Update from Uganda

Ki Kati, Oli Otya (Hi, How are you?)

Just wanted to give you, as my prayer supporters, an update of what has been going on in my life over the past 4 months. In case you haven’t heard I have been commissioned to serve in Uganda, Africa for 6 months by the ministry, Potter’s Field Ministries, I’m interning at for a year.

The first 3 months of my internship, January-March, I was at Potter’s Field Ranch in North-western Montana taking part of their ministry training school. Wow, it was such an amazing experience and God definitely met each one of the 12 interns at the school. We went through a number of studies including the book of Acts, apologetics, book studies by authors such as Roy Hession and Warren Wiersbe, and cultural and language classes for the respective countries we have been assigned to. It was during this time that I was assigned to Uganda along with another guy intern and two girl interns (picture below). After our 3 months of study we were privileged to go back home for a week before departing to Uganda and we arrived here a little less than 2 weeks ago.

We have been here for a few weeks but have already fell in love with the people, the ministry here that we are going to be a part of, and the culture. The first few days after arriving were spent becoming familiar around town, getting settled in, and getting to meet others in the ministry of Potter’s Field Kids which is based in Calvary Chapel Entebbe. We started serving alongside the church after settling in and it has been such a blessing to be working with these people.

Some of the ministries we are going to be involved with are:

·         Teaching kids Bible stories and doing various activities during Saturday Kids Clubs and Sunday School on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings

·         Medical outreaches to the islands on Lake Victoria once a week giving immunizations and checkups to the impoverished communities on the islands. We also run a kids program on these islands while the medical procedures are taking place.

·         Working with the kids academy at the church which a couple hundred kids from the community come to receive schooling.

·         The church is going under some building expansions right now and there is quite a bit of construction work to do that we will be a part of.

So yeah, it has been a blessing to be here and I so appreciate and covet your prayers. Thank you so much for supporting me and my team in this way. A couple ways you can pray specifically:

·         Pray that we continue to adjust to the culture and continue to learn the native language, Luganda. Most of the natives know English but there are those who don’t so we are trying to pick up as much of that as we can so that we can be ‘all things to all men’ (1 Cor 9:22).

·         Pray for health. We have been so thankful for good health so far but it is very easily for a foreigner to acquire diseases that we haven’t been exposed to in the States.

Thank you so much!

Siiba balungi (have a good day)

Grant

Bondservant for Christ

Inductive Bible Study – May 1, 2013

Ephesians 6:5

Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ,

Interpretation

What a powerful verse! I could go on so many different levels on this verse. We are called to serve our earthly masters and those over us as if it were Christ himself we were serving. Not only as a hired servant, but as a bondservant; one who devotes the remaining of his life on his own free-will as a willing service to his master.

We are to be a bondservant with fear and trembling. How often do I not take the work I do seriously? Is it not true that God can work in any day and in any way? God doesn’t wait around for the next big spiritual retreat or the next big outreach to reach the unsaved. He works every day through willing bondservants who take their walk seriously; with fear and trembling. What does this fear and trembling look like? Well first of all it starts with communion with God. If we are not being filled daily by the truths of scripture revealed by the Holy Spirit, how can we pass on the truths of God? We may be able to do it in the flesh but then we are like King Saul who didn’t wait on the Lord to provide the sacrifice the Samuel but took matters into his own hands. King Saul lasted in his position for some time but ultimately came crashing down. The end of Saul’s life may have been different if he would have served the Lord seriously; with fear and trembling. But back to communion with God; how often do I come to that precious time with the Lord without fear and trembling? I should be in awe that I can communicate with the almighty creator of the universe so much higher than I. I should come to His word with the mindset that my time spent with the Lord could result in a changed life in myself and those I come into contact with throughout the day. My time with the Lord could result in saved souls snatched from hell. We as Christians need to take this time seriously; with fear and trembling.

We are to be a bondservant with a sincere heart, as you would Christ. O the human, carnal heart! O how it longs to receive attention to itself. Our nature craves approval from others and one of the most deadly tools in satan’s toolbox is to make a Christian do ‘good service’ with a heart that is simply looking for approval from those around him; not as if he were doing it for Christ. I know that my heart gravitates this way and whenever success comes especially in spiritual ministry I have to plead that the Lord humbles my heart. I really like how Charles Spurgeon pens this article:

“Success exposes a man to the pressure of people and thus tempts him to hold on to his gains by means of fleshly methods and practices, and to let himself be ruled wholly by the dictatorial demands of incessant expansion. Success can go to my head, and will unless I remember that it is God who accomplished the work, that He can continue to do so without any help, and that He will be able to make out with other means whenever He cuts me down to size.”

So let’s serve with sincerity as if unto Christ; To his honor and glory alone!

Application

Whenever I have any success this week I will pray that the Lord humbles my heart. I will record each of these events and record how the Lord works through a humble servant at the end of the week.

Freedom!

Inductive Bible Study – April 22, 2013

Galatians 5:1

For freedom Christ has set us free, stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.

Interpretation

Wow, this verse is so powerful. Christ loved us enough to take our place on the cross, to suffer anguish and scoff, to even be the lowest of all Jews, a Galilean whom many believed him to be of promiscuous birth. This is love; not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His son as a propitiation for our sins. Our salvation is incredible. O how often I lose sight of my salvation. When I lose sight of the marvelous love of my Savior, poured out for me in blood and water so that He can have eternal relationship with me, I begin to drift: to drift back into the yoke of slavery.

An ox cannot free himself of a yoke. He is paired up with another ox until His master releases him to graze the pastures. The ox has no power of himself to remove the bonds of his yoke. He drags around a heavy burden with this yoke but there is no relief from it until his master has had mercy on him. However, the master of the yoke of slavery, Satan, has no mercy. The master of the yoke of slavery will not look down at the ox with pity. He will continue to drive him and keep increasing its burden until death grips the ox.

“But thanks be to God, who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” 1 Corinthians 15:57

Satan the master of the yoke of slavery has no mercy. But rather than the ox to be driven on the yoke to death, Christ set us free from the yoke and took it upon himself, carrying not only the burden of my yoke but of the whole earth. Christ was driven to death from the ox’s yoke but praise the Lord for His resurrection which defeated the yoke of slavery and the master who shows no mercy.

I am not powerful enough to release the bonds of the yoke when I submit back into the yoke. But my Savior has set me free. When I lay down my burden at the foot of the cross, Christ releases us from the yoke of slavery and bonds me with His own yoke where His burden is light. Praise the Lord.

May we as Christians never lose sight of what Christ has done for us. For when we do, drifting occurs.

Application

Today I will memorize Psalm 119:9-16 and meditate of the precepts and statutes hidden in this passage.

“How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your statutes! With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth. In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statues; I will not forget your word.”