Greetings!
A quick note before Bev’s update. The May team trip to Uganda is open for registration.
Here’s a quick outline:
- April 30-May 14th, 2023
- Jinja, Uganda
- Purpose:
- Ministry support to Called Christian campus and area outreaches such as prisons, hospitals, and food distribution
- Evangelism support for a preaching tour of Jinja and surrounding villages. We will be taking a bus and a mobile tent.
- Team Size: 15-20
- Leader: Chip Lusko
- Price includes airfare from Albuquerque to Entebbe and all ground costs, transportation, food, and lodging
- Also included: free days lodging and safari at a wild game area
Here is further information and the registration:
Event Details – Calvary Church
If you have any questions: chip.lusko@calvaryabq.org
Chip
Hello everyone, and greetings from Uganda by way of South Carolina!
I guess the first thing to update is the health situation of the mission. It seems that we must be doing something right because Satan has been pushing hard against our health lately. Deborah, Ann and Joseph had Bilharzia (liver flukes) and the treatment makes you horribly sick. Deb has had a terrible eye infection, a burn on her arm, and mango worms. The mango worms are pretty nasty! (maybe google them?) And now I, Bev, am in the US for surgery on what has been diagnosed as a substernal goiter – a very large one. Surgery was 21st October to remove it, and everything went really well! It turned out to be a large mass of thyroid tissue that was sitting just below my thyroid, and pressing on my esophagus, trachea, and blood vessels in my upper chest. It was 4 inches by 4 inches square!! But no cancer, and now I will get on to the business of recovery! Thank you Lord for your mercy and love towards me for this one, and please continue to heal Deb, Ann and Joseph!
We could certainly use some prayer for God’s protection against illness right now!
The ministries are going strong! The School of Ministry and Worship was on break for a week from 6th through 12th October. Before break, many of the students were struggling with the realization of who they were, and who they needed to be, in Christ. Often several students do not come back after break. But this time, every student came back, and arrived on time, ready to dive into God’s Word and Worship again. What a joy!! Below are photographs of Joseph Mukarani teaching, Pastor Joel Mugoya teaching, and the students in various settings.
Ann’s School of Ministries for Women are producing fruit beyond what any of us expected! God has been working! The class of pastor’s wives that she has been teaching once a week for three years will graduate on December 17th. The women love learning about the Word so much that they don’t really want to end their school! But now each of these women is leading other women in knowledge of the Word, and this is especially visible in the village of Waibale, where Ann and her first students are teaching the women there. The church and the village are being changed by these women going deeper into the Lord each week.
The School of Ministry and Worship has been hosting an event lately called a “Round Table.” A Topic is chosen, and the entire area is invited to come while the pastors of The Bridge Calvary Chapel, and of Called Christians, discuss a subject that people struggle over. The last one was “Can You Lose Your Salvation?” This question, of course, has been debated by the church for generations. In the end, Pastor Joel just reminded everyone that if you stay friends with Jesus, you won’t have to worry about losing your salvation.
Timothy was a couple of months ago given permission to baptize new Believers in Jinja Remand Prison. He is talking with the Officer in Charge of Main Prison at this time to see if he will allow the same. And some of the small prisons in which we teach are also very interested! Many man and women have come to Christ in this past year as our faithful teachers share the Gospel in 10 different Uganda prisons!
And we also have continued to feed people in the North, and they have been so grateful!! Through the generosity of donors, we have been able to keep many from actually starving to death. God’s people taking care of God’s people is such a joy to see! Special thanks to those who have helped with this ministry!
Donors were also incredibly generous in sending funds to build a safe place to drink at this “well” where both cattle and people drink the water. And we were able to build a house for this widower, John, who has 8 children.
One last Joyful note! Our Ugandan daughter Joy is engaged and brought the family of her fiancée to the mission house to be introduced to our family. They did not speak English, but we had people that spoke English and Luganda, so we were able to communicate and have a very special and fun day! I plan to be back in Uganda in time to walk Joy down the aisle for her wedding on November 26th!
Prayers and Praises
Health for all in the Called Christians Mission and for their families, and also for those at The Bridge Calvary Chapel. (Extra prayers for Mary who suffers great pain from sickle cell)
That all of the ministers of the Gospel are filled with the strength and wisdom of the Holy Spirit to keep on teaching God’s Word faithfully!
Financial support so that the mission can continue with all its ministries, and also finish building our security wall, rewiring the entire mission house, and a clinic for women and children in the Western part of Uganda.
That the School of Ministry and Worship students, and the Women’s Bible students, continue to dig into God’s Word and let it change their lives.
Praises that there is peace and joy in the mission and people are working well together.
