March 13, 2009

On February 25, my sister Sally and her husband Bernie, a pastor of Grace Church in Austin, Texas, arrived for a two week visit. They both hit the ground running and within one hour of arriving in Mityana, Bernie was off to visit in Gema and teach. The next day, we visited a group in Nama and took care of Thereze’s heel wound. We all enjoyed visiting with George Nelson and Thereze as Dan Douglas took care of cleaning the heel.
We distributed gift bags to the orphans which Sally and Bernie had brought from their church.
Bernie taught a Bible lesson at the orphanage school and at a large high school in Mityana.
We hosted a weekend retreat at my house for members of Mityana Baptist Church , approximately 32 people,and we even had a group of four travel from Kampala for the teaching. It was a great weekend.
With many members of Mityana Baptist,we participated in an Open Air Meeting on March 7 in preparation for the new church which was planted on Sunday, March 8. Although IAM was very involved in assisting with all plans, the church will be a branch of Mityana Baptist Church.
On Thursday and Friday, March 5 and 6 we traveled to Kampala for meetings with the printer and artist for the book series. On Friday we traveled with two other pastors from Mukono to the village of Kayunga for a book distribution. In between all of these activities, we met with individuals, groups of young men and women, and Bernie did much discipling of the young people.
I enjoyed the visit so much and am so grateful for the gift of labor and teaching which Sally and Bernie did for the people of this area. They worked tirelessly and enthusiastically up till the moment I took them to Kampala before they headed to Entebbe to depart. I wish they could have stayed longer, but I look forward to my sister Diane’s arrival on Sunday. I will try my best to post more regularly to the blog while she is here.