November 1 (Sunday morning)

Friends and family,

Friday was another day of blessing from God. Our team, together with Ugandan hosts/translators, were planting seeds in many directions. Rose, Dee Dee, and Larry spent the day at Lulwanda Children’s Home. Tyson and Stephen spoke at two schools. Marsha and Keith toured the seminary and visited with its leadership in the morning. In the afternoon, Keith spoke at Mbale prison. (In the afternoon, Marsha was not feeling well, but she was back in action on Saturday. PTL!) Clay spent the day filming with Pastor Abraham. That left Don, Ann, Tyler (“Taylor” as he is called here), Cindy, and Fred to evangelize in hut-to-hut outreach. At the afternoon crusade, Rose and Fred shared testimonies and “Taylor” gave a heart-felt, crystal-clear sermon about trusting in God, and not leaning on our own understanding. Cindy and Ann capped off a week of crusade children’s ministry by providing color bead bracelets to each of the hundreds of children; the children were taught how the different colors can be used to tell the good news of Christ to others. The day proved incredibly fruitful as God led many on each of the fronts described above to trust in Him as their hope of heaven. It was an awesome end to an incredible week of evangelism!

On Saturday, the team spent the day at Lulwanda Children’s Home. This was “Good Neighbor Program” day at LCH, in which each of the 90 LCH children invite a particular child from the surrounding community to spend the day with them at LCH. At mid-day, the home was visited by a Uganda federal minister (similar to a US cabinet secretary in Washington). This was an exercise in protocol in which the cabinet minister had many positive things to say about LCH, and he was complimentary of the work being done. All of us enjoyed musical presentations by the LCH children. The minister also challenged the group to do even more to reach Uganda’s 2 million orphans. After his departure, the 90 LCH children and the 90 Good Neighbor children made their own color-beaded bracelets, and they were taught how to share the good news using the color beads. In late afternoon, we had a great time of conversation, play, and hugs with all of the children. LCH is a special place where God is doing a mighty work, and it is always difficult to say goodbyes.

It is early Sunday morning as this is being written. We are packing our bags in preparation for checking out of our hotel. When we leave, we will be heading for the new Kidoko church for its opening Sunday Service. All week, we have been inviting new believers and others to this opening service to celebrate the way God has blessed the village of Kidoko. We are eager and expectant of this morning’s service. Don, Rose, and Cindy will be leading Sunday school for men, women, and children, respectively. Keith will be preaching, and Pastor Morris Ogenga will be commissioning Pastor Charles in his new role as the pastor of the Kidoko church.

In closing this update, rest assured that God has moved mightily this week. Thanks to all of you for your prayers, encouragement, and support. Thanks to TBC for funding the church land and building through its spring Missions Emphasis Weekend. We recorded the names of hundreds of new believers in our hut-to-hut evangelism. We saw many come forward to accept Christ as their Savior at afternoon crusades. Children’s programs were incredible. The village of Kidoko has been changed for Christ. We saw incredible responses to the good news at prisons and at schools. God has opened the hearts of people to His message, and we count it as a privilege to be used by Him in this way. As for us, we’ve all been stretched and grown in many ways. We are grateful for this work that He has done in us as well.

As we depart our hotel, we will be losing our internet connection, and we are unsure when another update can be provided. Please know that all of us are healthy and well. We will be traveling to Queen Elizabeth National Park in western Uganda for a short time of R&R. On Wednesday, we will be visiting Kampala before departing. Updates will be provided if we can.

Blessings to each of you,
Fred (on behalf of the whoe team)