The Latest from the Woodson's

Since our return from the States – God has been refreshing our church with a renewed freshness. Somewhere towards the end of February we gathered our leaders for a meeting – God came in a very special way that night and filled people with His Spirit. Some cried, others laughed with joy, many were healed – above all the fruit that came from that night was changed lives. Since that night we have seen an increase in every area of our church but most especially in the area of an increased hunger and thirst for God. We thank God for this season and do not take for grant it – only pray that it will continue.

At the end of March a Team from Teen Challenge representing the Pacific Northwest Region of the US came and begun a partnership with our local Teen Challenge Chapter here in Kampala. It has been something that we have prayed for and longed for – for many years. We have needed this boost for this ministry and are excited about this new partnership we have begun. The week the team came we went on local TV and Radio Stations as well as schools and youth groups to spread the message of God’s healing power to save and change lives from addictions.

Lou Engle who represents a Ministry called The Call is coming to Uganda and I am part of the team arranging for the event. This ministry focuses on repentance and reconciliation and targets young people. The date is scheduled for May 1^st this year. It’s not an easy task to bring churches and Pastors together – but we believe that this day will be a historic event in the life of this nation. Please pray along with us and stand with us as we plan for TheCall Uganda.

Our Family is well and we expect to have a new addition by October this year. Everyone is excited! Josh wants a baby brother and Breanna wants a baby sister. Whatever God has for us – we believe they will be a blessing to family and the nations of the earth.

Another day in the life..........

I can't seem to keep up on life these days, at least my blog life - I just somehow forgot about it.

Well Happy New Year! Who knows when you will be reading this at least I am trying to get in a blog before Feb.

So much has been going on - I am not sure where to start. We have now been back in Uganda since Dec 29th ( about a month now) and things are going great - I can sense God doing a new thing in the coming year. It was really good to get away and get a fresh perspective on ministry and our spiritual lives. We often need such times to move on in life.

Uganda is changing so fast these days - buildings are going up everywhere and land prices have sky rocketed - we paid $30,000 USD for the land our church building is on about 8 yrs ago and today the same piece of land is worth somewhere between $250,000 and $300,000 USD (that is for a 1/2 acre). Food prices have also gone way up and it's getting hard for the average person here to get along in life with the basic necessities.

The other day someone jumped into our yard (over the wall) and stole our son Joshua's bike - it seems it was in broad daylight and then they stole the mirror on my car that was parked in front of the church. Oh well - another day in the life....

And so we press on - knowing that our destiny is before us- realizing that it's more necessary than ever before for us to find a place of daily prayer and still our hearts before the One who gives life meaning.

Praying and Hoping that this Year is more than you could ever expect. God Bless!

Merry Christmas!

Hello friends and family,

Another year has passed and Christmas is upon us once again. We hope this last year has been a great blessing to you and your family.

As for the Woodson’s, it has been a year of reflection and refueling as we have taken the last three months of 2009 and spent them in the States. Although we still have a few weeks left, the time has gone by very quickly and we will soon be headed back to Uganda.

We have traveled over 5000 miles starting out in California – traveling up the west coast to Vancouver then over to Montana, then down to Colorado Springs, up to Minnesota, back down Kansas City and then back to California. We visited the Redwood Forest, Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Canyon as well as seeing many of our friends and family scattered throughout the many States we visited. All in all we have built many precious memories and have a lot to be thankful for. We thank all of you who put us up your homes and extended your hospitality to us, may the Lord bless you in return.

Although, there were many reasons why we took these three months leave from the field – one of the priorities was to spend some time at International House of Prayer in Kansas City. We took the month of November and spent that time really seeking the Lord for His purposes in our lives, concerning our future. We felt that after being in Uganda for over ten years now that we needed to take a step back and wait upon the Lord. Although we came with some preconceived ideas (you know us humans), God made it very clear from the onset - that this time would not be so much a time of impartation for “vision and plans for the future” but this would be a time for getting ministered to by the Lord - spending time in His presence and being refueled and refreshed. I would have to say that this has in fact happened and the Lord has been able to work in our hearts for His purposes.

During this time I have been doing a personal study on the life of Jacob and have learned some valuable lessons from his life that have spoken much to me during this season. One lesson I have been pondering over is found in Chapter 28. God shows up in Jacob’s life in a profound way and reveals himself to him with an “open heaven” – Jacob is so overwhelmed by the experience that he calls the place Beth-el meaning “the house of God”(Genesis 28:19). Yet not much change takes place in His personal life. This demonstrates clearly that one can have a genuinely electrifying emotional spiritual encounter without the effect of one’s character being changed. You see, it would not be for another 20 years that Jacob would wrestle with an angel and his name would be changed from Jacob to Israel (Genesis 32:28). At that point he would never walk the same again – he would walk with a limp, he would lean on God instead of his own strength. After wrestling with this angel, a short time later Jacob would return to that same place he called Beth-el, but now Jacob would call it El-Beth-el meaning “the God of the house” (Genesis 35:6,7) . The lesson for me is this: You can’t always know what God is doing in your life – but you can know who God is. You can learn His ways in every season you find yourself in. Instead of seeking God for direction – the Lord has beckoned me to simply seek Him. As I have done this – the Lord had been faithful to reveal His purposes to us.

