Excerpts from New Peninsula Uganda Partnership Prayer Newsletter

MAY  2013

Please join us for the next Uganda Prayer Night, on the first Thursday of each month, from 8.00 – 9.00 pm at the home of Mick and Dorrie Terrington (phone 5977 2418).  If you would like to be part of our dynamic Uganda Partnership Group (UPG), please call Jamie on 5978 8021.

Grace & Pastor Vinnie

Andrew Mukhwana & family

Greetings all,

Graeme and Bette Pearson have recently visited Uganda, below is a brief account of their visit and also some photos.  Thank you for sharing this with us Graeme and Bette.

“We visited Bethel Church Mbale in late March, and met with Vinnie and Grace, Andrew and Sarah and their children.

We were impressed with the work at Bethel, including the ministry of Grace and Sarah with the ladies.

The new Bethel Church/ Community centre is larger than expected, and is an excellent building which is being used for community meetings, training, health, young single mums groups etc.  The old church building is used for kids activities on Saturdays, and another for food storage and distribution.

The Community Centre needs finishing off with ceiling fans, completion of baptistry, and office furniture.  The area for the health centre is empty.

We visited a number of the new churches, and Vinnie and the team are on schedule with their growth plans, with 6 already established.

Vinnie is building relationships with people by helping them to establish sustainable lifestyles, and then inviting them to church – holistic ministry.  We travelled with 2 leaders from the Samaritan’s Purse Uganda office, and when asked for suggestions for improving the Bethel ministry, they said ‘Vinnie is already implementing the right methods for building Christian communities’.”

Church

Baptistry

VINNIE’s PRAISE POINTS:

• Thank and praise God for the transformation Bethel is bringing into the community.  We have seen the community  being transformed in all aspects of life, not only are people getting saved, but people are using their God given resources from within and around them and are making changes in their lives.

• Praise God for Salvation.  A community that didn’t know God before is now on fire for God.  Not only are people getting saved in Bethel church and its new plants, but there are also new church plants not related to Bethel.  There has been a revival in the mountain area with many Witchdoctors who were deceiving people about life have fled away from the community because people now know the truth.  Some Witchdoctors have surrendered to Jesus Christ.

Community Centre

VINNIE’S PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. Pray for the weather.  We seem to be having much more rain than needed.  As a result the crops are not doing well because of too much rain.  There are also threats for the land and mudslides in some areas in the Mountain.  Pray that God will intervene in the situation. 
2. Continue praying for the growing church in the community.  There are some churches like the Anglican, Pentecost and others which we think are good, but there are some others that we doubt.  We have seen the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Mormons and some indigenous churches with the belief in Jesus as well as some sacrifices like animals and children.  They also don’t believe in taking children to school and they see the Number 666 in almost everything.  Pray that God will keep the harvest for only the good churches. 
3. Pray for Brian.  Brian is one of the converts who has been saved from the Islamic faith, he is now leading Bethany Church in the Mountains.  Recently he has found himself a good lady and they are intending to marry.  Pray that God will provide as he has no other family other than Bethel. 
4. Pray for Bethel.  We had a leadership meeting on Saturday where many things were discussed, with two of them being crucial.  We want to elect the new church council in August. Pray that this will go well.  We also think it is officially time to form a New Zone, meaning we will still be under the Baptist Union of Uganda as well as the Eastern Baptist Association.  We shall be doing things more independently from the First Baptist as we don’t share the same specific vision and on a few occasions we get diverted from what we think is the calling of Bethel. 
5. Pray for Grace and Vinnie and the leadership.  There is a lot of pressure in making sure the church keeps growing and they also have to run and look after their own families.  Pray for wisdom.

God’s blessing to all from Vinnie

Unknown

This prayer newsletter has been compiled by the Uganda Partnership Group as a way to keep the wider “Uganda Support Community” within New Peninsula Church engaged and updated on our mission partnership with Bethel Church in Mooni community, near Mbale, Uganda. Thanks to Lyn Carr for preparing it. Quotations from correspondence have been edited. Please feel free to distribute this prayer newsletter to others. If you do not wish to receive this newsletter, or wish to be placed on the distribution list, please contact Jamie Edgerton on 5978 8021 or jedgertonoz@gmail.com.

