“Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.” 1 Timothy 4:13 NKJV.

Friends: We greet you this March and hope and pray that all is very well for you all. We’re fine here in Kampala and thank the Lord for His new mercies which are ours today. Our Christian literature distribution is well underway now. Pray for our stamina as we seek to finish up the distribution of 17 tons of Bibles and good Christian books and literature. Pastors like the 2 brothers pictured at left are receiving the materials and are sharing the literature with their churches. Uganda is becoming ‘a reading culture’, as the people put it, and the booklets about repentance that these pastors hold are so needed and often very thankfully received.

Pictured below that is a Christian sister who will manage the materials that will be added to a school library for local pastors in Kireka. She’s holding a Women’s Devotional Bible which we trust will greatly help her in her walk with the Lord Jesus. This group received literature by Charles Spurgeon amongst other writers. Spurgeon makes comment about Paul’s desire for books as he awaited trial and death: “He is inspired, yet he wants books! He has been preaching at least 30 years, yet he wants books! He has seen the Lord, and yet he wants books! He has had a wider experience than most men, yet he wants books! He had been caught up into the third heaven, and had heard things which it is unlawful for man to utter, yet he wants books! He had written the major part of the New Testament, yet he wants books!” It’s a delight to see our friends also want books! Pray that the books and literature will be an especially fruitful gift to our friends.

In the photo below a younger Christian is receiving a Bible and literature packet as he is being registered for the gift by an older pastor. These men received NIV Study Bibles at the church in Nsambya where we had met for a sermon on ‘Revival’. We are encouraging Christians and the churches to seek the Lord for revival and pray that the books and literature will be a help towards that. The desire for Bibles, books and literature is palpable and it is a joy to share the materials with people who are so hungry for it. Yesterday Jim shared with a group of pastors and encouraged them to pray for revival and to learn more about God and his ways in the literature that we gave. Some has been shared in Sudan and in Rwanda. Let us give God glory for this truly blessed gift to the churches of Uganda and East Africa. Please pray for Chapel Library of Pensacola, FL, which is the primary donor of this lavish and gracious gift.

KAPPY’S CORNER —Mud

The arrhythmic swish of African brooms signals the beginning of a new day in the dry season. There’s no way around it, dust must be dealt with here. If we don’t pay constant attention to moving dust from one place to another we may very well be buried in it. Along the roads, as vehicles throw the powdery soil in the air, the plants and buildings all become the same red hue. Then the rains begin. The first drops of rain on the thirsty ground bring a welcome scent. I like to stand in the rain when the season begins and rejoice with all creation in God’s cleansing once again. Everything revives. Then what?

Every child with a patch of ground knows what happens when water and dust are combined—mud, glorious mud. There’s something very basic about mud. Children love to play in it. Pigs wallow in it. Vehicles slide sideways in it. Shoes get stuck in it. And God made the first man out of it. But there’s another aspect to mud that people have known for countless generations—we can build with it!

Our household has been watching the construction of a three-story building over the past six months or so. Actually, the only way to avoid seeing it is to keep our drapes closed. Harriet and I were standing in front of a window one day conducting our usual appraisal of the construction work when she said something that launched a thousand thoughts in my head. “Imagine, it started with one brick,” she said. One brick...at that moment I prayed for the opportunity to see how mud bricks are made.

A few days later I was sitting in the car waiting for Jim to bring our friend Sharifah from her house to go to church with us. I enjoy those quiet times of prayer and watching life around me. Then I saw a man in a pit. He had a wooden form with two compartments and handles on each end which he placed on a board. He slapped mud into both compartments, smoothed the mud over the top with his hand and traced his finger around the edges. Next, he picked up the mold by the handles and, turning it sideways, carried it to a dry patch of ground in the pit. He carefully shook the wet bricks out, lining them up with others to dry. Later I learned from Sharifah that the location of the pit had been carefully chosen for the quality of the soil. Different types of soil make different types of bricks. The man would first remove any sod and set it aside. Next he would clean the area of broken glass and debris, add water to the soil, cover it with the sod and let it sit for a few days or so. Then he would uncover the area and start kneading the mud with his feet until it was elastic. When the consistency was right he would then do what I saw him doing—forming bricks and setting them on end to dry. The sundried bricks would be stacked loosely and covered for a time. Next, the stack would be dismantled, the bricks would be sorted and a small, tight tower would be built out of the bricks leaving a tunnel under it. The top of the tower would then be covered with grass. Mud would be thrown onto the outside of the tower to seal it. A fire would be built in the tunnel at the base of the tower and kept burning for some days. And when the bricks are cool they’re ready to use.

We recently received this prayer request in a newsletter from a local church:

“Church construction

The Church brick making is still on, keep us in your prayers as we plan to burn them on 10 march 2010.We hope to first make 50,000 bricks. A lot of work is still needed and more funds to accomplish our first Phase Commitment. Hebrews 11.1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.”

