It is not being widely reported, but there is widespread famine in Uganda and people, especially children, are dying. We have been aware of the famine for some time, and Sunday we received a report from one of our seminary students about just how real the famine is when our church received a request from him for aid to help feed his family. We read much about famine in the Bible, and it seems remote, but this is too close.

 

The famine is not caused by laziness or something that the farmers can control. It is caused by the failure of seasonal rains which should come once a year. I don’t know how widespread the drought is, but I hear from students in Kenya that there is hunger there also.

 

We were scheduled to be teaching last week in the town of Kumi which is located in the north east part of Uganda. However, the pastor asked that we put the teaching off until next month in hopes that they will have some food then. We are scheduled to be in Kumi from August 15-20. I would like to take as much food as my vehicle can carry and also take extra money with me to buy food for the church families. If you would like to help with this you could send tax deductible donations to International Gospel Outreach at 1246 Rainbow Road, Inman, S.C. 29349 attention Uganda famine relief. We will include a first hand report when we return from our trip.

 

It is really amazing the way God works. Our ministry is evolving into mainly a teaching one as both MaryLee and I have many opportunities to teach. She teaches women, who many times live in very difficult circumstances, about their roles as godly wives. Lately some local pastors have asked me to come and train pastors and other church leaders. I have often said that teaching is my favorite job in the church, and so I am really enjoying these opportunities.

 

I find the hunger to learn among African Christians both very encouraging and very humbling. Africa is full of very sincere Christians who are leading churches even though they have no formal training. The pastor of the church where we taught in Rukengiri has only been a Christian for two years and has no formal training, and the one in Ishaka also has no formal training. They have communicated with me that some of the pastors are incorporating what they learned from us into their ministries, and they would like us to return for more teaching. If teaching is your passion contact me at PTLalways@prodigy.net and we can arrange for you to come to Uganda either for a short time or for a long time.

 

Westminster Theological College has a mobile school which takes teaching to wherever we find students who are eager to learn. I am both teaching in this program and also teaching independently whenever the opportunity presents itself. I also teach a Bible lesson in our home each Wednesday. Among those attending, as I mentioned several months ago, are two Muslims that come because they want to become Christians. They brought a friend and a week ago their friend came to our house by himself and he accepted Jesus as his Lord and he repented of his sins. Please pray for this new Christian who is called Marthias and also for salvation for the two Muslims named Regan and Obi.

 

Oh, the joys of teaching in rural Uganda, at the beginning of the month we were teaching in Lugazi and the only hotel was overpriced at $5.50 per night. We now know what bedbug bites feel and look like. Someplace, on one of our trips, MaryLee picked up a stomach parasite. If you saw the dining facilities where some of our meals are prepared you would marvel that we are not sick more often. An immediate result of our teaching, in Lugazi, was the class begging us (one on her knees) to return for a full week of teaching. We had to promise to return before they would let us go. Our discomfort is worth putting up with.

 

The Mighty Nile at Murchison Falls is Hippos in the front yard have the right of way

 

 

Pastor Peter (on the right) & my partner on the left teaching in Ishaka. A problem in Uganda is that there are so many languages that even a Ugandan needs an interpreter when he travels a couple of hundred miles.

 

We are planning to come to America for a couple of months next winter so that MaryLee can see her 80 tear old mother, and also hopefully to raise some more much needed financial support. Our request is for you to see if you can find churches, maybe yours, which would allow us to come and present our ministry to them. We tentatively plan to travel to the deep south late in January- early Feb., to the upper mid west in mid-late Feb, and to be in South Carolina most of March into early April.

 

Remember to send your money for famine relief and also to write us and let us know how you are doing. You can use our address at PTLalways@prodigy.net to write to us.

 
In His Love, 

 

Bob and MaryLee