Day Eight

TWO YEARS LATER…WHAT A CHANGE!

Two years ago on a Sunday we were at the very first service of Luzira Community Church. Although it was only beginning, it started off with a bang. The attendance the very first day: 80 people. Now, two years later, we saw a vibrant community complete with elders, an associate pastor AND AN ATTENDANCE TODAY OF OVER 300! It was such an honor to preach at both the inaugural service two years ago and again today two years later. The church is alive and well and experiencing phenomenal growth both spiritually and numerically. This evening our team met with the church leadership team to encourage them, train them and give them each a new bible. It was so inspiring to hear their comments and questions about where they believe God is taking them. We had two general sessions on vision, leadership, church policies and discipleship. Then our team had breakout sessions to meet with the leaders of each age group for further training and encouragement.

THE CHURCH IS NOT A BUILDING

Luzira Community Church has illustrated this truth by growing and expanding despite the very small rented building they occupy. But, although the church is not a building…it is eventually going to need one. This was a continuing topic and prayer and discussion during the week with Pastor Enock, Senior Pastor, Pastor James, Associate Pastor (entirely volunteer), Pastor Peter from Gaba Church and our team. It is quite unbelievable how much land can cost in Luzira. A plot right in town here is comparable to a lot in one of our nicest subdivisions costing upwards of $150,000US. And that, of course includes no building. So, we have been talking about trying to find some land in a slum area that would be much cheaper to put up a large tent so that we can stop paying rent and begin to help this church get a permanent location. THEN WE SAW IT! Did you ever see something- I mean really just see something that you have been walking by over and over and missed? One day we were driving up and we looked up and right across from the church is a beautiful four story structure that was built but never completed! It has been standing like a huge concrete skeleton now for over five years. (yes it was here last time and we did see it but we didn’t really SEE it.) This building is amazing. It would keep Luzira Community Church right where they have established themselves as a lighthouse in the community, it would give them plenty of room for worship, for a child sponsorship office, for christian education, for a school and a clinic! These are all things that have been in our heart from the beginning. We know that it will be priced through the sky but…that’s where the money would come from anyway, so our team has been united around praying that God would do a miracle and give LCC this building. It was lost by it’s owner in a bitter divorce after his wife found out that he was a bigamist. The man had put many of his assets in her name so when she discovered the other wife, she took ownership of the building but had no means to complete it. It may take a couple of thousand cattle on a couple of hills but we believe God could give it to us. One day this week after ministering in the slums I asked Pastor Enock to take Janet and I over to this building. As we climbed the steps we could not believe our eyes, this is one of the highest points in Luzira and the view of Lake Victoria from the fourth floor is breath taking. (Yes, once again we are praying for a fourth floor and yes Jeff you may have to come and bring a team to build it out). And, I know you will believe me when I tell the next thing that happened. Just as we got to the top of the stairs, I walked over and written on a pillar with a piece of charcoal were these words: “My God is Able.” If you don’t believe it see the picture below! Pray, Pray, Pray…I’ve been waiting my whole life to see a miracle of this magnitude.





REACHING INTO THE LUZIRA COMMUNITY

Wow….why am I so amazed at what God has done? This has been such an amazing trip. I have been most touched by the people of Luzira through the malaria net distribution. We started off into a row of huts and then started going into the community and kept going and going—through many twists and turns there were hundreds of huts in what appeared to be 20. As the Luzirans were given malaria nets, they were also asked if we could ask some questions about how Luzira Community Church could help their family and community. Every single person was eager to respond and shared many heart felt issues for themselves and their families. It was very clear that by providing nets that would take care of their families and showing interest in their needs, the door was opened to hear about God. Dolores and I worked with Jerome and Becky who were our Ugandan interpreters. Right away we encountered a Muslim woman that had her entire body covered except for her eyes. Dolores did the talking and I did the interceding. I could feel the very presence of God as the woman continued to answer questions, honestly open to hear about God and His Son, and then wanted to pray to receive Jesus. It did not matter that we could only see her eyes---that was the only part that counted because when she looked up from her prayer, they were filled with tears. The next hut a woman explained that what appeared to be a 6 year old was an orphan and had nowhere to go. She said she felt sorry for him when the schoolmaster sent him away because there was no one to pay his school fees, so she would feed him. She was not sure where he spent his nights. When I asked what she would tell God if He asked her why He should let her into heaven she stated, “I would tell Him to let me in because I wanted in and no one told me what to do.” She prayed to receive Jesus along with another Muslim woman and a young man named Gideon. The love of God demonstrated through the malaria net distribution was contagious. Everyone was touched: the community, the interpreters, and Team Uganda.
Another awesome miracle is the response of Luzira Community Church members to rise to the challenge of redirecting priorities from being a church plant to a growing, ministering church in the community. Specifically they identified a need for assistance with discipleship with new believers. I was able to sit down with Associate Pastor James and listen to his heart for new believers. We presented to him an entire New Believers discipleship program that was in PDF format on a CD that was reproducible. He was so happy to receive this gift that could be used as a tool for the Luzira Community Church. It was also set up for developing as a correspondence program when the proclaimers would be deployed to remote areas and new believers could mail in their completed chapter and receive more. He was just moved to tears, so you can go figure what I was doing as I went over this program with him.
So much work has been set in motion with this trip. Our team is in “shock and awe.” We even stopped to count and came up with 11 new initiatives that have been accomplished. This has been possible only because of faithful prayer warriors like yourself. God has prepared, covered, and blessed this community.
Diane Elrod

