Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Monday, December 16, 2013
SORRY THERE ARE NO PICTURES OR VIDEO HERE - DUE TO UPLOADING PROBLEMS THAT COULD NOT BE RESOLVED.
Merry
Christmas to all our friends and family,
As we close out the year 2013 we are riding on high note and
sense great things in the year 2014. God has been faithful over the last year
and we were able to see many miracles and prayers answered including the
completion of our church building, our house of prayer, a Teen Challenge
women’s home and a Teen Challenge second hand clothes store. Both Josh and Breanna have just finished up 6th and 3rd
grade. Alyssa is such a joy, always entertaining and ful of life. Lorraine has
finished up her church planted and has handed over to our local Pastor. The
church is doing great and God is opening up a new door of ministry in the area
of physical healing to us.
This past September we celebrated our church
dedication with a service that was power packed and full of the presence of
God. The day had finally come and we pushed to get everything ready and in
place. The service was sort of a reunion service, as people who had moved away
came back and others came out of the “woodwork” to celebrate with us give the
Glory to God. We were were refreshed and blessed my all the testimonies. We had
the General Superintendent for the Assemblies of God preach for us, afterwords
the church prayed for us and the we said prayers of dedication and gave the
building to Lord.
In the end it was not about a “building” (it
is only wood, hay and stubble) it was about what God had done in the lives of
the people who had been a part of the discipleship of our fellowship. The lives
that had been saved, delivered, healed and changed. We missed many of you - but thank God for your help and
prayers to get us to this place. May the Lord bless you and keep His favor upon
you for your faithfulness and commitment to his work here in Uganda for His
people.
The last few months have been a great blessing to work of God in
Uganda. A new level of ministry has been bestowed on us and God is getting all
the glory. Physical healing has been breaking out on level I have rarely
witnessed let alone been involved in. With a desire to see God move in a super
natural way in our midst we began going out on the streets and seeing God heal
people. You can check out a few of these street healings in the video clip
below. Notice the third man in the video is a Muslim who gets healed. People
have been coming to the church specifically for healing and God has been
healing them. Even in our Sunday Services God had been doing much of the same.
Its been a great blessing!
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Merry Christmas
Oli O Tia - That is “How are you?” in Luganda. We trust you are jendi (fine) and enjoying your Christmas. All is well for us woodpeckers - I mean Woodsons here in Uganda. Though, sometimes I feel like a woodpecker - peckin away at the ole block. This last year found us doing a lot of coming and going. We did quite a bit of traveling including trips to the US, Singapore and Israel. In November of this year - the Singapore church that we minister under went to Israel and they blessed us (Lorraine and I) with a “Holy Land” Tour. That was a great time - the kids stayed behind with some missionary friends in Uganda. Josh is now 10, Breanna is 7 and Alyssa is 2. Alyssa really keeps us in shape - she is “nonstop” from sunup to sundown. Both Joah and Breanna are doing homeschool. Josh has finished the 5th grade, while Breanna is in 2nd grade. Josh will most likely begin going to Christian school in January for interaction, while continuing with his homeschool. For activity - Breanna likes singing and acting - while Josh is now playing drums in the House of Prayer. Alyssa likes running and running and running. I have started mountain biking on the roads here - the roads are like mountains, so I am really just bike riding. I have always stayed away from this due to the danger of the way the people drive here. But I have found some roads that have enough pot holes on them that people are forced to drive slow. Lorraine also likes to keep fit with her exercise in the living room - which much safer.
For ministry side of things - we opened up our “House of Prayer” in late September and have been going ever since. We have a room in church that we have dedicated for prayer and is open every day from 6:30 am to 9:00 Pm - with live prayer teams and musicians in the morning and evening. We have also opened up a new church plant (about 5 miles from our current location) that Lorraine is currently handling. We now have 10 churches in the city of Kampala - that I oversee. Our Teen Challenge Center is doing well with a full house of students. Though earlier this year we lost someone in the program to TB, he was a former staff member and one of the men who we started the program with over 12 years ago. Uganda is now the 3rd fastest growing nation in the world with the highest concentration of children under the age of 15 on the entire globe.
In closing, once again we thank all of you for your prayer and continued support - thank you for blessing us and standing with us. Merry Christmas and a blessed 2013. Much love and grace to you and your family!
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Merry Christmas to you!
Merry Christmas to our family and friends! Please take a minute to view our Video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk1YCbEuEpw God Bless
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Hello friends and family,
It has been awhile since I last communicated. Part of the problem is that I have had a serious problem with dizziness for about two months. The dizziness would increase when I looked at computer screen so I was staying off the computer as much as possible. The good news is that things are much better now and I decided I needed to give an update on our ministry here.
