Category Archives: Ministry Updates

I have intentionally delayed a few days to post my final update from this year’s Uganda trip, because I wanted to have some time to process it all.

For the second week of the trip, we spent all of our time at King’s Primary School in Bunambutye near Mbale and Mt. Elgon. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to despite the fact that my allergies hate it there.

During this week, we had many different people doing different things. Kings Primary School was originally taken on as a ministry by Mary and Alwyn Griffiths of Wales under their charity organization called Ezra. Now, Heart of God is partnering with Ezra to support and continue the vision God has given Mary over the school, including things like building a secondary school nearby. Denise and Jan spent a lot of time in meetings with Mary and Alwyn, along with school board members and administrators preparing for this partnership, hiring new teachers, and meeting with community members about land for the secondary school.

There was also a group of teachers on the team who spent time in each of the classrooms teaching lessons and mentoring the Ugandan staff. There were a few men working to install electricity in all the classrooms on campus. And then there were the rest of us who were put to work doing various tasks such as helping organize closets, lay stones along the pathways, and use machete’s to chop down a corn field in order to make the football pitch (soccer field) regulation size.

This week was very fruitful for the school, but pretty miserable for many of the team members thanks to the dust, spiders, bat droppings, and various other challenges to the work. All in all, though, the team came together and did what had to be done.

As the team got ready to leave Uganda, the last full day was spent at Sipi Falls hiking around a beautiful river, and debriefing about what God had done throughout the trip. It was not, however, a completely wonderful day. That night we found out that three of the team members with us, including two who were staying for another week, had caught a bad strain of malaria. There was a hospital visit, blood tests, and medications given.

Despite the sicknesses, the next day the team left as scheduled and began what would be a 50+ hour trip from the hotel in Mbale to everyone’s homes in the U.S.

It has now taken me a week to get readjusted to life and sleep patterns here at home. As I keep reading email updates from the team, everyone is having a rough time re-integrating with American culture because they are seeing it with new eyes. Many are still struggling with sickness from travel, and everyone is having trouble expressing their emotional state to those around them.

I personally jumped back into work so fast and am out of human contact for most of my waking hours that it has been very difficult for me to process things. I have woken up many days this week wondering if this whole trip was a dream. I am amazed by the things we have seen accomplished by the grace of God, and I am continually blessed by the reports of what God has done in so many lives, both among team members and friends back in Uganda.

All in all, I am very proud of this year’s team. There were many major accomplishments in such a short period of time in both the physical and spiritual realms, and I am expecting God to do so much more through Heart of God – East Africa in the years to come.

If you feel led to join in future trips with HG-EA, you can find more information by clicking the East Africa link at www.heartofgodinternational.org. The applications deadline for the 2012 trip is November 1st.

If you would like to hear more about this trip, or my work as HGIM Minister of Evangelism please feel free to email me atsingram@heartofgodinternational.org.

The team made it safely to Tororo Thursday evening and on Friday the team split up to work on various projects. The men went to the town park and met in the youth center with about 100 men from the area. We spent the morning preaching on the theme, “Not Ashamed of the Gospel,” covering topics such as how the Gospel affects your personal life, what it looks like to faithfully proclaim the gospel, and team member Sean showed them how to mark their bibles for walking people through the steps of salvation.

After lunch, there were two more teachings and over two hours of Q&A time for the men to interact together on the various struggles that arise when our theology collides with our culture.

The same day, the ladies, and later the younger men, went to Smile Africa, which is a children’s feeding center, day school, and clinic, for orphans and street children. They made their best attempts to hold a VBS style conference for the children, but when one group saw what another was doing, all chaos broke loose. So all the kids made crowns, and got stickers, and then the day turned to playing games of football (soccer), handing out clothes to the kids, and serving them their food.

The Heart of God-East Africa Education Director, Shari Guthrie and her husband John spent the day training the staff of Smile Africa in CPR and First Aid. At the end of the day, 16 teachers were certified.

On Saturday, the team came back together at the youth center and held a youth conference for over 100 older children from various schools in the area. In the morning, the team presented the gospel through song, skit, teaching, and testimonies. Then after lunch, the Ugandan schools presented back to us with singing, acting, and dancing. It was a great day of cultural exchange for both sides.