Day 5

An update to Helen’s previous post…
The Rest of the Story
Yesterday we told you about a little girl whose name we now know to be Suzanne. We want to finish telling you about God’s amazing plan for this family… Suzanne showed up once more today as soon as we arrived at the church. She again ate with us, and after a while she soiled her clothes. So Melissa, Krista, Adolph, and myself went to look for her mother so we could get her a change of clothes. When we found her mother just down the street, a man came walking up to us. It was Suzanne’s father (Steven). Interestingly enough we had just prayed yesterday evening for this man, and now we were meeting him. With a smile on his face, he explained to us how happy he was over his wife having new joy and that we loved his daughter. We asked him to come to the crusade this evening (Thursday). And he, along with his wife and Suzanne, showed up.
After the presentation of the Gospel (The Bridge to Life by Donnie) we asked all who prayed to receive Christ to join us at the church, where we would counsel them. As people filed into the church I looked for Steven, but he didn’t show up. I was heart broken. But how faithful God is to answer our prayers! After beginning to counsel those who had come, in walked Steven. After counseling him, the entire family stood before us beaming with joy. Isn’t God amazing! They are planning to attend Sunday morning, and we are quite sure that Suzanne will be back for lunch tomorrow.
Helen

Cross One Off My Bucket List

The top three things on my bucket list (the list of things I want to do before I kick the bucket…in case you haven’t seen the movie) were: 1.) have donkey basketball at CHFBC (ask me later if you don’t know what Donkey basketball is…or google it), 2) drive a race car on a real track over 160 mph and 3) do The Bridge to Life Gospel Demonstration in Africa. And…we did it! We did the Bridge to Life in Africa. This was the second night of our Open Air Crusade and although we could not bring any of the supplies we normally use on such a trip, we found everything we needed within a few blocks of the church. The men at the neighborhood lumber yard not only provided the wood but were happy to fabricate the bridges and cross for free.

The Bridge to Life is an adaptation of The Bridge track made famous by the navigators. It is a sermon that illustrates two false bridges to heaven…the bridge of good works and the bridge of religion both symbolized by long boards that break when I try to cross them. Then, the cross that has been standing by in the corner is brought and found to bridge the Valley of Sin perfectly with enough strength to get me to the other side. It is quite dramatic and the Bugandan people received it enthusiastically. At the close of the message, the sight of men, women and children coming toward the stage to receive Christ is something I will never forget. We directed them to Luzira church which Dolores Reyna had set up as a counseling area. As I walked through after the altar call, there was a holy hum of salvation as I watched our team sharing the gospel and one by one saw people bow their heads to pray. Today WAS the day of salvation. I have had the opportunity to do this demonstration in three countries but this was by far the most impactful to me.




The Gospel WILL be proclaimed…by the proclaimer.

