Updates

Hello and greetings from Uganda. We are finally getting some rain after a long period of drought, and things are turning green again!

We are still in partial lockdown: the schools and churches are closed, there are restrictions on how many people can travel in a vehicle (even your own private car), and masks must be worn everywhere. Curfew is from 7 pm to 5:30 am. And no groups of over ten people are allowed to gather, even for weddings and funerals. Life is definitely not back to normal, and certainly may never be what we consider normal again. 

But despite these struggles, we are slowly reopening our ministries. Since we are not allowed to gather in the churches, our Bible teachers meet in small groups in houses in the different villages in which we minister. Only three people are allowed to travel in a private vehicle, so Loyce and Lilian are going with a driver to the villages of Lumuli and Iguluibi and teaching Bible studies to the women there. Joseph and Gerald go to Bugembe once a week and go from house to house teaching the Bible to the small groups that come to hear the Word. 

We are also excited about a new ministry that will be starting in October. Ann Wibbenmeyer has already been teaching and mentoring a group of young girls in the afternoons; she and Loyce are going to start a small Women’s Bible School in the village of Waibale to train women to read, understand, and teach the Bible. Most village women need translation because they don’t speak English, so when these English-speaking ladies are trained, they can teach Bible studies for women in their own languages. Disciples discipling others—one of Called Christians’ main goals!

I have been thinking a lot lately about compassion fatigue and heard Pastor Skip mention it recently in one of his sermons. Most know what I mean by compassion fatigue, but to be clear, the dictionary defines it as “indifference to charitable appeals on behalf of suffering people, experienced as a result of the frequency or number of such appeals.” I think much of the world is suffering from compassion fatigue right now. Everything is so overwhelming—there is so much suffering in Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan, North Korea, Uganda, and even America right now. COVID, fires, hurricanes, hunger, war—we are faced with new and heartbreaking news every day. So, we hear the news of people suffering and we think, “Another one…” and then we sigh heavily and just move on, because we can’t think about or care about the next incident, and the next, and the next.

There are just too many appeals to our hearts and pocketbooks to deal with them all. I think of this every time I pray about and for the people that financially support us. It makes me so grateful. I identify with compassion fatigue because I come close to feeling the same so often. My updates often show you photos of hungry, sick, and needy people. I wonder if you read it and begin to think “Just one more,” and sigh. We at Called Christians have so many people coming to us every day with deep and desperate needs. Sometimes we think, “Another one,” but then we talk to ourselves about Jesus and how He felt about the suffering people around Him. The Scripture we so often recall and speak about is when Jesus went away from the crowds to mourn the death of his cousin, John the Baptist. The crowd followed Him, with all their heartache and disease and suffering, and Matthew 14:14 says, “When Jesus…saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them and healed their sick.” Even when Jesus was in deep mourning, He looked on the crowd with compassion.

In Matthew 9:36-38, Jesus looked on the crowds with compassion and said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few” (v. 37). This is still very true today, and Pastor Skip also referenced this in a recent sermon on the Giant of Apathy, and one sentence that stood out to me was when he said, “Ask God ‘What do you want me to do?'” When Jess and I were studying Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby, we read the line “Find where God is working and join Him there.” That was our call from God to be missionaries and we both felt it strongly. 

That last, rather confusing, paragraph leads to this. When Pastor Skip introduced me on stage at Calvary Church in Albuquerque, he allowed me to say a few words. I spoke about Go-ers and Senders, and asked the congregation to be Senders by sending out and supporting those going to the mission field. I was trying to hurry and not take up too much time, so I left off the last part that I should have mentioned—that if you feel called to be a Go-er, please talk to one of the pastors on staff about your calling. “The fields are white for harvest, but the workers are few.” Since Jess graduated to heaven, I have been the Director of Called Christians, and I am not getting any younger. This position is best suited for a godly couple rather than a single growing-older woman. If you are feeling called to be a Go-er, please do go talk to your pastor. Called Christians is looking for a couple to be trained to minister and eventually take over the mission. There are many other places that God can call you to, as well!

So—back to the mission and our ministries.

I need to update you on Gloria, the young girl who was in a coma with COVID. She is home now and is breathing better but is still very weak. I want to thank everyone who prayed for her and who contributed towards paying for her oxygen. The oxygen alone cost $1,500, which is far more than any farmer can afford, so your assistance saved a little girl’s life and brought joy to her family.

There are many other things to bring you up to date on, but I have rambled on for a long time today. I want to put in one request today for you to consider. Our village pastors were all going hungry during the COVID lockdowns. Any food they did have, they shared with their neighbors. All but one are farmers, and between COVID and this year’s drought which destroyed most of their crops, they were not able to feed their families. I have checked into many ways to help them with this and have settled on buying each of them a maize mill. Maize ground into posho is the staple food of this country, and everyone eats it. If you own a maize mill, when there is any maize grown, you always have work to do. The best one for the villages runs on diesel, and each of these is about $2500. My next big project is to raise the funds to buy a maize mill for ten pastors. That sounds like a huge amount of money, but “bite by bite, the elephant was eaten.” 

Last month the boys learned how to do roofing. This month, they are being taught how to repair screen windows. Since Jess went to heaven, and I am a woman and am not supposed to be in spiritual authority over men, The Bridge Calvary Chapel had to become its own entity instead of operating under Called Christians. But the church is on Called Christians property, so we are still the landlords. The window screens were all torn and coming out, so our carpenter Grace taught the boys how to replace them this week. They did a great job!

Let me leave you with a funny story that should bring a smile to your face. I had to renew my driving permit this week, so I walked over to the office that has just reopened in Jinja. It seemed easy enough: pay the fees for renewal, come back into the office with the receipt, your passport (to show residence in the country), and the expired driving permit. So I paid the fees in the bank and brought myself and all the documentation back to the office. All went well until it was time to take my photo. I was wearing a dress with a small V-neck, and in the very close-up photo, only my skin was showing. “You look like you are naked!” exclaimed the lovely lady that was trying to take my photo, so she pulled my dress up around my neck and stapled it in the back so it would not slip! Then we proceeded to the fingerprint machine, and no amount of smashing my fingers on the glass or rolling them around could produce any captured fingerprints. So she took me next door to a man who supposedly had a better machine. After much mashing and rolling, he was finally able to capture two fingerprints from each hand, although not my right thumb, which is the main marker. Why are my fingerprints disappearing? Anyway, he finally sent me on my way, and as I was walking home, a young man from the office came running out, saying, “Wait! Kampala has rejected your photo! You have to come back!” So back I went to the man who had managed to capture four of my fingerprints. It turns out that my photo was rejected because I was wearing small earrings.  After removal of earrings, pulling of dress around my neck and this time it being held by a friend of mine who stayed out of the photo instead of my dress being stapled, I finally had an acceptable photo. I supposedly can pick up my new permit next week, but we will see….

May God bless you and keep you. Thank you so much for your prayers and support! “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:14 NLT).

Prayers and Praises

• Pray that the churches and schools will be allowed to open soon.
• Pray for the father of two members of our staff. He has experienced terrible pain in his jaw for ten years and no one can find the cause.
• Pray for the small Bible studies and for the new Women’s Bible School.
• Pray that God continues to provide financially for this mission.
• Pray for safety in Uganda. Thugs with machetes often go from house to house breaking in and hacking people to death. 
• Pray for our safety on the roads—driving here is very dangerous.
• Pray that our pastors are able to work in order to support their families.
• Pray that God brings a godly couple to work in the mission and be trained to take over.
• Pray that God either brings a godly man into my life or helps me learn to be content in my singleness.
• Pray that everyone in this mission draws closer to the Lord and is full of zeal to share the Gospel.
• Praise that our COVID cases are dropping in number.
• Praise that God has been sustaining this mission in every way!
• Praise that God has protected us time and again from those who want to destroy us. (We have many enemies.)
• Praise that Deborah Roberts is slowly recovering from cerebral malaria! She was not expected to live.

