Entries by James

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 09-08-2006

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Greetings! Our meeting in Trinity Baptist Church in Arlington, TX went well (Pastor Bob Smith). I flew down for the meeting because I was able to get an $89 round-trip ticket to Dallas, which, obviously, is way cheaper than what it would have cost to drive. Plus, it kept us from having to drive 12 hours there and back. The church service went great. I had twenty minutes to show the DVD presentation, and to just talk about our burden. God blessed, and the short of it is, they voted to support us on the spot! Wow! Wish that happened more often. What a blessing! All in all, it was a very fruitful trip.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 08-30-2006

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Howdy, folks! We're doing well here in St. Louis. We had a meeting in Lighthouse Baptist Church with Pastor Pete Ruble in Festus, MO this past Sunday. It went great. I showed our slides, and then we just talked about Uganda and what the LORD is doing there, and how He wants to bring revival to the country and to the rest of Africa, and how He's given us a wide open door and an unprecedented chance to reach Uganda with the Gospel. I tried to impress upon them the urgency of the situation, what with AIDS and the threat of conflict being what they are, and how critical it is we get there to do our part to establish the Gospel in Uganda while there's still time and opportunity. It was a good time of ministry, and I think the LORD helped them get a vision for Uganda also, which is His goal for this and all the churches we visit.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 08-21-2006

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Greetings! Last week I was in Chattanooga, TN at BIMI's World Headquarters for their Church Planting Conference that they've asked all of their missionaries to attend. Anna and the crew stayed back in St. Louis, and I went down last Monday. It was a great week. We had several veteran missionaries in to teach on various subjects pertaining to this most noble of actions: planting a local, NT Baptist Church. In the evenings, we had some great services in which God really dealt with us, and it became more a revival week than a school. It was a very profitable 5 days, and well worth the time to attend.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 08-13-2006

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Greetings once again! No disaster to report this week, and glad of it! Thumbs Up We were in Paducah, KY last week for a meeting in Rickman Road Baptist Church with Pastor Stan Durrett. The meeting went well, and God blessed. From where we live in St. Louis, it's only about 2 and a half hours there, so it wasn't too bad of a drive. I was to have a meeting in the Chattanooga, TN area today, but there was a scheduling change, so I'll be driving down to BIMI tomorrow instead. They're having a Church planting conference which I will be attending. Pray that the classes will go well, and that I'll learn sufficiently to be able to plant churches myself on the mission field in Uganda. I want to bear fruit, and fruit that remains after I am gone, and these classes are intended to help teach us how to do that. Anna and the gang will be back here in St. Louis while I'm away. Pray for Anna this week as she works with taking care of five kids alone, a daunting task to be sure. Pray that everyone will be safe and healthy. Pray that my trip there and back on Friday will go well and safely.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 07-25-2006

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Greetings once again! Much has transpired since the last update. Last Wednesday, a "super cell", meaning, a powerful, fast-moving pocket of thunderstorms, tore through St. Louis, plunging half the city, over 500,000 people, into darkness. We were getting ready to go to church, and I was outside grilling up some steaks, when I spotted the storms coming, pretty fast. I called to Anna to get the kids outside to put their toys away, and within five minutes of their completing that task, the deluge struck. We found out later that the winds were equivalent to a Category 1 hurricane. Suffice to say, it was quite interesting. Our only tree was whipping back and forth like crazy (the kids were quite concerned, so we had prayer for the tree, which was spared incidentally), and I was amazed it was still standing under the pressure. I knew the rain would come any minute, so I drug the grill under the shelter of the garage roof to finish cooking dinner. About the time I decided it was too dangerous to be outside, and that medium would have to be good enough for Anna's steak, the power went out. We finished our dinner in the dark (thankfully, it was complete. Cooking would prove to be a challenge in the near future). About the time we needed to be heading to church, the tornado sirens went off, so instead of going to church, we went down to the basement to wait it out. Everything was fine, but the area was decimated. Trees were down everywhere, and power lines with them, and in the middle of a heat wave (100+ degree weather, and St. Louis' usual 80% humidity). Highway 270 (the circumferential highway around the city) was shut down, because semis had blown over in multiple places. It was total pandemonium. Communciations was affected, with police, fire, and EMS unable to radio each other. Plus, it got dark soon, and there was no light now other than candles and flashlights. Now, I know, this is standard in places like Uganda. There, ironically, because power goes out all the time, the populace is generally much better prepared, either because they never had power to begin with, or because they have the requisite generators and/or battery backup systems in place to begin with. America is not used to such things, so, if you'll pardon the expression, we always get caught with our pants down in an emergency it seems.