Pastor Conference

On the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of November, Jess and Calvary Chapel Jinja hosted a Calvary Chapel pastors' conference. The theme was "The Words of a Pastor."
Sometimes we think that the only words of a pastor that count are the ones he speaks from the pulpit. And these are, of course, EXTREMELY important, but there are so many other words that a pastor speaks that affect the lives of so many other people.
So 40 Calvary Chapel pastors and lay pastors from different areas of Uganda met at CCJinja for a three day seminar. The pastors from Jinja - Jess, Ryan, J.B. and Steven - taught several of the sessions, and the Senior and Asst. pastors from CC Fort Portal also taught.
Some of the subjects were: gossip by the pastor, words spoken to people on the streets, words spoken to the congregation outside of church, keeping confidences from counseling, words spoken to children, and words spoken at home to wife and family.
For the first time, many of the pastors were visibly convicted by the Holy Spirit and had to stand up before the others and confess that they were guilty of many offenses when speaking to others.
In the discussions, the men actively participated and talked about personal subjects that they had never discussed before. The men also said that the fellowship this time was incredible and they spent a lot of time encouraging each other in their various ministries.
After it was over, in the van on the way to the taxi park, the men were talking about how this was the best conference they had ever attended and how they all needed to change so much about the way they lived and the way they spoke.
We pray that there is going to be MUCH fruit from this conference! There already is some fruit here at CCJinja as WE all try very hard to watch our words and "tame our tongues."

Also, while we are in the middle of our Women's study inside the church, Lilian is teaching Bible stories to the children outside underneath the Sunday School hut!

Women Learning the Bible!

I started to write on Thursday about what a great time we had at the ladies' Bible study in Iguluibi (where there is a Calvary Chapel) and I was just so tired I couldn't stay up even one minute later to write. But just a quickie about it tonight: One of the things that most women here in Uganda cannot do is read or hear the Scriptures and understand what it means. There are several reasons. One of the main ones is that very few women here can read - whether it be English or their own language. Especially in the villages, most women went only a few years to school and they never learned to read. Another reason is that they have not been taught and have not practiced hearing a passage and understanding it. So most people here learn "what they believe" about Jesus, salvation, and Bible from listening to someone else read (or not) the Bible and then telling them what it says and means. Many "Bible teachers" here will just pick one verse of the Bible and read it and then "teach" for one or two hours on whatever they want to teach about, whether it pertains to that Scripture or not. So people can so easily be led astray by false teaching because they have no way to refute what is being taught. We have a bit of an advantage in teaching the Gospel because Calvary Chapel believes in teaching through a book of the Bible expositorially, verse by verse, so that people can hear the actual Word for themselves and cover virtually every subject God speaks about instead of just touching on favorite topics. When we teach through a book, people can hear the continuous Word of God for themselves and that is so important! But the schools here do not teach you to read something and then understand it, so for the last few years the Bible studies I teach do something a little bit different. We do teach through a book of the Bible - and I do read it aloud - and one of the wonderful Ugandan women who work with me translates (sometimes three different translations in three different languages all at the same time), and then I teach on the passage. But I don't teach for the full Bible study time. I prepare in advance a question sheet about the Scripture we are studying that day, and then the women break into small groups led by our Ugandan staff women to answer those questions. This was incredibly "foreign" and difficult for them at first and the questions had to be incredibly simple and specific. For example, the Scripture that says "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth," would be followed by questions like "When were the heavens and the earth created?" and "Who created the heavens and the earth?" Now when I ask questions, there can actually be some thought and discussion about the answers. The women LOVE learning the Scriptures this way! And just the last three months, I not only have been asking questions, but also am starting to list verses that deal with our topic and without my teaching that verse, they read it and discuss it among themselves, again with our Ugandan staff ladies leading the groups. This way the Ugandans teach as much as I do, and the ladies learn in their own languages. And they really are learning! And last Thursday, they were understanding so well that they could actually point out specific examples that they had seen in their lives and the lives of others and they were LAUGHING about these things together! This may sound really strange to our "Western" ears where we have a totally different way of learning and this is fairly commonplace to us, but here in Uganda it is SO DIFFERENT and I am so excited about two things: One, that our Ugandan staff (Julie, Mary, Lilian, Rodah, and Grace) are leading the groups and doing the teaching themselves, and Two, that the women in the groups are learning, enjoying the study, and applying it to their lives! This last Thursday in particular just gave me such joy, watching them discuss and laugh and work together to learn God's Word! I just can't really describe it, but I hope you understand a little of what I am talking about!
God bless you, and please pray for these ladies!!

Food for the Hungry

J.B. just returned to Jinja from a trip to two of our northern churches, CC Ogongora and CC Olele.
The people in the area of these churches have been experiencing famine for the last several months. Crosspoint Community Church in Reno, Nevada, had given us a gift of $4,000 to use for some special ministry. This turned out to be the exact amount needed to give to each of the 150 households contained in those two churches a 50 kilo bag (110 lbs) of maize meal, the staple food for all of East Africa. Several people there are on the verge of starvation and a few have died already. This maize meal (posho) is enough to sustain life for each of these families for about a month. It has just started raining and so in about a month crops should be grown enough to eat. It's amazing to me how God can provide exactly what we need when we depend completely on Him. And truly, the money was the EXACT amount we needed. God is good and we are so grateful.