With much love in Christ,
Beverly

Greetings from the land of (what seems like) eternal lockdown!

We were just getting on our feet again with churches and ministries opening, businesses recovering, and people living their lives when our COVID numbers started ballooning and we got locked down again. Our lockdown includes no movement of private vehicles or of public transportation, no crossing from one district to another, arrests and beatings for not wearing a mask or shutting down your business, and people who sell food in the markets not being allowed to go to their homes but being required to sleep in their stalls in the markets. The word from the government is “Just stay home.” Of course, for most Ugandans who live hand to mouth, buying food for their families daily, this is not an option. The outcry here is that people would rather die of COVID than starve to death. And many are hungry. During the last lockdown, there was food in the villages, and the people who lived in towns struggled the most. This time, after the drought during what should have been the rainy season, even the people living in the villages do not have food. It is a difficult time in Uganda.

But “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). We had a staff devotion recently where we discussed whether we really believe this. How can COVID and this lockdown be good for those that love the Lord? We named a few good things, such as Christian families being able to have devotions with each other every day, but the main summary was that we don’t always know how or where God is working, but we trust Him completely anyway! He is sovereign, and He is always working, whether we see it or not.

Instead of being able to do our usual ministries in schools, prisons, hospitals, and local communities, we have been focusing more on the Biblical command to feed the hungry. James 2:15-17 says, “Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." At this time, Called Christians has partnered with The Bridge Calvary Chapel (the church that is located on the Called Christians compound) to feed the hungry. We have been able to provide food for about 300 families, including widows with children, child-headed homes, boda boda motorcycle taxi drivers, mechanics, elderly people, and people with disabilities; today we are working on a third distribution to at least 100 more families. This doesn’t begin to touch all of the hunger around us, but for those we can help, it is a picture of the living Christ who loves them.

Private cars are not allowed to travel right now, but pickup trucks can because they are considered to be carrying cargo. So our double cabin pickup that we have had since 2000 is our workhorse. It has been to the mechanics three times in the last week, but it comes back home and goes right back to work. We use the truck to buy all the food supplies and charcoal that we hand out, plus any errands in town that need to be done. Passengers are limited to only the driver and one other person in the vehicle, but that works for us most of the time. They have allowed us to have four people in the truck when we are buying and distributing charcoal because it is so heavy and awkward. We also use the truck to distribute medicines, soap, razor blades, and Bible studies to the prisons. No one can go into the prisons to visit or teach right now, but we are allowed to take these supplies. It keeps us in contact with the prisons, and also gives us ways to show the gospel of the love of Christ to the prisoners and the guards.

We are also still picking up sick prisoners and taking them to the hospital, getting them treated, and buying their medication. We have a 29-passenger bus that does this during the week. And when it breaks down, we have a “baby bus” that does the job instead, although it takes many more trips back and forth to get everyone to and from the hospital. When we are able to do this ministry, maybe three or four prisoners die per year in the prisons in which we minister. When we do not do this, maybe three or four prisoners die every month.

We also use our smaller bus to help the local hospital as a sort of ambulance. One of our workers, Aaron Kirunda, is a social worker and can work directly with the hospital's social worker. We are still supplying food and medicine to the COVID isolation ward and to the TB wards through Aaron and the hospital social worker, but when a patient is discharged, they have to have a vehicle and driver with a special movement document in order for them to travel, especially across district lines. So Aaron uses our van to pick up patients at the hospital and take them home. We also have a “grandmother van” that Called Christians has had since 1993, that we use as a backup when these other vehicles are broken down (a daily occurrence around here). We have also sent our wrecked Prado to the garage to start repairs that will be done “slowly by slowly.”

I mentioned earlier some of the “good things” that have come during this lockdown. All the schools are closed right now, so to keep all of our boys out of trouble, they are working here on the compound during the lockdown. They normally work during Saturdays and holidays, but this feels like a very extended holiday. Since we can’t do as much ministry as usual, we are trying to repair some of the broken things on the compound, like our rotten roof. We have an excellent carpenter on staff, Grace, who was actually the carpenter when our house and the church were built. The boys normally just mow, cut the fence, wash the cars, and take care of the dogs, but Grace is training them in other skills as well. A large part of our roof has rotted and needs repairs, so the boys are learning to use a hammer and saw properly, to mix and lay concrete, to lay roofing tiles, to paint well, and many other lessons that will be valuable in their future. We will be sending most of them back to school when the schools open again, but for now, what a great thing it is to learn these new skills.

There is one more “good thing” I want to mention. Many of the people who need food are from districts that are far from Jinja, so we send them food money by “mobile money.” We all have a bank on our phones where we can deposit and send money to others on their phones. We recently sent 110,000 Uganda shillings (about $30) to a former School of Ministry student who is now a pastor. He and his family had no food and are surrounded by Muslims who have been persecuting them. This pastor and his wife saw that the Muslim families also had no food and took 90,000 shillings of their food money and bought food for nine Muslim families. These people were stunned, and this week, one of the men who has three wives and twelve children came to the pastor and gave his life to Christ, kind of like Nicodemus. He wants to keep it quiet for now, but also wants to lead his wives and children to the Lord. God is working!

The faith of many is being tested in this difficult time, but for many, it has strengthened that faith greatly. Please keep praying for Uganda and sending financial support when you can. You are blessing others more than you will ever know, and many are coming to Christ because of the love you show.

With much love in Christ,
Beverly

Hello and greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus. I hope you are all well!

We have been very busy, so my last update may have been a bit confusing. Today I will try to make things a bit clearer for you.

As most people know, one of our main ministries is to prisoners in the Uganda government prisons. In “normal” times, we would preach to about 2,000 prisoners every week. COVID has kept us out of the prisons for over a year now, but slowly by slowly, we have been allowed to begin teaching again, as long as we adhere to the rules for masks and social distancing. Our prison teachers are also being required to receive the vaccine so they can resume their normal schedules. We were so grateful when a few of the prisons invited a group of us in just to do worship and teaching, and then from there, to allow once a week Bible studies again. 

We also had an enormous blessing for the prisons this last couple of weeks—an amazing couple in the US donated $15,000 for blankets for the prisoners, and we were able to buy 4,020 blankets and distribute them to thirty prisons. Most people ask why you would need a blanket in Uganda, but the prisoners sleep on the floor in concrete cells, and they only have a pair of shorts and a shirt. They get really cold at night, and the blankets protect them from mosquitoes, so there is much less malaria when prisoners can cover themselves. We had been praying about this project for five years, and now it has happened. We visited each of the prisons with the Regional Prisons Commander, and each prison welcomed us with joy, asking us to come back and teach the Word of God to them. We had to sign a guest book at each prison, and in “reason for coming” we always wrote “bringing blankets from Jesus!” 

