“...fulfill your ministry.” 2 Timothy 4:5 NKJV
Friends: Greetings to you from Kampala! Our
verse above is the elder Paul’s encouragement to his son in the faith Timothy
and it is of great encouragement to us in our service in Africa. Thank you for
your part in prayer and gifts which enable us to serve here! This month we will
look at two ministry components in which we seek to fulfill God’s will for us
in His ministry. We hope that this will be of encouragement to you!
Street Kid Outreach and Discipleship Home
Pictured at the top left are photos of our
yearly swimming party for the boys and Helpers at Discipleship House. This year
our six boy residents and two Helpers-Benjamin and Apophia were joined by
Pastor Sunday Kafeero’s wife Elizabeth and the Kafeero kids. Sunday leads this
ministry and Discipleship House is located on the church property where he
pastors. This was the first time ever swimming for some of our folks and
everyone REALLY ENJOYED the time. We were struck by the love of Mrs. Kafeero
and her children; they truly treat the street boys like their own. A time at
the playland and lunch completed the day. ‘It was fantastic!’ was one comment
about the day. Eleven boys have completed the year-long plan at Discipleship
House and so far nine have remained off the streets and are with their families
and nine boys continue in school. Thanks to Wayside Cross Ministries for their
heart and hand to help these boys and their families. Please pray for salvation
and reconciliation for the boys and their families and that the boys won’t
return to the streets. The boys at the Day Shelter will hopefully enjoy their
swimming party soon!
Pastoral Leadership Development and Scripture
and Literature Distribution
Thanks to Chapelstreet Church and Bruce and
Bonnie Cain we recently received one thousand Life Application Study Bibles and
are distributing these and other Bibles and Mt Zion Bible Church’s literature
in (see photos at left and right below) Pastor Training times throughout
Uganda. Pictured at left is a three day training in Fort Portal and below right
is a Distribution time with pastors in Mbarara. The Lord blessed these times
and we rejoice that we can leave the blessing of the teachings, Bibles and
literature with the people. In Fort Portal we received the comment that pastors
had never before enjoyed such a teaching
time like our time together. We thank the Lord for His grace, blessing and help
that brought us enjoyment in the Lord. One pastor there repented publicly of
his prior activity of ministering as a prophet—that is, proclaiming himself to
be a prophet like Elijah, Moses, Samuel or John the Baptist including the
ability to utter inspired prophecies from God, ‘Thus says the Lord...’. We
explained that Jesus is God’s last Word to us (as found in the book of Hebrews)
and that Jesus is God’s only Prophet to us now in the New Covenant. His error
is not uncommon in Africa as many of the pastors have little real reliable
ministry or Bible training. Many pastors are taught that they are prophets
whose main ministry is to cast out the ever present demons, work other miracles
including miraculous healings, predict the future and know and call out the
physical and spiritual afflictions that almost every person suffers from in
powerful deliverance services and exorcisms. We are delighted that our friend
was convicted and saw and acknowledged his error before his fellow pastors.
Pray for the pastors and churches who are in great need of truth and training
in Biblical doctrine here and for our enablement to reach them. We remember
today how we need you to fulfill our ministries!
It was one of those mornings when the sky rather
than growing lighter grew darker. We’d had a lot of rain and it looked like we
would have more. There was fresh new green everywhere I looked. Outside my
office window among new leaves hung one scarlet Hibiscus flower. It wasn’t
fancy. Five simple satiny petals curled back from the bright yellow stamen in
the center. As the darkness grew more intense and the wind and rain came, the
brightness of that one bloom grew more intense. It put me in mind of what it
means to be a Christian in this world.
The apostle Paul uses the term ‘this present
darkness’ to describe the spiritual state of the world—a condition that exists,
if possible, more today than it did then. Time after time in the history of the
world God has used one person to stand against the powers of darkness—heroes,
if you will. The Scripture is full of examples, the ultimate Hero being the
Lord Jesus Christ. And we are called to serve Him and be like Him. Although the
Word of God calls us to community, there are times in this walk with the Lord
we are called to stand alone as He did. I think we have each been in situations
where we were the only follower of Christ in a group of people, or at least we
thought we were. There are places in this world where a Christian isn’t allowed
to speak of Christ. There are times where speaking the name of Jesus brings
violent reactions from those around us. Those are the times when we, by God’s
grace, must let His light shine before men. And the darker it gets the brighter
the Light of Christ shines.
Time is short. The next morning, that red
Hibiscus bloom was shriveled and pale, soon to fall off. May we make use of the
time the Lord has given us here on this earth to speak the Gospel and win
others to Christ. For His glory.
For our Lord Jesus and
His people,
Jim and Kappy
No comments:
Post a Comment