Developing the ability for abstract conceptualization was
the motivation behind The Art and Science of Thinking workshop. Under educated
people often find it difficult to be creative, to generate ideas, and then to
transfer those ideas to something that becomes real. This skill is essential to
helping people break out of their present circumstances. Further, that people
realize they have this ability...
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Visiting Friends on the Coast
Pastor Tsofa is a 2010 Bible School in a Briefcase graduate
and bishop of Jesus Gathering Center churches. His own church is in Watamu and
I surprised him and his family with a visit. Then he surprised me with the
opportunity to preach. I so enjoyed my time with him and his church leaders in
the Marereni area last September. We had several opportunities to talk about
the various joys and struggles...
Monday, December 9, 2013
A Dolly for Agatha from Randy
Randy Rann is one of the first characters I met during my very
first mission trip to Nome, Alaska. I say character because…well…he was a
character. Red haired, big bellied, and gentler than a teddy bear. His life’s
mission during our time together became convincing me to eat grits. Randy came
from Beaverdam Baptist Church in South Carolina and that whole group who
befriended me during that first...
Faith Rises!
Sometimes we need a booster shot of faith, don’t we? I love
reading the story of Job when I feel a bit weak in the knees. Chapters 38-41
inspire me to a level of faith I simply can’t keep to myself. Two points surface:
1) God is big, and 2) we are small. Ya, I know…simplistic. But sometimes that’s
exactly what we need…down to earth, practical, applicable wisdom.
How Big is God
I laid the foundations of the earth. I marked
off its dimensions. I stretched a measuring line across it. I set the...
Victory Nursery School Graduation
My travel to Barrio Lira was relatively uneventful. Though
at one point we paused for about an hour to unload the “tipper” of its cement
baggage. Yes, about 30 people rode atop this tipper along with a few chickens,
my box of Bibles, some lumber, and several kilo of salt. Never have I been so
grateful to use my white skin as an excuse to ride in the cab. Thirty minutes
in this sun and I would have...
Team Development Meeting
Demand for the teaching ministry offered by Surprised by
Hope far exceeds our capacity and so for the past six months or so we’ve been
inviting select East African’s to join with us in facilitating portions of the Entrepreneurship
series of workshops. Apart from this individual learning, we need to increase
team building and training opportunities so that we can expand our reach beyond
only my own ability.
The six apprentice-facilitators met to get to know one
another and to work on developing...
Testimonies from Kamlui
Pastor Semitimba invited me to return to Kamuli for the
specific purpose of hearing all that God has done in the lives of those who attended
our entrepreneurship workshops a few months ago. I love hearing the
testimonies, but I have to admit his group has the largest application rate and
the success has been transformational in so many families.
Recall the man who desperately wanted to build a...
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Pastor Geoffrey, Ex-Prisoner
Friend Jonathon with Andrew, Geoffrey, and Johnin front of their new church
The boda driven by Carpenter John pulled into the beautiful
church yard where we found Geoffrey and Andrew anxiously awaiting our arrival.
You may remember
Geoffrey from Bugembe Prison. He was the tailoring teacher who, when
released, began attending Bible school to become a pastor. Andrew was at
Bugembe at the same time...
Smart as a Whip!
Spending Thanksgiving Day with the children at The Sanctuary
Babies Home – now called Sanctuary Children’s Home – was a joy. I love the warm
welcome these kids offer and I love getting to know the little ones who are now
becoming big.
The children were never so quiet as when I arrived this day.
Why? They were eating. My goodness, you could have heard a pin drop. The
children were sprawled around...
Saturday, November 16, 2013
50 Boy and Girl Dollies to Finish Mountain of Glory Church
The current church structure is that of sticks.
On Christmas Day I will attend a church building dedication
ceremony in Marikebuni, Kenya. This church building is the result, as
proclaimed by Pastor Ephantus, of applying the lessons learned in the
entrepreneurship series of workshops Surprised by Hope delivered in Malindi
just over a year ago.
Pastor Ephantus sought and received a government...
Friday, November 15, 2013
50 Pair of Shoes to Build Victory Primary School
On Friday, December 6 I will be the guest of honor at
Victory Nursery & Primary School in Barrio, Lira. I’m asked to prepare a
speech about the importance of education for the caregivers of those children
not yet attending school.
This is the three-room school currently in use.
Reaching our 50 Shoe goal will add one more classroom
for the students graduating to Primary 1 next year.
The...
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Widows in Agago District
This group specifically asked me to spend some time
ministering to the widows in the church. Often the coordinating pastor –
typically someone who knows me well – senses a resonance with the specific
church group we’re with and invites me to share my experience as a widow at a
deeper level with the other widows. Our goal is to help them realize that God
will use all things for the good of those...