A few years ago, one of the young men we had raised graduated from school as a Clinical Officer (similar to a Physicians Assistant in the US). His name is Johnson, and he has helped run one of the small hospitals here for some time. His dream has been to build a maternity and pediatric clinic in his home area, because women and children get so little medical care in the villages, and often die for lack of that medical care. Another incredible couple donated $10,000 for building that clinic, and it will be called The Jesse Rich Memorial Medical Center. Construction has been going on for almost two months now, and it looks great. The $10,000 estimate was a bit short because the ground turned out to be slushy, so more materials were needed for the foundation, but we are raising funds, and the clinic will be finished before the end of the year. We are so excited about this!

We have been asked sometimes why we do so much humanitarian work alongside the teaching and preaching of the gospel of Christ, but every time we do something that takes care of peoples’ basic needs, we show that Jesus loves them. It is difficult to listen to anyone when you are hungry or sick, or your child is sick, so just as Jesus fed and healed people before He spoke to them about God, we try to do the same. There is no God like ours—one Who loves His people enough to send His Son to die for them! So we often introduce our Lord as The God Who Loves You. This draws people to hear the words of the God who cares, and because of that, many more people will spend eternity with us in heaven, and what a joyful noise it will be when we are all there together!

We work closely with the social worker from the Main Hospital here, but I will not show you many of the photos of the people that we have been able to assist there with food and medical. The photos are often too graphic for public viewing. But we were able to feed those in the Isolation Ward and the TB Wards throughout the COVID lockdown, and now we continue to help with medicines and food for many of the patients there. I will just put a few “clean” photos on this page, but just know that we do a large amount of medical assistance. This month someone brought a 14-year-old boy, Julius, from the village who had chronic osteomyelitis and his lower leg bones were filled with infection. They had been taking him to the local healer for treatment, but his leg had gotten so bad that when they finally got him to a hospital, the doctors said there was no hope but to amputate his leg. We know an excellent surgeon here in Jinja who also assessed Julius and said he did not have to have the leg amputated, then did surgery to clean out the bone and save the leg. Can you imagine being a 14-year-old boy and having to think about losing your leg? It was very expensive, and he will still be in the hospital for two more weeks for treatment, but it is such a joy to us all to know he will be able to go home and be a “regular” boy with both legs.

The same day we started helping Julius, a baby was brought into the hospital that had been stabbed in the chest and thrown in a pit latrine. We have been able to pay for his medical treatment, clothes, and soap, and for food for the auntie who is caring for him. We are so grateful that God gives us the opportunities to help these people in their times of desperation.

God is working for Called Christians these days, and we are so thankful to Him for that.  Over two years ago, a vehicle that we had sold in the past was in an accident and ran over a young teacher who lost both his legs. He sued the man who hit him and won the case, but then the man had no money to pay him. So he got an attorney to help him find money, and they discovered that (even though I had signed the papers for the transfer of title) the title of the vehicle was still in the name of Called Christians. So they sued us for 300 million shillings (about $84,000 US Dollars). We also hired an attorney, but he advised me not to go to court because I would be seen as “deep pockets,” so my representatives, Aaron and Barbra, have been going in my place. This week the case against us was dismissed. Hurray and Praise the Lord! Better to pay the attorney $2,000 than to pay $84,000 for something that was not our responsibility. Now I hope God gives us the same favor with the National Social Security Fund who is also trying to get 50 million shillings from us ($14,000 USD), saying we did not file properly. Our accountant, another young man who was raised from here, is working with them to reduce that amount significantly. Satan hates us, but God is fighting for us.

I have probably talked too long here, but there are so many things going on and there are so many ministries to talk about that I haven’t even touched on. But I will add just one more praise before I go. About a month ago, three of our staff and one baby were on their way to Kampala to pick up the driving permits that had just been renewed (for the adults, not the baby!). On their way to Kampala, they were in a terrible rollover accident and went off a very steep embankment. They all walked away with only scratches, bruises, and one broken rib. A true miracle. Calvary Church in Albuquerque sent us the funds to repair the old vehicle or get another one. We were able to purchase a vehicle almost exactly like the old one for exactly the amount Calvary sent. We will repair the old one slowly, and then I will let the beginning drivers drive the old one and continue to crash it, while only experienced drivers will drive the new one.

Our friend and coworker, Deborah Roberts, went to the US on furlough on 22 April. She arrived there suffering from malaria but did not realize it was malaria. Six days later she ended up in the hospital in a coma. After some time, and to the great surprise of the doctors, nurses, and the CDC, she woke up. She was starving and malnourished, and her kidneys have not yet started working again. At this point, the doctors are hopeful that her kidneys may start working again, and she has a feeding tube. She is also able to walk up and down the hall now, but then she must sleep because it makes her so tired. Deborah is an amazing woman of God; please pray seriously for her.

May God bless you and keep you always! If you pray for us, please pray for some of these things:

• Complete healing for Deborah.
• Uganda may be going into lockdown again. Please pray that we do not need to.
• The completion of the maternity/pediatric clinic.
• Enough support funds to pay our bills and continue our ministries.
• That we may enter prisons fully again to preach the Word of God.
• That our Bible studies in the high schools bring great fruit.
• That all our women’s Bible studies grow spiritually and physically.
• That the Woottons, who have moved on to a new ministry God has prepared for them, get settled in and filled with joy as the Lord uses them to fulfill the vision He has put in their hearts.

God bless you and thank you for everything you do for the Lord.

