Giving Tuesday began in 2012 as a way to encourage giving back after the widely recognized shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It serves as a kick-off for the holiday giving season and celebrates philanthropy and volunteerism.
On Tuesday, December 1, we begin our Giving Tuesday campaign that will provide Bibles for pastors and new believers. Imagine desperately wanting to grow in your faith, but having no way to study God’s Word. Help us provide these believers with a copy of the Bible in their native language. The cost of a Bible is only $10. Simply click donate to be part of this exciting campaign!
We are excited about a new project to provide education for homeless children in DR Congo. UBC recently established a feeding site for homeless children in Goma. Through your gifts, a building has been constructed to provide them with shelter and a place to sleep. The next step is to provide an education so that they can break the cycle of poverty. Click the flyer below to learn how you can help!
My name is Ye Tun Aung. I am from Khuki village and a member of the NAGA tribe. This area is mostly unreached for Christ and there are very few Christians. I was brought up in a Christian family along with two younger brothers and three younger sisters.
Though I was brought up in a Christian family, I did not have assurance of salvation. I pretended to be Christian until I was 15 years old. I was involved in youth and activities of the church, but I never felt real joy in my life. One day, I attended a crusade held by a Chin Evangelist, Saya YaCawng. I heard the power of the good news and accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior and Lord. From that day onward I have assurance of salvation. Now, I am sure that if I die today, I will be with the Lord.
After I completed school, I wanted to attend Bible college. I needed to earn money, so I left home and moved to Phakanh to work. I spent the next four years away from home and my Christian support system. I came to feel the absence of God in my heart. I began to make bad choices in friends, which led me to use drugs and alcohol. I was totally addicted. My purpose was lost. I wanted to died many times.
By God’s grace, I was allowed to meet God again with the help of Pastor Sein Tun, a missionary from FBC. I became so hungry for the word of God and wanted to know more about Him. Glory Be to God and honor to His worthy Name! From my village, Pastor Tun and I walked for two days, then we took a bus for four days to arrive at Myanmar Bible College.
Myanmar Bible College is equipping me with biblical knowledge, helping me mature spiritually, and transforming me to be a better man. I know that when I graduate I will be the best usable instrument for God’s kingdom. After graduation, I will serve as a missionary in the many unreached areas of Myanmar, sharing the transformative message of Christ.
Many in DR Congo, an area that is plagued by war and poverty, have not had the opportunity to attend school or receive any job training. Those that do attend school are often forced to abandon their education due to the inability to pay school fees or because they are needed to assist at home with younger children or tend fields and livestock.
That’s all changing because of UBC’s commitment to provide valuable life skills to the people in the communities they serve. They currently have two vocational schools with additional programs that provide training in agricultural farming and goat and pig farming. They operate four handcraft centers that provide instruction in sewing and tailoring, as well as 230 literacy centers across the region. In the photo below, women are learning to read and write Swahili. This class costs each woman only $1 per month. What an amazing gift to be able to read and write!
Please be in prayer for the leaders at UBC as they work to expand their programs by upgrading computer labs and adding additional sewing machines to accommodate more students.
Success Stories
My name is Julienne Furaha, and I am 17 years old. I was forced to abandon school when I was in Form One (comparable to 9th grade)
because my parents are poor and could not afford my school fees.
I learned that the church in Hekima had a training center that taught sewing. I attended the center and spent six months studying sewing and how to use the sewing machine. I graduated last year and have started my own sewing room. I am able to make clothes and other things to earn money to help feed my family and to provide for my personal needs. Life has changed so much because I had the opportunity to learn. I am so thankful for the training center.
My name is Prince Kirumbula, and I am 36 years old. As a child, I did not attend any school. When I heard that Bethel church opened a school for adults, I knew I wanted to attend. After only one year, I knew how to read and write Kiswahili. I also took training in mathematice. Now I am able to do my small business knowing the math without any problems. I am grateful for the privilege of learning this far into my life. I had a big privilege of knowing what I was not expected to know. Many thanks to the UBC.
