All our adventures as missionaries, past and present.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 02-07-2023

/in /by

Good morning!

I have great news to report. I GOT MY WORK PERMIT!

To review the ongoing saga of The Huckabee’s Renewing Their Documents, it took them six months to renew our NGO. We got that last August. We then started the process for renewing my Work Permit. They finished that yesterday. So seven months.

Both of them, the NGO and the Work Permit, involved extortion for them to finish their work. That’s how Uganda’s corrupt, inept bureaucracy operates. They are intentionally slow, cause needless complications, and threaten massive fines for made-up violations so you’ll pay them extortion to make them be competent / work faster / not fine you. All told, between the extortion, legal fees, and associated costs, it look 13 months of negotiations from our lawyer and nearly $7000 to renew the NGO and the Work Permit, so we can remain in Uganda legally, and continue to serve the people of Uganda and preach the Gospel. No good deed goes unpunished.

I applied for Anna’s Dependent’s Pass and Brennah’s Student’s Pass today. Please pray they don’t give me any grief. They delayed so long on my Work Permit that their Entry Visas expired. But they won’t let you apply for anything without the Work Permit. So round and round and round.

We had a great day on Sunday. I went to Sangano Independent Baptist Church. We delivered another load of books (we are gradually carrying books out there for the school library). I preached a message from Ephesians 6 – people live in fear of demons and/or witchcraft. I am trying to teach them they don’t have to be. Our authority in Christ is absolute. The demons are a defeated enemy. The worst they can do is harass us. We do not have to tolerate it as adopted heirs of Jesus Christ.

We welcomed several new members which were baptized back on Christmas. The churches are growing.

Then I taught the men, while Anna taught a Ladies Class. I am beginning a course on Biblical Manhood from Titus 2. As it is everywhere, men struggle to develop an identity as a man distinct from their culture, and in the face of handicaps like fatherlessness. I am trying to address this need. Please pray for our men, and ladies.

We are coming home for a furlough at the end of April. Please pray for us as we finalize everything in preparation. I have two college graduations and two marriages amongst my children. So we have to be in America for that. I am also trying to raise more monthly financial support, as well as fund some projects out at the refugee camp. You can learn more by clicking the link labelled Outstanding Projects.

God bless you!

Download a PDF

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 01-16-2023

/in /by

Good morning, my friends!

I got the news on Saturday that the mother of one of our deacons had died. So I knew on Sunday we would need to do a burial service for his family.

In Uganda, when a family member dies, the whole community rallies around the bereaved to comfort them. The close female relatives prepare the body for burial. It is kept in the house for usually a day so the family can grieve. It then falls to the close male relatives to dig the hole, carry the casket to the grave, and inter the coffin. All the male family members then participate in filling the grave with soil. Burial always happens to the rear of the family home, in their field, in their land. So the family can be near their loved ones always.

I have always admired how Ugandans deal with death. Americans, in my opinion, have sanitized death to an extreme degree, because death makes Americans very uncomfortable. They fear what comes after, you see. We aren’t allowed to grieve, so people are often forced to carry griefs that were never fully healed.

Not so here. Here your whole community joins you in your grief. You are allowed to sit with the body. To mourn. To cry. To say goodbye. All of your family gathers to comfort you, to speak in memorial of the deceased. Everyone participates in preparing the body, and then burying it. It is very personal. Very hands on.

I take these opportunities to speak directly to the community about the Gospel, about death, and most important what comes after. Death is a journey we all must make. For many, it is a future that holds only terror and uncertainty. For the follower of Christ, however, it is our Blessed Hope.

Jesus has defeated Death and Hell. He has paid the penalty of sin with His own blood. All those who confess their sins, and believe in their heart that God has raised Him from the dead shall be saved. We will grieve for a time, but we can have hope in the midst of that grief because we know that while we will suffer one death, we will never experience the Second Death. We shall journey to see the face of Jesus Christ, and to be reunited with all our loved ones who through faith in Christ have been secured in Heaven. They wait for our coming. And we shall all pass through the Resurrection and dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Pray for the grieving family, and for all those who heard the Gospel, that God’s word would work in their hearts. There is a lot of false religion here, and these life events, as terrible and as painful as they are, grant me the Preacher a rare opportunity to appeal to the souls of many who otherwise would never enter our church, or hear the Truth.

Download a PDF

Walking Ronin

/in /by

Merry Christmas!

/in /by

Merry Christmas from the Huckabees!

Family Photo 2022

Download a PDF

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 12-06-2022

/in /by

Greetings!

I promised to fill you all in with more details in the next letter. Promises made, promises kept.

The Holy Spirit has been doing much work in our ministry. I preached on Ephesians 2. Specifically on the difference between Children of God and Children of the Devil. We expect children to resemble their parents. It is abnormal, possibly a sign of infidelity, when they do not (obviously foster/adopted kids are exempt from this illustration). So how can Christians claim to be children of God, but behave like Children of Satan? Jesus said the fruit always matches the tree. You can self-identify as a Christian all you like, but if you act like an unregenerate sinner, among your other sins, you are probably a liar. And a fraud. God desires truth. We have to be genuine followers of Jesus Christ, not quasi-religious hypocrites who blaspheme His name by unBiblical, heathen behavior and attitudes.

One of our muzeyi (old men) who sits in the back every week, believed on Jesus Christ, confessed his sin, and was saved from Hell by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. That morning, I had been thinking, as Pastors sometimes do “Is anything I am preaching/teaching having any effect at all?” Then this happens. God always shows Himself strong when I need it. I will be baptizing this gentleman on Christmas Day.

I had to discipline some deacons at our Isanja church. I went there that morning fully planning to close the church. I cannot have a church full of unregenerate sinners masquerading as followers of Christ. The Holy Spirit met with us. People confessed sin. You have to understand how unusual that is. People prefer to hide their sin. This is probably the case everywhere, but it is very much so in East Africa. The men involved in the gold stealing scheme humbled themselves and asked forgiveness of the church. They cannot be deacons, but they aren’t going to split the church by yanking their families out, causing a bunch of drama in the community. Their wives repented, which is amazing. Usually the women lurk in the shadows while their men take the fall, then they become sources of division in the church. Not this time. They repented too. Finally, we all committed ourselves to forgiving, encouraging and loving one another, and working to avoid bitterness. It was remarkable. God made it very clear – do not close this church. Keep praying for Isanja Independent Baptist Church.

Pray for our baptism service on Sunday at Ngarama IBC. We are hoping to reach into the community with this. Pray that the gospel will reach willing hearts, ready to hear the truth. Then there is the baptism service, church dinner, and two weddings coming up on Christmas Day at Sangano IBC. Be in prayer for that also, that God would be glorified, people would be saved, and the believers would be edified.

Download a PDF