What's New in Uganda

Happy 2008 and greetings from Uganda!  We hope that you are all well and that you had a blessed Christmas and New Year.  We are doing quite well despite some minor sicknesses during the month of December.  We thankfully were well over Christmas and had a wonderful celebration as a family (see photos on our blog: jorenews.blogspot.com). We also enjoyed a special service at the church we attend in Jinja, as well as a few gatherings with the missionary community here in Jinja.  The boys are growing fast and keeping busy around the place, greeting visitors and bringing them water or "assisting" our workers (Chris - our yard worker, Tracy and Irene - our house helpers, and Bosco - our night guard). Rhoda is also growing with our new baby due the end of April.  She's feeling well other than being a bit uncomfortable in the intense heat we've been having. We look forward to the cool, rainy season coming soon!
The work is also going well and we have had some great opportunities to minister.  On New Year's Day I had the opportunity of attending the burial of the sister of our grounds keeper, Chris.  Chris is a devoted Christian and had asked me to preach to the crowd of over 300 that had come.  It was a blessing to support Chris and his family with the love of Christ during that time and also to preach the Gospel to hundreds from that community who are not believers. 
We continue to have various people come to us to ask for money or some other kind of assistance. Most of them are individuals that we know, but we also often get requests from people we have never met but who just come to us because we are muzungu's (white people). We usually do not give money to people that we have never met, regardless of the stated need. We often give food and clothing and blankets. Recently a woman came to our door asking us to give her money so she and her 4 children could go back to the village where they came from. Her husband had died and she could not find a job here in town where they'd been living for some years to support her family, so she was living off help from others. We didn't give her money the first time she came, but told her we'd give her a bag of food each week for her family. She continued coming for a few weeks while we prayed about whether or not God wanted us to do more. We used to be much more quick to give money, but after having been "scammed" several times in our first months here or seeing that our giving was promoting laziness, we decided we needed to pray more for discernment and wisdom so that we would be using our resources to help true needs. Eventually we both felt the Lord's leading to send this family back to their village where they'd be able to grow their own food and not be completely dependent on others. They were sure a happy family when they boarded the bus to take them home! It gave us great joy to help them. We share this story to give you a picture of what kind of decisions we face on an ongoing basis here. We need prayer for discernment as we desire to truly help those that the Lord sends to us. Please pray too that our hearts would be open to those in need spiritually and physically, and that we would not grow cynical about and hardened to the pressing needs around us. It's easy for us to get weary of the constant requests and to just want to lock our gate and ignore those that come knocking. But we desire to treat each person as Christ would, and to not let our emotions dictate how we respond.
The work with the pastors is going well and we continue to meet every Saturday for Bible study, planning, and prayer.  They continue to follow-up the Jesus Film showings with new Bible studies and Bible distribution.  Thank you to the many churches and individuals who sent money for Bibles.  They are so gratefully received.  Pastor Ludigo has been going to the village of Bulumba where we had shown the Jesus Film to over 1,500 people in July.  He has started a Bible study there that began with students at a Secondary School but has spread to the community.  He has been invited to various churches in the surrounding villages to preach the Gospel.  I am very excited about the work that Ludigo and the other pastors are doing.  They are beginning to catch a vision of being missionary senders rather than just missionary receivers.  We recently received a guitar from a church back home, and we had great joy in giving it at Christmas to one of the pastors who has a great love for music and has expressed a desire to learn how to play various instruments. He received it on a Saturday and the next day he accompanied all of the music during the service in his congregation. He had never played before that day. God has blessed him with a wonderful talent, and he is excited to use it for His glory. Please continue to pray for the pastors, their work, and that God would supply their every need.
On the 20th of this month we look forward to welcoming Rev. Del Palmer, Director of AFLC World Missions, and Rev. Kevin Olson, Director of Distance Education for AFLC World Missions.  Del will be here for one week to see the work, and Kevin will be here for two weeks to assist us in planning to train the next generation of church leaders.
We are so thankful to have such a supportive group of people praying for us! Thank you for the many ways you encourage us - through your prayers, letters, emails and packages. You bless us tremendously.
With love,
Nate, Rhoda, Elijah, Judah & Baby