It seems like such a minor thing here in the United States: access to sanitary pads for women. They are readily available at an affordable price. That’s not the reality in rural Africa. While a variety of feminine hygiene products is available in large cities like Nairobi or Mombasa, there are no options for young women in rural villages.
Thousands of girls miss three to five days of school each month due to their menstrual cycles. Those absences lower their academic performance and self-esteem. It also widens gender disparities in educational achievements. Girls may also endanger their health by resorting to unhygienic solutions, like leaves, old cloth, sponges, or cotton from mattresses.
The leadership and staff of Pokot Outreach Ministry’s children’s homes have long searched for a sustainable solution to provide young women with the supplies they need for their monthly menstrual cycle. Over the past few years, several teams from the US have brought sanitary pads to distribute, but that was not practical for the long-term. In July, a team introduced a reusable sanitary pad kit.
The kit includes all of the materials to make a reusable sanitary pad holder, two washable sanitary pads, and a pretty bag for discreet storage. The girls will sew the kits themselves, not only giving them the satisfaction of being part of this solution, but equipping them with a valuable skill. Once they master making the pieces, they can then begin to create kits to sell to others.
As the assembly and sewing was explained, the girls’ faces began to brighten as they realized the freedom this solution would afford them. They eagerly waited their
turn to sew a few stitches on the sample. Jane, the sewing instructor in Kodich, immediately went to her sewing machine to work. Many of the girls gathered around as she completed an entire kit in an hour!
The sanitary pad kits were provided for young women through our partners in Kenya and South Sudan. We are excited to be part of bringing this sustainable solution to young women and hope to be able to expand this program to our other African partners in the future.
The church in China, like China itself, is complicated. Western missionaries laid much of the foundation for today’s church over 150 years ago. Recent growth in Christianity began and spread from the countryside. Various sources estimate there are between 80 and 140 million Christians in China today, owing largely to a period of explosive growth beginning shortly after the death of Chairman Mao.
China is a very performance driven environment. Purely unconditional love is an alien idea and often interpreted as being selfish. Understanding that God has made us in His image and thus relational, we have an inbred desire for unconditional love and acceptance. This is not to say that Chinese people do not love … they do! But rather love’s expression is often conditioned upon performance and compliance. This idea is quite foreign to the Western mind, but is quite prominent to the Eastern mind. As such, always trying to seek parental approval and not always measuring up leaves a hole in people’s hearts that Christ’s unconditional and freely given love fills. Chinese people, in general, do not struggle with the idea of being sinful. In fact they are often overly self-critical. The idea of one who unconditionally accepts them, forgives them, and loves them is an overwhelming emotion. This catalyzes their journey to faith and creates a great desire to share this amazing gift!!
When considering church planting and evangelism, the final clause of Acts 2:47 comes to mind: “And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” Christ’s sovereign commitment to grow His church is being carried out in two primary ways in China. The first derives from China’s cultural make-up, the second from political and physical restrictions. These two factors stated, the catalyst for people coming to faith is their search for unconditional love and meaning in their lives.
Unlike the West, China does not have formal church planting programs – they just do it! China’s believers are natural church planters because they are natural evangelists, wanting to share the unconditional love they have discovered. Chinese society places a strong emphasis on the family. As a result, when one family member comes to faith, they immediately and enthusiastically share their faith with their extended families. In urban environments, the “family” extends to include colleagues and college classmates. Frequently over 50% of these family members will come to faith. When this happens, they have the nucleus of a new house church – and it gets “planted.” If not this outcome, the new believers are faithful to keep sharing and many will come to faith over an extended period of time. In the meantime, these new believers will join an existing house church and start growing in their faith. As a result the existing house church network organically grows from the family nucleus or the “adding to” of existing churches resulting in new plants when they reach physical size barriers.