In January we completed another phase of our building project. This phase included the restrooms, the kitchen and the foyer or reception area. We raised a building pledge in May of 2010 and it pushed us to about October when we received some help from a church in Singapore that enabled us to complete that phase. We raised another building pledge in April of this year, 2011 for the completion of our building. This last phase includes a multipurpose room that will be used primarily as a “house of prayer”, where we hope to hold prayer meetings 24/7 in the future. In the short term we will hold daily prayer meetings AM and PM and increase as we go along. We are pushing hard to complete this phase by September this year. So far we have managed to raise enough money to put up the roof. Keep praying for us, the completion of the building will be a great relief to myself – having been involved in this project for over ten years – I am tired of being both Pastor and foreman.
Then in February we had a great tragedy that struck one our Pastors here in Kampala. Pastor Kafus had been married for less than two years when his wife conceived their first son. During the pregnancy his wife had some complications that culminated during her delivery. After giving birth to a healthy baby boy, she herself was not able to sustain the pregnancy and she died three days after giving birth. As you can imagine the grief this brought to the husband, words cannot describe the pain all of us have felt concerning this tragedy. We traveled to a distant district about 5 hours away after church on a Sunday and buried the wife in her home village. Hundreds of people came from near and far to bury this young godly mother and wife.
In April I traveled to Nairobi, Kenya for a Teen Challenge Leadership Training with TC leaders from Africa and the States. It was during this conference that we got news that David Wilkerson had died in a tragic car accident. It was sobering news for many us at the conference. Some of the guest speakers from the States knew Bro. Wilkerson well and had ministered with him on many occasions. Personally, I had always looked at David Wilkerson as a mentor in many ways – through his preaching and teaching ministry he greatly affected my life. On the last day of the Teen Challenge Conference (Friday, April 29th) riots broke out in Uganda and spread throughout the nation. I was due to fly back in the evening with some brothers from the Pacific Northwest area Teen Challenges. But due to the situation we felt it better they travel back to the State. For me on the other hand I needed to get home to my family who were in Kampala at the time. My wife was supposed to pick me up at the airport – but I told her not to leave the house. I called one of our Pastors to go get my car and wait for me at the airport, but he got arrested along way. He was falsely accused as being one of the rioters. Some of you know Pastor Henry, he had ran into the rioters on the way to my home where he was forced to join them or get beat up and possibly killed. That is when the police came along and rounded them up – him included. By the time I arrived back in Uganda at about 7 PM that night the place looked like war-zone. Military and police were out in force while all kinds of debris and rocks were laying everywhere on the roads.
We recently held our elections at the end of February and for the most part they were peaceful. They were peaceful, but not without irregularities. The opposition claimed rigging and other unfair practices by the ruling party. One thing that was evident was that the ruling party had spent about 30x more than any of the opposition on their campaign. The city reminded me of communist rule where everywhere you turn you see the President’s picture either on a billboard, a poster, the TV, on T-Shirts – you hear his name being blasted loud speakers throughout the city and other forms of media. Though the President won the elections by something like 68% to 27% - it seems he does not have the popularity he assumes or claims he has. In the weeks following the President’s victory the opposition began flexing their muscles by holding political protests. They were intended to be peaceful and for the most part they were until the government began blocking them – which stirred up the riots. The government has successfully been able to squash the protests – but they have done it by militarizing the police and putting fear into the opposition or anyone who opposes them. Although there seems to be peace for now and things have settled down, you can now see that this country is no longer a free democracy. The government is quickly changing laws and passing measures that restrict anyone (especially the media) who speaks out against them.
As for our family, we are fine but I thought I would let Lorraine give you update on us. Hello – Lorraine here…..Well, let me talk about our newest addition Alyssa Davina. She is now 8 months old and she is truly a bundle of joy to the entire family. Joshua and Breanna just adore their little baby sister. Both of them would want to carry her, hug and kiss her lots. They would want to feed her with their food. In the morning, when Alyssa wakes up, they would want to pick her up from her crib. In the night, every now and then they would go into her room to watch her sleep. Alyssa eats very well. This is the best stage for any mother. At this point, she is not picky. She eats everything that I feed her. Mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, soft mushy rice, porridge, carrots, peas, beans, bread, and whatever I give, she takes, no complains ☺ She is crawling now. Just like any other baby, she likes to explore everywhere. She would pick things up from the floor and puts them in her mouth. We have to be more watchful of her. Joshua and Breanna have their own little ways of making the baby laugh. She is very playful too. The sounds of the children’s laughter fills the home with such warmth and love. We are very thankful to the Lord for giving us 3 wonderful children.