At the end of the day, I had the opportunity to preach a brief salvation message and about a dozen children came forward for salvation. They were followed soon after by one of our team members who accepted Christ once back at the hotel.

On Sunday the team split up again to various churches throughout the region. Everyone had the chance to greet the congregations, and in most of the churches, one of the men was asked to preach, including a young man from my own home church, Keegan Cooke.

As the teams went out, I went alone to Tororo Pentecostal Church led by Bishop John. It was an experience of mixed feelings because the people were so strong in worship and prayer, but the other two visiting evangelists – from Kampala, UG, and Nigeria – both centered their messages on financial blessings. While I don’t have any issue with God blessing His people – the Bible says this many times – I don’t believe that it is based on “making a covenant” by “planting your seed money” into the evangelist’s ministry.

When my turn to speak came, I preached on the glory of God and being changed as we sit in His presence.
After service (which ended at 2:15) I was invited to a “quick” lunch with the other pastors. I will say that they are Godly men in their lifestyles behind the scenes, even if their theology is questionable.

After lunch, which went way too long, I had to rush back to the church where our team had assembled and enter into the baptismal waters. With another Ugandan Pastor, I had the honor of baptizing two of our team members – the one saved on Saturday, and one saved on the trip last year – as well as around 20 Ugandans.

Sunday afternoon we loaded into the vans and drove to Mbale, where we are staying for the rest of the trip, but I will wait on the details of being here until another post, except to ask for prayer. As I write, the team has gone to the school to work, but I have remained at the hotel due to major allergies. If I was at home, it would be time for a steroid shot and I’d be back to normal in a few hours, but here, it is drink some water, pop a benadryl, and hope it goes away quickly… No luck yet. Please pray for me, and our return trip home on Saturday.

It has been a busy few days for us here in Uganda. The trip took it’s toll on many of the team members, and some are barely recovering from 2-3 days of travel. Among the team already we have had some sleeplessness, headaches, reactions to medicines, weariness, nausea and vomiting, but through it all, the consensus is that God is using this team, and each member here has a purpose.

The first day we did a conference for men and a conference for women, before merging the two for the final session. Although neither conference went exactly according to the plans we made, God did what He desired and all of the people enjoyed a wonderful time of fellowship and teaching. We shared testimonies and heard stories of God saving people out of many desperate situations. One man said his father beat him every day, so he devised a plan to kill his father. Then God saved Him, and rather than killing his father, he has become a pastor in a church.

The next day the team went to Luzira Women’s Prison for the second year. This year, much grace was given to our team because our local HIGM Team Member, Saphan, and our organization has earned the respect of the prison leadership. Last night, Saphan explained to the team that it was a special treat for our team as they entered the prison because the guards lined up at the gate in formation around us. He then told us that this is a special honor reserved only for 3 people: the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Commissioner General, and the President. Why then were we greeted with such an honer? In Saphan’s words, “Because we were being preceded by the King of Kings.”

Yesterday, the team traveled to another prison and greeted the entire group. HGIM-East Africa Director, Denise Matthews and team member Aaron Green spoke to the group, and 16 people put their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, including 7 Muslims.

Following the prison, we traveled down rough roads and small jungle paths (in our 15 passenger vans), to visit the mother of one of the prisoners who is in very bad health and now caring for her grandchildren. She has very little resources, so the kids are forced to scavenge for Mangos. As the team arrived we presented her with 100 kilograms of Posho – a corn meal that is very high in nutrients – and 25 kilograms of beans. We also took clothes and some gifts for the children. As we crammed into the woman’s small home, she told us that she has felt like she’s alone in the ocean, helpless and being beaten by the waves, but God saw her, knew her situation, and brought a group of people around the world to visit her and bless her in her home. She gave herself to the Lord as Savior!

It is now morning. The team is slowly making their way to breakfast. Then we will get in the vans and head East to Tororo, where will be doing another men’s conference, a youth rally, a “Vacation Bible School” type program for the kids at Smile Africa, and training the Smile Africa workers in First Aid and CPR.

We are in high expectations that God is only getting started in what He is doing through us. Please pray that we will be sensitive to His leading, and that God will give us the grace to bear much fruit.