Entries by James

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 09-05-2007

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Greetings! Things are going well here in Texas. Pictures are faster than words, however, so let me show you:

 

The trampoline, which is right by our house, is a huge hit. 

The trampoline.

 

One of the members of Eastside Bapitst Church, where we’re attending
when we’re not away at meetings, brings horses by regularly for us to
ride. All my little cowboys (and cowgirl) are loving it!

Riding horses.

 

Anna was good enough to ‘find’ this for me, and I posed for the picture. So did the tarantula. I know they look deadly, but they’re very docile creatures, unless you’re a cricket or a beetle.

 Tarantula!   Smile for the camera.

 

It’s been good so far. The classes are progressing very well. We’re studying phonetics at the moment, which is the acutal formation of sounds in speech. You use a variety of articulators in speech (tongue, lips, teeth) which touch various points of articulation in the upper mouth. You use different manners of producing the sounds (nasal, stops, fricatives), and all of this with various rising and falling tones, which in some languages can radically alter the meaning of the word. The basic gist of it is this: we are gaining the immensely valuable and practical training to be able to not only learn the Ugandan dialects quickly, but with a native accent when we do. Just because we look foreign doesn’t mean we have to sound foreign. I am firmly convinced that this, or similar phonetic training ought to be a required course of study for all prospective missionaries. Our time here is being well invested in making us more effective communicators on the field where God has called us.

I have been able to schedule several meetings in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and even Utah while here, so, even though we are doing language study, we are still on deputation, an advantage we would lose were we attending school somewhere out of the country. Thank you for praying about meetings. Please continue to pray. I am trying to get next Fall filled up. I have made good progress, but there are still some slots, particularly in October, that need to be filled. Currently, we’re planning on remaining in the States through the holidays, and then heading over to Africa in January or February of 2009, provided the support we need comes in by then. Thanks for praying for us!

God bless you all,

 

James Huckabee
Missionary to Uganda 

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 08-19-2007

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Well, folks, this is it, the eve before the big trip to Texas. We’ve spent the past few weeks getting ready, and are pretty much packed up and ready to go. The U-Haul truck is loaded up and sitting out in the driveway, and all that remains is a few odds and ends to wrap up in the morning and then we’ll be on our way! In case you’ve recently joined the MISSION: Uganda Email Update family, we are fixin’ to head down to Texas for ten months of language school at Baptist Bible Translators Institute. Anna and I will both be trained in advanced linguistics, Bible translation, missions, and so forth, so when we head to the field in early 2009, we’ll be able to learn the various Bantu dialects we need to know quickly and effectively. It’s going to be a good and a profitable time. I have already scheduled several meetings in Texas and Louisiana, so we will be able to stay busy with deputation to get the remainder of our support raised while going to school during the week.

Tonight, my church ordained me. It was a really special weekend. My Dad, a Baptist preacher in Bellflower, MO, was on the ordination council we held on Friday, along with several other Pastors from the St. Louis area, our deacons, and our BIMI Director, Dr. Ron Bragg (there were a few we failed to invite, or that couldn’t come, so if you are one of those, you were not intentionally excluded. The past few weeks at the church have just been super busy). It was very humbling to be in that room, being questioned and wisely counselled by these men of God, who were engaging in the same practice of ordaining elders in the church as it has been practiced since the time of Christ. It was just a very encouraging and instructive and deeply honoring time, and I am personally grateful to each who were able to be on my council. These men, and the other Pastors from the area I’ve gotten to know over the years, have my highest regard and respect, and to get what amounts to their seal of approval for the Gospel ministry is the highest honor I have ever been given. Then, our church voted to ordain me tonight, and the men of the church laid hands on me and presented me to the LORD for the Gospel ministry, exactly as the Bible prescribes, as young men have been inducted into the ministry for generations. It was at once so grave, and awe inspiring, and proper. As I gave my testimony, and looked out over these people who I’ve come to love so much, I gazed upon our young men and thought "Some of these will be doing this themselves one day," and it just humbled me even further, considering the magnitude of this holy office to which I have been granted entrance, the cloud of witnesses, great men of God who have gone before, of whose fellowship I am now a part. "And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry" 1Timothy 1:12 Pray for me. I want to be a profitable servant to my LORD, and glorify His name in my ministry, and represent my church well. I need all the grace and prayer I can get, and I count on you all to render it. I know you were praying, because God was with me and helped me in the council, and the services tonight. Thank you, and please keep praying.

Pray for us while we’re in Texas, that we will learn everything well, and get full benefit from the training. Pray that I will continue getting meetings, getting in touch with the right Pastors, and getting into the churches that God has prepared to support us. I had our church family pray that we would be able to get a meeting in First Baptist Church of Hammond (Jack Hyle’s former church) last Wednesday, and they called to give me a meeting the very next day. I would also like to get into Lancaster Baptist Church’s missions conference coming up in October, 2008. Pray that God will convict the right people in that church also to help me get into that conference, be able to minister there, and ultimately get some support, both prayer andfinancial, from this stellar church, doing the LORD’s work in Lancaster, CA. Pray that some of the Pastor’s I’ve been trying to reach lately will call me back, and that God will help me to secure meetings in those churches as well. I can tell folks have been praying. Our schedule for next year has been coming together swiftly and easily, because God is putting things together for us.

