July 2019 East Africa Trip
This was my 7th trip to East Africa. This trip was initiated by a meeting of a family that had recently returned from the Kyaka II refeugee camp in Uganda. I subsequently sent a representative to the camp and made a decision to return to Uganda to visit the camp myself.
July 1 Traveled from Columbus, OH to Brussels.
July 2 Traveled from Brussels to Kigali. Traveled from Kigali to Entebbe. Arrived in Entebbe very late in the evening. I was met at the airport by a staff member and stayed overnight at the home of their family member.
July 3rd Travelled to refugee camp with Godfrey Tinka and a staff member. The first day was a pastors’ conference with pastors from the over 50 churches in the refugee camp. We explained that Global Harvest Missions was there to support the local churches. We took the contact numbers and information from the churches as well as the numbers of Bibles and languages they were requesting. The total number of Bibles requested by the pastors was 750, an amount of over $7000.
July 4th Many ministry workers and choir members attended this conference. Global Harvest Missions supplied the funds to feed everyone at the conference. We had budgeted for 300 people but over 600 people showed up for the conference. We prayed for the food to last for all the people and all the people were fed!
July 5th Over 1000 children came this day. Children sang and were fed. The three representative of Global Harvest Missions received presents from the people in the camp. We were able to visit a few of the very small homes and pray with the people in the homes. We also had the opportunity to discuss the possibility to help people set up new businesses. Many of the pastors rented homes from other refugees. After the meetings we had the opportunity to have lunch at the home of a local bishop and listen to a budget proposal prepared by the local churches.
July 6th and 7th I traveled to a village in Western Uganda outside Bushenyi, meeting the family of a staff member. The rural area was very dense with banana plants. We had a wonderful time of fellowship, and I was able to see a mud building damaged by the rains, along with a brick building being constructed to replace it.
July 8th Traveled to Nairobi for training at Manna Missions. I stayed at the home of good friends Benter Achieng and Maurice Odhiambo.
July 9th visited Manna Missions office in Nairobi to observe their operations and discuss ministry growth and the future of Global Harvest Missions in East Africa. Maurice stated that Global Harvest Missions is the only ministry he knows that provides Bibles. Visited Baba Dogo slum for the school feeding program (Manna Missions feeds over 2000 children daily in the slums of Nairobi.) I helped feed the children and talked with the schools about their needs.
July 10th visited Manna office and handed over 200 Bibles to Elijah Musava for the churches in Kitui
July 11th visited Manna Missions office and traveled to Mathere slum to a school that was signing up for the feeding program. Many of the children were not receiving adequate food, so this was different than all my previous experiences in visiting the schools where I participated in feeding the children. When we returned to the office we had a discussion and decided it was not good to visit the schools and not help them. We looked through school information of several schools that were waiting to be adopted for the school feeding program with the hope that we might have donors interested in helping us sponsor as school. Global Harvest Missions made the decision to provide 40 easy to understand English Bibles that were requested by one school as well as a 3000-liter water tank for another school.
July 13th traveled to Eldoret to visit the church of one of our faithful prayer partners, Margaret Maheri. Margaret had traveled an hour to Mois Bridge to meet me and several other prayer partners, so I decided that this time we would visit one of her churches. This particular church was in a poor area known as Langas. During the service I asked anyone who had pain to stand. A pastor stood up and told me she had back pain. I had children minister to who and the pain level went from a 10 down to a 4. She was bending over, telling me she had not been able to do that. I asked the children to minister again after we thanked God for the pain reducing, and the pain went completely. I had a word that someone had been suffering from being hit on the side of the head and we prayed for that person. I had another word about stomach pain from something that had been eaten, possibly eggs. We prayed for that woman and her pain left. I prayed for people to be filled with Holy Spirit and to look like Jesus. We prepared to leave Langas and go to the hotel for dinner as people continued to worship.
July 14th Headed to Kitale and preached I Pastor Anne’s church. I had a word of knowledge about a hand that had been injured, and Pastor Anne’s mother came forward. She had been in an accident and her hand had been dislocated such that it had swollen to the point where she had not been able to move it. After prayer she was able to move her fingers again. I later discovered the mother came to church hoping I would pray for her and she rejoiced when she heard the word about somone having an injured hand.
At the end of the service there was a baby dedication. We prayed for both the children and the parents.
After the service we traveled to Mois’ Bridge to Dorcas and Jackson Obima’s home where we had lunch and prayer with 15 widows. Global Harvest Missions provided money for the meal, and it was a marvelous time. We prayed for provision for the widows. They gave testimonies of what God had been doing in their lives, and we prayed for any physical needs. Two deaf widows were healed.
July 15th I had attempted to contact our next host but was unable to get any response through phone calls or messages. The next morning I headed through Malaba into Uganda and traveled to Kampala, arriving during a traffic jam. I stayed again with my first host family.
July 16th I purchased some items for the ministry and began training our representative on ways to use the computer to enhance communication. We worked on typing thank you letters to donors, using Grammarly to edit the letters, saving the letters and attaching them to email.
July 18th Went downtown to Kampala to solve a computer issue (Windows software needed to match the physical keyboard) and purchased a used bicycle for a young man.
July 19th final training and packing. Prayed with family.
July 20th Finished packing and headed to airport. Traveled from Entebbe to Brussels
July 21st. Traveled from Brussels to Toronto, and then Toronto to Columbus.
Thoughts on Kyaka II: After discussing the needs with our East African representative it was decided that we need to stay true to one of the most effective ways Global Harvest Missions has been able to minister, and that is to provide Bibles. Pastors in the refugee camp have requested 750 Bibles in various languages and we are investigating the costs. Sending Bibles would demonstrate that these churches are not forgotten and would also fulfill one of the most-requested items-Bibles. The people seemed greatly encouraged that someone outside the camp was willing to work with them, and they presented a written proposal for some of their needs as well. There is a need for vocational and or/business training/funding. Many refugees left behind farms, businesses, and professions in their countries due to being displaced because of war. The houses in the camp were small, and people were continuing to arrive daily. One proposal brought forth suggested buying a large tract of land for farming. The food would be used to feed refugees as well as to sell.
It was great to revisit some of the places in Kenya as well. We helped feed children in the slums, provided a 3000-liter water tank for one school and 40 English Bibles for another school. We are looking at the possibility of adopting a school with 70 students for a feeding program at the cost of $350 per month. It was good to see God mov in miracles, especially with the widows.
One of our main ministry partners in East Africa recently told me, “I don’t know of anyone else who does what you do.” Most of the people we reach cannot afford a Bible, even at reduced prices. Currently we need $1000/month to keep up with the demand for Bibles in growing churches in these areas.