Coming Home

The past few weeks it has been very hard to find internet let alone internet that works so I am sorry these past few updates have been coming in late.

SOROTI

I mentioned in my last letter, what we were doing the last week of outreach, but here is a recap/update on how the last week went. The last week of ministry, my outreach team joined together with the other outreach team for ministry. This week we were working with Catholic Catechists (like a pastor). These people have had no training at all on how to study the bible let alone teach the bible. All they have been trained in is the meaning of the sacraments. So our team came in and taught them how to study the bible as well as how to prepare a teaching. It was a challenge for most of us because only 2 out of 8 of us had a Catholic background. We thought it would be a challenge to relate to them because of such different beliefs. However, we found them very open to hear the teachings that we had to offer and they picked up the method of study very quickly.

COMING HOME

As I close out this school and pack my bags to come home, I am also closing out this year. At the beginning of the year, I left home for bible school not knowing that directly after graduating, I would be jumping on a plane to go to Africa as a bible teacher. The driving word that God gave me for this year as a confirmation to do the bible school was “Stop doing, be still, and get to know who I am. Then, let ME do through you.” Before this year, I was very works minded. I felt I had to earn God’s love so I had to be a good Christian to earn that. But God told me to STOP just know who God is. So the first part of that word was what the bible school was for me.  God used nine intense months of studying every word of the bible to really show me who God is. He showed me his character and I grew more intimately in love with my God. The second part of that word “let me do through you”, I later learned was the confirming/directing word to have become a bible teacher in Uganda. I know without a shadow of a doubt, God called me to commit to these two things this year. This word, “God doing through me” is really my testimony of these three months in Uganda. When I came, I was so tired and drained I did not feel I had the strength to pour out. It takes a lot of strength and responsibility, and selflessness to be a bible teacher (Check out James 31: if you don’t believe me). God reminded me of this word after I was here and showed me that my time in Uganda was the fulfillment of the second part of that word God had given me 1 year before. I wrestled in knowing how to not be works minded but still be zealous for good works. God showed me that works is not to be from my own strength anyway. But when works are done from HIS strength alone, is when they are good works. So he challenged me to step out in faith to do good works knowing that I did not have the will or strength to “DO”. When I did that, he would be faithful to meet me with grace. His grace is sufficient for me and his power is made perfect and displayed out of my weakness. This I saw many times. I saw this testimony true in every day and every teaching. Half of my teachings began with me breaking down just before because I did not have the strength to go on in ministry, and I was not prepared enough for the teaching ect. But when I surrendered my self and my desire to give a good “performance” but instead trust in God and put my confidence in him, that is when God’s power showed up. It was when I went to him as the source when I was empty did he fill me up, speak through me, and change people’s lives in Uganda. I thank God for this lesson he has taught me and for the powerful work he has done through me. I am so humbled that God would use me as a tool to advance his kingdom and bring such healing and discipleship to his people in Uganda. For these things I have to look to God and give him all the glory for this trip and this year. With out him, I would not have been able to continue through the challenges of this year. With out him, this ministry would have been meaningless and ineffective.

I thank God for this time in Uganda for what he has done in me personally, but also for all the ministry he has used me for. But it is now time to say goodbye to this chapter in my life (my “God Story” as the title of my blog says). I have not been home for a full year now and am very ready and so excited for a home coming. I can’t wait to see all of you family and friends (as well as eat some very missed chocolate and cheese! but not necessarily together)

PRAYER REQUESTS

Ministry is over but there are still prayer requests

• I am not coming directly home. A team member and I are stopping in Amsterdam (a city we had a lay over anyway). We will be there for 2 days. PLEASE Pray for our safety (not the safest city). Pray for good weather (it is commonly cold and rainy). Pray also that we can find good things to enjoy ourselves with that don’t cost a fortune so we can rest and have fun after a long year.
• Pray that travel goes well. It is winter and we fly into Minneapolis on Dec 21. Pray that there are no delays because of snow and/or Christmas rush. I also only have 2 hrs from landing time to go through customs and get on my next flight. There is a lot of potential for something to go wrong in travel so please lift that up in prayer.

