2023 Recap for the Readers

Every year I write up a brief recap to send to those who give in support of the ministry labors of #letmeintroduceyou. As it is landing on a receipt, it always needs to be fit to one page which is already including other details. That feels quite prohibitive! Additionally, so many pray for the work of our hands, for those we meet and invest in, and for our strength through the challenges faced…yet I don’t have all your email addresses. That brings me to this writeup. My aim is not to be long-winded, but to look back and reflect on the kind ways the Lord was at work. We serve a great God, the One True God, and we magnify His name. He is worthy to be praised, worthy of our labors and our lives. It is our prayer that this, in addition to our updates and prayer requests through the year via email and social media, will give a clear picture of various ways the Lord is at work.

Some of our best spent time of 2023—not only in that year but in all of life—was the months in South Sudan. We are so privileged by the friendship and partnership we have with the missions family that helps us be there as often as we are able. The people have so warmly welcomed and received us. It is our great joy that we were able for the first time to help the discipleship move along. The father of the missionary family is a pastor-pilot and helps us reach this area. His family has warmly welcomed us to share their space and to enter their world, to our great joy. At times when the ministry plane has been down for maintenance or repair, you have helped us still reach this rural place through AIM AIR, a ministry support of Africa Inland Mission.

There is a great ministry of oral and written learning in this town and surrounding villages. Sudanese missionaries are being raised up here to enter unreached corners of South Sudan. Bible memory with understanding, sincere prayer, fellowship, and deep study of the Scriptures, have all had great impact on the Christian community but also on us. It has been formative, eye-opening, spiritually revitalizing, and full of joy even when challenges come. In July while there, Kilby faced a harsh round of malaria that I truly thought may take a dark turn, but we praise the Lord for the preservation of her life. It was our great joy to visit the church family there again last week and hear just how many were lifting her up in prayer. The Lord surely answered. We love these folks from the depths of our hearts.

We praise God for the fellowship we have shared and the instruction we could support and bring, and likewise all that we have witnessed and learned from these special people. We love to walk many miles to visit rural church plants, sing praise together, laugh and share stories, visit families as we minister home to home, and see the commitment of the believers who are the closest representation we have seen to the early church. Pray for those who have faced persecution and continued with resolve that only the Spirit could ignite. Pray for those who have resisted or opposed the gospel; God can soften the hardest hearts. Pray for the truth of the Word to flourish in this place, and for false teaching to be seen for what it is.

Back in Arua, our home base in the northern part of Uganda, in West Nile Region, there was much going on throughout the year. It was a great joy to preach the gospel in many places: Euata Church meeting in a home, Koboko Prison, Arua Main Prison, Arua Women’s Prison, Gift Church, Najah Islamic School, Standard College, Uganda Christian University, Mara Primary School, Jafurnga Reformed Baptist Church, children’s program, town squares, our Sunday Bible Fellowship, the West Nile Bible Training Center, daily during youth discipleship group on school holidays, Preacher’s Camp, our first Reformation Bible Community Meeting, the vegetable market, and to many “along the path.”

There was no shortage of the preached word going forth, and we praise God for every opportunity. We trust that His Word does not return void. We know that faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. It was a joy that many of these locations included several opportunities, especially at the Islamic school. Pray for those days to have been a turning point in the lives of the students, as the seed of the gospel was planted with many for the first time. Those students in particular also received Bibles which we pray will be put to use. It is always our prayer for our Muslim background friends to see and hear the truth of Jesus the Christ, who is more than a prophet or good teacher, but the living Son of God, who came to take the sin of the world on his sinless body on the tree, that we would have life in Him, reconciliation with God, peace forever.

By God’s grace, in October, we started a weekly radio broadcast which goes on air every Saturday evening after dark, once people have settled into their homes. I would say radio here is on par with television or movie subscriptions back in the states: everyone has a radio, and as many as possible listen to it, especially after dark! Our broadcast is called Hearing the Word. We have walked through stories reaching from Creation to Christ, shared messages on the incarnation, evangelism, the gospel, discipleship, the importance of Bible reading, and much more.