Until next time, God bless you all you so much and thank you for your prayers and support, You’re a blessing!
Support Address:
290 North Melrose, Vista, Ca, 92083
Make checks to Vista AG
It has been awhile since I last communicated. Part of the problem is that I have had a serious problem with dizziness for about two months. The dizziness would increase when I looked at computer screen so I was staying off the computer as much as possible. The good news is that things are much better now and I decided I needed to give an update on our ministry here.
In January we completed another phase of our building project. This phase included the restrooms, the kitchen and the foyer or reception area. We raised a building pledge in May of 2010 and it pushed us to about October when we received some help from a church in Singapore that enabled us to complete that phase. We raised another building pledge in April of this year, 2011 for the completion of our building. This last phase includes a multipurpose room that will be used primarily as a “house of prayer”, where we hope to hold prayer meetings 24/7 in the future. In the short term we will hold daily prayer meetings AM and PM and increase as we go along. We are pushing hard to complete this phase by September this year. So far we have managed to raise enough money to put up the roof. Keep praying for us, the completion of the building will be a great relief to myself – having been involved in this project for over ten years – I am tired of being both Pastor and foreman.
Then in February we had a great tragedy that struck one our Pastors here in Kampala. Pastor Kafus had been married for less than two years when his wife conceived their first son. During the pregnancy his wife had some complications that culminated during her delivery. After giving birth to a healthy baby boy, she herself was not able to sustain the pregnancy and she died three days after giving birth. As you can imagine the grief this brought to the husband, words cannot describe the pain all of us have felt concerning this tragedy. We traveled to a distant district about 5 hours away after church on a Sunday and buried the wife in her home village. Hundreds of people came from near and far to bury this young godly mother and wife.
In April I traveled to Nairobi, Kenya for a Teen Challenge Leadership Training with TC leaders from Africa and the States. It was during this conference that we got news that David Wilkerson had died in a tragic car accident. It was sobering news for many us at the conference. Some of the guest speakers from the States knew Bro. Wilkerson well and had ministered with him on many occasions. Personally, I had always looked at David Wilkerson as a mentor in many ways – through his preaching and teaching ministry he greatly affected my life. On the last day of the Teen Challenge Conference (Friday, April 29th) riots broke out in Uganda and spread throughout the nation. I was due to fly back in the evening with some brothers from the Pacific Northwest area Teen Challenges. But due to the situation we felt it better they travel back to the State. For me on the other hand I needed to get home to my family who were in Kampala at the time. My wife was supposed to pick me up at the airport – but I told her not to leave the house. I called one of our Pastors to go get my car and wait for me at the airport, but he got arrested along way. He was falsely accused as being one of the rioters. Some of you know Pastor Henry, he had ran into the rioters on the way to my home where he was forced to join them or get beat up and possibly killed. That is when the police came along and rounded them up – him included. By the time I arrived back in Uganda at about 7 PM that night the place looked like war-zone. Military and police were out in force while all kinds of debris and rocks were laying everywhere on the roads.
We recently held our elections at the end of February and for the most part they were peaceful. They were peaceful, but not without irregularities. The opposition claimed rigging and other unfair practices by the ruling party. One thing that was evident was that the ruling party had spent about 30x more than any of the opposition on their campaign. The city reminded me of communist rule where everywhere you turn you see the President’s picture either on a billboard, a poster, the TV, on T-Shirts – you hear his name being blasted loud speakers throughout the city and other forms of media. Though the President won the elections by something like 68% to 27% - it seems he does not have the popularity he assumes or claims he has. In the weeks following the President’s victory the opposition began flexing their muscles by holding political protests. They were intended to be peaceful and for the most part they were until the government began blocking them – which stirred up the riots. The government has successfully been able to squash the protests – but they have done it by militarizing the police and putting fear into the opposition or anyone who opposes them. Although there seems to be peace for now and things have settled down, you can now see that this country is no longer a free democracy. The government is quickly changing laws and passing measures that restrict anyone (especially the media) who speaks out against them.
As for our family, we are fine but I thought I would let Lorraine give you update on us. Hello – Lorraine here…..Well, let me talk about our newest addition Alyssa Davina. She is now 8 months old and she is truly a bundle of joy to the entire family. Joshua and Breanna just adore their little baby sister. Both of them would want to carry her, hug and kiss her lots. They would want to feed her with their food. In the morning, when Alyssa wakes up, they would want to pick her up from her crib. In the night, every now and then they would go into her room to watch her sleep. Alyssa eats very well. This is the best stage for any mother. At this point, she is not picky. She eats everything that I feed her. Mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, soft mushy rice, porridge, carrots, peas, beans, bread, and whatever I give, she takes, no complains ☺ She is crawling now. Just like any other baby, she likes to explore everywhere. She would pick things up from the floor and puts them in her mouth. We have to be more watchful of her. Joshua and Breanna have their own little ways of making the baby laugh. She is very playful too. The sounds of the children’s laughter fills the home with such warmth and love. We are very thankful to the Lord for giving us 3 wonderful children.