Another high point of our day was a meeting Stephen and I had with Pastor Enock and several Luzira church members to train them on the deployment of three “proclaimers” which are incredible digital audio players I lovingly refer as “scripture in a box.” Faith Comes By Hearing is an visionary mission agency that has developed these small black boxes that have the entire New Testament in an easy-to-understand version that has been dramatized using actors and music. In addition, though these unique units are half the size of a shoe box, they can be heard by over 300 people and are powered by rechargeable batteries that can be charged by plugging into AC power, by a solar panel attached to the back of the unit and even by a hand crank when no direct sunlight is available. Since Faith Comes By Hearing had already produced a dramatized version of the New Testament in the Lugandan language and are currently seeking points of contact to distribute them, our mission venture was a natural fit. They donated three of the units for us to deploy through Luzira Community Church. At the meeting yesterday was the first official “proclaimer evangelist” named Ruben. When he saw how the units worked he lit up like a 1000 watt light bulb and accepted the challenge immediately to take the Word of God to a remote island that has no witness currently. He has been so excited that he has already asked one of our members to accompany him to the island this week! Pray about this opportunity with us, I am not sure of the timing but it is awefully hard to tell Diane Elrod “no” so I will rely on her to discern God’s will in this matter. Hearing the word of God in Lugandan is more like music than any language I have ever heard. Please pray for this ministry because it is our goal that Luzira Community Church be missional in it’s DNA and they are answering the challenge with fervor.

Day 4

Hi everyone! Let me start by sharing with you an incredible thing that started yesterday (Tuesday). A baby girl, maybe two years old, kept wandering into the church as our group ate lunch and fellowshipped. She began to stare at the food on Melissa’s plate. Melissa began to feed the child, sat her in her lap, and shortly she got down and wandered out and down the street. Today, we came back to the church to have lunch. The same little girl came back and was staring at the food on Ashlea’s plate. We began to feed her and began to fall in love with her, a very special love that God was putting on our hearts. As I began to feed her and hold her we realized that we had not seen her before, so we asked the ladies from Luzira Community Church whose child this was. We were told that she was a child that wandered in from the street, nor did they know her family. Immediately God put in my heart to have Diane, Krista, and Ashlea join me in praying over her, that her mother would come to know Jesus.
After a while, this precious child became very weary and laid her head on my chest and fell fast asleep. I didn’t have the heart to wake her up. So 30 to 40 minutes went by, and the mother came into the church and was looking for her child. One of the ladies from the church interpreted as I talked to this mother. I began by apologizing for keeping her child so long and causing her fear. Then I began to explain to her that her child kept coming into the church each day because she felt a special love. I asked her if I could share this special love with her. And the mother said, “Yes.” Through my using the Helping Hand to Christ, God began to reveal Himself and His love for her as tears ran down her face. I then asked her would she like to ask God for the free gift of Jesus and this special love. She immediately said yes and prayed to receive Christ. She is coming tomorrow for a copy of God’s Word and has already stated that she will have her children at Fun in the Son Club on Saturday and plans on attending church this Sunday. She left still in tears overjoyed. This is only one of many amazing stories from the past few days. We can’t wait to share more in future blogs.
Helen Schaper

Free Time is not Down Time
By Adolfo Ramirez

I have learned that when Pastor Don (as he is called here in Africa) gives us some time off to rest that this does not mean we cannot minister. So, I stand outside the Luzira Community Church gate and talk to the people who pass by. It is so amazing that when you just smile at them this is like giving them a gift. Ivan, one of our African interpreters says that this is because their lives are so difficult that they struggle day to day just to be sure they have food and shelter and seldom have anyone really stop and take time to appreciate them. I was standing at the gate today when a man named Edward was walking by. I gave him my smile and said hello and he was so happy to talk to me. We began talking and I just felt led to go ahead and ask him if he was very sure that if he died he would go to heaven. He said that he thought he would but he wasn’t sure. I offered to lead him to Christ but he said that he would come on Sunday and make a decision at that time. Please pray for him, it is so hard for me to know that he is not sure about something as important as eternity. He then said something that brought me to tears: he thanked us for loving Uganda so much that we would come so far to tell them about the love of Jesus. I explained to him that Jesus’ love is unconditional and that this is why we were able to love them the same way…because His love flows out of us. Suddenly, on the street this grown man twenty something years old gave me a hug and wouldn’t let me go. I am praying that I will see him on Sunday.

p.s. Annie, I am so sorry we haven’t been able to talk yet, please know that I miss you and I am doing great…I’ve cried a lot but they are tears of joy. Love you.

Day 3

Prayerwalking…Clearing Stones and Leveling the Land

We spent our morning doing school programs again but the afternoon was devoted to prayerwalking. Prayerwalking is the single greatest spiritual weapon in the modern missions movement. Every country that has had new work established in the last 30 years has done so beginning with prayerwalking. It is basically praying on site in a small group as you walk through the area allowing the sites and sounds and smells to be used by the Holy Spirit to direct the intercession.

