February 27, 2009

Greetings,

It is Friday morning in Uganda. Sally and Bernie arrived in Mityana Thursday afternoon at 3:00 and after a quick meal, Bernie was off with some of the guys for Gema to teach. A group of eleven had gathered and Bernie taught. We are working towards the first Sunday of planting the new church there which will be on March 8. On March 7, we will have an open-air time of preaching and singing to encourage the people in the village to come for the new church service.
Thursday morning we visited the orphanage where the children were all waiting for a Bible lesson. Bernie provided great teaching with lots of enthusiasm, chalkboard artwork, and group participation. He preached on Matthew 5:14, and every child now knows exactly what that scripture says, “You are the light of the world,” and where it can be found. We had a wonderful time with the children and, of course, they look at Bernie like they have never seen a grown man with so much energy and laughter and they love it!

Bernie and Sally enjoyed seeing all of the improvements that have been made at the orphanage, and we look forward to spending more time teaching with the children there.
At 1:30 we took Dan Douglas and drove to Naama to care for the heel wound on Teresa’s foot, but we had a precious time of teaching and sharing with Teresa and her 89 year old husband, George Nelson. George loved sitting by Bernie and sharing with him. Please continue to pray for the heel wound. It is not really better, but it is now cleaner and is definitely no worse. We believe that God will completely heal Teresa. We will back to visit them on Sunday and the others in Naama.

Yesterday evening Bernie, Henry, and Patrick worked on putting a large top over a frame in my front yard in preparation for the retreat/revival we will be having here at my house starting tonight at 5, and all day tomorrow. We anticipate about 30 people, most from the Baptist Church here. Sally taught in Bible Study at the church on Thursday night from Hebrews 12:1-2 and we had a good attendance with lots of discussion and stayed at the church until almost 8pm.
We had no power and the last thirty minutes of discussion was in the dark except for a small light from Peter’s cell phone. Sally’s teaching was wonderful and I think we could have all stayed for more.

Today we will continue to prepare for the retreat before going to Kikumbi High School to teach this afternoon at 3:00. The head master has arranged for the entire school to attend, and Bernie will teach to them. We will rush home after 4pm for the night session of the retreat. We have some of the young people who are coming in for the meeting from the various universities and teaching colleges, so we are looking forward to a good time together.

I will post some pictures of the retreat hopefully on Sunday. It is so great to have Sally and Bernie here.