Beverly and Called Christians

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I have been very busy from the moment I returned from the United States. I got to be a part of a presentation/worship session by Called Christians and The Bridge Calvary Chapel. We have also begun teaching by Zoom in the main prison, and four of the prisons are now allowing us in to teach. We are also about to purchase 4,000 blankets to supply to nine prisons. And we are teaching two women’s Bible studies in two different villages while also coordinating two local evangelism outreaches. At three schools, the bore holes that provide clean water are broken so the children have been drawing drinking water from a local swamp in the same place the cattle come to drink. We have repaired one bore hole and the children now have clean water. We are praying about funding to repair the other two, (about $400 each). Kids are going back to school—some have already started, and others will begin soon. We will have several young people in trade schools for mechanics, plumbing, social work, and culinary skills. Lastly, someone has donated the funds to build a clinic in the village of the Clinical Officer that we have raised and sponsored. He has bought land and has plans for the clinic, which will focus primarily on maternity and pediatric care. Building on the Jesse Rich Memorial Clinic will begin in two weeks. Debbie Rogers has also provided this update on some of the projects we have been working on: Worship Day The prison warden (the operational commander or OC) invited a group of ten volunteers from Called Christians into the main men’s prison for a few hours of worship one Friday morning. They specifically asked for a keyboard player; not the way your grandma plays keyboard, but someone with energy. They loved the keyboard; we also sent in a beat box, a guitar, and people to sing and dance. We were supposed to start at 10 am, but this is Africa—they did not get started until after 11 am but they sang for a long time. One of the volunteers danced and sang for an hour straight. Afterwards, Pastor Mugoya Joel gave a message on Psalm 27 and four men were saved. The group stayed at the prison praising, worshiping, and dancing until about 3 pm. They returned to the Called Christians compound full of smiles and stories about how God used them. One young man who played the drum box said his arms hurt so much from playing for so long, but he did not care; he felt so blessed to be used by God. The volunteer who danced said he was a little sore the next day, but he had so much joy from serving that he did not care.  A speaker/karaoke machine was donated to the women’s prison. The prisons in Uganda are still locked down and have had no visitors for over a year now. The karaoke machine they used before to listen to worship music and to sing and dance broke. Two women delivered the new speaker and they immediately plugged it in and began worshiping. The music was so loud, you could not talk over it. The women were shouting with joy. The women’s OC gave us some pots the prisoners had made as a thank you. (See first included picture of the box the speaker came in. Volunteers had written words of encouragement on the outside of the box.) One lady who does not speak English had a woman translate an entire letter to the prisoners to encourage them to stand strong and trust in God, which was read to the prisoners when the speaker was delivered. (See second picture of the pots with the women’s teacher Loyce, her daughter Haddassah, who just loves to be in pictures, and Timothy, the driver.) Our prison ministry has been trying to operate inside the lockdown restrictions by sending in weekly messages on paper (old school letters back and forth). When prisoners are released, they are given a little money for transportation back to their home village but sometimes it is not enough. Some of those prisoners come to the Called Christians compound looking for help to get home; we give them some transport money and prayers. In March, a man was released from the main prison and he came to the compound looking for help with transportation. The only thing he took with him from prison was a stack of those weekly messages he had written notes on. He was so happy showing the volunteer what he learned. We were able to encourage him and pray with him, give him a little transport money, and send him on his way.  We also send a monthly letter into the prisons that are not located in Jinja. Once a month, the prison leader drives around to the other prisons delivering a written message and some soap, razors, and hand sanitizer. We sent in prayer cards to see if anyone wanted prayer and got back a five-inch stack of requests. We received so many requests that we organized a time of prayer so additional volunteers could be brought in to pray over these prisoners’ requests, and we now meet once a month to pray for the ministry and prisoners’ requests. (See picture of two volunteers with boxes of soap being delivered to a prison.) Hospital/Benevolence A case was brought to us of a mentally disturbed woman who had been attacked. We know she was beaten and robbed, but we are not sure what else happened beyond that. They beat her in the head with a crowbar so severely that it tore a chunk out of the side of her face and damaged her teeth/gums inside her mouth. Another Christian organization in Jinja (dentists) performed surgery to repair her mouth and face. We provided prayer, pain medication, and liquid food. She was in the hospital for a few months. We eventually found out her name was Sandra. She slowly remembered things and declared one day, “I am from Kenya!” So, when she was ready to be released, we gave her some food, money for transport back to her village in Kenya, and extra pocket money for her to get started when she returned. (See two pictures: one with her mouth wired shut while she was healing, and one on the day she was released from the hospital). Hospital Prayer (Weekly at Main Hospital) Our hospital prayer team is getting ready to head back in and pray each week with people. We have only been able to go in a few times with one or two people due to lockdown restrictions. During one case, two men went in to pray. One was helping Sandra and the other was moving from bed to bed praying. When I asked him about his experience, he said it is so dark there; people are without hope, and it is vital that we get back inside to pray for people again. He told me of times that even Muslims were asking for prayer; he said they were desperate and asked him for prayer even knowing that he was a Christian. He recalled being in the diabetes ward that day, and the smell was horrible due to people’s skin rotting off their bodies. He prayed for one woman named Janet, who was in danger of losing her foot (puss was running down her foot). He prayed fervently for God to help this woman. As he was praying, he was reminded of another woman he prayed for in the past. She was in town from Rwanda for a conference and broke her leg in an accident. The hospitals in Uganda work differently than hospitals in the US. The hospital does not provide medication or food; you bring an attendant that provides these items for you. This woman had no one since she was here on a business trip. He recalled praying with her and taking her food and medication until she was released and returned to Rwanda. Pray for us so we can get back in and minister to people. We are hoping we will be able to Friday, April 9. Neighborhoods (Danida & Bugembe) In 2021, we added Bugembe to our neighborhood outreach ministry. In Bugembe, most of the population identifies as Muslim, with a small group of Mormons. We thought we would go and evangelize for a year and God would clear the path for a Bible study to start, but God had other plans. We evangelized in one neighborhood and fifteen people came to a Bible study the first day. God even provided a location for us to meet. We continue to go each week and are seeing lives changed. A woman recently asked a volunteer what he was doing to her husband, who she said was an abusive drunk, but since he had been attending Bible study over the past few weeks, he had stopped drinking and had been nicer to her. She asked us to keep doing whatever we were doing. (See picture of one of the first Bible studies.) Villages/Women’s Bible School Every Thursday we hold a women’s Bible study in one of two villages: Iguluibi and Lumuli (villages have no paved roads and are usually at least a twenty-minute drive off the main highway). We spend one week at Iguluibi and the next week at Lumuli. (See picture of road to village lined with sugar cane). A young single mother named Sarah has been attending the Iguluibi women’s Bible study for about four years. She walks 4.3 miles one way every other Thursday to attend. We recently held a meeting in the village to talk about starting a women’s Bible school there. Sarah came and helped cook a meal for us to eat even though it was 10:30 in the morning; she is very excited for the Bible School to start. We are anticipating a start date of September or October, with a two-year curriculum. We are currently finalizing the plans and curriculum. Food is very important in Uganda. Whenever you visit a village, they want to feed you. Normally they serve matoke (mah-toe-kay) bananas that are steamed or boiled, some sort of boiled or roasted meat, and rice. It could come with g-nut sauce (ground roasted peanut sauce) or greens (collard greens or kale). All of this is cooked on little charcoal stoves in villages. Women in Uganda have a lot of responsibilities at home and after having a discussion, we determined it was not practical to have women come to the Called Christians compound for a Bible school. They cook on charcoal stoves each day; they even heat water for cleaning and bathing on the stove. In addition, they tend to gardens so their family can eat, watch kids, and clean. We are hoping to take the school to them to raise up women who can raise up other women (to make disciples who can make disciples). We currently have a women’s Bible school on the Called Christians campus for pastors’ wives. There are six women attending and the plan is to have them help teach at the women’s Bible school in the village. (See picture of these women celebrating when they completed their first book on inductive study method). Schools There are “scripture union” in schools in Uganda. Students meet over their lunch hour to worship, practice scripture drills/verse memorization, hear a teaching, and eat their lunch. Called Christians has relationships with five schools (only two are meeting currently, due to COVID; the other schools will begin meeting in April and May). A Called Christians pastor teaches once a week at each school. We have also been holding a Sunday church service at two of the schools. We are currently looking for ways to expand this ministry and pour into these kids more. They range in age from eight to eighteen years old. Most of these schools are boarding schools. This is where we met Esther, a Muslim convert to Christianity. Her dad tried to drown her when he found out she had become a follower of Jesus. She was exiled and now lives with her grandmother in Jinja. We helped her with school fees and a little extra money so they could start selling food as a business. (See picture of Esther). God bless you and thank you for everything you do for the Lord. Beverly and Called Christians

Hello again! It’s been too long since I have updated you about the “goings-on” in Uganda and my furlough in the USA. Today, February 5, marks the twenty-third anniversary of the date Jess and I stepped onto Ugandan soil to serve as missionaries with Jay and Sunny McLaughlin. It seems like a lifetime ago. Jess and I went out to serve for life, but I don’t know if either of us ever thought of life as being twenty-three years. It has been an amazing and incredible journey and shows no sign of ending yet.