The second factor fueling growth is political and physical restrictions – which are interdependent. The Church in China and the government co-exist in an uneasy symbiosis. Neither side wishes to intentionally antagonize the other resulting in confrontation. One of the practical ways this plays out is by not getting “too big” in any one location. This, coupled with the physical limitations of a house church (the houses are small) naturally leads the church to plant new churches. In the countryside this happens in the 75-125 person range and in the city at 50-75 people. In this way, the house churches do not antagonize the government and the government largely leaves them alone. As well, issues associated with shepherding groups larger than this size with lay-leadership factors into their church planting.
As is the case, nationals will always be more productive, cost effective, and efficient at reaching nationals. This is THE challenge in China today. Not church planting, not to encourage them to be evangelistic or missions oriented beyond their borders, and not to create more formalized church structures like we have in the West. In fact, the West can learn a great deal about church growth from China! Rather, and simply stated, China needs to develop and equip a generation of church leaders with the tools to lead and shepherd their fellowships – and this is nothing short of a God-sized undertaking.
Summer camps in Russia have become the backbone of Hope for Life Homes’ ministry to orphans living in government orphanages. Not only have we seen the eternal impact the camps make, it provides the local church a platform for follow up in the orphanages. Numerous children have come to know Christ at camp and have since made a tremendous impact in their orphanages by sharing the love of Jesus!
This summer we have the privilege of sending these precious children to summer camp for fun, spiritual growth, and encouragement. Words cannot fully express the opportunity this is for so many orphans in Russia!
We’ve seen first hand the effects of children spending two weeks with people who are committed to sharing God’s love and building relationships with them that will last for years to come. Give the gift of hope to an orphan today! Simply click donate above to help.
I am so glad to share with you what the Lord has been doing in our evangelism outreach during the past few months here in Pallisa and other places. It has been our joy to share the love of God to people through our evangelism efforts. Jesus often used real life stories to teach the people who gathered around him. With compassion, He related to the needs of people. Jesus worked incredible miracles – miracles of healing, provision, and deliverance. In the same way, our ministry has responded to the great commission in Matthew 28. Over time, our ministry has seen thousands of people respond to the call of salvation. Our God is an awesome God!
As a church, we believe that evangelism must always lead. This is a central truth I have practiced everywhere. I, the evangelist, bring my nets and borrow the nets of the local churches, and together we cast our nets into the human ocean. The Holy Spirit will pull them to Himself. I strongly believe there is an urgency in my heart and in the ministry to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in the most Muslim-populated areas and unreached communities of Uganda.
During a week-long crusade in Pallisa, 362 people accepted Christ! These new believers will receive discipleship through River of God Church and other churches that have been planted in their communities. Yusuf, a former Muslim, had for many years heard the gospel, and he finally got saved during this crusade. He is now free from the bondage of pornography and chooses instead to study his Bible. He is receiving discipleship in our church. I am thrilled to see how the Lord is working!
Our most recent evangelism campaign was in Karamoja, which is located in northeastern corner of Uganda. Karamoja is one of the unreached communities that still practices ancient traditional religious beliefs. There is widespread illiteracy, making it difficult for the people that do accept Christ to grow in their faith and understanding of the gospel.
During the week-long campaign, we reached out to four villages including the largest village in East Africa called Nakaperumoru, which is estimated to have between 20,000 and 30,000 people. A team of 15 people held open-air crusades, visited people in their homes, and distributed clothing to children and medical supplies to the hospital. During the open-air meetings, 276 gave their lives to Christ. We conducted two discipleship classes to help lay leaders minister to these new Christians. The Lord has laid this group of people strongly on my heart to continue to evangelize, disciple, and plant churches.
I am so thankful to the faithful believers who have supported us financially and in prayer to bring the harvest of souls in the Kingdom. Please continue to pray as we focus our efforts on planting and supporting new churches in the unreached villages of Uganda.
Living Testimony – During our last visit to Karamoja last year, we visited with several families. One had lost all its property including the house due to a fire. We counseled the family and prayed with them and encouraged them that God loved them and would take care of their needs. In our visit last week, we visited the family again. They greeted us with big smiles on their faces! The Lord had enables them to build another house and a child that had run away returned home. They are now filled with joy and they continue to thank God!
