Finish the Mission

Saturday morning started early at University Baptist Church with the students at 9am.  Mark and I each taught 2 sessions on Discipleship, had a tea break in the middle, and enjoyed a traditional Ugandan meal afterwards.  We were able to give each of them a copy of Finish the Mission with the help of The Gospel Coalition Theological Famine Relief.


This morning I (Bryan) headed to the church early to meet with the elders, but only 1 showed up so I was able to spend about 45 minutes talking with him.  Fred is an eye doctor in Mbarara, but is originally from Congo.  He is married with 3 kids of his own and has taken in 2 other nephews to raise.  It was a wonderful conversation and I learned so much about the church and his life.

The worship service started at 9am.  We sang for about 1 hour and then I preached the parable of the good Samaritan from Luke 10.  I shared that Jesus is the Ultimate Good Samaritan in the story, and we are the man left half dead on the side of the road.  It was Christ who came to us out of compassion and paid for our sins.

After the first service I ended up meeting with the elders and was able to challenge them to be the kind of men God has called them to be from 1 Timothy 3.  I passed on several elder & church books from The Gospel Coalition for them to read together and grow as a group.  


After that I preach at the second service which was in the Rioncoli language so I used a translator named Livingston.  I met Livingston several years ago and he has now taken on many responsibilities at the church.  

After the service, one of the students from the Discipleship Conference who also attended the first service came up to tell me something.  Her name was Juliet.  She had graduated from the University and had worked for several years away from Mbarara, but was now back with a new job.  She proceeded to tell me that she had tried to earn salvation for all of her life and she realized today that she was dead in her sins, but Christ saved her.  I was so thankful she shared what God had done in her life.  I challenged her to share her testimony this week in hopes of others making a similar profession.   

We enjoyed some lunch with Pastor Enoch and then came home to the Skinners to rest for the afternoon.  We are so grateful for the opportunities we have had to make new friends and share God's heart for discipleship with them in hopes of seeing a movement of discipleship.  Pray with us for these students to continue the work together with the help of the Holy Spirit and one another.  

2 Great Nights

We have been praying for this day for some time and we are so grateful that it finally came!

We spent Thursday night with a group of about 15 guys from the University at the Skinners house.  We hosted a Men's Night to focus on Biblical Manhood.  We spent about 2 hours talking with these men about the problems of manhood, what men are NOT, and what a man of God is.  It was great to hear them share about their culture and talk about how the bible breaks down and then redeems culture!  If something in our culture goes against the Bible, it must be thrown out, but the Gospel redeems culture and makes it whole!

We spent tonight with close to 100 students at University Baptist Church talking about Biblical Discipleship.  We looked at the Great Commission in Matthew 28:16-20 and Christ last words to Make Disciples, the call on every Christ followers life.  Mark taught about Jesus' vision and strategy to reach the world through the one, by building the one to reach the world.  I closed by looking at how the church multiplied in Acts as the disciples were faithful to the call to make disciples.

It continues to become more and more clear to me of our desperate need to live lives focused on making disciples like Jesus did.  These students need men and women in their lives that are willing to give them truth and life int he context of relationships, and we are no different.  Jesus knew what he was doing when he set the example and called us to follow Him by making disciples.  The question is, are we willing to follow?

The New Norm

This is my third time to partner with Joel and Jill in Uganda and some things in Africa are beginning to seem normal, well at least African normal!  However, they are not quite "second nature" for us like they are for the Skinners.  They are definitely not second nature for Mark since this is his first trip out of the country.  It was great to watch him experience so many firsts as we drove from Kampala to Mbarara yesterday and enjoyed some time in Queen Elizabeth National Park today.

We got to take in much of Southwest Uganda and all that the Pearl of Africa has to offer.  The surroundings went from a bustling city to a country rode dotted with towns along the way.   The landscaped morphed from one not so different than Texas scattered with mesquite trees, to tropical farmlands full of banana trees and other crops, to highland mountains covered with tea plantations, to what most of us picture when we think of Africa, the savannah!  Each city had its own little flare, but all of them had many of the same characteristics.  The mainroad was busy with people, animals, motorcycles (called bodas), and cars all fighting for a spot on the road.  Store fronts lined the side of the roads and businesses always had an open door policy.  Kids were usually by themselves on the way to or from school.  The smell of fire, exhaust, animals, and new foods filled the air.  The sound of constant honking, music, work, and new languages kept ringing in our ears.  At one point, I thought I heard honking on the radio.  Old and new animals became a normal sight like goats tied to a rope, ankole cows in the fields, zebra on the side of the road, hippos in the river, elephants swimming, and buffalo and antelope covered the fields.  Our senses were on overload!

