Book Gifts from Christianbook International Outreach

By Anthony:

I wanted to publicly express gratitude to Christianbook International Outreach and Crossway. Both of these companies recently donated books for Ugandan leaders on a shipping container that Christianbook paid for to send to Uganda. This was for many of their partners scattered around Uganda. I was blown away by their generosity. Both Christianbook and Crossway gave books, but not random old used books. They both gave brand new books of our choice. We and other members of our Resonate Global Mission team were able to request the specific books that we wanted. We could request books that Ugandan leaders were requesting or that they would appreciate.

We were able to request many Africa Study Bibles from Christianbook. This Bible is excellent because all of the study notes are from African theologians and Bible scholars. We gave these to various bishops from different regions of Uganda to give to some of their pastors.

Charles Epongu, secretary from Kaberamaido PAG pastorate says - "I would love to extend my gratitude to Christianbook for the wonderful offer of the Africa Study Bibles. These Study Bibles help God's Servants defend the truth in such a generation full of false teachings and prophecies. We continue to pray for more. God bless you."

Then for the Pastor's book group that I lead monthly in Soroti, Crossway gave us these Building Healthy Churches book sets. It will take us a couple years to get through all of the books. We have already finished the one called, "The Gospel" and are now on a second book. These books are prompting excellent and deep discussion! We are all learning more together.

Esolu Charles, deacon of Majengo PAG church said, "I am currently studying the book, The Gospel. I am gaining a deeper insight in the word of God through the elaborate exposition of Scripture. Also, it is amazing the way that the author brings out how we should use the gospel to shape the life and culture of our churches."

Other books that Christianbook gave us to distribute to pastors have included some books by Tim Keller, systematic theologies, a book on resolving conflict, and a book on biblical interpretation. Here is a photo of some of the Soroti PAG Assembly pastors who also received books.

Besides getting books for pastors, Sara was able to request Bible study books on Hebrews, Philippians, and Romans for the youth who participated in her Bible studies during Covid time. They were very excited to have another resource they can use to study the Bible with their friends.

 

There are a lot of places you can buy books today. But I heartily encourage you to support Christianbook and Crossway. They are not just out to make a profit. They are incredibly generous with their books to help pastors around the world. 

Life in Uganda

By Anthony:

As usual, I like to make periodic blog posts featuring different aspects of our lives here in Uganda, and some of the pictures I've saved up.

Here is a view of Jinja, Uganda, when I was there for leading a HWHIA training. I walked up a hill behind where we were staying. Uganda can be so beautiful.

Here is how I saw people drying clothes in Ghana. When you don't have enough clotheslines, you improvise.

Here is a view overlooking a part of Kampala, when I was there for a training.

Here is a video of driving through Kampala:

Driving in Uganda is interesting for a whole host of reasons. You have to watch out for animals, but not deer.

The roads are bad, like really bad in many areas. But to make things worse, when people are doing construction, so many nails end up in the roads. In one month I think we patched the same tire three times for different nails. Unfortunately one time got us out in the village in the morning in the dark. We were very ready to change the completely flat tire ourselves. But we couldn't get the old tire off even with our jack and all the tools. It needed our mechanic to come with a crowbar to finally wrench it off.

In September 2024, we had a visitor, Pat Smith, come from Midland Reformed Church in Michigan and stay with us. As one of our supporters and from our supporting church, he just wanted to come and experience our ministry and encourage us. He definitely encouraged us and made us feel loved and affirmed! While he was here he got to meet many of our friends, preach on the radio, help with Sara's painting classes for children, and preach in a rural church. He also met with local Ugandan Gideons (from Gideons International) as Pat is involved with the Gideons in the USA. This was a delight for him.

Pat also spent a day teaching my Soroti pastors' book group with me. Pat did most of the teaching with a little input from me here and there. He first taught about trust, confessing sin, accountability, and deep friendship between pastors. Then he taught about leadership.

My pastors' book club in Soroti continues to go well. It has grown to nearly 40 pastors. Here is a photo from when we went to a hotel pool, and I did my best to teach a few of them how to swim.

More recently, we had the pastors' group come to our new home for lunch. We gave them a tour of Sara's garden and our fish pond. Sara was able to share cuttings and seeds and do a bit of teaching on a few plants. 

Here are some interesting pictures from our neighborhood from Sara's jogging. The flying insects in the photos are termite "kings and queens" who emerge seasonally to mate and people call them "white ants." People catch them and then fry them up to eat. Sara also fries them up sometimes.

