February 2021 News

Our mission trip to Eastern Uganda went well. Thanks to you for all your prayers. Alex went with Jovia and Allan, while Christine remained back home, as did Simon to take care of the church through the week, and to prepare for preaching on Sunday. We left here on Wednesday 24th at 5am to beat the traffic jams in Kampala. Our main lodging was in Mbale City which is far away from Mpigi toward the eastern side of Uganda. Our first day of meeting was in Mbale. Have a look at the new modernized bridge at Jinja which crosses over the Nile River. 

Look at the welcoming mountains to Mbale city. Most Christians were coming from below those mountains. 

This is the first church where we met

In the group picture above is Alex on the right, then Allan Koki, and some of the pastors from the surrounding areas. Below is the group photo of some of the church members who came to graduate from the Book of Romans and Colossians studies.

The following day we went to Busia and our drive was really great on good roads - almost no potholes! It only gets worse when you go to villages 😟. The churches were so welcoming, and one of the Pastors took us to his home and gave us a good feed. Good Christians with a heart for the gospel. 

We had a meeting on Thursday with a good turnout. Through these ministry projects, we had an 83 year old man, strong in the faith, who has led five people to come to Jesus.

The Reverend of an Anglican church gave us and the Church leaders a warm welcome. 

We were expecting to have over sixty lay leaders with some other reverends involved in the project. Just as apostle Paul puts it in his letter, Ephesians 4:13-14 “…until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” This is what we really need as a Church now – the Church with leaders who can defend their faith and are discerning in all their teachings.  

Soroti mission - We met with Pastor David Ochua, and the Baptist Church welcomed us nicely too. Pastor Max had done really well in mobilizing people to come to the meetings. 

We had one participant who had finished the project on the book of Romans, but his house caught fire the last day before we came. It seems to me that due to poverty, many people still live in grass thatched huts. As we drove through, I saw many huts like that on generally flat land similar to where the man's house burned.  

In the picture above I am with some of the committee members planning the way forward. The committee was so thrilled at the way things were going, and they had really done well. The lady second on the left in the picture, is a brethren who has done really well to revitalize the ministry of women in that region. 

Where you see empty seats below, you might see a chicken in front of the right hand blue chair. After the meeting, the chickens entered the church- hahaha.

This same month we had evangelism at our church coupled with fasting and praying for a full week. Simon was leading in teaching about the purpose of the evangelistic church. Many church members joined the meetings, although fewer went out to share the gospel. Usually Alex, Simon, Scovia, Pasco, Easter, Robinah and two kids would go out (Pasco is a young man that we are trying to disciple and teach him how to serve the Lord with us). 

Below are Pasco (left) and Scovia (right) sharing the gospel with a village friend near our church.

We had five souls come to Jesus, and now we have Stella meeting and praying with us. Joyce came to Jesus through this ministry during such outreaches to the community. We are blessed to have her, and her spiritual transformation is really encouraging. Each Sunday she is at church before anyone else just to usher people in and make sure the church is set up properly. We are also proud of another man called Deogracious whose picture is not here. Each Sunday he comes really early to clean the church. It is such a great blessing having these people in the church. We trust the Lord that as we disciple Pasco, he will be of great service to the church as well.

We had one Muslim family come to Jesus during our evangelism. The wife had never been to church. Her name Yudaya is of Muslim origins, and she needs your prayers that God will heal her and totally transform her heart from the influence of Islam.

In the picture below are Joyce and Margret leading Dorcus to confess Jesus. Dorcus (on the right) is a young lady who went with an already married man due to lack of school fees and poorly stricken environment at her home. These cases are so common here, especially with school drop-out girls who end up with early pregnancies. Joyce and Margret tried to counsel her and show her what dangers she could meet in future if she does not make right decisions now. 

Could you please pray with us for the following?

1.       The five people who came to Jesus during evangelism to be sincere about their commitment

2.       Thank the Lord for the mission trip to Eastern Uganda and for the good fruits

3.       Thank the Lord for His graciousness and His provisions for food to this ministry

4.       For the provisions for funds to register this ministry to get a permit and registration for the certificate

5.       We are out of Bibles in both Luganda and Rukiga/Runyankole. Pray for provisions, we are in great need.

6.       We also need to enlarge our piggery farm which is diminishing and we need to revive it. Pray that God would provide for us.

