Below are the latest Prayer Updates for our Missionaries to Uganda – Jesse and Bev Rich! – Updated 8/24/2009
I know I’m a little late since this is supposed to be done by the 15th. It’s been pretty busy around here and we’ve been without electricity for several days, and then were away in Soroti for a few days, but I am FINALLY back at the computer and will try to get out the “latest” for you. You guys are all special “prayer warriors” for us and this mission, so we like to send our updates to you so you know what’s going on here, and so you know how to pray. We love you all!!
1) During the first part of this month, Main Prison (that includes Men and Women’s Condemned) was totally locked down for two weeks and no one was allowed to go in for any reason because of a riot that took place there. One of the Condemned men was put in the punishment cells for misbehaving and while he was there, he tried to commit suicide. So the Condemned Section got heated up and started saying that the guards were trying to kill them, and they refused to go back up to their cells after their time in the “yard.” They demanded the Officer in Charge, and then the Regional Prisons Commander, both of whom came, but when they demanded to see the Commissioner General of Prisons, the O.C. had enough and brought in the guards with guns with orders to shoot. So the prisoners ran back upstairs but feelings were still very high, so everything was locked down for a time. Things are open again, and they actually seem to be nicer to us right now. None of our “church members” were involved in the riot, Praise the Lord.
2) Life here is busy, busy, but everyone seems to be full of joy in spite of some of the hardships. Our SOM cook is having surgery today on her vocal chords and we pray she will be OK. Others of our staff are filling in for her so there are a few things that aren’t getting done, but they are unimportant.
3) And of course while our cook is not here, we are having a Sunday School Teachers’ Training and have 13 extra people here from the villages for this training. So our substitute cooks have a LOT to do, but they’re doing really well. And the Sunday School training is also going great! I can hear them singing children’s songs as I type these words. Their teacher is one of our pastors, Samuel from Gulu, that we sent for this very training and this is the first time we’ve been able to have it here. We have five men, 7 women, and one baby, plus Samuel, but all is going really well. Praise God for this growth!
4) And speaking of growth, I have to tell you about the Elders and how excited Jesse is at THEIR growth! For the very first time ever, at last week’s Elders’ meeting, the Elders (instead of Jesse) led the meeting and made all the suggestions and decisions. What a blessing! And our “hospital prayer ministry team” had come to Jess and I asking about some small funds to help out some of the totally destitute people they pray for each week – some that don’t have any food or any money at all for medicines – some that are in terrible condition – things like that. And the Elders were a little offended that the Hospital folks asked Jess and I instead of asking the Elders to OK this from the church offerings. People have now begun to tithe a bit, so we actually have money in the offering box, so the Elders decided on a plan to assist people that involves requests and the church finance committee and it has been used twice already. This is a HUGE step for a Ugandan church.
5) One of the people that the church finance committee decided to assist is a little 8 year old girl named Jesca who has abdominal cancer. She is in the main government hospital in Kampala now undergoing the Ugandan style of chemotherapy and she is horribly sick – much sicker than when she went into the hospital a week and a half ago. Please put Jesca in your prayers.
6) Jess and I had a great weekend! We went to our two villages that are North of Soroti to see the new water well/bore hole that went in at Olele, Stephen Okello’s village and church. Michelle Desouza gave $3500 for this well, and I had saved up $1000. The well normally would cost $7500 but through some circumstances that could only come from the Lord, the company accepted $4500 and there is now a water well in Olele!! What a blessing!! The whole community was there to watch the work, feed the men, and help do anything that needed to be done. When Stephen called me on the phone to tell me they had water, you could hear everyone shouting in the background. I now have some pictures of when they hit water, and if there is ANY way to show you (they are on a regular camera), I will show you the explosion skyward of that beautiful water!
7) While we were there, we discovered that the area has been in terrible drought for quite some time and people are starving. We had a team out here in July from Reno, NV, and they sent a large financial gift that they wanted us to use for some special purpose, and we will use it to feed the households in our two churches. There are about 80 households and if we gave 50 kilos of posho to each of those households, they could have something to eat each day for about a month. By then possibly some crops will have grown. We will be doing this next week when we get our support.
