On a Mission for God

Hi everyone, sorry I haven't written in several days. Life has a way of getting overwhelming and it has been all of that since my last post. I am now amid preparations for a return trip to Uganda. Alan, Wayne, Ray and I leave from JFK this Sunday evening. We will be working with the Nexus Seminary Uganda as we continue to provide training and teaching for rural Ugandan pastors. Most of these pastors cannot get into seminary for a variety of reasons (some economic, some linguistic) so we are taking seminary training out to them.

There are many interesting aspects of this kind of mission. The one I found the most intriguing is that most of the pastors we were privileged to work with were first generation Christians. That is they have no family history of being Christ followers. Some of them were Muslims but most of them came from the more traditional animistic religions of the region. I have never encountered first generation Christians before. Nearly everyone I knew growing up, going to school and my other journeys had parents, grand parents etc. who, even if they were only nominally connected to the church would readily and easily identify themselves as "Christian."

The experience was world view shaking and, to a large degree, life altering. I found a passion for Jesus Christ and a willingness to do "whatever it takes" on a level that I had never encountered in the United States. I remember when I was a young Christian, fresh off the passion and fire of a radically transforming conversion in my own life, that I was fearless about Jesus. I was willing to talk to anyone anywhere at any time about my love for the Lord Jesus Christ and how turning your life over to Him could and would change your life too! Somehow through schooling, serving an institutional church and just life in general I lost this fearlessness and forgot what it was like to be head over heels in love with the Lord. My trip to Uganda reconnected me to this personal history and reminded me that I am not my own.

So, I go merrily along on a mission for God. I travel to Uganda because I know in my heart and mind that God has called me to do so. I do not know what awaits me on this return journey but I know I have a divine appointment. God has prepared my life for (to quote Ester) "such a time as this." Pray for me as I will be off line and out of touch into early November. I'll write about what happened when I return.

God's peace be with you all,

Dr. BJ