Greetings in the name of the LORD! I’ll bet you’re all looking forward to Fall by now and some relief from the dog days of summer, right? Believe it or not, it actually gets HOTTER in August in Saint Louis than it does here in Uganda at the Equator.

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by Pastor Claudian at Independent Baptist here in Mbarara. A lady from our church at Kabazano had come to the regional hospital in Mbarara with a sick infant, and the baby had died. They needed transport back to the camp with the body. I drove the mother, the corpse of the baby, and her sister back to the camp. Kabazano is the end of the line. It is the furthest away, and the roads are pretty harsh. We drove in silence. I don’t know enough Kinyarwanda to converse, and they didn’t know any English. Ugandans don’t show much emotion in public (except at political rallies or soccer matches), but when we drew near to home, she began weeping, clutching the body of her dead child. There was nothing I could say. Nothing I could do that I wasn’t already doing. I sat with them in their sitting room. The mother covered her head with her garment and wept, and the rest of us sat there in awkward silence. They fetched a schoolgirl who knew English (they have good schools out at the camp), and she interpreted. The mother, weeping, exclaimed “I don’t even have a case!” I considered this for a moment, and then realized, she means she has no coffin. I asked how much coffins cost, and it was not more than 10 dollars. I guess you don’t need much wood when you’re making a coffin for a baby. I gave them the money to take care of it.

So many babies die here. This is the second time in as many months I have had to do a funeral for an infant. Next morning was Sunday, so I went out there for church. I discovered that this was the daughter of a church member there, but she had married an unsaved man and left the church (ladies always take the religion of the man they marry here, regardless). Simply driving them back, and buying them a coffin had ministered to the people greatly. It doesn’t seem like much to most of you, but transport and a coffin is a lot of money for a refugee. I tried to explain to the church folks that, although she had abandoned the church, we mustn’t pass the opportunity to minister to the family. This act of kindness, and their kindness in in attending the burial and comforting the family, could be the means of salvation for her whole family. Pray for these people. They need the LORD, and comfort as they grieve.

This past week, we had another of our Marathon VBS’s. I call it Marathon VBS because we have four preaching points, and we have 4 separate VBS’s for each, each day, for three days. We spend an hour at the first, drive to the next, spend an hour there, and so on. It keeps us gone for most of the day from early in the morning, until around 3 or 4 o’clock in the afternoon. It’s grueling, especially on the toddler, but we make do. We so enjoy ministering to the children. Most of the kids who come, the majority in fact, are not associated with the church. There are Muslims, Pentecostals, Church of Uganda, and Catholic. They all come, likely to get the Kool-Aid and cookies we provide, or the toys we give as prizes for sitting quietly or memorizing verses, but they all hear the Gospel. On the first day, the total number was 257. On the last, we had 606. We don’t advertise because we don’t have to. They come. If we kept on going past three days, I think their numbers could reach even higher. This is normal. Amazing, right? Pray for these children, that these seeds we are planting will bear fruit unto salvation.

God bless you all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Easter, folks! Our churches are doing well here. I am preaching through 1 Corinthians, because it deals specifically with church problems, and the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. We have many Pentecostal congregations here, and they are preaching a lot of misinformation about the Holy Spirit. This has the effect of creating a lot of confusion about salvation and spiritual growth. 1 Corinthians corrects those errors. I had a man come for salvation after a sermon about how God gave us the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth and to produce the character of Christ in us. His words were “You preach that a person should live by the Bible. The others only teach you should experience miracles. They don’t preach the Bible.”

Later that same Sunday, I preached a funeral for a young child in our Juru church. The boy had been playing around the podium the week prior. Within the week, dysentary had claimed his life. I preached to a gathering of around 70 people, including Muslims, from 1 Corinthians 15, which deals with the resurrection. Jesus Christ the Son of God prevailed over sin and death, and we have the absolute assurance of eternal life through him. Though this child had died, because he knew neither good nor evil, he was already in Heaven, and we who remain and believe on the Lord Jesus will see him again, either after death, or in the clouds upon the Lord’s return. The gospel was clearly preached by myself, and my Pastors from Sangano and Juru. The church in Juru is growing. Our man, Byuma, is developing into a great Pastor. I am confident that within the year, both churches will be ready to become organized and fully independent. Pray for these “children” as they enter adulthood and become mature churches.

Yesterday, Easter Sunday, we had a joint service of all four churches in Nakivale. We baptized 15, including 5 from Juru and my man from Ngarama. That’s why we’re here. That’s why we go out to the camp. I have great goals for all of them. Once we get these churches organized, I intend to start another in Kabingo, and possibly another in a trading center we pass on the way to Ngarama (the trading center is growing like gangbusters – they need a Baptist church). Our refugee camp is not the sort of place that most of these religious organizations would wish to start congregations – there’s no money in it. These people, they think, have nothing to offer. I see a harvest field that is ready for harvest, and I am excited at the potential of the place.

I have kicked in some iron sheets along with Bro. Bassett, and six bags of cement to repair the church building at Ngarama which was damaged in a storm (the wind tore the roof off). We are correcting some mistakes the prior mason made in it’s construction, and also making some general repairs, so the place will look great when it’s repaired. I am having some guttering and drain trenches put in to better manage the rain runoff so it doesn’t damage the building.

The library building at Sangano now has windows and doors, the strong, metal variety. The mason is putting in the floor. The building is nearing completion. We need our books from America. I have had some money come in for the shipping of our container, but not yet enough. It sits still at the mission house in St. Louis, ready to go. We need the funds to get it shipped here. Please pray about the shipping money.

We are only sending email prayer letters now, so these emails are our only means of communication. If you ever change email addresses, please notify me so I can make the change in our database. If you ever suspect you have stopped receiving emails from us, you can always double-check at our blog on the main page and see past and present prayer letters.

God bless you!