We also went to the Traditional Village Marriage of the daughter of our other pastor, Andrew Okello. It was an interesting and HUGE affair with at least 300 people attending. The ceremony was supposed to start at “exactly 12 Noon” and Jess and I arrived at 12:30 – the FIRST guests to show up. The groom and his family were 3 1/2 hours late. And after the ceremony started, one of the activities is the bride searching to find the right groom in the crowd. This was supposed to happen at 4:15 as we went by the schedule, but the BRIDE was not READY yet!! So Jesse got to preach/teach on marriage for a little while, and then at 5:00, the sky opened up and it POURED rain for an hour and a half. (People thanked Jesse for his prayers to bless the wedding and the area and said the rain was because of the “prayers of a righteous man.” They said it so often Jesse got WAY embarrassed and started to crawl under his chair every time his name was mentioned!) Anyway, the real ceremony finally got started at about 6:30 and we went through the next few items on the schedule until we got to #8 – lunch – at 8:00p.m. We were there until 9:00 and sneaked out in the DARK through a huge swamp that was now filled with water, and they still had items 9 through 16 on the schedule to go. It was a great day and we had lots of fun!
9) The church here in Jinja is still doing really well and we are so happy about that and just praising God for it all. Ryan had been training the worship team for a while to be able to worship without him, and he did a great job, because they are wonderful! Kelli and Richard are leading the Youth Group in Ryan’s place and are having a great time. They have a Youth Conference scheduled for the end of next week and about 100 kids are coming. Jess and I will each get to teach a session and will help lead a “small group” each if we are needed. But so many people from the church have stepped up to volunteer to help with the conference that we may not even be needed for the small groups. We will see. It’s really big and it will be very exciting!
10) Kelli is a joy to have around, even when she is sick, which she is right now. She and we thought maybe it was malaria – same symptoms – but it turns out it’s some type of bacterial infection so she is on Cipro and is improving. She loves teaching in the women’s prison so much that she went today in spite of being sick and in spite of the fact that Julie would have been happy to teach for her. And Kelli just works so hard all the time in any ministry that is there and needs her leadership or her help. She works so hard that we are making her take Mondays off now. Everyone needs a time to rest!
11) A week and a half ago, I got to lead a Women’s Conference in a village about an hour from here. The pastor is a woman and several of her young men attend our SOM and Bill Bisset’s BTCP (Bible Training Course for Pastors). (We house the BTCP guys in our dorm.) Those guys are learning the truth of so many things that have not been taught properly in the hypercharismatic churches from which they come, and they begged me to do a seminar. They actually wanted me to confront the pastor on her bad teachings, but that wasn’t what God wanted us to do, so three of the Ugandan ladies and I (Lilian, Mary and Julie) went and taught God’s Word and then actually had them in groups reading the Word for themselves – NOT a common thing here – and we had a great day. The pastor had done all she could to disorganize the seminar – she had held an “overnight” prayer session the night before that ended at 5:30 before our 9:00 conference – so we actually started two hours late. But we just were calm and relaxed and waited for the women to show up and then shared God’s Word for the day. Even though the women had some trouble staying awake, you could see they WANTED to because they really wanted to drink in God’s Word. So they would poke each other, or stand up for a while to listen, just so they could hear everything. I don’t know how blessed THEY were, but our team enjoyed the day and were blessed both by God’s Word and by the eagerness of the ladies to actually hear the Gospel.
There’s so much more to say, but I will stop here. Hope you enjoyed what you read and saw many opportunities for prayers and praises. God bless and keep you as YOU serve the Lord in the way He has called you!
Love in Christ,
Bev and Jess
UPDATE 8/18/2009
Dear Friends,
I need to add a prayer request to the update I sent you earlier today. The prisons were supposed to be allowing us back in for full services, but it seems that on Sunday (while Jess and I were gone), they did not allow J.B. in to teach the Men’s Condemned, and today they did not allow Steven in to teach Men’s Main Prison.. They DO, however, want us to continue to provide them with medicines and do our hospital run each day. Please pray over this situation. I will speak to the Officer in Charge tomorrow. Pray for wisdom for my tongue.
Much love to ALL you prayer warriors!
