My Time in Uganda

Hey guys. I am just about to finish my time in Uganda and finally head back to America for the first time since January. Uganda has been an amazing country with so many good current and future opportunities for me. This has been one of my favorite countries on the race where God has been moving. That said, I want to take this newsletter to share about the ministry, about some testimonies, about a future opportunity here, and about some prayer requests.

As to the ministry we have been partnering with here, we are being hosted by Pastor Charles from World Bridge Church. Pastor Charles has planted a church here in Uganda that we do ministry at/ with church members or other volunteers. From Tuesday to Friday, typical morning ministry has been several hours of evangelism in the area. We would visit various houses or people in the street and share about Jesus with them. If they were believers, we would encourage them in the Lord and pray for them. If they were unbelievers, we would share the gospel and lead people to Christ if they wanted to as well as encourage them in the Lord and pray for them. In the evenings, we would take turns in leading a Bible study. In this Bible study, we went through parts of Romans, Philippians, James, and Matthew. We were also able to give over 200 Bibles to people in the area thanks to various people giving our team donations. On Saturdays, we prayed about what to do and did either ministry or fun activities. On Sunday, we got to visit various churches and preach/ share testimonies and words of encouragement. Monday was our Sabbath/ rest day.

As to testimonies with evangelism, there were several people we were able to lead to Christ. I was thankful that at one house visit, there was a lady that was going through a hard time and season of her life. She said that she had grown up Islam. After I shared the gospel and asked if she wanted to make Jesus her Lord and Savior, she decided to do so. Praise God! On another day of ministry, one of my team member’s Amanda had shared her testimony with 2 ladies, and after sharing, the 2 ladies wanted to give their lifes to Jesus. I was able to further share the gospel and lead them to Jesus. After this encounter we went to the next house and the lady next door had been listening to us. She wanted to give her life to Jesus too and went on her knees. I was able to lead her in a prayer giving her life to Jesus. These are several stories of being able to lead people to Christ. Praise God there were around 15 people I was a part of helping lead to Christ!

As to testimonies with Bible study, it was exciting to be able to help lead Bible studies. I was able to lead some Bible studies in Matthew, Philippians, and James. It was also cool as I helped coordinate receiving donations for Bibles and helped in getting Bibles to give out. In total, we gave over 200 Bibles out and so many people were so grateful. Our pastor told us a story that there was one lady who was crying after receiving a Bible and said that she had been a Christian for 7 years but had never had a Bible before. It was cool the transition from starting the Bible study, where many did not have Bibles and struggled to follow along, to later everyone having a Bible with more people participating in discussion and following along in their new Bibles.

As to testimonies with preaching, I was able to preach several sermons at various churches. I was able to preach on Overcoming Trails in Life and How the Believer can be Transformed. I was also able to share testimonies and words of encouragement at various churches. In total, I visited around 7 different churches to participate in ministry.

Now to a future opportunity here in Uganda, as World Race has been nearing an end, I have been pursuing next opportunities with mission work. I will share more about them in my next final World Race newsletter, but one I will bring up now is my opportunity in pursuing a mission organization called Engineering Ministries International (EMI). As a civil engineer who worked in EMI South Africa in 2020, I had been working prior to going on World Race towards gaining experience to hopefully one day return to EMI. Over the last few months, I’ve been in the application process for EMI, and recently they told me they were interested in having me in their Uganda office. It is a testimony in itself that I happened to be in Uganda when EMI came to this conclusion. They told me that I was required to go on what is called a Vision Trip before a job offer is made to see if I am a good fit in Uganda and if both sides seem content with moving forward with things. That said, I was able to visit the office and staff members for a few days and learned more about EMI Uganda. I enjoyed my visit with them and am now awaiting if I get a job offer. If I do get a job offer, I will pray and seek further counsel to see if this is somewhere I would commit to for the next several years. This is an exciting step forward, and I am eager to see if God has me here in the future.

Finally, as to prayer requests, I ask you would pray for the following:

1. That the people we led to Christ would grow in their faith
2. That the people who received the Bibles would read and grow from reading their Bibles
3. That God would give me rest and future direction for the next mission work I should do

As I am finishing up my time in Uganda, I will be back in America on November 18 and will have a final debrief time before being released to come home on Sunday November 23. That said, I will send one final newsletter later about my takeaways and overall experience on World Race. I will also share about my future mission work that I will be doing or where I am at in the process of determining that. That said, until next time and thanks for following the newsletters of all the countries I’ve been able to visit to through World Race.