Merry Christmas

Christmas in Uganda is always great. We have no snow and we have no Santa's, but we have Jesus and it's not against the law to put a manger scene up in the city. Most people look forward to this time of year to be in church on Christmas Day and then with friends or family in the afternoon. The whole world does not revolve around what you will "get" or "shopping" or many of the other things that take away from the real significance of this season. Most people think about giving a person a card, sending them a message on their phone or just saying a kind word as a gift. It's mostly about encouraging a person in whatever way you can. If you do give a gift - it's not so much what you got - but more on the fact that you got anything at all. We will often go through our house and find whatever simple gift we can to bless some of our church members, it could be shirt (a 2nd hand one), a pen or watch (not new). The people will enjoy just the fact that someone was thinking about them - more than the gift. I thought I might share these few words with you in hopes of you having a simple Christmas and not getting too busy as tough as I am sure that will be. However it turns out, please do have a wonderful one. We we will be blessed to my Mother here for about three weeks, until the 26th. We will also be having our annual Christmas carnival at the church. Otherwise - enjoy your December!

Uganda goes to East Timor

This is our missionary in East Timor, Pastor Brain Korton. We sent him there in January of this year. We raised the money needed locally in Kampala for his airfare and have been sending him money for his upkeep. I had a chance to visit him last month (East Timor is about a 3 hour plane trip from Singapore)and He has done a great job! He learned the local language in just three months. He is from the Acholi tribe in Uganda and only God knows how - his local Acholi language is similar to the Tatum (a combination of Portuguese and Bahsa Indonesia) language that the local people speak. There are missionaries that have been there in East Timor for over two years and they have to yet to learn the local language as well as he can speak it. He has also been given great favor by the local people and has been able to construct a 5 bedroom house for the team that we are sending early next year. He has also been the given the money to build an orphanage in the town in where is. He has many testimonies that I hope to share in future posts. Otherwise, Uganda has arrived in East Timor and God is doing tremendous things.

Here is short clip of him speaking with the local people.

Prime Time at the Pool

Prime Time at the Pool is an evangelistic outreach that takes place at Uganda’s largest University. Usually about once a year they ask me to come and speak for them. The crowd consists of both Christians and non-believers. There are usually about two thousand or so young people that crowd around the pool every Saturday night. Every year they have a week long series of meetings that I spoke at this year. It’s not an easy crowd to preach to – being that it is outside and much of the crowd is a bunch of unsaved rowdy university students. Many come only for the music, so by the time the preacher comes there is a lot jeering and hollering. But, I really thank the Lord for the students who were bold enough to step out in front of their friends and make a decision to follow Christ. It turned out to be a good evening.

"To each his own"

That's right! Want to gain some weight? Especially around the hips? I don't think you will find this advert many other places in the world, but here in Uganda people actually want to make their hips bigger. I remember once when a couple was getting married in our church. The girl was tall and slender. Her relatives didn't approve of her getting married so thin. What did they do? They told her cousin to "fatten her up". I am telling the truth!!! Needless to say these days the girl has met the expectations of her family and is now nice and uhhhh (what's the word to be politically correct?) big.

Teen Challenge Uganda

A few weeks ago we had tremendous time with two brothers from Teen Challenge in the States, Bernie Gillot and Mike Zello. They came here to Uganda to help us transition our Recovery Home into an official Teen Challenge. Though we still have few things to iron out – it looks like we will be called Teen Challenge Uganda in a few months. We are looking forward to the relationship we have begun and are believing God for greater things in the future in helping us reach the hurting in our city.

We visited High Schools, slums, churches as well as did numerous Television interviews for a great time of impact. Bernie is an accomplished singer/song writer who raps, plays the guitar and keyboard – almost all at the same time. Mike Zello the Africa Director for Teen Challenge who has one of the most powerful testimonies I have ever heard. We thank the Lord for sending them to us at this time.

New Church Web Site and CD

We have a new church website that you can log into at http://www.vccntinda.org/.

We have also published our first 5 song CD entitled "Forevermore". You can download the songs for free from the website. We wrote and produced all the songs ourselves. They are birthed out of our love and devotion to the loveliness and beauty of Jesus. Listen and let us know what your think.

Doing the hard things

My wife and I recently decided to stop in and check out this "Health Club" as it is called. It's quite close to our church and home and so we thought it might be a convenient place for us to "work out". We stepped inside and looked around and then we were taken on tour. We first went to the left which led us into a room where there was a lounge and you could watch television get a facial or a massage. Then we were shown the Sauna and the Steam rooms. Then we were led around the corner to outdoor lounging area and then our final destination was a fully stocked bar (not a juice bar - but a fully stocked alcoholic bar). At that point our tour guide informed us that our tour was over. We asked "and where are the weights and the aerobic machines, you know the treadmills, bikes and fitness equipment?” The lady said "Oh, they are coming" well I lived here long enough to know that this was probably not the case by the way she answered us. She told us they were going to be put in upstairs, but I have since noticed a sign advertising for a hair saloon in that place.