Until next time, God bless you all you so much and thank you for your prayers and support, You’re a blessing!
Support Address:
290 North Melrose, Vista, Ca, 92083
Make checks to Vista AG
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Happy New Year
Well we hope this New Year is off to a great start for you. Hopefully, I will be off to a better start of keeping this blog updated. Our family is doing quite well with our newest addition and the New Year looks promising.
We ended the year with a big disappointment. The church was broken into by thieves on Dec 26th in the evening (known as boxing day here in Uganda-which is always the day after Christmas). We had service on both Christmas day and the next day - being it was Sunday. The thieves came on Sunday night and stole both of the offerings - plus other monies that we were going to deposit on Monday - the total being almost $2500.00 USD. That's a lot for us in this part of the world. They came in by using a ladder to climb up and then cut the bars on one of the windows. Yes, we were very disappointed by this - especially when it looks like it was someone who knows the church well. But we have done our best to give the whole thing to the Lord and try not to let it get to us. It's His money and He can do a much better job of handling our church finances than we can by worrying about the whole situation.
We finished our ICPC International Church Planting Conference at the end of October. The conference brought delegates from around the world and focused on celebrating the fact that our denomination has planted close to 3,500 churches in the last 2 1/2 years. The conference was held in the National Stadium and lasted for 4 days. We worked like horses to pull this event off and by God's grace we finished up still alive!
Otherwise, here is a video I posted on Facebook. I recently took a staycation (a vacation when you stay home) and taught Josh to do video editing - something he is getting interested in. I know you will enjoy this.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Alyssa Davina Woodson
Hey friends and family,
Announcing the arrival of the newest member of the Woodson clan. Born on Sept 21st - two days before Josh's birthday which on the 23rd.
Lorraine woke me up at about midnight and said she thought the baby was coming. We were not really planning on the baby coming at this time - so we were a but ill prepared. I woke the kids up and began trying to figure out everything that we needed, but time was against us so we dashed out the door as soon as we could. Before we left I called the Dr. and we arrived at the hospital about 15 minutes later. Josh said "Daddy, I never saw you drive so fast" well it's a good thing I did - because the baby was coming quickly. Once we were at the hospital I called the Dr. again and told him to hurry. The nurse said she was 9 cm dilated (10 cm and your at full dilation) the Dr. then says he wants to talk to my wife. I hold the phone to her ear and you will never believe what asks - are you ready for this............he says "When is the due date?" I kid you not. I figure this Dr. does not want to get out of bed. So it's me and the nurses. About 10-15 minutes on her second "push" we had a baby girl in our hands............and NO the Dr. never made it in time. He showed about 30 minutes later - looking like he was taking his wife out for dinner. Freshly ironed slacks and shirt - smelling like "Brut" cologne.....while I was the one who had blood all over their clothes (no joke). Anyway, enough drama - Alyssa was born about 1:25 am at Kololo Hospital in Kampala Uganda. Unlike her brother and sister - Alyssa was born with hair (Josh Breanna were both bald for some good YEARS, before they got their hair).
The family is ecstatic and the kids are really enjoying their new sister. We praise God for a normally delivery and a healthy strong mother and baby. God is good and has been faithful to us once again as all three of our children have been born without any complications. Lorraine has always had a lot of faith concerning the birth of our children and has been steadfast in her resolve to believe God for a quick delivery without complications.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Bomb Blasts
As we were watching the World Cup (my wife and I) we heard two loud "booms" that sounded quite close. I assumed they were fireworks - about an hour we received a text message that bombs had went off in two places in Kampala. One was at a nearby Rugby Club were people were gathered to watch the game. It is about a mile and half from our house (but no worries - far enough from us - we are OK). Sirens were heard throughout the night,as they tried to help those who still had a chance of survival - while many others were being whisked off to the mortuary. We are still reeling in the details (Today is July 12th the day after). But we are deeply saddened by these terrorist attacks (as they have have now been confirmed to be terrorists in Somalia). Pray for for the victims hanging on to their lives and and pray for the rest of us as Kampala has now become a target for these Somalia Terrorists. At this time 64 are confirmed dead.
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