Tag Archives: 2013

46 Precious Ugandan Children…

We met this brave new mercy ministry…an orphanage that Greg, Moses, and I visited and served in Uganda.  Through friendships that God put together over the years, I was introduced to Pastor Isa and the Stream of Hope for the African Child (SOHAC) ministry in a small town about 75 miles north of Jinja, Uganda called Nawantale.  It was a brutal trip to get there from Kitale, nearly 10 hours total by vehicle plus a border crossing.

Pastor Isabirye Paulous and his team started a church and children’s home because of the needs in this community for spreading the Gospel and for children to be defended.  Traditional worship and belief in the spirit world is common.  An undefended child is at risk for exploitation in many ways.  The church building is a simple structure with open sides and grass roof but full of joyful worship.  It is the only church in the village center.  We spent a great Sunday giving messages and in worship with them.

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Stream of Hope worship

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Moses and I with the team at SOHAC Ministry

Rented house for the orphans

The kids and few caretakers are existing in a very cramped and basic way.  They can get clean water at a community well 1/2 mile away but all the children wake at 3:00am to stand in line at the hand pump so they can get water for the day, before walking over 3 miles to school.

Village hand pump

Village hand pump

Stagnant water many use for washing

Cooking and facilities need improving.

Kitchen facility

Kitchen facility

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Sleeping quarters are safe but too cramped and on an unfinished floor with no mosquito nets.

20 boys sleep in this room

20 boys sleep in this room

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SOHAC funding is inadequate and they are just surviving.  We brought them medicine to treat the children for intestinal worms and diarrhea, we left some mattresses and mosquito nets, we bought a 2 week supply of food, we performed field dentistry and removed many teeth, and we purchased school books and supplies so the kids could go to school.  They were so excited to go to school that they did not sleep.

Administering de-worming medicine

Administering de-worming medicine

School supplies so the kids can attend school

2 weeks of food and supplies

2 weeks of food and supplies

Field dentistry to relieve pain

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Pray with us for the guidance and provisions for SOHAC Ministry, for the health and well-being of the kids, for God to be honored in all things, for the lost of Nawantale to see Jesus in the flesh through this work and wish to know Him, and for us to know how God wants us to proceed as Mission Servants Ministry to serve this mission.

Unengaged People Group … the Kenyan Teso

This is a neat story of some work for the Gospel made possible by God connecting a lot of different people…….I love seeing how God works.

A friend of mine, Randy, was investigating the ethnicity and language data available on the people in western Kenya, near the LSH orphanage and he noticed a people group named that Teso that existed along the Ugandan / Kenyan border, southwest of Kitale, the region where the LSH orphanage is.  On the Ugandan side, they are well engaged with the gospel, have a complete Bible and many churches. The data shows that the Tesos of Kenya are only marginally engaged with the gospel.  It seemed ideal that the Ugandan Teso could be helped and encouraged to evangelize their Kenyan relatives.

Questions were asked of Pastor Moses and The Lord’s Ministries (TLM) group that we work with in Kenya about this apparent opening for the Gospel and it was investigated.  Pastor Moses’ associate Pastor Ben visited the border town of Malaba and he met Pastor Godfrey of the Portable Bible Center (PBC).  Pastor Godfrey is a Ugandan Teso who moved across the border to Malaba and established the PBC in Malaba with a mission to train Pastors to reach the Kenyan Teso people.

We met Pastor Godfrey and several students of the PBC during our recent mission trip as we were traveling from Kenya to Uganda.  There are fledgling churches among them established in the past few years of effort.  They are a determined and passionate group.  Pastor Ben, from Kitale, Kenya has been led to adopt the Teso as his mission.  He will work to encourage and help them.  I hope that we can help in some way, possibly providing digital audio media and printed tools through Pastor Ben to help the PBC reach the unreached Kenyan Teso.

“…….I established  there are many  people  who have  a  zeal  for  the   gospel.  This was from  the way I  was received  and  found   out  from  a number  of   Pastors  around.    In   conclusion   brother,  there   is  a   great   task   ahead.    God   bless  you,          Brother Ben – Kenya TESO MISSIONARY”

From Wikipedia….In Uganda, the Teso live mainly in Teso sub-region, i.e., the districts of Amuria, Soroti, Kumi, Katakwi, Ngora District, Serere District, Pallisa, Bukedea and Kaberamaido, as well as Tororo District and Busia District. They number about 3.2 million (9.6% of Uganda’s population). Until 1959, they were the second largest ethnic group in Uganda.  As of 2002 they were the fifth largest.[2]  The Teso in Kenya, numbering about 279,000, live mainly in Busia District, Teso District.[3]  Teso traditions relate that they originated somewhere in what is now Ethiopia and migrated south West over a period of centuries.[4] They were part of a larger group of Nilotic peoples who migrated from Sudan in several waves.  A splinter of this group later formed a branch called the “Karamojong Cluster” or Ateker.  The Ateker further split into several groups, including Jie, Turkana, Karamojong and Teso.[5]  The Teso established themselves in present-day north-eastern Uganda, and in the mid-18th century some began to move farther south. During the course of this latter migration, conflicts ensued with other ethnic groups in the region, leading to the split of Teso territory into a northern and southern part. In 1902, part of eastern Uganda was transferred to western Kenya – leading to further separation of Teso.[4]

Please pray with us for Pastor Godfrey, Pastor Ben, and the Teso people.