Bev (and Jess)
UPDATE 8/24/2009
Dear Friends,
I just wanted to update you on the results of your prayers for the prisons ministry. We were waiting to see if they let Steven into prison yesterday before we wrote. The prison DID allow Calvary Chapel back into all the prisons, but for some reason, they turned Steven away three times. Jess had spoken to the Officer in Charge about it twice and the O.C. had said everything was OK and that there was no problem, but they still were not allowing Steven in. So Jess went to prison with J.B. yesterday (J.B. goes to Condemned at 1:00 and Steven goes to Convicted/Main Boma at 2:00 in the same prison building) just to be there in case Steven was not allowed in, but for the first time in almost a month, they didn’t give Steven a problem. So it seems that your prayers have been heard and answered with a “Yes!” Thank you, friends and prayer warriors, for praying. We know God hears the prayers of the righteous!
Much love in Christ,
Bev (and Jess)
| I know I’m a little late since this is supposed to be done by the 15th. It’s been pretty busy around here and we’ve been without electricity for several days, and then were away in Soroti for a few days, but I am FINALLY back at the computer and will try to get out the “latest” for you. You guys are all special “prayer warriors” for us and this mission, so we like to send our updates to you so you know what’s going on here, and so you know how to pray. We love you all!! 1) During the first part of this month, Main Prison (that includes Men and Women’s Condemned) was totally locked down for two weeks and no one was allowed to go in for any reason because of a riot that took place there. One of the Condemned men was put in the punishment cells for misbehaving and while he was there, he tried to commit suicide. So the Condemned Section got heated up and started saying that the guards were trying to kill them, and they refused to go back up to their cells after their time in the “yard.” They demanded the Officer in Charge, and then the Regional Prisons Commander, both of whom came, but when they demanded to see the Commissioner General of Prisons, the O.C. had enough and brought in the guards with guns with orders to shoot. So the prisoners ran back upstairs but feelings were still very high, so everything was locked down for a time. Things are open again, and they actually seem to be nicer to us right now. None of our “church members” were involved in the riot, Praise the Lord. 2) Life here is busy, busy, but everyone seems to be full of joy in spite of some of the hardships. Our SOM cook is having surgery today on her vocal chords and we pray she will be OK. Others of our staff are filling in for her so there are a few things that aren’t getting done, but they are unimportant. 3) And of course while our cook is not here, we are having a Sunday School Teachers’ Training and have 13 extra people here from the villages for this training. So our substitute cooks have a LOT to do, but they’re doing really well. And the Sunday School training is also going great! I can hear them singing children’s songs as I type these words. Their teacher is one of our pastors, Samuel from Gulu, that we sent for this very training and this is the first time we’ve been able to have it here. We have five men, 7 women, and one baby, plus Samuel, but all is going really well. Praise God for this growth! 4) And speaking of growth, I have to tell you about the Elders and how excited Jesse is at THEIR growth! For the very first time ever, at last week’s Elders’ meeting, the Elders (instead of Jesse) led the meeting and made all the suggestions and decisions. What a blessing! And our “hospital prayer ministry team” had come to Jess and I asking about some small funds to help out some of the totally destitute people they pray for each week – some that don’t have any food or any money at all for medicines – some that are in terrible condition – things like that. And the Elders were a little offended that the Hospital folks asked Jess and I instead of asking the Elders to OK this from the church offerings. People have now begun to tithe a bit, so we actually have money in the offering box, so the Elders decided on a plan to assist people that involves requests and the church finance committee and it has been used twice already. This is a HUGE step for a Ugandan church. 5) One of the people that the church finance committee decided to assist is a little 8 year old girl named Jesca who has abdominal cancer. She is in the main government hospital in Kampala now undergoing the Ugandan style of chemotherapy and she is horribly sick – much sicker than when she went into the hospital a week and a half ago. Please put Jesca in your prayers. 6) Jess and I had a great weekend! We went to our two villages that are North of Soroti to see the new water well/bore hole that went in at Olele, Stephen Okello’s village and church. Michelle Desouza gave $3500 for this well, and I had saved up $1000. The well normally would cost $7500 but through some circumstances that could only come from the Lord, the company accepted $4500 and there is now a water well in Olele!! What a blessing!! The whole community was there to watch the work, feed the men, and help do anything that needed to be done. When Stephen called me on the phone to tell me they had water, you could hear everyone shouting in the background. I now have some pictures of when they hit water, and if there is ANY way to show you (they are on a regular camera), I will show you the explosion skyward of that beautiful water! 