If you’ve been reading you know the Lord is doing some fun stuff in me. It’s been exciting, confusing, and a big rush all at the same time. I thank you all for coming along on the journey.
In the midst of all this there is also ministry to others going on. Since we’ve been in Africa we have been doing a lot of preaching. In Kenya we were with John Lodepe, a missionary to his own people — the Turkana. He has helped start many of the churches in the area and has connections with many of the area pastors. We worked with pastors doing door-to-door, or more precisely hut-to-hut, ministries. We also spent time staying with a few of the area pastors in groups of 2-4. Everywhere we went people were very excited to receive visistors from “afar” and very excited to receive greetings from all of you supporting us back home.
Now Team Quake is in Soroti, Uganda. Soroti is significantly bigger than Lodwar and a lot less desert-ey. Our main contact is Pastor Matthew, Bishop over the Soroti region of the Uganda Pentecostal Assemblies of God (PAG) church. In our first week of ministry we spent three days speaking at a Prayer and Fasting Conference in a town about 45 minute away (one of those days I stayed back as I talked about previously). Then we spent Thursday and Friday at another church that was a bit closer. One day we ministered to the church and the next day we ministered to about 200 children sponsored by Compassion International. On Friday, my first day back, our hosts prepared a meal for us to enjoy with them before we left. We got to sit with the Pastor of the congregation, the director of the Compassion program for that area (a member of the church) and an Elder of the church who used to be the Pastor of the church and Treasurer for the region. It was a good time to hear the hearts of the leaders in that area and share about how the “gospel is doing” in our respective homes.
Saturday was our weekly team sabbath, a day on which we have no obligations and are free to do things like seek the Lord and keep up with you all. Sunday we split into teams of two, one to preach and one to testify, to visit area churches. I spoke to the congregration about Peter and shared my heart on some things I’ve been learning lately. I woke up Sunday morning telling God he would need to speak, becaue I wasn’t really sure how my sermon was going to come out. I’ve been learning where my strengths and weaknesses lie in preaching and how much I need to be preparing and how much room to be leaving for the Spirit when I speak. Well he showed up on Sunday and it was one of the best times I’ve had speaking so far on the Race.
Afterward, as always, we ate a meal with our hosts. We sat with the pastor, Bishop Matthew’s predecessor, and four of the church Elders. Again it was good to hear the hearts of church leaders from Uganda. I’ve been heartened and encouraged to get to work in a with a strong church structure here in Uganda. It has been since the Philippines that I have felt as though I have really been able to attend church. I’ve been missing a connection to some of the rites and some of the love for God’s ideals that a good church proposes.
Today is Monday and it is our sabbath for this week. Tuesday through Thursday we are set to facilitate discussion at the PAG regional youth conference. Friday and Saturday we will be speaking/ministering at another area church. The Following week we will be spending two days at an area church before packing and resting on Thursday and traveling to Jinja on Friday. Our plan is to arrive in Jinja, where the squad will be rafting, a day early and spend a night as a team in a hotel to get some relaxing time together as a team.
While we are in Soroti we are staying in the guest house that is on the adjoining property to the Soroti PAG church and Mission Development offices. The girls are in one room and the boys in another. Each room has its own bathroom with a real western toilet (not a squatty potty!) and a real shower that does not work, but still provides a nice basin with a drain for taking our bucket showers. Our hosts even got a refrigerator to put in the common area where we spend much of our time. We are very blessed in Soroti.
As we have seen all the places we have visited, the Gospel is alive and well in Soroti, Uganda and the Victory reigns. We thank and praise God for all of you back home who are cheering us on as we are stretched and grown this year. Please be praying for us as we continue to labor however we feel the Lord lead us to do so.
