advance!

​It has been a long time since I’ve written an update like this.  Life has been full!  I’m sure it has been for you as well.  I’d so love to sit and hear about it.  Since that may not happen too soon, though, we’d love to hear from you in other ways!  You can email, text, WhatsApp, social media, whatever.  It’s always a blessing to connect with you.
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Advance!
Early this year, we had five days of prayer at Mirembe House.  It was an incredibly special time as people filled the prayer room, and indeed the house, for five days of seeking the Lord.  Jesus revealed Himself to us in beautiful ways — through time in the prayer room, nights of worship all together, and sweet fellowship.  Around that time we felt the Lord leading us to advance the work in two ways over the course of this year.  Firstly, by training more disciple-makers and planting more fellowships.  We have a goal of training 200 people and beginning 100 fellowships in the coming year.  Secondly, we felt a strong burden to strengthen the fellowships already in existence through teaching and mentoring.  We’ve been working to that end, and are hopeful that the Lord will use our efforts.

Extra Special Visit
Back in March, Rebekah and Simeon came to visit with Noemi!  It was amazing.  We spent one fantastic week together here in Uganda, and my Papa’s (and Pappy’s) heart was so full.  We went on a safari, did a few ministry things, spent lots of time together, and Noemi and I read a lot of books together (or more accurately, we read some books a lot of times).  Wow.  I’m so thankful.

Curveball
We have been looking forward to May-July, as we had a full slate of teams and individuals coming to labor along with us.  We have been believing that God would significantly advance our objectives during this time.  But things have taken an unexpected turn…

ORU Team
Just over three weeks ago today, I had the incredible joy of spending a day in Tulsa with a team of students from ORU who were preparing to come to Masaka.  I was part of a wonderful team of facilitators helping to equip ORU Summer Mission teams to go to many different nations, and on the Friday of the week I was able to work with “our” team.  Three days later, we all landed in Entebbe, Uganda (Jill and I beat the team by about 40 minutes!).  For the next 12 days we joyfully shared the Gospel, prayed for people, equipped disciple-makers, worshipped Jesus, and had a lot of fun together.

Unfortunately, the trip was cut short because of the current ebola outbreak in Uganda, and the team had to leave a week prematurely.  In fact, due to the uncertainties about the extent of the spread of the disease and the corresponding travel difficulties in returning to the States from Uganda, others of our expected teams and individuals from the US have had to cancel their trips as well, and some are still trying to discern what they should do.  It has drastically changed the landscape of our summer!  (Side note:  we are not in any danger.  There have been very few cases in Uganda at all, and none near us.  The issue with most would-be visitors has been the potential of disruption in traveling back home to the States).

I want to testify to you, though, that Jesus is the Victor!  The time we did have with the ORU team was so special, and they brought great encouragement and zeal to our work and our partners here.  On the first day of outreach, I sat on the stoop of a house as the team shared the love of Jesus with a Muslim lady.  She decided to follow Jesus that day!  We came back a few days later and enjoyed a good time of Bible study, prayer, and encouragement with her and two of her children.  Elsewhere, groups shared the simple truth of Jesus with drug dealers and witch-doctors and beautiful sinners of all sorts.  Some surrendered their lives to Jesus after the first conversation.  Others have been continuing to gather and read God’s Word together with our disciple-making teams, even as they take time to count the cost and consider the claims of Christ.

One dear couple welcomed our team with joyous smiles, and asked them to pray that they would be freed from alcohol.  Another man had been sleeping in his house when he suddenly woke up, looked outside, and saw some people gathered around a couple of foreigners.  He went outside to see what was happening, and ended up giving his life to Jesus.  A Catholic lady confessed to one of the students that she finds reading the Bible too difficult, but after they led her in a simple Bible study together, she was amazed at how easy it was, and committed to reading her Bible in the coming week.  Yesterday I had the chance to re-visit a home where the team had shared the Gospel last week.  Some of the people there had come to Christ, and received us warmly.  The father of the home joined us as we studied the scriptures together, and decided that he also wanted to give his life to Jesus as his wife had done the previous week.  In just those few days, we had many wonderful experiences such as these I have related.

In addition to all of that, we and our Mirembe House Family were incredibly encouraged and inspired by the team.  It was a wonderful time, and we are thankful that the Lord brought us together.
God has encouraged us that, even with the summer looking differently than expected, we are still commanded to advance and keep pressing forward.  He is so good!  We have been continuing the mission with our Mirembe House Family and other local partners, and the Father is doing wonderful things.  We are so grateful.

Thank you for reading this update and for caring about our lives.  May God bless you!