“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 15:58 NKJV.

Friends: We rejoice that we can serve the Lord Jesus Christ! Pray that as your beloved brethren we will always abound in the Lord’s work and that we will know and remember that our labor in the Lord is not in vain. We pray that for you too, dear friend!

Thanks so much for your prayers and gifts to the ministry that enable us to serve the Lord in Africa!

In this issue we are sharing photos of recent ministry and activities and of friends and brethren in the Lord. We trust that this will be an encouragement to you.

Pictured above left is Jim and friends at the Masindi Pastor Training Conference in which we enjoyed teaching and a good distribution of Bibles and Mt. Zion’s materials. We served about 125 pastors that day and others. By His grace we started a local minister’s library which will serve all ministers in the town. Pray for Catherine’s conversion; she listened to Christ’s gospel carefully and seemed open to His truth.

Pictured to the immediate left (middle) are some of the 125 pastors and attendees at the Kumi Pastor Training Conference. There we also distributed Bibles and literature, started a minister’s library, and enjoyed teaching and encouragement to pray for God’s revival blessings. Pray for God to enliven His churches in Kumi.

To the left is also pictured (from left to right) Pastor Jackson, Pastor Jolly Joe and Jim. Pastor Jolly Joe was ordained to the gospel ministry by Jim and friends that day. We enjoyed a very blessed time together! Pray for Pastor Jolly Joe that God will enable him to abound in God’s grace.

Pictured to the right are Moses and Ruth and three of their kids with Kappy and Jim. Ruth came to the Lord a few years ago (from Islam) and her husband Moses is listening to the gospel these days. We enjoyed a time of worship the morning this picture was taken and then a nice lunch together. Please pray for God’s grace to save each member of this family. Ruth has a hunger for the Bible and studies it often.

KAPPY’S CORNER —To Market, to Market

We drove away from the house at 1:30 in the afternoon. Jim, Harriet and I were shopping for food for an anticipated one thousand children. The outreach was scheduled for the following day.

The first stop was the butcher’s stall located on the main road where we placed our order for 100 kilograms of beef to be ready by 8:30 the next morning. It wasn’t.

We moved on to the open marketplace on the shore of Lake Victoria and looked for a rental pickup truck. There were several to choose from. After lots of negotiating, and money upfront for gas, the driver took off for gasoline. We went to the front of a small wholesale shop and began shopping through the doorway for rice, maize meal, cooking oil, blue soap, steel wool, Roico (to season the beef), salt, curry powder, tea and sugar. The driver returned, positioning the truck in front of the wholesale shop, which effectively blocked the narrow road. I watched in amazement as driver after driver carefully maneuvered around the parked truck, narrowly missing the stall on the other side of the road. (I am learning what patience looks like by watching the way Africans deal with inconvenience.) Pricing and bargaining, we began with three 50-kilogram sacks of white rice, cut down to two sacks, went back to three sacks, then back to two sacks, back to three sacks—final! We loaded the truck and moved down the road for fresh produce.

We came up to a large woman, bare-chested in the heat, selling Matooke bananas. She covered up and we started haggling. After much haggling we bought seven stalks of bananas and a pile of banana leaves for cooking. A bus with speakers roped into the open windows pulled up close to us in the road, loudly advertising the sale of medicine. No one seemed to be buying. The bus eventually moved on. We loaded the bananas into the pickup and headed across the road for Irish potatoes and sweet potatoes. We entered the covered part of the market place, found shade, a relatively cool breeze, and cold bottled water. We bought six kilograms of pounded groundnuts (peanuts), numerous heads of cabbage, greens, twenty pineapples, and nine pumpkins (Hubbard squash). A man pushed a bicycle loaded with three tow-sacks of charcoal up next to us and disappeared into the tangle of stalls. I marveled that the bicycle remained upright under the load until he returned.

At 3:00 we left the marketplace for the hosting church, Jim and I leading in the car and Harriet following in the heavily loaded pickup truck with the driver and his helper. At 3:20 we pulled over and waited for the truck to catch up. I watched five goats eating weeds on the roadside and began to be aware that my skin was tingling in a rather unpleasant way. We reached the neighborhood and drove alongside the railroad track to get as close to the church as possible. We stopped in front of the cinema (a small shack with a chalk board on the front announcing what was playing). We sat for a bit, listening to the voices of American actors coming from the cinema. No one was there to receive the food so Jim enlisted a small group of children to carry pineapples down the twisting path through the shanties to the church. One small girl started in the opposite direction and had to be turned around. (We understood later that she thought we were coming to her house and that the pineapple was a gift for her mother!). Women arrived from the church to help, the truck was quickly unloaded and the driver and his helper left, happy with their pay.