A man can plan his future but God determines his steps

WEEK 9 ~ KAMPALA ~ Nov 27-Dec 3
Before we left for outreach, we had a plan on what we would be doing on outreach. Even though we have rough plans, every week and day, we take our plans to God as a team and pray, "What do YOU want us to do, go and say today". Then we listen for his direction. Last week, we planned to travel on Sunday to the capitol for a seminar on. We prayed and heard God say your time is not over yet, stay a few more days. So we did and later realized why that was. If you remember from the last blog, the ministry time we had with the boys and the women, that ministry time would not have happened if we had left. Also, we had visitors appear at our house (randomly) and if we had left, they would have traveled a long way for nothing. Then the third reason is that we discovered our seminar did not even start until Wednesday and we would not have had any place to stay. The second issue that came up was finances. As a Titus Project school, we had 8 students and we split up into two teams with one leader for each team. The other team has had an issue come up where they ran out of money due to very pour budgeting. So we prayed several times and for hours of what we were suppose to do. We were suppose to be joining with the second team for the last week of outreach in another town far away. Hearing that the money that we had as a team wouldn’t pay for all the expenses for both teams, we weren’t sure if we should go to the next town. However, God told us to go anyway and take a step of faith and go. We were viewing our $200 as the loaves and fishes. Ofcourse it would not provide for all of our necessary travel, food, and accommodations for 9 people for 2 ½ weeks. But God said to go so we went. After that we realized that we actually had over $400 left which was a miracle from God in and of it’s self.
So we went to Kampala for a 3 day seminar plus a double service preaching on Sunday. We prayed about what to teach and heard "how to study the bible" and teach that through the book of Jonah. We asked God what message he wanted to bring to the people through the seminar and he told us all to address their issue of pride. All these things God spoke to us before we knew the people of the church, and without discussing it among ourselves. When we got to Kampala and for the first two days we teach, we still did not understand why God had us there. Even though we had been begged to come and we had about 75-100 people at the seminar, we did not actually feel welcomed by the pastor like we had felt at all other churches we went to. We battled through our feelings and continued to ask God our purpose for coming and continued to be faithful to teach what he told us. God seemed to keep addressing pride and gave us messages to address pride in different ways.
Sunday, our amazing Ugandan team member (Becky), was suppose to preach. She was told to preach a double service with the same message. This is a rather big church so it could have been intimidating. She continued to trust God and have faith that God would give her the words and message that he wanted to give her. She prayed 120 hours nearly nonstop. Becky, will never teach or speak a message unless she knows she heard it from God. She will never just prepare a preaching from her own wisdom. So, Saturday night, she stayed up all night praying. Sunday morning came and she told me she still didn’t know what she was going to say only that since the beginning of the week, all she knew she was suppose to talk about was security but nothing more. At church, she walked on stage still waiting on God for the message. She began to speak, and gave a very powerful message. It sounded as if she had been trained in collage to prepare a preaching. It sounded as if she had put 120 hours just in preparation for her preaching. This is how God spoke through her. The messages in both services were different from each other but both addressed security and pride. The message was about not putting your confidence in your comfort zone, money, house, job status ect. But security should lie in God because he is also the giver of their job position, money, home ect. At the end of the message, an assistant pastor was called up to give an alter call. He came up looking very somber. He said, "A week ago, God convicted me of my pride. And after repenting, He charged me to speak on pride with my next message. But now, hearing Becky bring this same message that God was wanting me to preach, I know that this is from God and he really wants this church to be convicted of pride." So the church leader, in front of the whole congregation (maybe 250-300 people). Repented and was the first to come in front for the alter call to repent of pride. After that, so many people came up heavily convicted. We had to take out a few chairs in the front rows so that they could all fit standing in the front. Later, one of our friends in the church said, he looked around and most of the people there were big wigs. They were people with positions in the government, and presidents of companies and things like that. So this is the ministry that God did through our team, because all of us were faithful to bring the messages that God called us to. It was so amazing to see how God used especially Becky and her faith to walk on stage without notes for a sermon and preach the words directly from God’s mouth. God really ministered that day to people’s hearts. The whole rest of the day, people kept catching Becky and said, "I was the one that that message was for. I know you were looking at just me and God gave you that message for me." Becky insisted that she wasn’t looking at them the whole time (especially sense about 10 people said this to her). But this just shows how the Holy Spirit really spoke to their hearts and brought conviction as we were all praying would happen this week. We thank God for his guidance this week to bring us to Kampala and use us as a tool to work in this congregation.


　
ANSWERED PRAYERS

• Obviously from this blog post, you can see that God has spoken to us, given us direction, as well as wisdom to know where we were suppose to go, what we were to teach, and how to deal with the issue of the finances. PRAISE GOD!
• It is also an answer to prayer that God has provided for us and multiplied our money so that just our $400 (that was originally just $200) will stretch far enough to take care of all immediate needs (travel and accommodations) but also have a fun day and a special meal after our graduation. PRAISE GOD!
• Also, God has refreshed us after we came here to Soroti. Originally we did not want to come to Soroti. None of us desired to come. But as soon as we stepped off the bus, we were refreshed and ended up being such a relief to the other team as well.

　
NEXT WEEK
I know this blog is late because I have not had internet, but the week after this week I have written about is the week we have gone to Soroti (Dec 4-10). We are doing a seminar for Catholics Catacist. (A Catacist is the lowest level of teachers. It is kind of like a pastor. I believe they give bible readings on Sunday and give a short teaching from those readings as well. They have not had any training at all except on what the sacraments are). We are teaching them how to study the bible as well as how to prepare a teaching. We had planned to teach them bible overview but a day was canceled because one of their priests has passed away. We also have the opportunity to give the teaching on Sunday morning.


PRAYER REQUESTS

• Pray that we can relate to the Catholics and have credibility with them even though we are different. Only 2 out of 8 of us are actually Catholic so it is a hard trying to relate to them with the differences of beliefs. Before coming this week, the other 6 of us didn’t know anything about Catholic beliefs.
• Pray that they really understand the method of study.We have taught them that when they study, they have to hold all their previous/current beliefs or ideas about the bible with an open hand and be ready to learn or for their beliefs to change as they study. So pray they really grasp this concept and can learn to teach the word of God, not just their religion.
• Pray for the unity of the two teams who are coming together. And reconciliation with the team and leader. There was/is the issue of money that was irresponsibly spent as well as some other issues that have hurt individual members of the team. Pray that this last week and a half, these feelings and issues can be resolved and we leave Uganda reconciled together.