MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 03-19-2019

Greetings! Our time before the next furlough is growing short. We are coming to America in June and will be staying through March of 2020. I am still scheduling, so if you’d like a visit from us, please let me know.

Pastor Theogene at Ngarama is still having problems with his kidneys. Before he fled Congo for Uganda years back, soldiers captured him, detained him, and beat him. The beating damaged his kidneys, which continue to trouble him. He is a faithful pastor at Ngarama Independent Baptist Church. He has been a great help in our ministry. He also has ten kids to support. Please pray for his health and continued well-being.

Our church in Isanja has reached a critical stage. The building is in terrible condition. It’s not a question of if it will fall down in a storm, but when, and who will be hurt or killed. Our people have been working diligently to manufacture the sun dried bricks that will be used for construction. They contribute their labor to the project, without being paid, and on top of the work they already have to do personally. It will require more than they have to complete the job. I sent our contractor out there to work up an estimate. It will be a 25×55 ft structure, with a 4 seat pit latrine, and a baptistry. The total cost will be just shy of $8000, including materials and labor. Our contractor hires as many of our church people as can do the work, and any other locals that are qualified. This provides them with some needed income, and helps them have more ownership of their church building. If you can contribute at all to this project, it would be much appreciated.

We have just passed through the influenza plague that’s been going around. At this point, only Brennah managed to escape (so far). We have all been pretty miserable. Jamie’s fever got up so high last week that he passed out. I had to wrestle him into his shower and put cool water on him to get the fever down. He was the worst, but we have all had a hard way to go. We are recovering, but there’s just nothing like a flu virus to bring down a whole family and delete a week of your life from productivity.

I am pleased with the churches. They are growing. The leadership is doing well. Everything seems to be stable. The congregations are content and joyful in the LORD. They see the need for outreach in the community and are working diligently to spread the gospel among their neighbors. I am very proud of all of them. Pray for the work. I am going to try to get everything on stable footing before I return to America. I am always a little nervous about leaving our ministries, but God has provided some very good people who love the LORD and are very motivated to maintain what He has started here. Our men are working to train our young men for the work. This is precisely what our ministry strives to do, as 2 Timothy 2:2 states.

Thank you for your prayers, encouragement, and financial support.