Excerpts from New Peninsula Uganda Partnership Prayer Newsletter

April 2013

Please join us for the next Uganda Prayer Night, on the first Thursday of each month, from 8.00 – 9.00 pm at the home of Mick and Dorrie Terrington.

If you would like to be part of our dynamic Uganda Partnership Group (UPG), please call Jamie Edgerton.

DEBORAH and ANDREW’S WEDDING

Vinnie writes –“I want to thank you for all the support related to Andrew and Deborah’s wedding. It went very well. It was our first wedding in the Bigger Community and Health Centre building. 

 

NEWS – from Vinnie

My car finally gave up. The engine became very weak that it could not climb any hills any more. But the good news is, some one is willing to let me use his car for up hills until God opens a door for another better car. He will take mine and use it only in town. I only have to buy some tires and that is all to start with. I realized I can't do without the car any more especially for those distant churches in the hills.

I am not in Uganda at the moment. I got an invitation together with Aaron to attend a very great training on leadership development in the UK. It was organized by an NGO called Community Development in Africa and it was a bit abrupt and urgent. Right now we are in the UK. Grace has been invited to the UK on a different thing and she will be coming to the UK on the 8th of this Month.
 
We were so grateful for Graeme and Bette Pearson’s visit together with those Samaritan's purse folks.

The meetings went so well and everyone seemed happy with what they saw.
 

For Praise

 - We praise God for the new people being saved in Bethel and all the branches.

- We thank God that the Opposition towards the gospel has reduced. Even though there is still opposition it is not as it used to be.

- People have started to see the church as a positive influence in the community other than a threat to their faith as it was thought of in the past.
- I also thank God for the new leaders like Aaron, Andrew, Deborah, Brian, Luke, Robert and many others catching and owning the vision and doing the things that took my time. Now I have more free time to do other things as people have learnt to do things, and some of them do it better than Grace and I would.

- Again I want to say that the students we sponsored for education have done well in education. Every one of them is doing well both in school and in the homes they come from.

- Some of the people we helped like Florance, Makhaya Khagodo are running small businesses that are helping them to support their families. Khagodo has a skill of mending people's broken saucepans, plates, knives, cups and jericans. This has helped him support himself and his girl friend. He and Senga live together happily and they support each other.
 

For Prayers:

• Pray for the young leaders who plan to marry soon as that is one of the demands for church leadership. Pray that God will give them resources to do it in the right manner.
• Pray that Grace, Aaron and I shall do what has brought us to the UK.
• Continue praying that my house in Mooni shall be sold. We went for not a long time loan, and now the time is getting closer to when they will begin hiking the interest rates.
• Also continue praying for Grace. She still struggles with the pains in her joints and it gives her a hard time. And sometimes what is a little frustrating is that Grace and I have prayed for people and they have got healed; even people with the similar situation as that of Grace. We do wonder why healing isn't taking place on Grace herself. Anyway you pray for her please.

Vinnie

This prayer newsletter has been compiled by the Uganda Partnership Group as a way to keep the wider “Uganda Support Community” within New Peninsula Church engaged and updated on our mission partnership with Bethel Church in Mooni community, near Mbale, Uganda. Thanks to Lyn Carr for preparing it. Quotations from correspondence have been edited. Please feel free to distribute this prayer newsletter to others. If you do not wish to receive this newsletter, or wish to be placed on the distribution list, please contact Jamie Edgerton on 5978 8021 or jedgertonoz@gmail.com.

Excerpts from New Peninsula Uganda Partnership Prayer Newsletter

March 2013

TRANSFORMATION:

Below is a story from Vinnie (slightly edited)

Esther was married many years ago. She had a wonderful wedding, nice husband and lived happily with her husband.  But when she gave birth to her two sons, they were both epileptic. With the stigma of having epileptic sons the husband left her.  Esther and her two sons lived a very poor life.  But in that kind of life, she found two more children who had been abandoned by their parents. So she had four in total.

Esther lived as an outcast in the community as people think epilepsy is a curse. She was lonely, isolated, rejected and felt she was a disgrace.

We met Esther over three years ago. She and her children were living in very poor conditions. The only place she had found to stay with her children was in a corridor where someone kept his rabbits and one little pig.