If we are not careful our Christian walk can be like this. Our Christian experience can be reduced to: church attendance, cell group, tithe and a daily devotional. It becomes a Christian club with very little discipline involved. We are saved, yes - but are we "working out" our salvation with fear and trembling as the word tells us in Philippians 2:12 .

I recently bumped into a website called "do hard things" it is a website put up by two of Josh Harris (the writer of "Why I kissed dating goodbye") brothers. The website is for young people and it challenges them to do something with their lives and not settle for being an iPod professional. They are convinced that many young people (and their parents) have bought into a lie – which says - life is about them and their comfort. They have written a book by the same title that I have not read but I am intrigued by the subject. Some people would say that we are doing “a hard thing” by living in Uganda. But I know the reality of what my life is challenged by and what has simply become “everyday life”. A few days ago, in our family devotion time I challenged our 5 year old son to take a cold shower. Why? He asked. I told him because someday you may go to the village where they don’t have hot water and because you’re not used to cold water you will complain and end up seeming “rude”. He understood the logic and agreed it would be helpful to take the cold shower once in a while. Maybe your thinking that I am tough…he is only five. Let me assure you ….it’s only water and it’s really not that cold.

Do you need to take a cold shower? I know I do, otherwise I too - will complain and seem rude when I challenged with small and minor things.

Passion Uganda

The Passion Youth Movement came to Uganda at the end of May for two days of outreach ministry to University students. They had about 25,000 students attend the meetings. Worship leaders Chris Tomlin (Best known for his song -How great is our God) and Matt Redman (Blessed be your name/Heart of Worship) were here along with the speakers Louie Giglio and Francis Chan. It was a great event for our city and for the students - the message was clear "God has great things for Kampala as we yield ourselves to Him - He alone is to be exhalted"

Chicken anyone?

I know it's kinda hard to see what is wraped around this scooter but these are actually chickens. I have tried to count them and it seems there are around 15 of them. They are not dead but alive and clucking. You might be asking why would someone be transporting chickens in such a manner? You see it's cheaper this way. The cost of hiring this boda boda man (that is what they call these guys who drive scooters for hire) is about 1/4 the price of hiring a truck to do the job.
Some may call this cruelty to animals - but when your headed to the slaughter house, even driving in a limo won't do you a lot of good.

Reversing roles

We live in world where more and more people are changing roles. In some families the head of the home is no longer the husband it’s the wife - who wears the pants. In some work places it’s the employees that tell the boss what to do. In some homes it’s the children that tell the parents what to do. And believe it or not - some people today are the ones directing God around and telling Him what to do. It reminds me of a time where I reversed roles with a policeman here. I was traveling back home with a church member and forgot to put on my seat belt. The police man pulled me over and explained to me my "offense" upon when he asked for a bribe. I refused and then he asked me if "I wanted to get right of get left?" I told him I didn't understand what he was saying. He then tells me that we will need to go to the police station to sort the matter out (I know this game they play and he did not want to go the station it was his way threatening me). So he gets in the car (that's the way we do it here, they usually don't have a car [this guy in picture above is the exception]- so they get into yours and you drive them and yourself to the station) but now I can smell alcohol on his breath (and now understand why he would ask such a stupid question as whether I wanted to get right or get left). He says lets go to the station and I say "sounds like a great idea because you not only tried to bribe me but your obviously drunk and I am sure your boss would like to know these things". He quickly changes his mind and wants out of the car – I refuse – At that point – we reverse roles. I am now taking the police man to the police station. I tell him I am taking him to the police station to turn him in. He then tells me several times that I am abducting him. We proceed to the police station and explain the situation to the Officer In Charge and tell him what happened. Of course at this point the police don’t know what to do. I have now become the prosecutor – they are dumbfounded and want me to drop the whole thing – which I don’t feel comfortable about. In the midst of the whole – the drunk and disorderly police man some how sneaks out and runs away like scared cat. By the time I realize what has happened – he is gone and so I decide to drop the whole thing and go home. Yes, a humorous but true story. As funny as it may sound I wonder how many times we also trade roles with God and begin to tell how we would like Him to fit into our plans. I really don't want to be a police man, I have enough things going on as Pastor. In Uganda we may not be able to trust the police - but we can trust God. He is not going to let us down - he doesn't need us to do His job for Him. Let's let Him be God and let's let us be us.