2011 Uganda Mission Trip
Members of the January, 2011 Uganda Mission Team were David Boncler, Nathan Campbell, Zach Gulden, Dave, Bev, Mikayla and Jonathan Harris, Carley Holt, Stephanie and Linda Small. Their ministry opportunities included teaching, evangelism, medical and sports clinics.
Zach Gulden and Linda Small have the unique perspective of having been on all three Uganda trips, and they shared about their experiences.
From Zach Gulden:
The January, 2011 Uganda trip was another amazing and completely different trip than in the previous years. It is hard to compare the trips at all because they are all so unique and have their own feel to them. The very first trip we did in 2009 was focused on training pastors and church leaders with very little interaction with children or youth at all.
In 2010 we were blessed with a larger group and were able to split up and do so many different things from preaching God’s word to pastors, widows and children, helping Compassion families fix up their houses and working with small churches in some of the poorest parts of Uganda.
This year again brought new adventures and experiences for everyone on the trip. We were able to have pastor training, time to teach and play with orphans and part of our group was able to talk on Ugandan radio. We performed wound clinics for adults and children, had time to go door to door and speak to many Muslim families, helped the IMB missionaries with their continued ministry, and had many other opportunities to share God’s word with the people of Uganda.
Through all of our work we saw a handful of people give their lives to Christ and know that many seeds were planted. There really is no comparing the trips from year to year, but I do know that every year God’s word has been taught and accepted by the people of Uganda. Uganda is a growing country and needs continued prayers as the Muslim religion is becoming stronger and stronger there every day.
From Linda Small:
For three years now I have had the amazing opportunity to travel to Uganda and minister to the people down there. Our first year in January 2009 was a year of new things. It was a new country, with new people, new ideas, new culture, and new foods! We got to know people and see the country. Our main focus was pastor and church leader training. The second year was different. We continued the pastor and church leader training but also ministered to children and participated in a health clinic.
This year was another year of ministry. We taught at a conference in the city of Kasese, out near the western boarder of Uganda. We spent two and a half days with some in the church teaching and others out ministering to the children. I spent most of the time with the children where we played games, sang songs and talked about Bible stories. We got the opportunity to build relationships with those children and really get to know them.
Then we traveled back toward Entebbe, a city near the capital, and worked with a church outside of Kampala (about an hour from the hotel we stayed at). Some did a medical clinic while the rest of us did door-to-door evangelism. The incredible thing about door-to-door evangelism in a country that is half-way around the world is that you begin to think. As I was talking to these people we came in contact with I realized that I will travel three day to spend two weeks in a country in order to minister to these people and talk to them about Jesus but I do not make it a priority here at home.
I become complacent and comfortable and forget that it is just as important to make an effort to talk with friends and family about Jesus here in America as it is to go to Uganda and talk with people. That is something that God taught me as we travelled and ministered this year. It also helped to reinforce that the people down there are also people like us. They live differently, in a different place, and have a different culture but they are people. They think and feel and worship just as we do. Even more than that, the God that they worship is the same that we do. As American Christians we can go down to Uganda and stand in a worship service and lift our hands in praise and worship just as we do here in our church. God is a God of all people and all nations. He transcends time and cultural barriers. He is truly an awesome God!
2010 Uganda Mission Trip
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Thank you for praying for the Uganda Mission Team as they traveled and ministered January 4 - 17, 2010.
Team Members were: David Boncler, Zach Gulden, Linda Small, Daniel Wiginton, Marcie Stowell, Anna Parker, Kegan Mosier, Conner Jones, Bev Harris, Cassie Harris, Mikayla Harris and Jonathan Harris. One of our former interns, Mikelle Dahlin, was already serving in the area while doing a semester abroad. |
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Below is part of a thank you note written by Abraham, one of the team's primary translators.
I want first to thank the Vista Grande Baptist Church Administration for pasturing these guys in the way of the lord and teaching them to live humble lives, THANK YOU. For investing in them the true gospel of Jesus Christ which i believe they imitated from you THANK YOU. For allowing them as a leadership to come over, praying for them trusting and believing in them, loving them and encouraging them THANK YOU.
