hospital, and is worried about his wife. Pray for them both. This is the one great snag of the mission field. Things happen to your family back in the States, and you are unable to rush to their side, even though every instinct in you says you should. It leaves you feeling very helpless and out-of-touch.

Things are going well here. We are going to the Nakivale refugee camp to preach and minister every week with Jeff and Carla Bassett. They have been a real blessing to us, and we're learning a lot from their experience. We're having a mass baptism service on Sunday for all the folks who've been saved at the three churches, and still need to get baptized. I will be taking over the administration of two of the preaching points in the near future, which will leave Jeff free to start another and continue working with the other. It's a great opportunity to learn church planting from someone who's got solid experience doing it.

Meanwhile, I am discipling Andrew and Mordecai. It's progressing well, and I'm enjoying the work of helping them grow as believers. We are assisting Tom and Cheryl Tracht with some of their school ministries here. These, and our Monday through Friday Runyankore studies, are keeping us satisfyingly busy. Lots to do here. This is both a blessing and a curse, because you can perceive the broad expanse of things that need doing, but are immediately limited by both time and the demands of the flesh – you just can't do everything.

Pray about our tires. We need to replace all five (this includes the spare), and it's going to be expensive. The roads here are very rough on vehicles, so you have to invest in good tires just for your own safety and that of your family. We still need to get work permits. We will be doing so the first week of October, and it is quite expensive. These are direct financial needs for which we need prayer. There is one other thing. A fellow I've come to know in town has a Toyota HiAce Regius for sale. It's in excellent shape, runs on diesel, seats 8 (we are fixin to have another body needing transport soon) has 4WD (a necessity around here) and all the bells and whistles. He's asking about $10,000 (I'm sure I can negotiate down). We could really use a family vehicle for getting around, leaving the Pajero for going to the villages. It's a tight fit in the Pajero as it is, without the addition of another family member. It's not a critical need right now, like the tires and the work permits, but it going to become so in the near future. Pray we'll be able to get the funds with which to buy it, as it would be a real blessing.

Pray for the ministry, for the salvation of the lost, and for the churches and their pastors here, and as always, for more laborers for the field.