Pray for us as we travel over the next two days, and get settled in to our new home (for the next ten months) during the next couple weeks.

Well, I reckon that’s it.

God bless you all,

James Huckabee
Missionary to Uganda

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 08-06-2007

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Greetings once again! Things are going well. We're enjoying being home and being in our home church. We're getting ready to head to Texas in a few weeks, and are getting a lot of projects done around home. I've been busily scheduling meetings for our time in Texas, and have already scheduled several so far. Continue praying that I will keep succeeding on that front. God has really blessed in that regard, and I'm very grateful for the opportunities to share our burden for Uganda with folks down in Texas. It's a great opportunity, because by moving to Texas to attend BBTI for ten months, we are shifting the epicenter of our deputation to the south, and will be able to get into churches far from our home in St. Louis, but without having to drive very far to get to them, kind of like we did the first year of deputation in Missouri. I have accumulated some good contacts in the past few years, and this has been a great help in getting meetings in the area.

Last Sunday, following the morning invitation, I got the privilege of leading a visitor to our church named Carl to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. It's always a thrill to get to be directly involved in God's great work of redemption. Pray for Carl as he grows in his new Christian life.

This Sunday, I'll be preaching in our home church. Pray that God will give me wisdom for what text and what message He would have me preach. Tomorrow, myself and several of the men have to dig up and replace the pipe running from our well and supplying the church with water, in St. Louis' brutal 100 degree, 80 plus percent humidity weather we've been having lately, so pray that we'll be able to get the ditch dug without suffering any heat casualties. Also, on a more personal note, I'm trying to raise money to get our Pastor a new computer. His is pushing twelve years old and is in desperate need of replacement. Pray that God will move folks to give to that end. We have $600 raised so far (Praise the LORD), and will need another $2000 or so, which altogether will get the computer and the desktop publishing and office productivity software he needs.  

Well, that's all for now.

God bless you all, and thank you so much for your faithful prayers.

James Huckabee
Missionary to Uganda

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 07-17-2007

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Hello again! Our trip out to South Carolina last week went well. We spent all day Sunday before last at Calvary Baptist Church in W Columbia, SC with Pastor Vernon Pritchard and his fine church. We got to minister to the folks and have some great fellowship with the Pastor and his family. It was great and we really enjoyed ourselves.

On Sunday afternoon, I went over to Maranatha Baptist Church (Pastor William Gillespie) in St. Louis to canvass the neighborhood with John and Romans. Their a church plant out of our home church. Bro. Gillespie is a Baptist church planter trying to establish sound, Biblical churches for the intercity black population of St. Louis. He's a great man of God, superb preacher, and a good friend. Pray for Maranatha, that God will help them to get into a permanent building. Pray that folks will get saved from the literature, and come join the church and be baptized. Pray that his support will increase (he is a Baptist missionary with Baptist Home Missions). If any of you out there are interested in having a Baptist church planter who is reaching the black community of St. Louis, MO in for a meeting in your church, let me know and I'll put you in touch with him. It will be well worth it. I guarantee it.

I preached in our home church on Sunday night, and will be doing so multiple times in the weeks prior to going down to Texas. Pray for me that God will continue to supply me with messages, and that I will succeed in challenging and encouraging our church family.

God bless,

James Huckabee
Missionary to Uganda

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 07-05-2007

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Howdy, folks! I trust you all had a great Independence Day. We sure did.

Our trip to Colorado went great. We had great meetings with Pastor James Legg (1st Baptist Church of Silt, CO), Pastor Bruce Dunsdon (Eagle Baptist Church and Berns Baptist Church), and Pastor Justin Hall (Glenwood Springs Baptist Church). God blessed in the services, and I was able to preach and serve Him and the churches. We got to spend a week in the beautiful Vail valley of Colorado, which we all enjoyed tremendously. We took the opportunity while in Glenwood Springs to hike up to Hanging Lake. It's a 1.5 mile hike up a rocky trail. Was it a brutal hike with five kids? Oh yes. The view from the top was gorgeous. Beautiful falls, crystalline water in a scenic mountain setting, the works. It was worth the work to get up there to see it.

Last Sunday we got to have a meeting close to home. I ministered and preached in Calvary Baptist Church with Pastor Clyde Myers in Cottage Hills, IL. God blessed and it was a good meeting.

Tomorrow we head down to South Carolina for a meeting in Calvary Baptist Church with Pastor Vernon Pritchard. It's going to be another great church and we're looking forward to it.

Pray for us as we travel, and that God will bless in the services. Pray for us as well as we prepare in the next weeks for language school at Baptist Bible Translators in Bowie, TX. Pray that I'll be able to get plenty of meetings down that way in the months ahead, and that the remainder of our support will come in in time for us to head to Africa in 2008 when language school is complete next May.

God bless all of you,

James Huckabee
Missionary to Uganda