But all this newness to us, is normal to them.  The same would be true if these Ugandans came to visit us in Texas.  The same is also true regarding the newness of these truths about discipleship.  It's likely to be new to many of these students and probably still a little new for many of us.  However, our prayer is that they would become the new normal!

God is answering your prayers by getting us hear safely and preparing the work we are about to do this weekend.  The University Students we will be sharing with this weekend took hold of planning this weekend and are running with it.  They are so excited and putting much more into this weekend than we ever thought.  It is neat to see the fruit from past years trips showing up in those who were a part of our training now excited about and planning this retreat.  We are now expecting anywhere from 150-200 kids Friday and Saturday for our Discipleship Training!

Please continue to pray for these students to take up the mantle of discipleship themselves.  Pray for us to share clearly the timeless truths of discipleship.  Pray that the new discipleship lifestyle becomes the norm!

Bryan

See the Nations as Jesus sees Them!

We started our Sunday like every other Sunday, with The Fields Church at the Y.  As we prayed for the nations just like normal, we prayed specifically for the people of Uganda, Joel and Jill Skinner, and Mark Vickers and I (Bryan Sloan) because we would be leaving for Uganda immediately after our worship gathering.  We grabbed a bite of food with our family and said our goodbyes, which never gets easier, in fact…harder.  It makes me think about how hard it must have been for Jesus to leave his Father and home on the greatest mission trip ever taken.  It wasn’t easy, but he was willing.  We want to have the same attitude in missions now as we follow Christ’s example!

We made it all the way to the Matoke Inn AIM guest house in Kampala Uganda without any hiccups.  One new experience we had was watching everyone from our airline get screened for Ebola when we arrived in Uganda.  Medical professionals were taking temperature readings from every person and asking a few diagnostic questions to prevent the spread of Ebola into other countries.  I guess Mark and I looked healthy enough or they were tired at the end of the line, cause they simply called me and him over, stamped our paper, and sent us on our way!

We are hoping to catch a little sleep and then will make our trip to our final destination tomorrow morning by car.  It should be another eye opening experience if we will look through the lenses of Jesus and see people as he saw them.  That’s what we are here for isn’t it?  That’s what your praying for isn’t it?  That we would see the nations through a few and disciple a few to reach the nations!  God help us!

Christ (ie Jesus) on Mission

This world is not my home!
A blog by one of our Fielders out in the Fields!

I am in a strange predicament; I live in three homes - 2 in the US and 1 in South East Asia. Each time I get ready to go to one of my homes I experience a mix of emotions between excitement and sadness. Saying goodbye to friends and family is always hard, knowing how much I will miss them and wishing that I did not have to be away from them so long. While at the same time I become more and more excited to head to my next home, where I will be able reconnect with those I have not seen in a while.

I arrived back in my home overseas in South East Asia only a week ago and will be here for the next 3 months.  Getting off the plane I was filled with a sense of peace and happiness as the heat of a tropical climate and the many smells it provides assault my senses. After going through immigration, customs and getting my luggage I climb into the taxi to head home. Excitement builds as I can't wait to get there (admittedly a good portion of this excitement was looking forward to a shower after 34 hours of travel). 

As the taxi drove through the streets, I look at all the familiar surroundings that I have missed. I begin to think about all the homes I have to look forward to returning to and realize that this anticipation should pale in comparison to my excitement at the home that God is preparing for me. I am struck with the knowledge that so many of the people I am passing in the taxi have no idea that an unbelievable home is being prepared for them in heaven.  

How sad that those surrounding me live with the uncertainty of where they will be eternally. Every day they strive to make sure that their thoughts and actions make them worthy for heaven. They follow prescribed rituals that give them no assurance of salvation and therefore death is greatly feared. These lost people need those surrounding them who have the truth of God’s Word to stand up and share that truth.

I feel so blessed to play such a small part in bringing God's word to people who have never had a chance to read it in their language. But I also know that the task is so much larger that I can even imagine or handle. I am reminded often of Gideon who was told to go to battle with only 300 men (Judges 6-7). God did not command this because Gideon was such a great soldier or a magnificent leader but because through Gideon's weakness God's glory would be revealed. The same rings true for me as I look at my weakness’s, lack of language and cultural understanding I know it is because of these weaknesses that God’s glory will shine through. 

