There is no way to adequately put into words the way we have seen God at work in these last days. The words that keep running through my head are "Lord I am amazed by you!" (lyrics to the song Amazed by Desperation Band) but even these words do not seem enough! Thank you to everyone who has been lifting us up in prayer - wow have your prayers been answered!!
As mentioned breifly in my post "prayer requests and praises" a huge praise is that Christopher was released from the hospital last week! After suffering from a stroke, he spent a little shy of a month in the medical ward of the local hospital. It is truly a miracle that he is alive and we give God all the glory for saving his life! He is still in a tremedous amount of pain and still does not have the movement of his arm back, but we are thankful that he is well enough to return home to his family. Would you ever continue praying with us for his complete recovery?
I also breifly mentioned in my last blog post to pray for my meeting with the Director of Agriculture of Arua Municiapal Area. I met with the director, Dr. Stella, last week and God blew me away during the meeting. Not only is Dr. Stella a young, women, vetrinarian, but she also has just been newly appointed to the position of Director of Agriculture. As we talked we were both excited about the way God had placed us together for this time and right off the bat we knew that this was a partnership from God! Since Dr. Stella has just been newly appointed the Municipal Council is still trying to figure out what her job should look like and plan for the next year. Dr. Stella said that since everything is still in the planning stages she was going to write me in as part of the "year long plan" so that from the beginning I would be a part of the agriculture development in Arua. WOW - once again can I say "Lord I am amazed by you!"
Another amazing thing is that she also wants me to travel to all the Arua sub-areas with her to meet local farmers and asses what the agriculture needs are in the Arua district. What a great way to meet people and form relationships with people in every sub-district of Arua - no telling how God can use these relationships! Wait there is more....she also wants me to be involved in artifical insemination (A.I.)! (It's okay you can laugh) One of the things she wants me to do is to inform the local population of the benefits of A.I. and train others to become certified in this area. It really is true that God will use anything to bring people to Himself! Who knows who may come to know Christ because their cow gets pregnant :)
Not only did I have an awesome meeting with the Director of Agriculture, but today Erica and I had another awesome meeting where once again I thought, "Lord I am amazed by you!" Today we met with Rev. Susan who is on the leadership team at St. Phillips, one of the Church of Uganda churches that is well known here in Arua. We had tried to meet with Rev. Susan two weeks ago, but we were unable to connect - now I know why - it's all about God's timing. This last Sunday we went to another Church of Uganda church to celebrate with them as they had their first church service in their new building. The people of this church had been raising money for over 37 years and last Sunday was the first time the church was opened! Wow...talk about dedication and hard work! As we set down for the church service I looked down the row and recognized Rev. Susan. After the service (which lasted 4 hours and that was only part a) we arranged to meet with her today.
Our hope was to pick apart her brain and learn more about the culture and needs of the people. As we talked she offered many insights to the people here that were pretty amazing. Then as we continued she mentioned a need for training Sunday School teachers and for children's ministry training. Erica and I looked at each other as we had both felt a burden to train Sunday School teachers at this particular church and here was Rev. Susan confirming that need. She shared with us that every Sunday there are over 1,000 children that come to Sunday School and only 8 teachers, of which only 1 of the teachers has any kind of training. I cannot even imagine the challenge these teachers face with having to teach so many children. As we shared our vision for training Sunday School teachers, how our purpose was not to take over Sunday School or Children's Ministry, but to equip Ugandans to reach their own people, Rev. Susan's face was filled with joy as she kept saying "this is what we need!" As we continued to talk different church staff members joined our meeting and as we all shared we could sense that this too was a partnership from God! I can only imagine how those 8 teachers can impact the world by reaching out to 1,000 children! Would you ever pray for those teachers and for those precious children!
To God be the Glory great things He has done!