As we return to Uganda in two weeks – there is a firing burning in our hearts to continue to serve Him in this great nation. We are ready to see all of God’s will fulfilled in our lives for such a time as this. We covet your prayers and know how much we need Him to do His work through us – we are vessels of His purposes.

God Bless all of you who have prayed for us. We thank God for all you have been able to do for us as He has enabled you. Merry Christmas and May next year be a fruitful year for you, your family and your church.

Josh shoots a gun and Breanna rides a horse in Montana

We visited our friends the Gregory's in Montana and they converted us into cowboys.

Some shots from our recent road trip up the West Coast. California to Canada

Kampala Riots

Late last week (Sept 10,11th) Kampala was turned into a war zone as the police shut down the city due to riots. Business, schools and government offices were closed and the police arrested more than 550 people and 14 are have been confirmed dead. The violence erupted on Thursday and continued into Friday when the police clashed with supporters of the King of Banganda (which the largest tribe here in Uganda). The President was preventing the King from attending a youth festival in a certain district for fear of unrest. The King was not welcomed by the people living in that area and the government foreseen a problem. When the President told the King he could not visit the district where the youth event was being held – the king’s supporter’s started rioting.

The nation is becoming more and more discontent and the smallest thing can set it off. This should not have caused riots - it was just an excuse. Pray for us as we labor in this city - we covet them.

To God be the glory

I spoke at Prime Time@The Pool on Saturday, Sept the 12th. This is the outreach I have spoken about in a previous blog. They have this event every week that reaches over two thousand students in a single meeting. They gave me the topic of pornography - which I was not to excited about - because this event is outside with a lot of distractions - including a lot heckling and shouting (while your preaching). In fact by the time the preacher stands up usually about 20% of the crowd leaves even before you get a word out. I thank the Lord for what He did this time. First, I brought our drama team with me from the church and they did a skit on "Samson". I had them come on first and this seem to keep the crowd around (very few left). I spoke about how our eyes lead us to sin many times and how pornography "eats" the soul. I ended with talking about how only a right view of God's love for us could give us the strength we need to overcome any addiction including pornography. In the end, over a thousand students stood up to commit themselves to ask God for His help with their addictions (I emphasized any sexual addiction). In addition about 7 or 8 people were saved. May God receive the glory

A Humble Request

We are coming to States for an extended time this year. We are arriving on Sept 22nd and will be around until Dec 27th. We are in need of a vehicle - we will be doing a lot of traveling, including driving up the west coast and then down to Kansas City. If you have an extra vehicle you can loan us or know how we might be able to rent one for a reasonable price - can you please let us know. E-mail us at darrylwoodson@yahoo.com. Thanks.

Anything can work - as long as it runs!!

Kidos

We have a freind who does some nice touch up on photoshop, this is her work of our kids. Enjoy!

Update

Gosh time is just flying these days and I am way over due to get something out on our blog.

Let me just summarize the last month or so. Lorraine and I had to go to Singapore to meet up with our Church in Singapore last month. It was a good time for her to see her family and for me to work (they kept me busy). I think they call it a workshop - I worked, she shops. It was a very short trip, we actually left our kids in Uganda at some missionary friends - they seem to enjoy themselves. I think they missed us............................of course they did!

Upon arriving back I went up to our Bible School to teach "Principles of preaching" which I normally do every semester for ATCEM (Africa Theological Center For Evangelism and Missions). It's not easy to teach expository preaching methods to those who are from the village and don't have a good grasp of the English Language. I have to go slow and repeat myself many times - but in the end my goal to help make preachers out of them all and somehow God helps them and it's always amazing the see the results.

Then last week we had our Annual National Conference for Uganda Assemblies of God - This year we have had a miracle take place and have been able to plant over 1300 churches. We have some incredible testimonies that I hope to upload soon to this blog with more details. But in at least two villages we had similar testimonies - where our church planters went into situations where demon possessed mad men had been bound for tens of years and no one could do anything for them. Our Pastors went in and cast the devil out of these men and churches began right then and there because of God's miracle. It has really been an exciting year and it was an exciting conference to hear about all the testimonies that God has been doing. It has truly been a revival in church planting.