We rented huge saucepans from locals, paid a neighbor for the use of electricity (provided by an extension cord stretched from his house), and we left with Margret (one of the church ladies) in search of firewood. Children in uniforms returning home from school were waving and shouting, “Bye Muzungu (white person)!” (In Zambia the children shout, “Hello, Muzungu!”. Here they shout, “Bye!” Why?). By 4:40 we’d found a wood seller, negotiated the price and found someone to transport the wood back to the church (also for a price, but cheaper than the pickup truck would have been). Margret went with the wood back to the church.

We took Harriet to the house to get her things; she was to spend the night at the church with the goods. She and Jim headed back to the church at 5:20 where Jim arranged for two televisions to show videos and took care of details. I stayed home to cook dinner for Jim who came home (hot, tired, and hungry, but happy) at 6:45.

The outreach the next day was blessed. I wasn’t there. I was home with a bad sunburn, content to stay inside and pray.

Pictured here are Jim and Kappy with Pastor Jolly Joe’s wife, Betty Opio.

Betty seeks to honor the Lord in her service to the HIV+ through her church’s ministry, Hope and Care. Pray for Betty to always have a heart to abound in the Lord’s work and remember that her work is not in vain.

Pictured below are singing and dancing kids at the Namawongo Children’s Outreach that Kappy writes about on Page Two. Pray that many of the about 1000 children who attended will come into the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We had a great day together that day and everyone enjoyed a large and healthy meal. Namawongo is a slum area in Kampala and is populated by some of the poorest.

Praise the Lord!

“This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly,

that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good

and profitable to men.”

Titus 3: 8 NKJV.

During a recent visit to one of Kampala’s hospitals to visit a sick friend we came across the mural below. The colors are bright and shining and the painting moves African style! Pray for the friend we visited, who we’ll call ‘O’, that he will recover.

“The word work forbids loitering

and the word ministry lording."

Puritan John Boys

“The minister’s work debilitates

nature; like the candle, he wastes while he shines.”

Puritan William Gurnall

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable,

always abounding in the work of the Lord,

knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 15:58 NKJV.

 

“ 15:58 be steadfast. In the face of false teaching and various temptations, the hope of the Resurrection should encourage the Corinthians to persevere in their faith. The exhortation to be ‘immovable,’ however, does not imply inactivity. On the contrary, the Corinthians must be fully active in ‘the work of the Lord.’ We can become easily discouraged by thinking that our labor may come to nothing (Gal. 2:2; Phil. 2:a6; 1 Thess. 3:5), but we can remember the promise that when God creates the new heavens and the new earth His people will enjoy the fruits of their toil, and see that their efforts are never ‘in vain’ (Is. 65:17-15).”

New Geneva Study Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995, Page 18.

Glad to serve the Lord, Jim and Kappy

 

“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.”

Matthew 5:14 NKJV.

Friends: May our Lord bless you! This Prayer Letter has a different format this time but in it we want to explore an issue that has had great influence on us and our work here in Uganda. May the Lord use it for your edification and as an aid in prayer.

On January 8^th we sent out an email Update that asked for prayer for God to stop witchcraft and child sacrifice in Uganda. We attached a link to the BBC site which reported that a Ugandan witch doctor had confessed to killing 70 people including his own son. On February 25^th however the BBC retracted the story as you see below:

_____________________________________

Uganda witch doctor 'lied to BBC' over child sacrifice

A former Ugandan witch doctor has been charged with lying about carrying out child sacrifices in a BBC report.

Polino Angela told the BBC Newsnight programme he had killed about 70 people, including his son, before becoming an anti-sacrifice campaigner. He allegedly repeated his claims to a Ugandan police officer and has been charged with "giving false information to a public officer". He reportedly denied the charges and was remanded in custody.

Moses Binoga, head of the Anti-Human Sacrifice and Trafficking Task Force, said the police had spoken to relatives and neighbours of Polino Angela's son, who all say he died of malaria and was not sacrificed. "The boy died a natural death," he said. "Seventy people [killed] was just fantasy to make the story look interesting." Mr Binoga said that Mr Angela had admitted lying, saying he hoped the international publicity would lead to a flow of donations to his organisation.