This furlough that I am on has been busy but so much fun. I have been meeting with friends, family, and supporters, and making new friends and finding new supporters. I love being with people, and God has given me so many opportunities for that, despite COVID-19, and I am feeling indescribably blessed. I started this stateside journey in South Carolina in late November, and it was so cold. I slept and slept and ate and ate—hibernation with breaks for food—no complaints there. My fabulous friends, the Moores, always make me feel at home, and I don’t feel guilty for catching up on much-needed sleep, and I definitely started on my “furlough fifteen” weight gain while I was there. Then I spent time in Texas with my family, and friends that I have known since kindergarten. God showered special joy on me by giving me time with them all. I spent Christmas with my “family by blood” for the first time in thirty years, and it was wonderful. Texas was still pretty locked down, so I didn’t get to speak in many churches, but the ones I visited were beautiful, warm, and friendly. After Texas, I was in Albuquerque for three weeks. Calvary Church was so welcoming and treated me almost like royalty. Of course, this is where most of my work (this is a working furlough) of connecting with people, talking about the mission, and garnering interest in prayer and financial support takes place. The Lord opened the doors for me to be interviewed on the radio, and to be on stage with Pastor Skip one evening to feature the work God allows Called Christians and our staff to do with and for Him. I visited with longtime friends and made so many new friends while I was in Albuquerque. I loved being there. Now I am in Colorado where I get to visit with friends, spend time with Jess’s and my kids and grandkids, and speak in churches and Bible studies. I even got to spend a day soaking in a hot spring. I still have several places to visit, and then I will be getting on a plane back to Uganda on March 14.

As I am traveling the USA, I am also in constant contact with Deborah Roberts, who is overseeing the work of the mission back in Uganda while I am on furlough. She and I chat for a long time every day on WhatsApp and through email, to ensure that we are on the same page with the work there. So many things have happened with the mission during the severe COVID shutdown. We lost several staff members, and in April, the Wootton family will be moving on to another place that God has called them. I am excited about rebuilding the mission and ministries from almost scratch. I know God is going to do a wonderful work. Called Christians is beginning to get back into a few more normal ministries. Pastor Isaac Wootton has been running a half-day School of Ministry to help local believers and some of my staff know the Word of God better. He has also been holding church services (although at a reduced number) since November and does a shortened version on the radio and Facebook on Sunday afternoons.

This week will be the first time our prisons pastor, Joel Mugoya, has used Zoom to share his teaching in Kirinya Main Prison. For several months, he has been sending in written Bible studies to be read, answered, and returned to him for marking, and for prayer. He will continue with that in the other prisons, but we are excited that the men in Main Prison will get to see and hear him on the big screen TV that the Officer in Charge has purchased. Our prison bus still goes to the prisons five days every week to pick up sick prisoners and take them to the hospital. The prisons are grateful for that ministry because it helps keep the death rate in the prisons down by a large percentage. Many blessings to all the people that helped us buy that bus three years ago. One of my main desires and goals for the prisons was to raise funds to buy blankets for all the prisoners. That need touched the hearts of an amazing couple in Albuquerque, and they have donated $15,000 toward buying blankets for the prisoners! Praise the Lord for His mercy and grace and moving of hearts.

The village and outreach ministries have started again in Iguluibi and Danida, and Ann Wibbenmeyer is leading classes on the compound for the wives of many of the young pastors that serve with us. She also has a pre-teen and early teen girls’ Bible study that meets five days a week. They went this week to Prayer Mountain to have some time in prayer, teaching, and drawing closer to the Lord. Called Christians is also starting some new outreach evangelism and Bible studies in local areas. This last week, they were able to go out to the nearby area of Bugembe, and that first time was a great success. The hospital is allowing us to go inside in small groups again to pray at patients’ bedsides, as long as we wear masks and follow the Standard Operating Procedures set forth by the President. That is such a needed ministry—people long for prayer—and we are overjoyed to start that again. As usual, there are bumps in the road. For instance, two of our vehicles need major repairs, and all the others need small ones; but God has His hand even on our vehicles, and soon we will have them all up and running again. All the schools were closed, but they are beginning to open again “slowly by slowly,” so most of my young people will be going back to classes very soon.

And in case you are interested, I have been able to share a video on my Facebook page that focuses on the mission and work in Uganda. God is working in Uganda and through Called Christians. Satan hates us because we spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, but we have a fabulous covering of prayer, and God is fighting for us in every way. If you have the time to pray for us, (we thank you for those prayers), here are a few prayer requests:Pray that our ministries, both old and new, will raise up disciples who raise up other disciples, so the Word of God spreads through all of Uganda.Pray that our finances are enough to support the mission and all its ministries.Pray that our vehicles would be properly repaired and last for a long time without any major problems or breakdowns.Pray that our staff loves the Lord and loves to serve Him.Pray that there is unity in the body of Christ on the compound and in our ministries.If you wish to give financially to the work of Called Christians, the link for giving is: https://secure.acceptiva.com/?cst=692d6b   God bless you always and forever! Bev

Hello good folks!!  Time for another update!!  My visitor Deborah was talking with me the other day and she asked about the start of some of the ministries that we do.  We don’t talk a lot about the extra medical care Called Christians gives to people, but it is one of the many ways we minister to hurting people in order to show them the love of Jesus in a physical way.  We have been feeding many of the people in Main Hospital Isolation, and in the surgical ward and the TB wards for much of the Covid lockdown, and have also been providing many of the patients with medicine.  In Uganda, if you don’t have an attendant to be with you to feed you, bathe you, buy your medicines, wash your clothes, and just basically take care of you, you often get no care at all.  There are some nurses that will help you, but not many.  Just in the last two weeks, we have been able to minister to a woman who fell asleep with a lighted candle in the room, her mattress caught on fire, and she was burned terribly.  We also found a young woman lying under her hospital bed, not in it, who had been hit in the face with a crowbar and had a terrible infection and a broken jaw.  We did as much as we could for both women, and then were able to speak to a Christian dental organization here who went and got the woman who was beaten, took her back to their clinic, did surgery on her jaw (for free!), and then took her back to the hospital!  What a blessing it is for the Body of Christ to work together to minister to a hurting world! And people ask us often how we decide who we are to help, since there is so much need.  To tell you the truth, God makes it very clear.  Some people are “not the ones,” but some people God very clearly says to our hearts, “This One!”  And those are the ones!!  😀

Called Christians takes a 29 seater bus to the prison several days a week and picks up prisoners that are too sick to be treated in the prison clinics, takes them to hospital, gets them treated, buys their medication, and takes them back to prison.  I was just remembering how and why this ministry was started.  Back in 1999, I was teaching in Kirinya Women’s Prison and our ladies team walked in one day to see this very young woman named Rebecca on her hands and knees just rocking back and forth in terrible pain.  She had a red bandana tied around her head, and sweat and tears were pouring off of her like water.  She had terrible malaria, but the prison had no malaria medicine.  She was in such pain!!!  I can still picture her today!  And all I could think of was how would I feel, locked in prison, terribly sick and in pain, and absolutely no hope of getting any help at all.  It broke my heart!  We laid hands on her and prayed, and then of course after the service that day, we rushed back into town and bought medicine and took it back to her. And that was the start of helping with medicine in the prisons.  The government can’t afford to provide much of the medicine.  What if it was YOU there, horribly sick, with no way to get medical help?  We just could not bear the thought and started providing medications to the prisons. Ministering physically in the love and Name of Christ – in imitation of what Christ did when we healed the sick and fed the hungry so that they would then be ready to hear the Words of Salvation!!