7.       Simon has not been well, he has cough and flue. Pray that he gets well.

8.       We are planning to have a seminar at our church here in Lungala, pray for the ministry provisions. 

Yours in Christ, Alex and Simon. 

January 2021 News

Great wishes to you for the New Year in the name of the Most High King Jesus!!  We praise the Lord for this ministry again. You remember it has been our prayer that men would come to Jesus and willfully submit to His authority. In the last months we have had more men come to Jesus than ever😊. A few of them were spiritually down and needed encouragement, while others never had a Bible at all. But we were able to help them to meet their spiritual needs. We continue to thank those of you who have been able to donate a Bible, or a box of Bibles to this ministry. Each box of 24 Bibles from the Bible Society costs UG sh. 756,000 (approx. USA $205.00 depending on the exchange rate). There is no comparable treasure than that of helping someone to know God through His holy Word the Bible. 

This is one of the participants in the pastor’s seminars we hold. We were doing an exploration of the Gospel of Mark (Christianity Explored). 

In one of our Thursday Bible studies, our souls were rejuvenated as we heard Mare lead the group in the church. We continue to see the hand of God in this man’s life and his whole family. We were encouraged to hear him as he took us through scripture by scripture, and as he reminded us to examine ourselves to see if we are in Christ. He concluded by asking us to be pursuers of peace and love – 2 Cor 13: 5, 11). The reason this means so much to us is that Male had been deeply involved in witchcraft, but then he came to Jesus. When he did we burnt all the things he had been using to serve demons.   He had never been to church before, but now he shares the gospel and people come to Jesus. This is exciting for us and the church; we feel proud of the work God is doing in people here in this village 

That's Mare below on the far right corner .

Below are some kids pumping water for the fish ponds. We normally work with them, and when they are going to school we buy them stationery. This project started in June last year, so the fish are six months now. They have multiplied to thousands, and although they are still too small to sell for eating, maybe they could be for farmers who also want to breed. 

We dug a big hole in the ground and we pump water from it when it’s full. It’s in the swamp area. There are some bigger fish that can be eaten, available from the big pond in the photo below.

These are some of our weekly church services. 

    Below is the Mayor and his team visiting our church.

Some of the single mothers and a few men from our church have their own piggery projects. Some of the piglets were given to single mothers to enable them to have some income. Below is Jackline attending her pigs. Her sow is ready for the boar. 

Below is Joyce’s daughter Nantongo who had a baby when she was in secondary school (class S.3). It has been really very hard for her mother to push her on through school. We hope once her pig gives birth it will contribute a lot to her school fees. There are 15 people who have benefited from this piggery project, and many of them have got incredible testimonies. Most of them fellowship together with us. We think this project will enable them to support their kids in school and medical treatment if needed.

Ministry registration is still in progress with all the paper work is in the hands of the Lawyer. It has been a very complicated process for our ministry to work through due to the slowness of government officials. Also Covid-19 has affected so many things, and service processes have changed in most offices. This has led Madam and Uncle Dean (from NZ) to leave. They came with a tourism Visa (3 months), and were trying to apply for a longer term Visa. It was great to have them here for three months, and to work with them in serving in this ministry. We have been talking with the Lawyer and he says the final endorsement for the ministry registration will be ready by Monday or Tuesday, and then we will pay the last fees. 

Prayer requests

1.    Pray for the complete registration of this ministry, and that God will provide the money needed for the fees. 

2.    Pray for the provision of Bibles. We have many Christians calling, and other church leaders needing help.

3.     Pray that Proscovia’s house will be finished

4.     Pray for high school ministry and university that we resume on a good note once schools open normally.

5.     Pray for the ministry provisions. Our church has holes in it. Recently we had a heavy rain with hailstorm and it left holes in it. When it rains people get wet. We also need to expand since the number is really big compared to the capacity of the church. 

Alex and Simon