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.

To market, to market!

Thursday morning started with breakfast at about 10:30am for most of us because we finally had a morning to sleep late and that’s exactly what we did.  For PD this was normal, but Cassidy and I cannot remember the last time we slept till 10:30am (of course it wasn’t really 10:30am in our minds since it was 2:30am Texas time). 

After we got ready we went to the market with Joel and Jill to get what we needed for dinner.  The market really gives you a picture of what real life looks like here in Uganda.  In fact, at dinner Jill did as she often does and asked everyone a question to talk about over dinner.  Tonight’s question…What are 3 adjectives that describe the market?  Our responses were words like diverse, chaotic, exciting, unusual, dusty, humbling, personal, scary, confusing, and tasty.  I didn’t leave without making sure I had enough fruit for a couple gallons of Ruth’s amazing passion fruit juice and Cassidy had to have some sugar cane.  

If you don’t know, Ruth lives on Joel and Jill’s compound and helps them around the house and also sells homemade bagels on the side.  She makes the best juice and is a champion sugar cane eater.  She has truly become a part of Joel and Jill’s family.  She is around 34 weeks pregnant with a littler girl named Abriele.  You mom’s know how to pray for her as she has her first child.  She actually went to the doctor today cause she hadn’t felt the baby in a while.  Abriele was perfectly fine, but continue to pray for both of them this week and this month. 

That afternoon we helped another missionary disassemble a solar water heater on a roof and transfer it to another property.  I’m not sure how many guys it should have taken to accomplish this task, but there were 7 of us (one not pictured) and we barely made it happen.  I’m sure it was a sight to see and dad, Robert, probably had the best view at his position of supervisor, which he is really good at! (Photo courtesy of Robert Sloan while "supervising")

Our dinner was a traditional Ugandan meal including matoke (a form of banana that is hard and cooked like mashed potatoes), Gnuts sauce (a sauce made from something mini peanuts), fried rice with vegetables, and grilled beef kebobs (it would more likely be grilled goat, but the beef was cheaper…praise the Lord).   The meal was made even more Ugandan when the utensils were taken away and we had to eat with our fingers!

We ended the night talking through the weekend and letting Joel give us any insights into their culture that would help us connect even better.  We finished with a sweet time of prayer around their dinner table and I would ask you to end your night the same way.  Would you take time to pray with your family for our team, the Skinner family, and the 60+ students who will be joining us for this training?  Pray for God to be glorified, Jesus to be proclaimed, and the Spirit to move in power!

God of all Creation!

Wednesday morning started at about 5:30am as we woke up to leave before the sunrise.  Dennis was our driver from Kampala to Mbarara and he drove us today as well.  He wanted to leave early so that we could try to see some lions at Queen Elizabeth National Park.  We grabbed some coffee and were out.  The sunrise was one of the most beautiful we’ve ever seen as we had made it to the western mountains of Uganda.  The picture above is from a lookout point at the top of the mountain as come out onto the plain of the national park.

We made it to Queen Elizabeth and began to see some waterbucks, monkeys, and even elephants, but Dennis just continued to drive because he wanted us to see some lions and sure enough we did.  He called some other drivers and caught up with them just as they found the lions.  We saw 2 males wrestling one another and 2 females stalking some antelope.  It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience for all of us. 

After the lions, Dennis slowed down and stopped for all the other animals.  We saw probably 60+ elephants and about 20 at one time crossing the road right behind us.  We saw baboons and monkeys early on, but one of the biggest thrills came as we were eating lunch.  We ate outside looking over a huge river channel at an embankment where water buffalo, hippos, crocs, and elephants all came down to drink and rest.  As we were watching we saw 4 hyenas come down and spook all the animals and begin to surround them.  Everything began to scatter in fear.  We never saw them attack, but we definitely had a glimpse into the real African wildlife.  I had to break out my Steve Irwin impression and describe the scene. 

After lunch we took a boat ride through the channel and got up close and personal with 100’s of hippos and water buffalo, a handful of crocs, about 20 elephants, and all kinds of birds.  After the boat ride, Dennis picked us up and we made our way back through the park and on our way home!

It’s amazing that the first day traveling we were amazed by how different the people and culture were, but after a while they begin to be common.  The same thing happened today at Queen Elizabeth.  At the beginning of the day, the first glimpse of an African animal is so impressive, but then after seeing them over and over they almost become common.  Cassidy found himself not wanting to waste pictures on just another elephant unless he had the perfect shot!

I pray that we would be amazed by the most common things in our life and see the glory of God in them as if it were the first time we had seen them. 

Different Cultures...Same Need...Same God...Same Mission

We made it to Uganda late Monday night Ugandan time, mid afternoon Texas time.  We got dropped at the guest house and found our rooms.  We sat outside for a while and watched bats fly overhead before crashing for the night.  Early Tuesday morning we enjoyed a breakfast at the guest house and then made the 5 hour journey to Mbarara.  While driving through Uganda we all were in awe of the differences between Texas and Uganda.  The culture is shockingly different in so many ways.  However, no matter the differences between countries and cultures, we all have the same great need.  That great need is a savior and that savior wants us to use our differences to reach people and show them how he is the only one who can meet that great need. 

When we arrived at Joel and Jill’s we had a great time of catching up and showing our team around their compound.  We may have enjoyed a turn or two on the mini zipline.  We had dinner with their AIM team that night and enjoyed being a part of their team training.  Joel had planned to show Louie Giglio’s sermon The Symphony of Praise.  He shared how we all have a place in God’s symphony and how we need to embrace that place on the team.  It was a great reminder of how we need to be who God created us to be and to do what he created us to do.  God’s definition of success for us as individuals is not earthly, but faithfulness to God.  We had a sweet time of prayer at the end as a group and just asked God to help us be faithful to who he has called us to be. 

My prayer for our church and these university students is that we would all recognize who God has created us to be and see our place in his great symphony.  I pray we would all see God’s view of success as faithfulness to him for what he has called us to do individually.  Each of these university students has their own place in fulfilling God’s kingdom here on this earth.  We all have a unique purpose to fulfill as well.  You don’t have to be me and I don’t have to be you.  Ugandans don’t have to be Americans and vice versa.  We all need to embrace our differences from country to country, culture to culture, family to family, individual to individual.  If we can embrace God’s unique design of each one of us, it will be so much easier to fulfill God’s purpose for your life.