Crusades are a vital part of our ministry. They allow us to venture into new areas, take an inventory of the needs there, provide training and assistance for pastors, and develop a plan for planting new churches or establishing ministries to aid villagers.
We held nine crusades in April in the mountains of Congo where pastors and lay leaders work in difficult conditions.
There are no roads in this area, which makes the trip especially grueling. There are pastors with no Bibles. If they do have a Bible, it is in poor shape and may be missing several books. There is a great need for Bibles in this area.
$10 supplies a new Bible
Despite harsh conditions and lack of written Word, God is faithful! The crusades produced over 1,200 new believers and many others rededicated their lives to Christ. Over 100 were baptized. The leaders of churches in the area were so excited and have asked us to organize crusades each quarter.
It is our prayer that these crusades will result in many more churches planted, lives changed, and disciples made. All so that the cycle of growth and commitment can continue.
Winter greetings to you all from the snowy and icy roads where I am struggling to drive! I arrived in the US on February 11 and started my ground trips from Texas. I thought down south was my kind of weather. Boy was I wrong!
CHURCH PLANTING AND EVANGELISM
We are experiencing the power of the gospel all over our outreaches. In December, we had a gathering of over 3,000 people in the northern part of eastern Uganda in Auorkeya Village. The people walked for many miles from several other villages to come and hear the gospel preached. These are people who have never heard the gospel because of the hostility towards each other. Over 400 people received Christ as their Savior. We thank God that people who sat out in the open and under very hot heat were very patient to listen to the gospel.
From there, we climbed the mountain of Korokow and preached to over 1,000 mountain people. The mountain people are usually not open to meetings or gatherings. That great number was really God-made and a good sign of God’s touch on them. Over 100 people came to know Christ.
Thank you for your prayers for South Sudan. Reuben is mentoring two men from the community. They participated in the recent Pastor’s Conference for additional training and were challenged to help continue to the spread of the gospel.
ORPHANAGES
Some of you may have lost your parents when you were young. You remember how difficult life was, but God’s hand brought you so far. It is true for us that God has been the Father of the fatherless in Kodich, Kauriong, and Chemolingot orphanages. He has provided such that these kids are now recognized as the only sure group among the Pokot that can excel in education. The future is also bright for us as a ministry because it is from these kids that we get pastors, teachers, nurses, and other servants to work with us.
We thank God that Chemolingot will soon have good classrooms. The buildings will surely enhance education quality at the orphanage. We thank God for Pastor Leonard of Kauriong and Simon of Kodich for the spiritual investment they have made in the children in the orphanages.
WATER DRILLING
Maral has changed name! It was a day like no other for the Maral area as the people came from the villages. Traditional songs were composed by every village group to present to the huge gathering of people there to witness the historical moment – the completion of new boreholes! The elders declared that they no longer wanted to remember the bitter past, but recognize the hand of God that has brought change. Therefore, the area will now be known as Kanaan because God has blessed the people with water. As the name of this place is changing, the people are also changing from non-believers to believers! We preached the Word that gave them eternal water.
The people of Karita, Uganda, are now gathering and listening to the gospel at new borehole sites that are being drilled. I cannot wait to see how the ten new water boreholes will touch and change lives in Uganda!
MISSIONS STATIONS
Please be in prayer that God will enable us to start additional mission stations in Nyargayta, Akorkeya, Tipeet, and Karita. These areas are very ripe for harvest! The word of God really grows well in strategically located mission stations, which include a medical clinic, a church and boreholes. It allows us to also reach out to the surrounding villages with the hope of adding additional stations.
PRAYER REQUESTS
Please pray for:
– Reuben and Loice in Kapueta, South Sudan
– God to call more laborers to the ministry in Uganda and for POM as a ministry
– Souls to be won through provision of clean water
are very few Christians. I was brought up in a Christian family along with two younger brothers and three younger sisters.
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My name is Julienne Furaha, and I am 17 years old. I was forced to abandon school when I was in Form One (comparable to 9th grade)
As the assembly and sewing was explained, the girls’ faces began to brighten as they realized the freedom this solution would afford them. They eagerly waited their