Look at how magical this video is. It's so beautiful.

Our dog Beorn has psychological issues that make him lick his legs until they bleed, so sometimes we put this plastic bottle on him until he heals up. It can be pretty funny the situations he gets himself in such as getting his bowl stuck on his head!

We occasionally get snakes in our yard, but we have not yet gotten any harmful snake species.

We have a friend in Kampala, Jilanne, who is a partner missionary with Resonate Global Mission and works at Kampala Evangelical School of Theology, one of Resonate's partners. She enjoyed spending a week with Sara at our home while I was traveling for Helping Without Hurting in Africa. It sounds like one of the highlights was catching one of our ducks!

Sara continues to try to find time here and there to paint on our walls. It's relaxing for her, and we both love the results.

Here are some animals we see in our yard. The first is a skink. It was running around our kitchen. When I caught him, he bit me. It didn't draw blood, but it was surprising!

A lizard I caught on our outside wall.

Fun with chameleons:

We enjoy our home and where we live. Look at how beautiful Sara's garden is.

Unfortunately, we didn't consider when we chose to move to where we are that there are so many bars nearby. (We live in a center which means there are shops right across the street from us). Sometimes the music at the bars really disrupts our sleep because they play music even to the late hours of the night. LOUD music, that goes way beyond the noise pollution laws. But in Uganda most laws of any kind are not enforced well. Many people in the community are unhappy about the noise. I thought of calling the police myself but never have. After people complained to the local government leaders, this is what happened:

The local leaders warned the bar boys repeatedly, but the boys laughed and didn't listen. So one night the leaders got soldiers from the army to come and those soldiers caught as many of the boys as they could before some ran away. Then they laid them down on the ground and caned them. This is more like a spanking, there were no injuries. Hearing about this we really thought maybe a change was coming! 

Unfortunately the problem remains and the music only gets louder and louder as the months go by. We will continue to talk to our local leaders to see what can be done. I'm summarizing and condensing what is a long saga about this noise with many players and discussions. Please be in prayer for us about this!

Family Planning in Irundu

By Sara:

In July, my friend Jane and I spent a fun and interesting few days in Irundu, where we were invited to teach at a 2-day conference about parenting and family planning.  Reverend Silas, who was one of Anthony and my students at the Pentecostal Bible College in 2009, invited us to come and he organized his church members for the event.

The church has a guest room in their church office, where Jane and I stayed.  They took really good care of us and were very generous with plenty of food and tea the whole time we were there.

In our guest room:

Silas and many families in his church are struggling to care for their children and many families in the community are unable to feed, clothe, and educate their children well.  He wanted us to share with the church about how they can prepare and plan for their families in order to be able to be better parents.  The issue is not about population control or telling people not to have children.  Rather, it is the church's concern for parents to be able to be good parents - providing for, teaching, and guiding children; understanding the difference between for example, using a condom and having an abortion; and wanting to have space between pregnancies for the mother to recover and have quality time with the baby.  

Here is Silas introducing us on the first day:

 

 

The teaching went extremely well.  People in Uganda use the phrase "family planning" to refer to what Americans would call "birth control methods".  But Jane and I wanted to explain how "family planning" is not about preventing pregnancy, but about more general planning and preparing for and caring for a family, even beginning to think about it before getting married.  

 

So Jane started out by talking about the purpose of parenting, using God - our Father - as an example.  God created the whole world, including everything Adam and Eve would need before making them - he planned ahead.  He provided for their needs, spent time with them in the Garden of Eden, gave them instructions, and disciplined them when they sinned.  And even in his punishment he was merciful - he went to them, made them clothes, and went on with his work of redemption.  Likewise, parents have a responsibility to not only take care of their children physically, but to also talk to them, instruct them, teach them about God, discipline them, and seek their children out for reconciliation when the children misbehave.  Since children are such a blessing from God, parents are stewards of the children God has gifted them and therefore parenting should not be taken lightly.  Jane also emphasized how even unmarried people and those who cannot have children can and should take part in parenting through their relationships with other peoples' children.

