| Uganda Mission Trip Report |
| December 28, 2006 -
January 10, 2007 |
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We want to thank the church for your
prayers and financial support in sending us to Uganda. We were a part of a graduation ceremony where 20 pastors and 22 women received diplomas in Bible. These students had been attending classes one week a month for the past year. Most of them had been sleeping on mats and eating rice and beans for that week of classes. Their degree was the result of 500 classroom hours. We worked with an indigenous
ministry called Tree of Life Ministry Uganda. They have a Bible/Trade School
for pastors and for women. They also do medical missionary work all over
Uganda, even up toward the Sudan border where thousands of refugees are
camped. They have a ministry for orphans and an extensive church
planting ministry. I (Bubba) did my doctoral work in 1999 with this
group of pastors and saw them start 144 churches in a nine- We saw many miracles on this mission
trip and we all had some “angel encounters.” Angels come in many
different forms and the Bible says that they are “all ministering
spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation.” (Hebrews
1:14)
We were all deeply moved in one of
the villages we visited called Nawango. The Nawango Baptist Church was
birthed in July, 2003. Their pastor’s name is Joshua. He is educated as
a school teacher with a certificate to teach. He turned down a teaching
position in the city of Kampala in order to pastor this small village
church. They started out with about 100 members in 2003. The area
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We left on
Thursday, December 28, and arrived in Uganda on Friday night, December
29. On Saturday we (nine of us) traveled all day to arrive at our base
camp, a village called Kakombo. For the next eight days we traveled to
seven different villages, one each day. At each village we would have a
worship service in the church and then break into several small groups
for teaching and activities: women, children, teens, farmers, school
teachers, and pastors. People would gather from neighboring villages for
this event. In one village there were about 1500 people waiting for us
when we arrived. Then we would gather together again for a concluding
service before we would head back to our base camp. We saw over 160
people receive Jesus Christ and prayed with many, many more. 
month period.
The Tree of Life board of directors are some of my closest friends on
earth. Their vision is to establish Bible training centers in strategic
locations all across Uganda. These centers are in a central village
(called “trading centers”) and will have a strong church, water well,
school, and clinic. The church will also serve as a teaching extension
of the Tree of Life Seminary for pastors in and around that village. The
model for these centers is in Kakombo, which has the school, clinic, and
seminary classes. 
Most of the time you do not realize you have encountered an angel
until later (they do not like to call attention to themselves) but the
message from God that they are sent with is unmistakable. Some of us
suffered from sickness and even malaria. It was the most difficult trip
and yet it was the best. I laughed more and cried more on this trip than
on any previous mission trip. 
is
very poor with many orphans, and of course Joshua has never received a
salary. In fact, the church does not have any land or building. For the
past three years they have met on borrowed land under trees and a tarp.
They have been asked to move to other land two times. Joshua told us
that they were down to about 60 members. But they were all gathered
together when we arrived and we saw over 68 people come forward to
receive Christ! The Tree of Life directors see this location as a place for
one of the teaching centers. We will be discussing as a church about how
we can adopt this church and village and partner with them in that
vision. We are praying that God will allow us to go back next year
(December 27, 2007 - January 9, 2008). 
Our mission vision is to go where
God sends us with the intention of going back and establishing
long-lasting relationships with a church and partnering together in what
God has given each of us to do. We also seek a balanced approach with
the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs of the person all
fully met in Jesus Christ. We seek to be part of seeing the people of
God all over the world, in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of
the earth, influence others with the life-giving, life-changing, gospel
of Jesus Christ.|
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Copyright (c) 2000-2008, First Baptist Church, C.C. TX. |