I had no idea what we were in for when we divided into groups and were led through the entire Luzira area beginning at the front door of the church. We had trained our groups before leaving San Antonio on warfare praying to identify and break the strongholds and spiritual principalities in Luzira. There were two recurring themes which we believe revealed the strongholds in this area; witchcraft and alcoholism. One group walked by the home of a known witchdoctor that is known to skin goats alive and release them into the area streets. As they walked by they prayed for this evil to cease and for Jesus Christ to be revealed to the family involved. One group led by a compassionate African lady walked to a nearby medical facility to pray. Upon arriving they realized that it was the only existing government mental health facility in the entire country of Uganda. Many of the mental disorders are attributed to abuse by the witchdoctors who are consulted by family members and in the end are given dangerous concoctions of drugs that cause permanent brain damage. They prayed that the demons of witchcraft would be expelled from the area and that the witchdoctors would be discredited.

Alcoholism is also rampant. It was amazing to hear one of our dear Ugandan friends praying over his own neighborhood because alcoholism has driven dozens of families from their normal homes to the slums which are disease infested and unsafe.

Please, Please take time today to join us in praying over these heart-wrenching issues which have a stranglehold on this community. Greater is He that is in us than He that is in the world. We have a lot to learning about praying…but we are on the journey now.

Day 2

I don’t ever remember being this tired! But then, I do have a fading memory. And besides I hardly ever remember being more blessed either. We had a hardy breakfast of scrambled eggs and just picked pineapples and bananas, fried plantanes, toast and corn flakes…oh and how could I forget…delicious hot tea…my favorite.

We packed up and headed for Luzira church next where we were met by Faith and Holly from a local medical mission who trained us how to properly distribute mosquito nets. Here are some interesting facts we learned:
Malaria is a virus
Malaria is the #1 killer in Uganda
Malaria is only transmitted by a bite from a female mosquito carrier
Malaria is quite treatable if diagnosed early
Malaria is easily avoided through the use of nets since the mosquitos in Uganda are nocturnal
We were then trained as to how to educate people regarding the nets:
They must be aired out for 24 hours before use because they are treated with
powerful chemicals that can otherwise cause serious skin irritation
The nets can be washed one time every three months without losing their
effectiveness.
The bags the nets come in must be brought back and disposed of properly
or people will allow their children to play with them which can
result in poisoning and even death.
Armed with this knowledge and with questionnaires designed by Pastor Enock to find out the greatest needs of the community, we deployed our teams by bus to a zone close to the church. When we arrived, we were met by the Chairman of that zone (much like a mayor) who welcomed us and thanked us for coming. Pastor Enock thanked him as well and then something amazing happened. Pastor Enock asked this mayor in front of our group and all our interpreters if he knew Jesus personally as Savior. The man honestly replied that he did not. So, Pastor Enock asked him if he would like to confess Jesus as his Savior and the man replied: “Yes, I think I would like to.” He then asked me to come forward and lay hands on the man and lead him in a public prayer of salvation. Never in 34 years of full time ministry have I witnessed such a salvation. It was so wonderful and afterward our group gathered around him and prayed over him. In Luke 10 Jesus is sending his disciples out to evangelize a particular area (or zone) and he speaks of finding a “son of peace” there in the community they are going to which will be a blessing to that people. Well God has truly provided our man of peace for this area in the person of the Chairman. Later the Secretary of the zone joined us and went with one of our groups from house to house and after hearing the gospel so many times, Katrina Simmon’s Steven Hokenson’s team led him to Christ as well.

Many, many people answered our questions and received the much needed nets and many of them received Jesus as Savior as well. From the reports of team leaders we now estimate that close to 60 people were saved. Each of these people gave us contact information and many are planning to join Luzira Community Church this Sunday!

This afternoon we had been invited to a Rock Hill Elementary School for a program and were very blessed by the students. They joined in our motion songs and truly loved our clown skit. Several were saved as I gave the invitation.