_____________________________________

The fact is that there is a need for prayer that God will stop witchcraft and child sacrifice as these evils certainly do exist in Uganda. But the retraction points out another all too common evil in Uganda and that is deception. As we read in the retraction the deception was to make the “story look interesting” for “a flow of donations”. We have experienced our own share of such deceptions. Here are some of them. The man who came to our compound gate in tears who claimed that his wife had died, that his child was very sick, that he had no money and that he would meet us at the hospital to verify the truthfulness of his story if only we would give him some very much needed financial assistance. When Jim went to the hospital and called the man he never turned up; apparently he didn’t think we would go to that extreme in verifying his story. Another time a disabled man came to our gate with what we learned later was a self-inflicted wound, another ploy to get cash. Not to mention the daily requests for funds that comes from so many simply because we are here.

When we first arrived in Africa we were warned to be very careful about the scams, sob-stories, and cons and that more than likely we would be hit hard by the scamsters and that we would probably make mistakes in trying to help others. That proved to be quite true. I had traveled to Nigeria in 2003 so I had some prior experience in surviving deceptions. But in Uganda after a few months in country, a security guard that we hired made a scam with a friend and then through a friend in a government ministry stating that we had promised him thousands and thousands of dollars and that we had failed to keep our word. The Lord intervened for us in that scam as He provided a Christian friend through a Christian friend who took us to the Ministry Head who quietly asked us what the truth was and after interviewing all involved decided that we were being set up. Another time very early on in our tour in Uganda a trusted ministry worker turned against us for his own gain, apparently, and claimed that we must be deported from country. He even convinced visitors from the West that our ministry was to be avoided and his supported.

The Lord once again intervened for us and the truth about his lies, sinful ways and plan surfaced.

There have been, however, some deceptions that are even a bit harder to take. Here are some painful examples. The supposed widow that we befriended who had said that she had turned from Islam to Christ but who in reality had not. We had shared about her during our 2007 furlough. This was particularly difficult for us as we had been with her through many troubles including 2 supposed deaths of her family members; she had said that a son had died. We don’t know the full truth yet about the many things that we heard from her. She had convincing stories and evidences until it all came to light recently. But pray for Z’s salvation and for her children’s salvation. And then another friend who had turned from Islam to Christ but who married a Muslim and who we are told is still a Muslim. She says that she believes in Christ in her heart. Only God knows…perhaps she sought a way out of poverty by marrying the Muslim, perhaps her Muslim family forced her. Recently another individual that we have known for years, befriended, and served with, surprised us when we learned that he didn’t complete the ministry that he had previously said that he had. The ministry items were taken to another place he said. We’re still trying to understand the truth in this matter. Then there was the major break-in of our house in 2008…and literally hundreds of other examples of lies and scams that we have encountered in our almost 6 years in Uganda. The most heartbreaking deceptions are when people claim the Lord’s name as a means of gain. Some are self-deceived but some are deceivers who say that they believe in Jesus but are seeking some means of gain. Pray for D, A, P, M, W and H that they will by God’s true grace turn to the light. These people might be called ‘banana Christians’ in our part of the world.

Most missionaries that we’ve met here have there own stories to swap about the corruption, bribes, lies, stealing, scams and deceptions that we are all subject to here. It just seems to be an unfortunate but real part of life in a poor, third-world country. Many people justify these sins because of the poverty and even in the church where some of the deceptions are scandalous, people feel that they must do what they have to in order to survive. So why do I mention this aspect of our lives and work. The Bible calls us to be the light of the world. In this writing we are exposing people’s sins that weigh heavily on us at times. To be light means at least in part that we reveal and expose sin and encourage people to turn from it to God. Pray that we will be able to do that here. Please know that this isn’t a denunciation of Africa or Uganda but a denunciation of deception. By God’s mercy we find many Ugandans to be honest. We thank Him for that. We also share this with you to let you know how things are with us and to share with you that we have been tempted to discouragement many, many times with this entire matter but we know that God is faithful and that He will protect us from the evils about us. We know that discouragement comes from Satan. We have learned ways to better discern the truthfulness or falsity of a person’s requests and we have developed a system of accountability to cope with this. Pray for us as the accountability takes up a lot of precious time. And I mention this so that you will be better informed and therefore better able to rightly pray for us. Pray for us that we will be wise and discerning and able to detect deceptions. Pray as we care for the poor that we will wisely use the Lord’s money in such a way that only the needs that He wants met will be met and that His resources will be protected. Pray that we won’t look at all people as abusers and deceivers. Pray for those who would spitefully use us that God will have mercy on them, save them, and show them the error of their ways. Pray that we will always recognize that discouragement comes from the enemy and not from God and that we will be daily encouraged by the Lord of grace. We have learned many valuable spiritual lessons in our battles with deception and we know in the depths of our hearts that somehow even these things are working out for our good, for the good of the ministry and for the good of God’s church in Uganda. Glory to the Lord who is the way, the truth, and the life!