When we met Esther, we built her a house and we loved her and her children. She learnt business skills. She started making soap, smearing creams [Vaseline-based skin moisturizer] and other things of the sort from the locally available materials. Now she makes a good living and lives in a good house.

As a result of showing her love and making her feel she is not alone but with us, life changed. She chose to take a course in the Bible college, and there she met a very nice man who was interested in her. She finished her school, and married her new man.   Esther is a happy woman now, happily married and serving God.

With a humble touch we have seen lives change for better.  There are many other stories like this.

We thank you very much, as we can tell these stories because you have been standing with us.
 

PRAISE POINTS:

• The preparations for Deborah and Andrew’s wedding are going well.
• The revolving loan program is going well and many people have benefited and are also learning some good business management skills.
• The work on completing the Bethany Church building is almost finished.
• The children whom Bethel Church supports for education have done well with their studies.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. Pray for the children who have finished school, that they will be accepted into the courses they desire
2. Members of the Victory Church in Busamaga have outgrown the building they have been renting and it is no longer available for them to rent.  Pray for God’s provision so a church can be built for them this year.
3. Continue to pray for Deborah and Andrew’s wedding, that it will be successful.
4. Pray for the leadership training which has started, that it will be a tool for people to grow and serve God.
5. Pray for our members who are persecuted over their new faith in Christ.  Persecution has become part of our Christian life here that we no longer talk about it, but men and women continue suffering silently.

Excerpts from New Peninsula Uganda Partnership Prayer Newsletter (February 2013)

The first Sunday of the Month at Bethel is a prayer and fasting day. After the church service members in leadership roles remain behind to have an extra time to pray and seek God, and to discuss the updates and prayer items to share with us. The most recent ones are listed below.
 
Vinnie wrote: “Thank you for the recent funding, we have been able to:

• give out a good number of goats to widows. We shall send you photos soon.
• boost our revolving loan scheme. Last week we had training for over 200 people.
• pay our sponsored children's school fees.
• buy the children's bible club store materials: this coming Saturday they will be doing their shopping.

“The Introduction (engagement function) of Andrew and Deborah last December went well” (see photo below). 

 

 
PRAISE POINTS FROM BETHEL LEADERS

1. The revolving loan scheme has reached many poor people and there are good testimonies in the communities. The poor and those in need who are usually neglected have been able to earn a respectable income, which has made them self-sufficient and sustainable.
2. The children we support for education have passed very well. We now have some children who are in college. We thank God and we thank you for giving us a hand in that area.
3. We have a good number of youths who are saved and very active in the churches as a result of our bible club children's programme. The church is growing because of that programme. Some children have even brought their parents to the Lord.
4. New converts especially in the new churches are increasing in number.

PRAYER REQUESTS FROM BETHEL LEADERS

1. Pray that the bible club store will go well this coming Saturday.
2. Formal leadership training has started.  Pray that God will use it to raise His leaders to do the work of ministry in a good way and that those starting the training continue to the end.
3. Pray for the Bethel leaders as they try to help the poor children to go to school, sometimes it is a challenge to them as they also have children who go to school. Pray that God will intervene in their personal situation.
4. Pray that God’s Spirit will lead us as we respond to Bethel’s needs.
5. Pray for Emmanuel and ElShaddai Churches. It has come to the time we agreed to bring back the leader we sent to them. But the new leaders taking over seem not ready to do the work.
6. Continue praying for the new converts in all our new churches. They still face persecution from their families.
7. Pray for Deborah and Andrew's wedding, scheduled to take place on the 16th of March - but they don't have enough funding for it. Pray that God will provide for them as they are His faithful servants.

DEBORAH’S PRAYER REQUESTS (through Cathy McInnes)

1. We are planning to start our wedding meetings but how to begin is our greatest problem, pray that God will guide us in every planning process
2. My house isn't enough for us to live in. This pushes us to get a bigger house which is costly, and yet Andrew hasn't got a job.  So pray that God may intervene for provision in getting a good house which can accommodate all of us
3. This year Trisa (Deborah’s daughter) is changing school: this is quite expensive and challenging to a child, so pray that she will quickly fit in the school and for God's protection upon her.
4. We resume Bible Club classes on Feb 9th:  I have lots on my mind planning for the wedding and the time coming ahead, so pray for God's wisdom to be upon me on how to balance all these commitments.
5.