Men from the Teso

Men from the Teso at the PBC

Showing the Jesus film as an example of media technology available in Ateso language.

Showing the Jesus film as an example of media technology available in Ateso language.

Greg and Pastor Moses giving a message to the Teso Pastor Trainees

Greg and Pastor Moses giving a message to the Teso Pastor Trainees

Orphanology…and other thoughts

I just finished reading a book called ‘Orphanology’ by Tony Merida and Rick Morton, a biography on George Müller, Guardian of Bristol’s Orphans, and some of the many Bible references towards orphans.  I enjoyed it all and was encouraged in what we do through Mission Servants at The Lord’s Servants Home.  Although ‘Orphanology’ is a book slanted towards adoption as the best option for an orphan because of the connection to family, a bond with parents, and a sense of having a home, it recognizes that in many countries, adoptions are not possible.  It is true that orphanages in many places are mere institutions and do not provide a sense of family, bonding with a parent, and a home.  At the Lord’s Servants home, we have full-time and on-site caretakers, a family atmosphere, and priorities to care a child into an adulthood that has an education, life options, self-worth, knowledge of how to love others, and knowledge that God loves them….just like most of us were blessed with in our families.  We will have 60 children at the LSH soon.  I marvel that George Müller had these same goals and had 2,000 orphans while pioneering the orphanage institution in 19th century England.

Merida and Morton state that orphans live under the banner “Rejected, Unwanted, and Optional” and without someone showing them love, will grow up feeling “worthless, hopeless, and unloveable”.   The world is full of evil people who will use a child that feels that way about themselves.  “God has called us to be a defender of the defenseless because that is who He is.  We are returning worship to God when we show His character to the world by what we do…”

James writes in 1:27 “Religion that God our Father accept as pure and faultless is this:  to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”  God takes notice because orphans are among the least powerful and most vulnerable people on earth.  I read many references to there being around 150 million orphans worldwide.  I realize through the Bible that there is more than that, billions in fact.  Before we were “adopted” into God’s family by God’s effort and God’s plan of salvation through Grace through Jesus, we were lost, vulnerable, and hopeless.  It is Jesus that put the value on us by what He paid, and made us His Family with full rights to His inheritance.  It will change a person that realizes they were an orphan and was adopted.  It did me!

I also feel there is great value in a “Godly Family Orphanage” for several other reasons… First, these children are part of their society and it’s future.  I pray that we prepare them to be part of the solution to the problems in their society because solutions must come from within.  Second, a “Mercy Ministry” like an orphanage is a hands-on way to show the love of Christ working in a tangible way and it makes the words of evangelism come alive to those watching what is happening.  Lastly, each group of children is an “unreached People Group” and will remain unable to comprehend the kind of love God has for us if living a live without somebody showing them love and giving them value and hope.

Thank you for joining us in prayer, efforts, and in worshipping God by joining him in loving and defending the defenseless.

I love the 'honesty" in a child's face...

I love the ‘honesty” in a child’s face…

Prayer Request: Peaceful Election in Kenya

On Monday, March 4th, Kenya will hold their general elections.  During the last election, 5 years ago, controversy sparked national violence along tribal lines.  Over 1,000 people were murdered during the tribe on tribe violence and over 500,000 people were driven from their homes, many farms burned, and most of them permanently displaced and forced into refugee camps.  I visited Kenya roughly 1 month after this in 2008.  It was tragic that one of Africa’s best and most stable countries fell apart and turned on itself, compounding the existing tragedies of HIV/AIDS, drought, famine, and poverty, among others such as poor education, high unemployment, over population, growing numbers of orphans, poor infrastructure, and insufficient health care.

I was going to include some links but I suggest you simply google: kenyan elections.  You will have many choices to learn about the circumstances after the last election and the complicated issues revolving around this election.

Please join me in prayer that democracy prevails and peace is kept.  Pray that the leadership in Kenya are convicted to serving her people and resolving the heartbreaking issues plaguing Kenya.

Jambo, Makote Yevasewe, Shalom/Salama…Post #10

It has been a few days since posting. Greg and I have been on the move. Here is brief summary…
* Left the Lord’s Servants Home Friday with all our projects done!
* Drove to Malaba, Kenya and had a conference for a seminar that is training Pastors to reach out to the Teso people group in western Kenya. The Teso are relatively unreached.
* Drove into Uganda to visit the Stream of Hope for the African Child ministry orphanage and church. We brought medicine and treated for worms, bought school supplies so they could start going to school, bought about 2 weeks of food, and spoke in the church.
* Arrived in Jerusalem after over 30 hours of traveling on Tuesday for a 3 day visit.
* Jerusalem is incredible. We are staying in a 400 yr. old hotel in the old city. I slipped a prayer on a piece of paper into a crack in the Wailing Wall and saw Christ’s tomb today. It was empty. Praise God.

Thank you for your prayers. I’m having a great time but miss my Wife. I’ll write more as I can. (I’m on a hotel PC and can’t download photos…the sunrise over the Dome of the Rock is awesome!)
Shalom,

PS. The title is greetings in Kenya, Uganda, and Israel.