I was also thinking about how we got started taking care of so many children, and then raising them up through school and helping them to have a decent life on this earth, while also getting them ready for eternal life.  The Called Christians compound was next door to a very large abandoned building that was mostly just an empty shell.  About 80 squatters, mostly widows, single women, and children, lived there with very few walls, no electricity, no running water, and no sanitation.  Sunny McLaughlin couldn’t bear the fact that the children were mostly hungry, so she and George Apostle (who also worked with us) started feeding them.  Then in time, we started sending them to school as well.  And then helping with their medical care.  After some time, they were like extensions of our family.  They were in our Sunday school, they translated for us at the gate and in many of our ministries, and they did a huge Christmas program in the prisons with what was then Calvary Chapel Jinja. Over the years we probably helped to raise up about 200 children through Primary School, and they were all given a chance at Secondary School and above. Many graduated Secondary School and then many also went on to University or trade schools.  Now we have plumbers, electricians, teachers, government workers, hairdressers, politicians, a professional golfer, a doctor, and an accountant among the many that started with us all those years ago. They are now productive members of Ugandan society, active members in their churches and communities, and parents of small children themselves! God has blessed us so much to get to be a part of their lives and to watch them grow! Even though there have been times that I wanted to strangle one or two of them (mostly in their teenage years, ha ha!), it just fills my heart again and again to know these “kids” and see the people that they have become and the lives they are now leading!

Called Christians has been privileged and blessed to get to work in the prisons for about 25 years.  We teach a midweek Bible study and a Sunday service in 5 of the prisons, and once a week in two others.  We also get to do a Christmas program in all seven prisons each year – until this one.  Everyone is locked out because of covid. But I have met with the Officers in Charge of several of the prisons and they will be VERY happy when we are allowed to go back in and teach!!  The prisoners are missing the Word of God!  We are able to send in worksheets each week with a Bible lesson and questions to be answered by the prisoners, but that is not the same as a Bible Study or Church Service!  Even the guards are ready for us to be back!  We can hardy wait!

And even though the prison and hospital ministries are slow to be reopened because of their extra vulnerability to covid, many of our other ministries have been able to start up again! Two of our village women’s Bible studies have started once more, and the ladies are so eager to hear God’s Word that they are actually coming on time!  (VERY rare in Uganda!)  And there is tremendous joy during the worship and the Bible studies.  The Bible teaching in the low income area of Danida has started again.  And the Wise Women’s Bible Study has also begun again at The Bridge Calvary Chapel.  Little by little, we are being allowed to reach out to people again with the Good News of the Gospel of Christ!  Joy, Joy, Joy!!!  Really!!

I, Beverly, am getting ready to go on a three month furlough starting at the end of this month.  And for those of you who say I am going on vacation, HA!!  NOT a vacation!  But it will be a wonderful time of reconnecting with family (first time I will spend Christmas with my Texas family in 30 years), friends, and supporters.  I am really looking forward to being with people that I haven’t seen in years, and to fellowshipping in churches I haven’t visited in almost three years, and to getting opportunities to speak in many places and sharing what God is allowing us to join with Him in doing in Uganda. Please, please, if you want to visit with me, or have me speak to you individually or in a group of the work of Called Christians in Uganda, do contact me and let me know.  I am eager to spend time with people talking about the Lord and about His Work!

There is so much to add here, but I don’t want to go on and on forever.  There is still SO much work to do here, and many hands and feet that are willing to do the work!  We do often lack the funds to support the different ministries, and if anything particularly touches your heart, please feel free to give toward that area of need. We and many others would be MORE than blessed by your gift!

Just one more tiny thing – we were talking at the table tonight about the Uganda Postal Service (which has been shut down since March, but is slowly reopening) and wondering how a certain package would be delivered from one side of Uganda to the other.  We often put items on buses or 14 passenger taxis and pay a small fee to have them delivered to another town.  But it brought to mind the “old days” when there were no cell phones, and of course villages did not have post offices. So if you wanted to send a message to someone in a village somewhere (we often sent messages from prisoners to their families), you gave the message to a matatu taxi driver, and as he would drive by a certain point in the village, he would just throw the message out the window and people would check to see who it went to, and then would deliver the message to that person. And believe it or not, it worked!

Thank you for hanging in there till the end of this long update.  So much is going on, and I just had to write it to you!!  May God bless you with peace in your heart in these trouble times!  And may He also touch you to help those who are less fortunate than you are.  

With much love,

Beverly Rich and Called Christians

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Hello and Greetings from Uganda. I have absolutely no idea what to include in this update. All I can say to start is my usual mantra: “Things are never dull here!”

Actually, one of the reasons I have delayed in writing this update is that I am struggling a bit to find positive and uplifting news right now. The last month has been very difficult, and many things seemed to hit all at once. It is mostly about being overwhelmed by new government regulations and paperwork, but there are other things as well.

Three weeks ago, I was still battling with the fallout from the witchcraft incident on the Called Christians compound. I had to fire all three of the night guards who were on duty the night that all our doors and gates were anointed with oil and salt. I also had to let go one of the women who has worked for us for many years. We started supporting her and her children long before she started working for us because she is a widow, and we have taken care of her for about twenty years. She worked for us for about fourteen years. I offered her a large settlement when I let her go, an amount that was far above what she was owed. Anyone else would have been thrilled to have that money to start a new life, but she got very angry, told me it was not enough, and sued me and Called Christians through the Jinja Labour Board. She wants an amount of money that is equal to one month’s budget for us, including all our salaries and ministry funds. Please pray that God’s hand will be evident through the entire process and that He does as He sees fit, whatever that might be. We were supposed to meet with the Senior Labour Officer again yesterday, but he is in the hospital with malaria. He offered to let his assistant handle it, but she is often biased and unfair, so we are waiting for him to get well and come back to work.

The week after the witchcraft incident, I was on a prayer retreat and received three unsettling emails as I was getting ready to return. One was from the NGO Board saying that I had not renewed my NGO permit (Called Christians is a non-government organization), and it was being taken off the list of valid NGOs in Uganda. I went through every crazy hoop for days at the end of last year and the first of this year and received the renewal, including the valid certificates. I wrote to them and asked if I needed to send a copy of the certificates, and they sent me a long list of extra information that they wanted from us along with the copy of the certificates. We have turned in all the documentation and hope things are settled now. We have not heard back from the NGO Board yet. 
The second letter was from the Uganda Revenue Authority (like the IRS in the USA) saying that we owed them a lot of money, which we do not. I have had to ask our accountant to complete a lot of other documentation and protests so the demand for that money will be canceled. The third letter was from the Jinja Municipal Council, demanding millions of shillings from me in ground rent, which is paid when land is leased from the Council. In 2016 we were able to change the Called Christians land from “leasehold” to “freehold land,” so we do not have to pay ground rent any more. I had to write letters of protest, gather documentation, and turn in those letters to the Council for their consideration and judgment. It is a good thing I had spent the previous three days in prayer.

Satan knows where to come at me the hardest. I am constantly praying for and struggling over the finances here. It seems, just like most places in the world, that there is never enough money. Praise God that He is the one in charge!

We have had some good things going on around here, too; sometimes it is difficult to remember the good when you feel beaten down by life’s concerns. Ann Wibbenmeyer has soft-started her School of Ministry for Women, and she has a small number of women, mostly the wives of pastors and elders and deacons, coming once a week for Inductive Bible Study. When the country opens up, she will start the women’s School of Ministry full time. We are very excited about this.

We are still in severe lockdown because of COVID, but the president has hinted that the airport may open on October 1. That would be a blessing for Uganda; one of our main sources of income is tourism, and people have not been able to travel to this incredible country since March. If the airport does open, then I also have a big decision to make. I was scheduled to go to the USA on furlough last April, May, and June, but the lockdown kept me here. My tickets are paid for and must be used within a year of booking—I booked last February. I need to be back in Uganda by April because we have a team from the States coming in May, and another in June. I need to visit friends and family, but I also need to do some fundraising. Uganda is much safer than the USA when it comes to COVID, so that makes me a bit nervous.  Many states are also still not open to people coming in without quarantining. Also, if churches aren’t open and people can’t meet in groups, it will be more difficult to talk about the ministries here so that people will see areas where they could assist us prayerfully and financially. And to tell you the truth, I don’t like going to the US when it is cold; it has been years since I experienced real winter.