I am so excited to see our church stepping out beyond the "Fields" of Texas to reach and disciple the lost. We can look at ourselves and say we are too small to make much of an impact but instead I think we should say through our weakness God's glory will be revealed. Because of Christ we are people of impact!

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead.

Prayer Requests:

• Pray that I would have opportunities to build deeper relationship with those around me.
• Pray that Christians in the area will not be fearful of backlash (politically or religiously) but would be brave ambassadors for Christ. 

For security reasons location and name not given. 

Missions exist, because worship doesn't. Don't miss out!

Well, we made it back safe and sound and I know it's a little late, but I wanted to share about our last day in Uganda.

Sunday morning we were blessed to worship with 2 different local churches, University Baptist Church (the Skinner's home church) and St. Luke's Chapel.  Both churches are focused on reaching out to University students and are very close to campus.  UBC has their own building, but St. Luke's worships on campus in a large classroom (taking the church to the world)!  Pastor Enoch (UBC) started a new series on Discipleship and preached from John 17.  Rev. Poly (St. Luke's) challenged his students to be an example on campus from 1 Timothy 4:12.  It was so neat to be a part of the vibrant singing and to embrace another culture's traditions, but to know we all have the same God!  John Piper in Let the Nations be Glad said, "Missions exists because worship doesn't."  We were all created to worship God and if we truly did this with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength we wouldn't need missions because our lives would be lived as an act of worship.

After 3+ hours of church (no complaining about our 1.5 hours) we went for some lunch in the city.  You know what they say, when in Uganda, eat Indian food...well, not really, but that's what we ate.  After that we joined Rev. Poly and his wife at the opening day of a new student hangout not far from campus.  Poly hopes that students will make this a place of ministry and influence for the gospel among those who don't know Christ.  There will be plenty of room for hangout, study, and fellowships/parties!


We took Joel's motorcycle out to see the town a little more and navigated the busy streets.  The Skinner's hosted another missionary who has been in Africa all but 12 years of 50+.  We asked a ton of questions and heard some great stories.  We stayed up late talking about the weekend and about discipleship in our own lives and it was good for all of us, including Joel and his friend, to be challenged by one another and to hear how God was working in our lives.

We woke up Monday for our last time in Uganda and spend the morning prepping to leave after lunch. We prayed for our safety and gave plenty of hugs.  In the words of PD, "I hate goodbye's!"  It was a great week and we all looked forward to getting home, but it was so hard to leave.  Mainly because so much work had gone into this week and it was now over, but also because we had more than 36 hours of straight travel ahead of us.  We made it home after one flat tire, two 9+ hour flights, one 2 hour flight, and three 2+ hour lay overs.  Our families were waiting at DFW upon our arrival with signs and plenty of love!

It was a great trip, the first of many we hope!  Continue praying for the students and the Skinner's as they worship God as they try to be faithful to the Great Commission by making disciples of all nations.  Continue praying for us as a church to worship God as we make disciples of all nations.  Wouldn't it be sad if we got to the end of our life and realized we missed out on one of God's greatest blessings, worship as a lifestyle.  We would miss out on the ability to do his work here on this earth as ministers of reconciliation!  Don't miss out!

Discipleship Training

By the grace of God we did it!  We finished our Discipleship Training tonight and it was an amazing experience and opportunity!  We started setting up our tent in the front yard early Friday afternoon.  By around 4:30 we had a good enough group of students to get started.  One of the most exciting things about this weekend was seeing 7 different churches and organizations represented. 

We had a great time walking through discipleship truths in the scripture from the Great Commission to the Thessalonian legacy.  Each of our guys, Cassidy, Robert, and PD, did a great job sharing what God had put on his heart.  The students were so focused and grateful for the opportunity and it was such a privilege to share with them. 

We started early Saturday morning and many of them were waiting for us at 9am!  We spent the entire day teaching through different biblical and practical lessons on discipleship.  We enjoyed another traditional Ugandan meal with all of the students at lunch and continued the training that afternoon.  We wrapped up at 5pm and heard some great responses from the students.  Many of them had written down 10 names on an oikos card that they had committed to pray for and begin to reach out to.

Our goal and hope was to set the foundation and urge these students to take up the mantle of discipleship themselves.  Now, after we leave, the pastors of the local churches as well as the Skinners and their team will do the job of follow up and holding these students accountable to live out a life of discipleship. 

So, keep praying for these students as they start their semester.  Pray God would give them boldness to make disciples.  Pray God would bring other students into their life to be discipled.  Pray the leaders of churches, ministries, and missions would be able to make disciples of their students and hold them accountable.