MISSION: Uganda Blog Post 12-03-2024

Greetings!

I trust everybody had a great Thanksgiving. We have a lot to be thankful for. I for one am very grateful for my wife and kids, and now grandkid. I am also grateful America will no longer be ruled by Communists (at least, after January 20).

The event we have long anticipated finally came to pass. Our national pastor Zizi and his family were finally given the greenlight to emigrate to the United States. It was very sudden as such things always are. So we quickly had to pull together a Sendoff Service for him and his family, and other logistical details to help with their trip. I am going to miss my friend very much, but I am also very grateful he finally made it to America after six years of hope deferred. Unlike the 30 million illegal invaders that have been trafficked across our Southern border (which will be going back soon thankfully), Zizi and his family are LEGAL immigrants. They will have to walk through the process of becoming citizens, but in about 5 years they will all take the oath and become my fellow Americans. Which is awesome. Pray for Zizi and his family as they get adjusted to life in America.

In other news, after YEARS of effort, I have finally transported the last of the books from our container out to our Independent Baptist Church Library at Sangano. Years ago, pre-COVID, God gave me a vision for starting a library at the camp. Those people have nothing to do to fill the hours, except sinful things. I wanted to give them an alternative, and support our school in the process. So we raised the money, bought a shipping container, put out the call for books, filled the container with a lot of help from our church, got it shipped, fought our way past Uganda’s inept and corrupt customs officials, got it to Mbarara, unloaded it so they could shift the container into its place, reloaded it, and there the books sat for years while we worked out how to proceed with the library. We got some much needed help from some college girls who helped us sort and stamp all the books. Plus I lost a couple years to COVID. Then I had to raise money for shelves, and get the shelves built. All this time, I have been carrying books out there, a carload at a time, week in and week out, and as the shelving increased, we had books ready to fill them. Last week, I hauled out the last load. Glory to God! Every classroom has bookshelves full of books, 17 huge shelves altogether. Tens of thousands of volumes. God bless and thank you to everybody who helped make this possible over the years.

Pray for our churches, for the continued salvation of sinners, and most important, for their growth as Christians.

God bless and keep you!