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.
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| Grace & Pastor Vinnie |
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| 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’.”
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| Church |
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| 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.
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| Community Centre |
VINNIE’S PRAYER REQUESTS:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
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| 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.
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.