In the marvelous light, Jim and Kappy

KAPPY’S CORNER —Discouraged?

Some time ago, I wrote about our neighbor the witch doctor and the fire that destroyed his hut in the middle of the night. As time went on we learned more about the hut. It was a shrine for ancestor worship. As far as we know, his fetishes burned with the shrine.

At first we saw the burning as a victory for the Lord and we prayed that the loss would spark recognition in our neighbor’s heart that he needed Jesus to save him. We asked our readers to join us in praying for the witch doctor. Since then he has built a bigger and better shrine in his garden, his rituals continue and almost two years later we are still praying for his salvation.

The witchdoctor’s spiritual condition is only one example of the many things we see that don’t seem to change. Are we discouraged? The temptation is there, but the Lord has given us a vivid illustration that has jolted my way of seeing His work.

I love to read about Solomon’s Temple in the Book of 1 Kings. God provided the plans, the raw materials and the craftsmen. He gave specific instruction about the building and finishing of the temple. He gave instructions about the utensils and all that would be used to worship Him. And then He gave His selected craftsmen the ability to use the raw materials to His specifications. The temple was a magnificent work of art that took many years to build. I’ve told the Lord more than once I wish I could have seen it, but there was a time for it. The Lord was pleased with His temple, so pleased that His glory filled the temple. And yet, men corrupted the use of God’s temple to please themselves and God allowed the temple to be completely destroyed.

The temple was exquisite and it was holy, but it was temporary. God created the earth and everything on it. The detail of His creation is mindboggling, and He was pleased with it, but men worshiped, and still worship, the creation rather than the Creator. One day God will destroy all of this. It is all temporary. Everything we see that we think is so important will be gone. There is one thing that will never change and that is the Creator. That is what blows my mind. He is the Eternal Temple. He is the present and future dwelling place of those who love Him. And the Lord will make all things new and better, including those of us who believe Him, love Him and trust Him.

With that in mind, what is the rebuilding of one small pagan shrine in the garden next door? It’s an opportunity to be steadfast in prayer that God will save the eternal soul of the man who built it before that man takes his last breath...or the Lord returns to judge the earth. It’s a reminder that we see so little of what is happening in the spiritual realm. We can’t know all that the Holy Spirit of Christ is doing. All we can do is love and obey the Eternal God of all things and trust Him with the outcome. Can He be trusted? Absolutely!

Appreciation

“I, Mike Bunya, glorify my Jesus Christ for these people who helped me with counseling, teaching, the Bible, instructing me until my mind changed to God. Uncle David, Auntie Jennipher, Mama Bangi and Auntie Joy. May God bless them.

Praise be to God for Auntie Margaret who taught me during my primary (school years).

Finally, I thank God for Pastor David who is now paying my school fees and accommodating me. He has trained me to work with machines. (Former Street Kid Mike now lives with Pastor David in his home.)

Am now saved.

I sleep well.

Am studying.

I fellowship with Miracle of Faith Church.

May God be exalted.

God bless you Pastor Jim,

Your Mike Bunya

Note: Am planning to go and stay with my grands (grandparents) and Daddy while studying at home.

Hi Pastor Jim, how are you doing, sir, and how was your Easter? On my side, it was very good and so smoothly. I want to thank God for you, whenever I remember how I used to suffer on the streets of Kampala. Which was so easy to hope that I will get help and come out of it!! But through you God helped me and I am now out from the streets. May the name of God be exalted. I was almost about to die due to the things we used to do on the street. Stealing, beating, fighting, sniffing (drugs), etc.. But through you and Miracle of Faith Church light was shown to me.

Friends:

Pray that former Street Kid Mike Bunya

will always truly walk in God’s light by faith.

Pray that he will truly overcome the world by faith.