This month, like last month we ministered alongside a pastor
of a small church called Christ Miracle Center, about 30 minutes outside
Kampala. Kind of a funny thing, is that
Pastor Alex actually had been anticipating for us to come about 2 months prior
to this month so he has been anticipating us for quite a while and even more so
anticipating a revival to happen in his church. Unlike last month though we are not living
with the pastor and his family but rather staying in a nice little apartment
style house inside a walled in compound, which means that we have our own space
which has been actually quite beneficial to us this month. Most days we go around for 3-4 hours going
door to door ministering to people around the community whether that is sharing
the gospel or encouraging those who already attend church
At the
beginning of the month, with an anticipation of a revival, we started seeking
the Lord for direction He wanted us to lead the church in. As we spent much time as a group and
individually in prayer we felt the Lord was telling us that the revival would
not happen through us but rather through the congregation of the church. So with that direction we started planning on
what that might look like. We continued
to go door to door ministering and evangelizing throughout the month while
preaching on Sunday morning and Wednesday evenings. As we got to know the community a bit more we
noticed that people did not have the Word of God. It’s not that they didn’t care about it but
rather most of them didn’t have the money to afford to buy a bible for their
home. This was a big problem. There is no way a community can grow if they are
not foundationally sound on scripture.
We
started seeking the Lord again of what we ought to do about this
situation. We prayed and prayed and
waited. Finally one of my group members
mentioned this to a friend who wanted to help buy bibles for the people, but
not only him but he was going to bring it before his church and take up an
offering, this was a Thursday. The
congregation raised money Sunday and we bought close to 50 bibles, 40 Luganda
(Uganda’s national language) and 10 English on Monday. The rest of the time we knew where our focus
was, it was on the congregation members. We believed that with the Word of God and with Holy Spirit empowerment
they will bring about change in this community for the sake of the Kingdom of
Heaven. The rest of our time we spent
visiting church members at their home and speaking words of encouragement to
them and giving a bible if they did not have one.
With
only a few days left of ministry before we leave for Tanzania we plan on
sitting down with the pastors of the church and helping them come up with some
practical steps to take after we leave. Our plan is not to come in and introduce a 5 step plan to church growth
especially since our idea would be of an American style which is not what they
need. But rather our plan is to talk
with them and see where their passions lay and help them take the next steps
and how to stay encouraged and useful, such as taking proper Sabbaths and
getting the congregation to do things that they seem to take on upon
themselves. I have the highest hope for
what the Spirit is doing in this church and going to do in this community in
the following months as they take on personal responsibility for spiritual
growth.
