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.