The goal is to speak clearly in a way that can be understood and followed along with from the Word. It was a great joy at the end of the year to hear a testimony of benefit from a lady at the local vehicle repair garage. She recognized my voice and said the broadcast has been a true aid to her and to others she knows. That was a great blessing to press on with this mission! The listening area includes several million people. Pray the Lord would use this for His glory in a land with much false teaching, much prosperity gospel, deception, and things called teaching and preaching which have no basis in the Word.

You helped us set up a ministry home, and prepare it for hosting and for guests. We hosted our first interns and learned much in the process. We pray that they saw much of this region of the world that is very different than the place and culture where they grew up. We pray the Lord will use that impact for all of their lives. They shared in the schools and were a great help with the children’s discipleship and outreach on Saturday mornings. I did my best to encourage them to think deeply, commit themselves wholeheartedly to the God of the Word, maintain a Christian worldview, and seek not their own interests but the interests of others. May we follow the Lamb wherever He leads, and seek to serve rather than to be served. May we become all things to all people but without sin, that Christ would be known.

You supported us in every ounce of this. Without our sending church, supporting churches, and beloved families full of friends, we could not be here. Thank you. I’ll carry on now.

You helped our pastor come over for a visit, from rural North Carolina to rural East Africa. What a journey that is! First the travel to Europe, then on to Africa with a stopover in Rwanda, then to the international airport in Uganda…followed by a 10 hour drive north! That’s dedication. I was overwhelmed with gladness at the opportunity to have a sound and faithful, humble and bold brother, my elder, to come alongside me in preaching and discipleship, testimony sharing and outreach. This was such a joyful time, though it went too quick! I was overjoyed by pastor Joseph sharing his testimony with the young men’s discipleship group, and also his clarity while speaking of the necessity and impact of the Holy Scriptures at the Anglican seminary nearby. Additionally, it was a privilege to host our dear sister Katie Cousins who is family to us. She came for 3 weeks at the end of her soccer season in Iceland. We love Katie and are so grateful she would take time to be among us, serve alongside us, and encourage us by way of fellowship without any certain expectations. It was such a gift.

The Lord truly met a great need for a reliable vehicle through you all, in His grace and providence. We were able to get the ministry truck that has yet to fail us. It crossed a raging river a few weeks back. Even the day we drove it north after purchasing it, we crossed rough roads we never would have made it through in the van. Thankyou from the bottom of our hearts. We have not been stranded once, up to now, and it has been truly a game changer.

The truck helped us transport so many Bibles and other books already, it brought us up to Moyo to share words of encouragement with rural churches over in the Metu Mountains and with our dear friends Jacob and Carol Lee, and has gotten us up and down the country without challenge several times now. We know that can change at any time, but we praise the Lord for these months of smooth transport in a nation and on a continent where that can be such a burden. By getting us to these places, the Word goes forth, discipleship carries on unhindered, and evangelism happens. This is our greatest tool in the ministry and I hope our gratitude is coming through these words!

Another note on transport: through your gifts, we were able to cover a good portion of the hefty transport costs to help bring a second airplane over for the South Sudan mission. We saw God’s hand and provision on both the truck and the story of His provision of this airplane to our mentors and friends. The truck came to us through IMB workers who no longer needed it, and they wanted it to go to someone who would put it to work for the gospel—they even turned down bags of cash in the driveway beyond what we would pay, while waiting on our check. Uncanny! Talk about God’s kindness in His Body.

Believers in the states provided the plane for the ministry in South Sudan, but the cost to get it to Uganda was still a gap. The Lord used all of you to fill that gap, and get this special aid for the ministry to the place where it is so needed. It reached the West Coast, was taken apart and loaded on a container on a ship, came to the coast of East Africa, was transported inland on a truck, and has arrived! This plane can land on shorter airstrips, or wherever there is a soccer field! It can take off in a shorter distance, and it may be the very tool the Lord uses to bring the good news of Christ Jesus to THOSE WHO HAVE NEVER HEARD! Please pray for the unreached of northern South Sudan to hear the Word as missionaries move through the country by way of this small plane. “May the Lamb who was slain receive the reward of His suffering.”