One huge blessing we have had during this lockdown, when churches are not allowed to meet, is that Called Christians has, for years, been paying for a Sunday afternoon spot on a local radio station where pastors from The Bridge Calvary Chapel teach the Bible. When the lockdown hit, we already had the perfect spot to hold “scientific” church services (gatherings of less than ten people) on the radio. A small worship team, plus Pastor Isaac and a translator, have been holding church services on the radio every Sunday afternoon since the end of March, and that service has reached people in Jinja as well as in areas that are far from here. Even if the churches open, which may or may not happen soon, Called Christians and The Bridge Calvary Chapel will continue to share the Word of God in this way because it reaches so many people.

We still are not able to do many of our usual ministries. The prison here has 100 confirmed cases of COVID, so it is probably good that we haven’t been able to do our Bible teaching in the prisons since March. We only do the hospital run from the prisons each day, but we have found many other ways to minister to God’s people, and we are excited to continue these new ministry styles after the lockdown is over.

Deb tells me that people like to see a local interest fact sometimes, so let me close this update with this. I think that the Ugandan woman’s traditional dress is one of the most feminine and lovely in the entire world.

The gomesi started out as a girls’ school uniform, and I do not know how it became the traditional dress, but it is very distinct, though very difficult to wear. A gomesi is six meters of cloth wrapped around the body, held together by only two buttons and a wide, slippery belt. But the women wear it with grace, elegance, and incredible beauty. I will post a photo or two, and you see if you agree.

Blessings and honor to God, and all glory to Him. May He bless you and keep you always.

With so much love in Christ,
Beverly

Greetings from Called Christians in lovely Uganda. I seem to start every update with “life is never boring here,” or something to that effect, and it is still true this time.

We continue to be in lockdown, although it has been relaxed a bit. Our land borders are still closed to any traffic except cargo trucks and petrol tankers, and the airport is still closed except for one or two special monthly flights and one or two repatriation flights that are coming in. Vehicles, either public or private, are not allowed to drive in any of the districts bordering other countries, except with special permission by the local security officers. We have registered almost 1,100 cases of COVID-19 with only two deaths so far, but it seems that this week the virus is beginning to be discovered in Kampala public. Uganda has, from the beginning, been treating COVID-19 with hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, and zinc, and the doctors say recovery starts much earlier than with people not taking it. The two people who died were not taking this treatment.

Our compound, as usual, is always busy. Even though the church cannot open for services, and most of our regular ministries are closed right now, we still have much to do. There are two Schools of Ministry operating from this mission (one is for men from the North who speak Acholi), but both have been staying on the compound during lockdown, and the twelve men have been trained as extra security guards, since there is a rash of break-ins and robberies of missionaries in the last three months. In fact, I spent one week staying nights in the hospital with a husband and wife and two of their children who were severely beaten and cut with machetes. I was able to give my time to stay with them because I don’t have children to care for at home, and most of the other missionaries do. 

We are slowly, as funds come in, installing extra lighting and security on our compound and in our houses. Our visitor, Deborah, took some great defense training before she came to Uganda, and has been training our night guards in personal combat.

And speaking of our night guards, someone has been bringing a lot of gossip to them about each other that has caused great division and hatred between two of the men. We are working on resolving this, but please pray about this situation. Both men and their families live on our staff compound, and the men work together at night. This is not a good situation for security for them or for us.

Also, this week (and we think it has been going on for about a month), someone on our staff has brought witchcraft into our compound. At first it was water sprinkled across the path in front of a gate, but this week we discovered salt and oil on all our outside doors. This is either someone trying to harm us with witchcraft, or someone trying to protect us with “holy oil and salt,” which is thought to protect from demons, but that is just using witchcraft to counter witchcraft, and is unacceptable in any form. Please pray that we get to the bottom of this and that “whatever [is hidden] in the dark will be [brought out into] the light” (Luke 12:3). We are not afraid; we have God as our protection. But it is more than annoying that someone on our staff (all claim to be believers) would be practicing witchcraft.

We are still feeding many people, especially the people in isolation in the hospital. There are no cafeterias in Ugandan hospitals, and families have to provide food for their own patients; however, patients in isolation who are suspected to have COVID-19 are not allowed to have visitors or attendants, so they have no food. When these patients are discharged, they have no way to get back home. We have been providing these services for these folks and for the patients in the TB wards, who are in nearly the same circumstances. Called Christians has also been providing a great deal of medical help during this season. People have no money because they have not been allowed to work, but they still get sick and need medicine and surgeries.

I was hoping to go on furlough this past April, May, and June, and would have been back from the U.S. already. That didn’t happen for obvious reasons, but I do hope to make it to the States some time in the next few months. I would really like to see everyone! I don’t usually enjoy visiting in the winter, but we have a team coming next year in May, and one in June, and I need to be back in Uganda before then, so I may get a taste of winter for the first time in years.

One of my Ugandan daughters, Namere, is due to give birth to her firstborn any day now. She feels so big, is ready for this baby to come, and I am ready to have another Ugandan grandchild. Please pray all goes well.

The slum, called “Works,” that was behind our compound has been completely demolished, which left about 3,000 homeless. We fed many of them and helped many move or start businesses in other locations, but all of these people were greatly affected. It is much quieter and smells nicer here since they have gone, but my heart goes out to the many people who were displaced.

There is much more to say, but I have rattled on for long enough. Please continue to keep us in your prayers, and know that we are grateful for your financial support. You are partners with us in bringing the good news of Jesus Christ to many, many people in Uganda. We do it through preaching the Word, but also by showing the love of Christ through physical assistance. Thank you for being such a large part of that love.

Prayer requests:

• Protection from COVID and thieves
• Funds for extra security measures, vehicle repairs, and helping people with their food and medical needs
• An end to hatred and division in the compound, especially between our night guards
• Bringing light to the witchcraft situation
• Comfort and a way to make a living for those displaced from “Works”
• A safe delivery for Namere’s baby

God bless you and thank you for everything you do for the Lord.

Beverly and Called Christians

Even though the country of Uganda has been on lockdown since March 17^th, we are still very busy at Called Christians.  Our usual ministries to the prisons, villages and slum areas have been on hold during this time, but God has called us to do other ministry instead.

Called Christians staff has a very good relationship with the main hospital in Jinja because we normally go there every Sunday to pray for the sick, and to help a few of the most needy with food and medicines.  This of course was not allowed during lockdown, but we have still been able to assist many people there, including the feeding of all of the patients in Isolation that were suspected COVID cases, and most of the men and women in the TB Wards.  Called Christians was also able to receive a special sticker for our vehicle to be on the road to use for transporting sick patients to other hospitals, discharged patients to their homes, and for taking food to the places we went to feed the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in several areas.  And the local Farmer’s Market is selling mangoes at a great discount to organizations that are feeding people, and we have bought and handed out 1500kg (3300 pounds) so that people have something besides the basic staple foods to eat!

Our President Museveni announced at the beginning of the lockdown that there would be no weddings or burials unless they were “Scientific,” meaning no more than 10 people present.  (This is VERY much against the culture, but necessary, as you know.) So we had two Scientific Weddings here in the last two months, consisting of Pastor, Bride, Groom, Matron, Best Man, Two Parents for the Bride, Two Parents for the Groom, and the Photographer.  These were some of the most beautiful weddings we have ever had here!  And we know this because those of us who couldn’t attend officially kind of “peeped” into the windows of the church where the weddings were being held, ha ha!!

