My trip to Uganda

Bob, thank you for telling us about your missions trip. Will you tell us more as time allows? I'm humbled by the testimonies I hear about former Muslims receiving Jesus - also about these brothers and sisters in Christ walking so far to get to a church. That convicts me mightily and rightly so...
To hear they were thrilled with receiving a Bible in their language is equally convicting. Speaking only for myself, am i as 'thrilled' about having God's Word so readily available to me and in my own language...and, having it all my life? How much I take for granted.
The baptisms must have been a time of great rejoicing.
Thank you for telling us about your trip. I had hoped you would after reading the thread about your church and their packages they send to the troops.

Very good mission trip. Thank you for sharing.

Bob, the stories you told me this morning have me reevaluating my mission here on Earth... I can only imagine how you feel. Thank you for sharing!

Florence is a remarkable woman. She and her husband moved to Kampala from the village. When she gave birth to a son who was crippled, he left her (along with 3 other children). Florence's sister urged her to take her crippled son to a Christian Church to be prayed for and to be healed. She took him, but there was no healing. After a year went by, she knew he was not going to be healed, but the process led her to think more carefully about God and her own relationship to Him. She received Christ and is a wonderful example of living by faith. She took her children back to the village and helped start a church. She cares for her children by digging potatoes, sweet potatoes and sewing for others. She spends most the little spare time she has helping others. She has seen and read parts of the Bible whenever she has been able to borrow one. When I gave her one, she wept with joy and said that it was the answer to one of her three prayers. I asked her about the other two prayers. The first was that her health would stay good in order to care for her children. The other was to be able to minister to others, especially women.
We both wept when I told her that I would arrange for her to attend a school where she will receive Bible instruction and ministry training. Starting in January, she will attend school the first week of every month for three years. She will continue to work in her church and also to minister to women in the other churches. This is a very critical need in the area. She will walk to and from school, which is somewhere around 7-10 miles, until I am able to get her a bicycle. The school will provide her a meal every day and a room to sleep in if she needs to stay overnight there. We met with the Pastor of her church who promised that the people in the church would give her whatever help she needs in caring for her children while she is in school. She cannot imagine anyone being more blessed than she is.

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I met Pastor Kato in one of our Pastor training sessions. He is the Pastor of what may be the oldest church in the area. It is called the Worship Center and was started in 1999. A man in the church gave them the use of some land to build a church. It started with 10-20 people and now has about 200. But the best thing is certainly not the number of people.
Worship Center has organized a soccer team for the village and hold regular games when the came find another team to play. The have groups of people who go out from the church into the homes of their village for evangelism and to teach nutrition and hygiene. They help build homes for other families. Most of the homes are built with sticks (literally) tied together and covered with mud. The roof is usually thatched unless they are able to get tin roofing. Others are made from bricks, which are all homemade from the clay and baked in makeshift “ovens”. The Worship Center also has an agriculture program that consists mostly of teaching people how to grow different foods, including tips for better growing. They have another group that teaches AIDS prevention. (HIV/AIDS is the most serious health risk in Uganda)
They want to host leadership training seminars.
The day I visited, the church was beginning a month of concerted prayer for their village. The “shift” of praying believers I met was gathering at the church to begin prayers together. They begin praying at 9pm and then those who need to rest do so on straw mats on the church floor. Then they pray again from 3am until daylight (about 6am) before heading out to do chores.
At each visit, I was able to pray with the Pastor and often some people from the Church. Before I left, I asked for prayer requests to take with me. They asked me to pray for “strength in ministry” and “to accomplish God’s purpose their ministry”. As was my habit, I pressed the Pastor for personal concerns and prayer requests. It does not seem right to publish them all, but the Pastor did express concern for his wife and 14 children (5 are orphans from the village). When I asked him to share a personal “dream”, he told me he would love to have a house for his family and a bike for ministry.

and a bike for ministry.
Very informative yet you left out where to send donations to.

"Very informative yet you left out where to send donations to."

Sorry - I wasn't thinking of donations. But anyone who would like to share in this work can send donations to Emmanuel Bible Baptist Church, PO Box 22, Plymouth, ME. 04969 and mark it for "Uganda Pastors". Every donation will go completely to Uganda. I would be happy to send a priority list and cost list to anyone interested. You can email me at pastor@midmaine.com (for example: Bibles cost $9 each and a bicycle is $40, while a pig is $35) Pray will only cost you a little time.

Bob, thanks for the information.
It is good to know that the entire donation goes to those in need in Uganda. It's also good to learn there is another way to give funds directly to support the livestock and agriculture needs, too. I've donated to Heifer Project Internation for years, but the Uganda mission of EBBC brings it to a more personal level.
Thanks again, and I so appreicate the pictures and stories of your missions trip.

I will endeavor to send $85 to put a pig on a bicycle with a Bible in the basket!

Thank you, Bob.

I have to say that it is great to read about your ministry in Uganda, but watching you talk about the place is a huge treat. Your eyes light up and your face gets soft!

Bike= $40
Pig= $35
Bible= $ 9 ( actually is priceless)
subtotal= $84
Dist, Is the extra buck for the optional basket or for lipstick for the pig?

A pig's gotta eat!

There is way to edit my previous post, but maybe I can correct it this way.
I have no idea why I typed "pig" when it should have been "goat". Maybe I can blame it on jet lag? Or I was just numb.

Bob,
mistaking pig for goat is nothing compared to the whopper I thought I saw today, and I can't blame jet lag. No peer comments
are being solicited from you in that matter, but I just posted a link to BDN that appeared to me to say that local clergy favor abortions. Your goat/pig mistake takes a back seat to my delusions.

That's fine, Bob. Money is still on its way... however, the Bible must not be kept in the basket with the goat... it will be consumed rather than read!