This is coming to you from Kampala, Uganda where Maureen, Charles and I have returned after a week’s community development meetings in the northern city of Lira, population 60,000. We have been fostering relationships with many of the locals through the Pentecostal Church of Uganda (PCU). Despite being relatively small, they do have churches in most of Uganda but have been very slow to build "outside" relationships due to the many problems that can often be associated with Western partnerships. God has however opened a great opportunity with them through our relationship with Fida International from Helsinki, Finland.

This three-day “vision seminar” was attended by 33 PCU pastors, including four of the five Executive Committee members, representing about 12 regions, thousands of church members and hundreds of thousands of Ugandans in general. This is quite a feat! John Cottrell of the Actionion Missionare from France (French Assemblies of God) and Jukka Harjula of Fida International, currently the Development Director in Asia assisted World Challenge in conducting this seminar. The purpose was to present the Community Health and Education program (CHE) used worldwide to promote holistic transformation of entire communities. This includes all aspects of human life: physical, spiritual, economic, social and educational. In Uganda the approach is to be “church-based” and promoted as a “Ugandan community ministry” and NOT a World Challenge or Western church program. It is theirs to OWN, OPERATE and OPTIMIZE!

This is a radical shift for this area as international aid is pouring into the north of Uganda as it begins resettling, rehabilitation and rebuilding after 20 years of civil conflict, child abduction, land and animal thefts, hundreds of thousands dying and utter devastation. Most organizations come with their own ideas, programs, projects and money and the recipients take it and experience temporary benefit but NO LONG LASTING CHANGE. While necessary to some degree, this approach has created tremendous problems as such an influx of people, ideas, cultures and finances which obviously have not been the norm in this traumatized region. Even many of the churches have fallen into various compromises due to this situation. This is why efforts are focusing on sharing the long term benefits of community ministry, development and transformation. What better group to do that than the Church, the ones who have been transformed by the good news of Christ! This approached is currently used in 85 countries with 25 years of history that is filled with fantastic results! Although it doesn’t produce immediate results or statistics, it does empower nationals with the information, hope and encouragement so needed to break decades of fear, oppression and false attitudes toward what has been an extremely difficult life in Uganda. It takes the church out of the church, into the community and affects the ENTIRE community with change!

John Cottrell of Action Missionare conducting Community Health and Education (CHE) training in Lira, Uganda.
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Using participatory teaching, illustrations, music and stimulating questions, the seminar brought these pastors into tremendous times of honest and revealing discussion. In fact this approach asks questions while refraining from answers! This gives the participants ample time to dialogue among themselves as they search for the “real” answers! It is a marvelous and heart-moving experience to see their faces light up when something is revealed within them that is new and applicable to their lives. Man, do they smile and even sometimes laugh out loud, talking, clapping and expressing genuine joy!! They had expected the usual seminar — church service like meetings — but got a real surprise, and by their own admissions enjoyed it immensely!

So now the seminar is over and the pastors have left. This alone was something to behold as more than half came from far enough away that it costs them up to half a month’s income and 16 hours round trip to attend! Is this what they normally would do to attend any seminar in the area? Absolutely not! It can only be that God has done this miracle! We gave no money for transportation, no per diem (daily finances to reimburse them for their time) as most organizations in this area do, no projects funds, no emergency funds, no promised amounts of funds or anything but our love, help and prayers…but yet they came! They ended the seminar themselves by asking for time alone to discuss the information, its impact and application to them and to their communities. So the final half-day of teaching was suspended to accommodate their request. We met together ourselves to marvel at this and to formulate a response. What an awesome thing to hear the PCU’s summary and then their request to continue with training and establishing the community development ministry! In response, World Challenge will move forward, initiating a second seminar in September with many of these pastors attending, but also with approximately 30 church members from across the region in order to develop a core group that can receive in-depth training before being sent into multiple communities for impact! This is a fundamental shift and accomplishment for the PCU and this entire region.

I have included a couple of pictures for you to see what is described above. I hope this gives you a small glimpse into life in Uganda and what is currently happening here. It is with the utmost humility and greatest appreciation that I can be involved in such a divine work as this.

Thanks for your prayers for World Challenge, Fida and the PCU as things move forward according to God’s perfect plan!