Then, it was on to the open air crusade. I have been so excited since I learned that we would be singing and I would be preaching in such a large venue. Pastor Enock secured a wonderful stage in the heart of the busiest market in Luzira which is just two blocks from Luzira Community Church. Literally thousands of Ugandans were at the market today since it is one of their two heavy market days (the other being Thursday when we will do the crusade again). After over an hour of lively African Praise and Worship complete with dancing in the Lord (our team included) we sang a song over the crowd and I was able to preach the simple Gospel of God’s plan for eternal life. As I gave the altar call it was overwhelming to see dozens of people come forward and huddle around our team. Many men and women gave their lives to Christ and we distributed bibles and information on the services at LCC to each one who trusted the Lord today.

Specific Prayer Requests:

• Ashlea Z- has had some nausea…pray for her complete healing…she is much better as I am writing this.
• Jet Lag- pray that our team will be able to sleep at night…they truly need the rest.
• Open Air Crusade on Thursday- for salvation decisions
• For those who received Christ at the net distribution- pray they will not be persecuted by the leaders of the mosque that is located right in their neighborhood
• For strength for Donnie’s voice- speaking and singing six times in two days without a p.a. system is taking it’s toll and it’s early in the week

God bless you all…we are lifting you up as well.

Donnie

Day 1

We’re here! Krista and I synchronized our first step back onto African soil perfectly onto the tarmac at Entebbe International Airport today to celebrate that we had finally made it to our destination. After a one hour flight to Houston with a short layover and a 14 hour and 55 minute flight to Dubai and a short ride to the Millenium Hotel for a sleepless night (for me at least due to jet lag) and a short shopping spree to a humongous mall, a meal at midnight at the hotel and a shuttle back to the Airport at Dubai very early the next morning to board a plane whose gate was changed at the last minute sending us on a mile hike just to board busses and drive around the airport for 30 minutes finally ending up at the outdoors boarding tower only to find out that one of the tires on the Boeing 777 200-R luxury liner was low…so it was another delay while they aired the tire up and then onward…with one minor detour (I failed to see on the itinerary) which was to land at Ethiopia to let off some passengers and sit on the tarmac for another hour after which we took off and made the last leg of our journey to Entebbe (another 4 hours). Whew!!! Is anybody keeping track?...that’s a lot of hang time.

We WERE glad we got to experience Dubai but the heat was unbelievable…San Antonio in July times at least 3! It made us appreciate what our men and women in uniform have endured in Iraq and Afghanistan…and we were dressed for the occasion and had almost no weight to carry on our backs. One cool thing we did was to have our Sunday morning worship service sitting in a circle on the floor at the gate. To put this in perspective remember that we were doing this in an Arab country where we were surrounded by mosques. The very first room we came to after leaving the plane was the Islamic prayer room complete with curtains and prayer rugs.

The Reunion at Entebbe was amazing…we flew through customs and were amazed that every single one of our 28 giant checked bags arrived with us…this despite the fact that I took a chance and had them checked all the way through from Houston to Entebbe so that we wouldn’t have to pick them up and store them in Dubai.

Pastor Enock was elated to see us along with his beautiful wife Judith and his sweet little girl Vickie, his middle daughter Deborah and his son Eric. We hugged and hugged before grabbing everything and meeting our dedicated minibus for the week with our new driver and friend Yesmin. On the way to Adonai House#5 Pastor and Enock and I caught up on the latest great news at Luzira Community Church and he informed me that he had booked me to preach on the radio later that evening. It was unbelievable to be walking through the market with complete goats skinned and hanging in the windows and suddenly walk into a radio studio. Pastor Enock asked me to share the message I preached at another location two years ago regarding the Ethiopian Eunich of Acts chapter 8. It was an anointed time with me preaching in English and Pastor Enock interpreting in Lugandan. It was especially meaningful to end my message by sharing the fact that I had been in Ethiopia that very morning where the gospel is spreading. Because Philip the Evangelist/Apostle was faithful the gospel came to Africa.

Thanks for a Great Sendoff

Here we sit in the San Antonio Airport about to board our very first flight. Special thanks to so many who took the time to come and pray for us at the terminal. I told Janet that if we had only had 5 more people we could have called it church and took up an offering! Our bright blue shirts that say: "16 people called to share hope" with a picture of Africa have already caused quite a stir at the airport with many questions regarding our mission.

From here we have a short flight to Houston and then 14 hour and 55 minute flight to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Lots of time to sleep and read and write. We'll do our best to keep the updates coming but we'll be out of touch for the next day or so of flying.

God bless and please pray for safety and Holy boldness.

Donnie