Uganda STM Updates (7/16 - 7/20)

[Ellen Shih]

7/16 Update

It is such an honor to serve God in Uganda and worshiping with our fellow brothers and sisters here.  Witnessing the amazing work God has done here through them.  Words cannot describe how grateful we are and how powerful God is.

On Sunday, we walked from our mission compound to the church to begin our day by worshiping God.  We sang praises together for an hour, loving every minute of it.

In the afternoon, the men went to Yumbe Prison to minister to the male prisoners there, they worshiped together and studied the Word of God together.  The request they have is more Bible, as there are over 100 prisoners there sharing only 7 Bibles.  You might be curious, why they want Bible??  A local pastor has been serving them for a while and holding weekly worship in the prison, therefore the prisoners are hunger for the Word of God！

The women went to visit the homes of the children sponsored by Promise Child and see how the family is doing.  Even we only visit one family, a lot of the neighbors came too and we ended up singing songs with the children and sharing Bible stories with children.  We visited 3 homes and sharing songs and stories with more than 100 people.  This is a very "Muslim" community and after visit to one particular home, our translator has to warn about not telling anyone about our visit, otherwise they will get us "foreigners" into trouble!  We need to pray for our fellow brothers and sisters who live and minister here as they f are facing prosecution each day because of their faith in the Lord!!

We will be doing a children VBS in Calvary Chapel Yumbe School tomorrow, please continue to rely on the power of God together through prayers!

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7/17 Update

Today, we went to Uganda northern district called Yumbe, 98% of the people who lived here are Muslims, but yet God raised up His servants to build a Christian School here to serve the community, to bless the children and to be the light and salt in the community as the ambassador for Christ.  Ministries among Muslims are very difficult as you could imagine, we heard many stories of prosecution and yet many more stories of God's protection and miracles!  Praise God for leading us here to witness His mighty work!

We spent a day at CC Yumbe School to hold a VBS program with the student (264) with songs, message, craft and games.  At the end, we were told by the pastor that we are the first group of Christians/visitors there to minister to the children, many came to "look" but we are the first to "bless" the children with the Word of God.  I felt so honored that God allows us to come and serve and love His children.

In the afternoon, some of us has a chance to work with the children again by interviewing children who sponsored by the Promise Child Ministry - getting their updates, taking photos and helping them writing their Thank You note to their sponsors.  They have little and yet they are always joyful. 

We then headed back to our compound and ministered to the children in the evening who live at the boys and girls dorm at the CC Midigo Christian School (right next to the mission compound), with worship, puppet show and Gospel message.  Even they came from Muslim family, many are willing to believe in Jesus Christ (they have to keep the faith secret from their parents, otherwise prosecution will come their ways).  All the children are adorable and kind-hearted. 

We are grateful of the opportunity to come and witness God's abundant love and what it meant to have faith.  These children are teaching us they faith in the Lord!

We are tired physically but energized spiritually!!

Praise the Lord!

Please pray for us as some of us are not feeling well, we need God's healing!!

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Update 7/18

We set off early this morning as we rode 1 1/2 hours to reach Bidi Bidi Refugee Camp to visit and minister to the Sudanese refugees here.

At the entrance of the camp, we saw many white tents set up by UN for the refugees.  As we arrived at the "church", it is interesting to learn that many have turned this place into their "permanent" home.  With the generosity of the Uganda government, they have been allotted land for them to build their "Turkul" (little hut) and a piece of land to grow crops for their living, but yet food is scare, we were told the UN has cut their weekly food allowance by half recently.

We went went "turkul" to "turkul" visits, we heard many stories of escaping their home country in fear of killing, many even witnessed the killings of the loved ones.  It is heart-broken but yet they are also grateful for new life here because it is safe and when they lied down at night they have no fear!

We also heard many stories of helping one another, they have little themselves but they are willing to look after orphans, many women is taking care of 9 or 10 kids, not only their own but also orphans, sharing their limited food with one another.

We learned so much from them and words cannot expressed them!

We also have a chance to worship with them and share the Word of God with them.  At the end, we distributed your love to them and all the packs are gratefully received!

Again, we were told many came to "look" but we are the first group that came to minister to them.  Bless the local pastors to came weekly to serve them, minister to them and share their needs with us so we can be here to share God's live with them.  There is nothing to boast, we love because God first loved us!!

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Update 7/19

By now, you might be wondering how come our works are very different from the initial schedule we sent out!  Yes, indeed it is.  As we arrived, we were told that it is better to visit the prison on Sunday rather than Thursday, so we switched.  Then we were told that this Wednesday was UN food distribution day, so we switched.  Here we are, everything has switched.  But God is good, thank God for the flexibility of our team members, we just followed the Holy Spirit's guidance.

So today, we headed to the CC Midigo Christian School to do programs for P. 1-2, 3-4, & 5-7 (Gr 1-2, 3-4, & 5-7).  We taught them songs, they taught us songs, we had puppet show and Gospel message for each group and many raised their hands to follow Jesus.  It is a very fulfilling day to be able to minister to 464 students of the school!

We will be heading to their mid week Worship this afternoon and then visit the dorms again in the evening to distribute hygiene packs to them to as they have very little!  May God bless them with these little gift of yours and your plentiful love!!

We will head to hospital tomorrow morning to do visitations and to pray for them.

We will conclude our ministries here tomorrow afternoon and head out.  Please pray for our journey back.

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Update 7/20

We concluded our Uganda STM with final hospital visit thus morning, visiting many patients there including a 108 years-old man and 2 one day old baby boys. God blessed them with the hygiene kits are they are well received.  They lived in such a poverty that we wouldn't be able to imagine and yet they remain joyful always. 

We also share the Gospel with many, even though this is primarily Muslim community, God's love is still powerful.  Many accepted Christ and pray that their faith is genuine and long lasting.

God blessed us with the ministry here and because of the unexpected switching of ministries, we ended up leaving on Thursday late afternoon with a mini trip to Safari Park and Boat cruise on River Nile!

We can't wait to come home and share with you the amazing work of God here in Uganda and all the amazing people we met here.  But our hearts remain here with the lovely people we met in Uganda!

Please pray for our long journey home and safe trip.  Please also pray for Pastor Ho as he continues his visit to Kenya and returning to San Diego on Thursday.