After Jane had established the responsibilities of parents, I gave a session on the basic biology of how the human reproductive system works.  It was similar to when I taught high school biology in Minnesota.  I also listed and explained what kinds of birth control methods there are, how various types work, and the difference between abortion and methods that prevent fertilization.  Many people did not know what happens during the menstrual cycle and had no idea why a woman might get pregnant at a certain time, but not at another.  They also didn't understand how different birth control methods work or what they even are and therefore only knew about them based on rumors and myths they had heard before.  But they appreciated getting a better understanding of how their bodies work so they can plan their families better and use that knowledge to teach their own children about sex, rather than leaving it as a mystery for the children to find out on their own.  

 

At the end, Jane brought it all together, talking about how parents can use those methods to plan for and space their children, in order to parent their children better.  In Uganda, school is not free, not even the government schools and because of an increasing desire for education, this has resulted in peoples' expenses shooting up in recent decades.  Many schools are very expensive - imagine if each year of elementary or high school cost more than a year of college (college is way less expensive in Uganda than in the US, but proportionally here it is cheaper than grades 1-12 at certain schools).  This creates a huge challenge for parents who want to educate their children, but have to come up with the money for all the school fees.  Even if a family raises more than enough food to feed themselves for a year, many of those people sell it all off to pay for school fees.  So, Jane pointed out that it is good to be preparing for children, even before getting married, so you are not taken by surprise by school fees when the children are born.  Maybe buy a goat when you get pregnant and raise it as an investment for the child - let it multiply and be a source of income for school fees or medical fees for them as they grow up.

One evening, we went to Silas' home for dinner.  He lives in a very beautiful area of the country, very close to Lake Kyoga, but on the other side from Soroti.

Our last day was a Sunday, when I had the opportunity to teach the church a Bible study method they can use to study the Bible with their families.  It was a good application of the things we had been teaching - giving parents a tool they can use to help them raise their children to know the Lord and to be able to talk to their children about meaningful topics.

Kalaki Testimonies

 By Sara:

Recently, I had a great visit back to Kalaki, to a place where I did a variety of nutrition trainings over several years.  We talked about the basics of nutrition, vegetable gardening, moringa, chaya, and how to improve the food value of what we serve to our children.  

I wanted to know if there had been any impact on the lives of the people I taught there, so Tom, our friend who coordinated the group, helped me organize visits to some of the group members' homes.  We visited six different homes and talked to the families we met there, learning about the ways they put what they learned into practice and what they found most helpful from the trainings.

Everyone had chaya growing at their home and we even met a man, Omena, who received chaya cuttings from his neighbor, even though no one in his family had ever come to a training.  Omena's son has anemia and the family had been struggling to buy him leafy greens to eat every day, especially during the dry season, after a doctor told them they needed to have greens be a central part of his diet.  Now that they have chaya, however, they don't need to buy greens during the dry season anymore.  Instead, they always have chaya, even when it is too dry to grow other types of greens.  This helps them take care of the health of their son and has saved their family money.  Now, they are sharing chaya with many other people since it is planted in a prominent place in their yard.  Every time a visitor comes to their home, they notice the strange plant and ask about it.  Omena and his family teach them what it is and give out cuttings so their visitors can go home and plant it too!

Two of the ladies we visited from the group gave testimonies about how they have added moringa to their diets.  They told us that they (the group members) are the only ones in the community who know the value of moringa and know how to eat it.  I had to encourage them to share with their neighbors what they know, rather than keeping it to themselves, but I suspect they just don't want to compete with other people in harvesting the moringa growing around the village!  In all seriousness, though, they both enjoy eating moringa.  One of them, Aleso, has also added more variety to her family's diet by planting a kitchen garden of tomatoes, eggplants, and onions.  She also planted more fruits around her home, including avocado trees, oranges, and bananas.  This was a result of learning the importance of eating many different foods and including fruits and vegetables in your everyday diet.

We also had a fun time visiting the wife of Bishop Martin, the Pentecostal bishop of that area.  He attended my training on chaya back in 2018 and his family has been promoting chaya to the community ever since.  All the people we visited told us that the bishop and his wife are the main suppliers of chaya to everyone who wants it.  When we went to their home, his wife also shared about how she is using the knowledge I taught the group about using local plants to protect your harvested crops.  She uses plants like lantana, neem, and eucalyptus to protect her green gram, sorghum, cassava, and sweet potatoes from weevils during storage.  She told us that she has successfully kept those harvested crops for over a year without them getting affected by pests.

It is always encouraging to know that what I am doing made a difference.  But it is even more exciting to see the people I taught passing their knowledge on to others around them.