MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 01-04-2011

Hello again, and welcome to 2011. Sounds kinda weird saying that doesn't it? Seems not that awful long ago we were all buying generators and laying low for the impending destruction of the earth by Y2K. 🙂 Ah well, maybe next year… Our holiday went well. The kids, and Anna, got a welcome break from school. We all got some needed downtime. We had a ham for Christmas (bonus) and jelly donuts (found 'em in Kampala), but not for the same meal 😉 . We played a lot of games and spent time with each other. It went very well. 

On a sadder note, last week, our language tutor Osbert lost his Mom to a very sudden and unexpected death. She was only 44. Thankfully, she is saved and is with the LORD now, but the Bishop that Osbert's father got to speak doesn't know what that means. There were easily 500-600 people at the burial, and he completely missed the opportunity to preach the gospel. The Church of Uganda (Anglican) is utterly useless, except for milking the people for money, and generating bastards. I've been to multiple burials now, and it breaks your heart to see it. No hope. None at all, and the religious leadership are helpless to offer any. I know, being a follower of Christ, the true fate of the deceased, and I sit there and sadly watch the Anglican ministers conducting their pointless rituals, knowing that it is doing no good for either the quick or the dead. The Church of Uganda offers the greatest level of persecution and harassment to Baptists here, much like the Church of England once did long ago in America. Ironically, the Muslims here are generally the most tolerant of other religions. Pray for Uganda. There are so many who still need to hear the gospel.

The ministry is continuing well here in Nakivale Refugee camp. I am going to begin English and Literacy classes at one of the preaching points starting the week after next. Pray for us. I've never done anything like it before, so it will definitely be on-the-job-training. I will likely have to expand the class to encompass one of the other preaching points also, but we are going to begin with one for now. We are getting into some more advanced concepts in our Runyankore language study now. Pray for us as we continue to learn this fairly complex Bantu dialect.  At some point, I intend to conduct a Vacation Bible School down at the camp. There are hundreds of kids there, and I would like to minister to them more intensively than just our weekly Children's Service. Pray for our planning and execution of such a task.

God bless you all in the New Year!