Pastors in Agago District
I am constantly amazed at how often I’m asked to minister
directly with the pastors who attend such workshops. I feel entirely inadequate
to teach these men of God and yet somehow they feel they’ve learned something
when we’ve finished together. I have increasingly come to realize how much
these men love God and how much they long to know him more. So many topics for
discussion are taboo for pastors and we typically begin by discussing the
importance of confidentiality…particularly for their wives....
Agago District Church
Praises ring out in the distance, praises of thanksgiving
that the visitor has finally arrived. It was 8:30 pm and the 12 hour journey
via boda, taxi, then bus from Entebbe to Kitgum and then 1.5 hour via boda to
the venue rendered me safe but tired. The people in Agago District, bordering
Southern Sudan, have been waiting for me since Thursday (it’s now Monday). They
came expecting a Friday-Saturday...
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Teaching, Preaching, and Speaking in Bundibugyo
I’d been invited to work alongside Bishop Hannington to
develop material for a publishing opportunity primarily because of my unique
combination of experience in publishing and in Uganda. As usual, God used that
opportunity to create a partnership with Surprised by Hope that Bishop and I
believe will help the various communities where his 26 churches are located. I must reveal, however, that there...
You Stole My Wife
Bundibugyo is just a few kilometers from the DR Congo border
where war is driving Congolese families to seek refuge in Uganda. These Bundibugyo
communities tend to be a happy mixture of nationalities, languages, and
customs. I attribute this acceptance to recent memories of their own war-torn
past resulting from the likes of rulers like Idi Amin and Joseph Koney.
Though one young pastor-refugee reported that after crossing
the border, a Ugandan man took his wife. Very likely she felt that...
The School that War Built
Following is Bishop’s description of how the school came
about. Any errors can be attributed to my own inability to type as fast as he
spoke. I love seeing how clearly God used a bad circumstance to make something
good and bring him glory.
Congolese rebels attacked
Uganda. When they did, they caused a lot of displacement. We found ourselves in
IDC. The International Steward workshop taught principles...
Traveling to Bundibugyo
A diesel-fuel high made my ears ring as I contemplated how
many people in Uganda died from such daily inhalation only to blame the likes
of pneumonia or ulcers. Our eventual bus departure was met with great relief
and a few aspirin. The journey was relatively uneventful given my recent trip
to Congo,
though no disappointment crossed these lips. After passing through the
surprisingly large town of...
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Busing Uganda Style
Grabbing my bags before I could even protest, questionable
bus attendants ushered me to the bus park at the same time demanding to know my
destination. Stumbling past crowds of people, trying to keep up with my now
fast-moving luggage, I struggled to keep up. Pushing me into the front seat of
the big green Link bus, the attendant instructed me to wait the nearly three
hours in the plastic covered seats as sleepy faces gradually filled in the
gaps.
The Buganda Bus Park is home to most major long...
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Church Leadership Meeting
Sunday evening would be my last ministry responsibility in
Marereni and in Kenya. Leaders of those churches founded by Pastor Tsofa came
together for an evening of encouragement and teaching. We talked about some
basic principles in establishing the church, as well as some leadership
principles, character qualities, and the role of their wives in their churches.
Pastor Tsofa loves his wife and...
Preaching at Jesus Gathering Center
New churches often come under attack of the enemy and this
church was no different. Teaching about the battlefield in the mind and how the
enemy will use the mind to destroy the church before it starts, many people
responded to the call for specific prayer to win their battle. So thankful for
the opportunity to preach again, but still feeling inadequate for the job. It’s
these times when I must...
Biblically-based Business Teaching in Marereni
Marereni is the more centrally located venue where the three
day workshop would take place. This new church boasted an iron sheet roof and
open air walls. I was thankful for those open walls in this oven-like place. Following
our time of praise and worship along with introductions, Pastor Tsofa quickly
handed the translator’s microphone to Pastor Njuguna. Pastor Njuguna came to
this three day workshop...
Church as Business in Adu
Adu is another small village about an hour by motorcycle off
the main road. The third of Pastor Tsofa’s churches was organized for a full day
seminar for pastors (and anyone else wishing to attend). At one point during
our ride I asked Pr Tsofa if any people would be there because I hadn’t seen
any in a looooong time. The more than 50 people who came certainly traveled
quite a distance. Seventeen...
Church Encouragement Outside Marereni
“You are a real missionary,” said Pastor Tsofa as he rode me
on the back of a borrowed motorcycle. He indicated that no one he knows would
have endured such a ride. Probably no one he knows would have looked as scary
as I did once we arrived either. Humidity worked a number on my curls as did
the wind and sun on my face and shoulders. A red-skinned, mop-headed
missionary…that’s me.
More than an...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)