7) While we were there, we discovered that the area has been in terrible drought for quite some time and people are starving. We had a team out here in July from Reno, NV, and they sent a large financial gift that they wanted us to use for some special purpose, and we will use it to feed the households in our two churches. There are about 80 households and if we gave 50 kilos of posho to each of those households, they could have something to eat each day for about a month. By then possibly some crops will have grown. We will be doing this next week when we get our support. We also went to the Traditional Village Marriage of the daughter of our other pastor, Andrew Okello. It was an interesting and HUGE affair with at least 300 people attending. The ceremony was supposed to start at “exactly 12 Noon” and Jess and I arrived at 12:30 – the FIRST guests to show up. The groom and his family were 3 1/2 hours late. And after the ceremony started, one of the activities is the bride searching to find the right groom in the crowd. This was supposed to happen at 4:15 as we went by the schedule, but the BRIDE was not READY yet!! So Jesse got to preach/teach on marriage for a little while, and then at 5:00, the sky opened up and it POURED rain for an hour and a half. (People thanked Jesse for his prayers to bless the wedding and the area and said the rain was because of the “prayers of a righteous man.” They said it so often Jesse got WAY embarrassed and started to crawl under his chair every time his name was mentioned!) Anyway, the real ceremony finally got started at about 6:30 and we went through the next few items on the schedule until we got to #8 – lunch – at 8:00p.m. We were there until 9:00 and sneaked out in the DARK through a huge swamp that was now filled with water, and they still had items 9 through 16 on the schedule to go. It was a great day and we had lots of fun!9) The church here in Jinja is still doing really well and we are so happy about that and just praising God for it all. Ryan had been training the worship team for a while to be able to worship without him, and he did a great job, because they are wonderful! Kelli and Richard are leading the Youth Group in Ryan’s place and are having a great time. They have a Youth Conference scheduled for the end of next week and about 100 kids are coming. Jess and I will each get to teach a session and will help lead a “small group” each if we are needed. But so many people from the church have stepped up to volunteer to help with the conference that we may not even be needed for the small groups. We will see. It’s really big and it will be very exciting! 10) Kelli is a joy to have around, even when she is sick, which she is right now. She and we thought maybe it was malaria – same symptoms – but it turns out it’s some type of bacterial infection so she is on Cipro and is improving. She loves teaching in the women’s prison so much that she went today in spite of being sick and in spite of the fact that Julie would have been happy to teach for her. And Kelli just works so hard all the time in any ministry that is there and needs her leadership or her help. She works so hard that we are making her take Mondays off now. Everyone needs a time to rest! 11) A week and a half ago, I got to lead a Women’s Conference in a village about an hour from here. The pastor is a woman and several of her young men attend our SOM and Bill Bisset’s BTCP (Bible Training Course for Pastors). (We house the BTCP guys in our dorm.) Those guys are learning the truth of so many things that have not been taught properly in the hypercharismatic churches from which they come, and they begged me to do a seminar. They actually wanted me to confront the pastor on her bad teachings, but that wasn’t what God wanted us to do, so three of the Ugandan ladies and I (Lilian, Mary and Julie) went and taught God’s Word and then actually had them in groups reading the Word for themselves – NOT a common thing here – and we had a great day. The pastor had done all she could to disorganize the seminar – she had held an “overnight” prayer session the night before that ended at 5:30 before our 9:00 conference – se we actually started two hours late. But we just were calm and relaxed and waited for the women to show up and then shared God’s Word for the day. Even though the women had some trouble staying awake, you could see they WANTED to because they really wanted to drink in God’s Word. So they would poke each other, or stand up for a while to listen, just so they could hear everything. I don’t know how blessed THEY were, but our team enjoyed the day and were blessed both by God’s Word and by the eagerness of the ladies to actually hear the Gospel. There’s so much more to say, but I will stop here. Hope you enjoyed what you read and saw many opportunities for prayers and praises. God bless and keep you as YOU serve the Lord in the way He has called you! |