Can you imagine 50,000 bricks? The people of this church can. They know it all starts with one brick. We love to see beginnings, don’t we? But even more than that we love to see a work continue to grow and build, producing fruit for God’s kingdom. Thank you for your partnership with us as we work alongside churches like the one that sent us this prayer request. Please join us in praying that the work the Lord has started here will continue to build on the Rock, the firm foundation, and grow. Thanks!

Jim + Kappy

Encouraging the Ugandan Church

“...and encouraged them for the service of the house of the Lord.” 2 Chronicles 2:2 NKJV.

King Josiah saw the needs of the people of the time and set about restoring true worship in Israel. He did this by instructing and encouraging the servants of the Lord in their service. And in Hebrews 6:18 we find that the writer notes the strong consolation a believer has in the confirmed promises of God to save His people. That consolation comes as we are encouraged and comforted by God, who comes alongside us. We see that encouragement often takes the form of one’s being befriended or having been aided by another who is near, a coming alongside by one who cares in the struggles and challenges of our lives. An encouragement is really a being called to another’s side.

As missionaries with Action International Ministries—Uganda serving in Kampala, Uganda we have learned about ‘coming alongside’ our brothers and sisters in the Ugandan church for the 5 years that we have been blessed to serve the Ugandan church. Our friends recognize our ministry to them and often encourage us that we ‘serve the Ugandan church’. Our understanding of Uganda’s church with its strengths and weaknesses, with its doctrines and practices, has grown during this time but we realize that we have much to learn about the church and about African and Ugandan culture which is quite different in so many ways from our home culture in the west.

We did understand some of the matters of the church and culture correctly before our coming to Uganda. In our preparations, for instance, we perceived that Uganda and her church has many needs and also many opportunities for the people to be impacted by Christ’s gospel. That has surely been confirmed to us. We foresaw that while some of our work might involve aspects of pioneering missionary work, which it has, most of our work would be in assisting and encouraging, ‘coming alongside’, the existing church. We were able to assist churches and individuals who have taken the gospel to places where the people say it is never or very seldom heard. These places are remote villages ‘deep in the bush’. We served the Batwa (pygmy) people who desired to take the gospel to their relatives in the Congo forests who had never heard about Jesus Christ. Sometimes we have worked with individuals who then went into areas (like parts of Sudan) where there is need of establishing the church. But most of our work, as we understood it before, has been centered on encouraging Uganda’s existing church, one which must be helped to confront these and many other issues as she is rooted and grounded in the truth and as she functions as the salt and light of Uganda. It’s the truth that will set the people free. The issues mentioned above are linked to spiritual causes and our hope is that as the Ugandan church moves closer to God and matures and is faithful, Christians here will respond to these significant challenges biblically. Freedom for the people will be the result.

The process of coming to a deeper understanding of Jesus and His teachings takes time. Our ministries require much patience of us as we ‘come alongside’ those who often struggle to understand the Lord and His truth and then seek to apply the liberating truth. We are often reminded that we, too, struggle to understand and obey our beloved Lord Jesus Christ, that we fail, must repent and at times it seems we grow very slowly in our knowledge of God and His grace. But we are encouraged because we see a real openness to consider Christ and His truth in Uganda. There is also great opportunity. And we see growth in friends, churches and ministries.

Western Christians interested in understanding and helping the African church, of which Uganda is a part, can pray more effectively for ministries like ours and can give more intelligently to the important work of assisting the African church as they see more clearly the real issues the church faces and as they, too, lovingly and wisely in their own capacities ‘come alongside’ our brethren in the Lord Jesus.

We remember that He purchased His beloved worldwide church with His precious blood and that by His Spirit we have become one body and members one of another and fellow heirs of the grace of God. Pray for us, friend, and for our work as we seek to bring the precious truth to the Lord’s body in Uganda and Africa.

Issues That Ugandan Christians Struggle With:

A temptation to revert to witchcraft, witchdoctors and occultism in times of need and distress. Child sacrifice and witchcraft in various forms are still widely practiced in the culture.

Polygamy.

A temptation to practice corruption, stealing and lying in various forms because ‘it’s the way life is lived here’.

The adaptation of becoming a reading culture, and therefore have good, personal access to the Bible.

Acceptance of harmful and heretical teachings because of ignorance and societal pressures.

Standing for Christ in a culture that demands acceptance of all persons and ideas so as to ‘not lose face’ or ‘offend someone’.

Overcoming strong family and societal pressures to conform to accepted non-Christian practices.

Acquiring and maintaining a biblical view of self-sufficiency rather than having the ‘Give to me, do for me because I’m poor’ attitude that engenders dependence on donors.

Friends: Pray that Uganda’s church will be helped in these

specific ways as you pray for these needs.

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"All grace grows as love to the Word of God grows.“

True fathers in grace meditate upon Christ; they feed upon Scripture, press the juice of it, and inwardly enjoy the flavor of it.”

“If we long to keep His statutes He will keep us; yea, His grace will keep us keeping His law.”

C.H. Spurgeon