Thousands of books were purchased and brought over to support the discipleship of pastors, known readers, those desiring to grow and study, and those we are discipling! Hundreds and hundreds of these have gone out through other missionaries we love and support, and through us…which is through you. Thank you again from our hearts. We could never do this alone, and the Lord has seen fit to use you in all this work. We praise His holy name. What an honor to put Bibles in the hands of those so desirous of one. What a joy to put good reading material in place of terrible reading material, or where there was nothing to read at all. Alongside this, we praise the Lord for a brother in Florida who has continued to load used tech devices with Biblical material for use among some select leaders and readers this side. What a joy to place a whole library in their hands and see the gladness of heart in response to this gift! Audio devices also went out this year in some rural areas, where literacy is low, and we see the Lord bearing good fruit. Your support helped make that a reality.

You helped us obtain water filters, buckets, and lids, and get them from the US to rural Uganda for those struggling to have clean drinking water. You helped us print resources for the prison ministry discipleship program and provide Bibles to those who reach the level where they are told they will receive Bibles. There was a list of those who were without, and we were able to meet the need through you. We were able to carry on youth discipleship and share family meals with students who would not otherwise know much Biblical fellowship. We were able to provide tea and ‘escort’ (small foods/accompaniment) for those who came to our home. We were able to give rides and move every place we needed to, which is one of the biggest parts of our ministry.

We were able to support the labors of a local church as they were constructing their first building to keep them in the shade when the sun is shining hot and when the rain is pouring down. We were able to provide practical assistance for our young men as they move for school and training in different places. We were able to purchase a water storage container for the baptism of our brother Simon towards the end of the year. We were able to purchase discipleship manuals for a strong holiday training, from pastor Conrad Mbewe in Zambia, who we respect and appreciate. You helped us get much needed restoration, time for planning for the new year, and opportunity to share with church family in South Africa towards the end of 2023.

You enabled us to partner with a local brother in gathering pastors and leaders in our first Reformation Meeting, which we pray will become a regular meeting to guide and spur church leaders in Biblical understanding and godliness so they can do the same in the local churches. You guys helped in so many ways, and I could go on and on. I will go a little further and then I will stop. Please know, this is not ‘tooting our own horn’ as we have no boast in ourselves or from ourselves. We are sinners saved by grace and our boast is in Christ.

We were privileged to help in a few medical situations, including one where a young girl may have lost her leg without intervention. This was a way of showing the compassion of Christ to the family and also our community. The children from that home started coming to the children’s ministry. A dear sister was very unwell and had no means of getting medical treatment—we were able to provide. A young mother in a desperate situation was without food during several months—we saw the need and were able to meet it. There is no shortage of needs where we live. As a foreigner, you can be seen merely as a monetary resource or dispensary. We fight against this. We are not here to just give handouts. WE are here to be a gospel witness, a faithful neighbor, a help in discipleship, a clear representation of Christ and His love. We cannot meet every need, but we labor to be faithful and discern the will of the Lord. He has helped us greatly in 2023, and we give Him all glory and honor and praise because it is due to His name.

Pray for the young men, the pastors who received books, the children, the Muslim friends, the places where trainings were conducted in the city, in the village, in local churches, those hearing the radio broadcast. Pray for those who are wandering and those who are faithfully growing and those who are lost. Pray for those who heard the preaching in the evangelistic outreaches. Pray the Lord would raise up faithful leaders and disciplers, faithful churches and bold proclaimers of truth to the lost, in love. Pray for the opportunities that we were unable to say yes to, and that the Lord will guide and enable us in 2024.

And know from the depths of our souls, we appreciate you, praise the Lord for you, pray with gratitude for you and your families and local churches. To God be the glory forever and ever. Thanks for running this race with us. The gospel will not fail because it cannot fail. Christ will have his way.

I will come back and add photos for much of this but am presently pressed for time. Wanted to get this to a brother who asked for an update in this week. Here it is!

#JESUSisLORD