Bless everyone who has sent support to us in these last few months, because we were able to pay all our expenses, PLUS have enough funds to feed over 700 families!  As I said, we are not doing our “usual” ministries, but we are sure that at this time, Jesus would be wanting us to share His love to people through feeding them, praying with them, and giving them Words of comfort and hope!

The one “normal” ministry we have been able to do is to continue sending our bus to the local prisons, picking up the prisoners who are too sick to be treated in the prison infirmaries, and taking them to and from the hospital for treatment and medication. Micheal, the driver, sprays all of their hands with a local disinfectant soap before they get on the bus each time, and we scrub down the inside of the bus when it returns.

The second biggest expense during this time, after the feeding of people, has been the repair of our fleet of vehicles.  Uganda roads are notorious for potholes that are large and deep enough to swallow a few elephants!  And many of those potholes are right on our street!  So our two “manual” vehicles had clutch plate, pressure plate, pressure forks and all the other “clutch” parts replaced, along with replacing all of the ball joints, tie rod ends, shocks, and bushings in the front ends.  The two automatic vehicles have also had tie rod ends, bushings, shocks, boots, arm bars, steering arms, and many other things replaced.  EXPENSIVE!!!  We were actually driving on pieces of rattling metal parts that were about to fall apart at any minute.  Now we are much safer on the roads!!  We use our vehicles for ministry, and some days all six of them are out at one time!  They are definitely work horses!

The slum area of “Works” behind us has over 2000 people and no running water or sanitation.  It is illegal to put those amenities there because the settlement is illegal.  We have built them three pit latrines, but this last week, two of them have overflowed and are running like rivers between the houses and down to the road, where the sewage is pooling against our security wall.  This week one of our young men found the company that pumps out pit latrines, and we paid to have that done.  This young man also talked with the local Water and Sewerage company, and after the latrine is pumped, it will actually be connected to the National Sewerage system, hurray!!  Less smell and less cholera for all!

President Museveni has loosened a few of the lockdown restrictions, even though we have nearly 500 confirmed COVID cases (about 400 of them are truck drivers and contacts of truckers) and we can drive our private cars for the first time since March 21^st.  I love to drive and have missed driving my car!!  Unfortunately, so did everyone else, so it seems that this last week, every car in Uganda was on the road!  Can you say “traffic jam?”  Some of the shops have been allowed to open, and some people are going back to work, but it will still take a while for many to get on their feet.  Please do continue to pray for this country for relief from starvation, terrible floods, and locusts.  And we at Called Christians will continue to cry out to the Lord for peace in the USA!  We love you!  Thank you for loving us!!

Praises and Prayer Requests:

• Praise for the support that allows us to feed starving families, help with medical for the very sick, and repair our fleet of vehicles!
• Praise for the Staff at Called Christians that loves the Lord, and gathers to pray for many issues almost every morning.
• Praise for two beautiful weddings that took place at Called Christians/Calvary Chapel.
• Praise that the orphan Shafiq has a safe and loving place to stay until they find his family.
• Pray that God continues to touch people to send support to help us feed the needy.
• Pray that God stops this Coronavirus and lets people get back to earning a living, but also that everyone has changed for the better during this difficult time, and that people have more love and compassion for each other.

Hello Everyone, and Greetings from Uganda!

I hope you are all doing well during this interesting season.  We in Uganda are under a pretty tight lockdown, and so far have only registered 74 cases of the COVID-19 in our country.  The government was so strict about quarantining people that came into Uganda at the airports, and our visitor, Deborah Roberts was in Institutional Quarantine in a local hotel in Entebbe for 19 days before we could bring her back to Jinja.  Unfortunately, the one place they have NOT been strict is with the cross- country truckers that have been coming in from Tanzania and Kenya, and our last 16 cases have been truck drivers.  We are praying that the government chooses to put more restrictive measures on those people today!

Our compound is locked and only people that live or work here (with a few exceptions) are allowed to come in.  And anyone that does enter must immediately wash his or her hands, and we wash down the gate with soap and water every 30 minutes! No private vehicles are allowed to travel on the roads at this time, and there is no public transport either – not even the motorcycle taxis.  So everyone has to walk or stay home unless they are carrying cargo.  Our double cabin Toyota pickup is allowed to move, so we use it when we need to buy quantities of goods, or when we need to get rid of our rubbish.  And our bus has been given permission to continue to pick up the sick prisoners from the prisons and take them to the hospital and back to prison.  Otherwise our entire fleet of vehicles is grounded.  This is a lot less expensive in fuel and vehicle repairs though! 

Our stores are closed, and markets can only sell food, but no other goods.  Everyone must keep 4 meters distance between themselves and someone else.  The market people are not allowed to go home each day, but must sleep in the market.  Motorcycles are allowed to move between 7am and 5pm to carry goods, so one of our young men who has a motorcycle does our shopping for us.  He says that when you carry eggs, you have to drive with one hand! 

Almost all of the “daily” workers are without work right now because of the restrictions, so most of the country is experiencing hunger, since most live hand to mouth. The Bridge Calvary Chapel has bought a large quantity of food to distribute quietly to our church members that are in need. (You can’t publicly distribute food right now or you will be arrested.)  And Called Christians received a generous donation of $2000 that has been used to feed 85 families for the next two weeks!  We are very blessed on this compound to have food, shelter, and space to move around, but those around us are truly suffering, and we are doing our best to be the hands and feet of Christ to as many as we can.

At the same time that we are under the COVID lockdown, Uganda is also being attacked by huge swarms of desert locusts that could cause further hunger by devastating the crops.  The government is waiting for them to settle down at night and then the army is spraying them while they are at rest. 

And because of the prolonged rains, Lake Victoria is at its highest level since 1960.  Villages, markets, and homes that are along the lake shores are flooded with water, and large pieces of land and gardens are breaking off from the shores and floating to our power dam and blocking the dam, cutting off electricity supply to much of the country at different times.  Our March through May rains have started, so now flooding will increase. It seems that Uganda is facing a battle on several fronts, but we know the ONE who loves us and knows our every thought.  We will continue to pray for His protection and provision, and that He uses all of these catastrophes to draw people to Him!

Supporting the Mission

If anyone wants to donate special money to feed the hungry in Uganda right now, sign up for the “Sendwave” app and send money directly to my phone.  +256 752 624 589.  This is a special app for sending money directly to Africa.  I promise that every dime will be spent for feeding the hungry.

Praises and Prayer Requests:

Praises – Most of our village pastors are farmers.  The locusts were heading right toward the fields of one of our pastors, but as he prayed, a great wind came and blew the locusts back the way they had come!

Because of donations, Called Christians has been able to provide food for many hungry families!

God has been protecting Uganda from the COVID-19 virus up to this point.  What a blessing!

And we on this compound are more than blessed with food, shelter, companionship, and safety.

That our support is enough to provide for our budget plus have an excess that will continue to feed many families that are destitute.

That God continues to protect Uganda from the virus, and that the government is wise enough to stop the influx of affected truck drivers.

For the entire world that this virus disappears soon and that economies are restarted.

That people all over the world turn to the Lord during this time of stress and need, and that the world experiences Revival!!

Blessings to you all, and may you feel the presence of the Lord surrounding you!

Beverly Rich