I want to thank the family members that have devotedly stood by ever since they planned, left till when they came back. For your prayers, money, love, sacrifice, words of wisdom, patience and smiles THANK YOU VERY MUCH. Though you weren't in the field you were part of the team.
The sponsors who made this trip very successful in terms of finances and items in kind, you did a very wonderful work right from the one who gave a cent to one who gave a note, heaven smiled coz of you. Family, church friends companies individuals’ etc thank you for giving to the lord. I want to assure you every cent was used properly and wisely. The sponsors THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
The church members you prayed, encouraged, believed and trusted the team and the many other teams to other parts of the world, your love for the team is so vivid. Church THANK YOU VERY MUCH
THE team members (David, Daniel, Mrs. Harris, Zach, Linda, Anna, Cassie, Marcie, Mikayla, Mikelle, Kegan, Jonathan Harris, Conner Jones) who gave up every thing to make this mission a success, the time you spent, the words you shared, the love you shared, the SMILES you shared with the children, widows, orphans, evangelism to valuable people, children in remand homes, prisoners, pastors and leaders, compassion sponsored kids, the medical clinic in mityana,the Sunday morning preaching.
"FAITHFULL SERVANTS YOU DID A WONDERFUL WORK BE BLESSED OF THE LORD. Africa and Uganda in particular is not what the CNN, FOX, CBS OR BBC try to show THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR GIVING TO THE LORD.
I won’t say you sacrificed coz Jesus expects us to give up everything for him if need be, but am touched to say THANK YOU for hearing the voice of God and obeying him.
Walusimbi Mpanga Abraham
This update from Daniel Wiginton was part of the February/March 2010 newsletter.
Love the Lord With All Your Mind
On January 17, I and twelve others from Vista Grande returned home after spending nearly two weeks doing ministry in Uganda. While there, we served in a variety of ways ranging from digging outhouses to preaching at evangelistic crusades.
For me, one of the most moving experiences in Uganda was spending four days training local church leaders. Scores of pastors and others showed up to these meetings hungry to learn. The lessons that we provided were not particularly profound, but those who came took detailed notes, asked perceptive questions, and were very appreciative. They requested that our materials be translated into several languages and distributed throughout the country because educational materials are so rare. Most of the pastors have a Bible, but very few have anything more. Their Bibles are worn to the point that most American believers would discard them. Theological education, commentaries, and even simple study Bibles are beyond reach because of cost and limited access. Yet, these men and women are doing all they can to learn more.
This desire to learn fits well with what Jesus said in the greatest commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). Jesus was quoting the book of Deuteronomy, but he actually added to it by including the phrase, “with all your mind.” Jesus is instructing us, among other things, not to be ignorant about our faith.
The believers we met in Uganda are doing all that they can to love God with their minds. But what about us? Americans have access to more knowledge about the Bible and the Christian faith than any other nation at any point in history. I suspect that every church in America has members who complain of “not being fed,” yet we are seated at the greatest banquet of knowledge of all time and do not pick up a fork to eat. Instead, let’s take seriously the call to love God with our minds by doing all we can to know and understand His Word.
Daniel Wiginton
Background - how this ministry began
Uganda is a landlocked country in east-central Africa, about the size of Oregon. The team worked with Pastor Sande in Entebbe, Uganda. Pastor Sande contacted Vista Grande back in May 2007. He requested us to come and train the people in the history of the Word, as well as understanding the Word. He also asked that we minister to the people in various forms. During the first trip in January 2009, the Secretary to the President of Uganda requested a meeting to discuss how to put ministry into the school system of Uganda.
During the first trip, the Uganda Mission Team trained church members in Biblical & Christian history. They went to schools and orphanages in each of the areas. 2009 team members were David Boncler, Rick, Cheryl and Lynna Rollow, David Salkeld, Ashley Harris, Zach Gulden, Josh Harris, Linda Small and Nathan Campbell.
