Sharing God's Word in Uganda
Let me preface
this journal blog by saying thank you to those of you who remembered to pray for
us concerning our evangelism crusade to Kokoron, Uganda.
After spending three days traveling, preaching and sleeping in the bush,
it would be fair to say that we are well spent, but on the other hand there is
spiritual high that comes from such a powerful event in the servant’s
life.
You may be wondering how we ended up in Uganda when our
primary ministry has been in Kenya over the last four years?
Well,
I am glad you asked.
There are several answers to that
question.
First, we have made great effort to put into practice
what Jesus taught the early church in Jerusalem:
Act
1:8 "But ye shall receive power,
after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me
both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost
part of the earth."
A. Start with being a witness in your
home town or city.
B. Be a witness in your state & country.
C. Be a witness
to your neighboring country and to the rest of the world.
Secondly, our work with the Pokot tribe and the Landmark Baptist Church
of Cheposabei which is located in the Kerio Valley is next to the border of
Uganda and has close ties to the village of Kokoron in Uganda.
Kokoron may best be described as the “sister village” to Cheposabei due
to the fact that the Pokot are a semi-nomadic tribe that move back and forth
between these two villages with their animals and families according to weather
patterns and seasonal needs.
Thirdly, the District Chief, who is
a member of the Landmark Baptist Church of Cheposabei has been asking us to
accompany him there for over a year now to bring the gospel to his family who
lives there.
By the way, Chief Joshua has been a blessing to us
and our ministry to the Pokot tribe from the first day we met him and brought
him to Christ.
As District Chief he has 20 villages and over
6,000 people under his care.
Little did we know that we would
have a member of the LBC Cheposabei with so much influence to the area.
What a blessing!
Fourthly, As we have worked
in the village of Cheposabei over the last several years we have noticed that at
any given time, nearly half the population of the village and Church is
missing.
So we felt that we needed to give our members another
opportunity for worship and fellowship when they are in Kokoron tending to their
cattle and farms.
Fifthly, it is important for us to continue to
share our vision and burden with these young Pastors and Churches to continue to
preach the gospel into areas even when we cannot go.
Teaching God's Word
With all that said, day one we traveled into the valley to
do evangelism at one of the neighboring villages to Chepsobei called
Lopushenkau, however, due to a heavy rain just minutes before we hiked to the
village, we were unable to pass.
There must always be a plan B in
a third world country so we went to the neighboring called, Kalas, where one of
most faithful church member lives named Loboduk.
Since Loboduk
and I have such a close kinship in Christ they call me Carlos Loboduk.
I found out that my Pokot name refers to the prize bull of the herd, no
comments from the peanut gallery please, LOL.
While in Kalas we
led six of Loboduk’s neighbors to Christ.
Day Two, we traveled
into Uganda while stopping at various check points to register our presence in
their country.
Along the way we would share God’s word and hear
the pleas from the people to come and teach them God’s word as there was no
Christian witness there.
At one point, before we arrived at
Kokoron, we hit a patch of road that was blocked with several trucks which had
slid off the road because of the deep mud.
Thank God for four
wheel drive and good mud tires as I was able to make a detour around the stuck
trucks.
My passengers were not as fortunate as I had to unload
them to lighten the truck to go off road which left them walking through the
deep mud while slipping and sliding.
Chief Joshua Sliding
You never know what
obstacles you are going to face on a spiritual adventure in remote interior
regions of Africa.
After arriving at Kokoron it became clearly
apparent why our Pokot members travel out of the semi-arid region of Kenya to
the lush green pastures of Uganda.
It is like the 'land of plenty'
with chest high grazing grass and vegetables which grow wild.
While the countryside was green and lush we also found signs of the war
torn country with structures which were blown up and destroyed during the era of
the dictator Idi Amin when hundreds of thousands of Ugandans where
killed.
We were well received in Kokoron and we saw
thirty-eight profess Christ.
We also organized three different
group Bible studies using Audio Bibles which we assigned to a senior man named
Jefferson to lead the older men, a woman named Fredda to lead the women’s Bible
study and a teenager named Abraham to lead the youth’s bible study.
Japeth Preaching
Japeth Teaching Children
These studies are very simple as they just have to schedule a time and
place to listen to the audio Bible as a group and have prayer.
Listening to Audio Bible in their Language
Please pray that God will call and raise a leader in Kokoron to help
these folks grow in their new faith. Family in Kakron, Uganda
Day three we finally made it
to the village of Lopushenkau to do evangelism.
Lapushenkau Village Elders
This village is
the sixth and final neighboring village to the LBC of Chepsobei.
Pastor Loquardo and His men have their work cut out for them in the Kerio
Valley,
but all things are possible with God’s help.
Pastor Loquardo
Praying
Word of God
I believe
we saw a total of sixty-eight people believe and confess Christ as Lord and
Savior over a three day period and for that we give God all the honor, all the
praise and all the glory.
Pumpkin Offering
We covet and need your continued daily
prayers.
Desert Flooding
God
Speed,
Bro. Chuck
& Sis. Terry Fernandez
Kenya
