Preacher of the Day

We were on our way to church when we got a phone call. We had just stopped to buy some sugar and soap to bring as a gift for one of the student church leaders we train, when the phone rang. It was Cissy, our student at Kingdom Life Training Centre, we were going to worship at her home church with her to encourage her and see the ministry she is involved with there. She was wondering where we were... But let me back up a little bit... She had told us that Sunday School started at 10am and then the main service followed. Knowing that 10am didn't really mean 10am, and that we didn't really want to sit through sunday school and the main service, as sunday school is like a mini full service on it's own, and the main service would last a good few hours on it's own. We decided to leave home around 10:30am to a place we thought was about 30 minutes away. That way we would arrive right near the end of the sunday school and just in time for the main service to start. We were traveling with one of our co-workers and she had confirmed with Cissy that we would be coming for the main service. When she asked her for directions, Cissy told her that she had already told me (Beckie) the directions so I would know how to get there. So our co-worker knew that I knew how to get there, and I knew that she knew how to get there because she had called and confirmed. So back to the phone call. After asking where we were and confirming that we were indeed coming, Ruudy asked whether the service had started and the conversation went something like this:

Cissy: No, we are waiting for you guys to come.

Ruudy: No, just start, it's already late, we will get you when you are already going, you don't need to wait for us.

Cissy: But we cannot start without the preacher.

Ruudy: The preacher? He's not there?

Cissy: But you are the one preaching.

Ruudy: Me? Oh...But you have your preacher, we were just coming to listen.

So after that conversation, while we were still waiting for our co-worker to buy the things we began discussing sermon ideas. At least we had the rest of the car ride to come up with something. We trusted that the Holy Spirit would lead Ruudy as he decided on what to share if indeed he was the preacher of the day.

Once our co-worker came back into the car we were on our way. Just which way, we were not quite sure. Because it was then that we realised that none of us actually knew where we were going. We had been given only a town-center name where we could turn from and then a village where the church was. So we stopped a couple of times to ask people on the way, and of course all three times we got three different answers. Some had us turning right off the main road, others left, and still others to just continue. Finally we got some somehow helpful instructions and found the road we were to turn on, or at least so we thought. We got Cissy on the phone again and tried to confirm whether that was the right place, she asked us if there was a big tree there, and sure enough we saw a big tree, this must be the place,(and I'm thinking, I guess every other center probably also has a big tree, but let's just hope for the best). So we turned and drove on that road hoping that it would lead us to the correct village. We were driving amidst fields of sugar canes, and I was beginning to wonder, because I wasn't seeing any houses, but suddenly we saw Cissy standing in the road, with the rest of the church ready to welcome us. They began singing and drumming as soon as they saw us, and ushered the vehicle into the parking lot, i.e. the shade of another big tree. We parked and as we came out of the vehicle there was much singing and joy and they greeted us and received us warmly. They then led us to the church office where we met with the pastor, where it was confirmed that Ruudy was indeed the preacher of the day, and when we told him we just found out on the way coming that this might be expected of him, the Pastor told him that that's why as Christians it's important to always be ready to share the gospel at every opportunity, to be ready in season and out of season. So, it was now probably around noon and so we thought we would go directly to the service, which hadn't yet started because it was waiting for the preacher. But then we saw they were first serving us tea. So we first took tea, bread and bananas, and then we were ready to go. As we were taking tea I occasionally glanced outside and saw that people were lining up. I wondered, but realised when we were finished that they were ready to escort us into the church. Since Ruudy was the preacher they put him in the middle of two lines of people singing as they led him into church. I followed from behind, videoing everything. Anyway, to make an already long story a little shorter, the service was beautiful, we had a great time of praise and worship and felt the presence of the Lord in the place. Ruudy shared a powerful word about the love of God as our Father. I don't remember exactly what time the service ended but it must have been around 4pm. There were various little choirs who had to lead us in worship, and there was still a short sunday school service, and there were introductions and dancing and singing, and more dancing and singing. The place was full of the joy of the Lord and we were so blessed.  After the service they led us back to the office while they prepared a table for us for lunch. We ate and chatted with the pastor and a few other people and then went to leave. Well...the car wouldn't start... so after all of our good byes, we came back out of the car, popped the hood and began investigating the problem. I knew there was no other car near by to give us a jump, though they did say there was one not too far away. But using the combined resources of the congregation, they tested the battery with a wire that they got from who knows where, and then proceeded to use that very wire to tie the terminal to make the attachment tighter. With everything in place we tried starting again, and sure enough, it started. We were finally on our way home, and it was around 5:30 by the time we arrived home. What a long day! But we came back feeling refreshed and blessed. While we were talking with the pastor at the church he kept saying that they were so happy with Kingdom Life Training Centre because the students that they had sent for past classes had come back transformed and they could see a great difference in them, and they were telling us of three more students they wanted to send for us the next class. Praise God! It's encouraging to hear such things, and we thank God for the transformed lives we long for for our students. We tried to put together a short video of our time at the church. Hopefully it will help give a better picture of what we've shared here. The video is at the end of the post.

For those of you who pray for us, please continue:

We thank God for my sister Christina and her family have arrived safely and are adjusting to the culture and climate. Keep praying for them (Benj & Christina and their kids Isaac & Ellie) as they adjust and settle into the ministry that God has for them here.

We will be having our last class for the current group of students on March 16-18, called Simply the Story, and then they will be graduating hopefully on April 9.

We will be starting a new group of students either the end of March or the beginning of April

Our teammates will be traveling back from the US the beginning of March

My Mom and sister Meredith, will be joining us in Uganda for the first two weeks of March.

Our LoCoDI students in Soroti are headed back to school this week, and so the Saturday program and the purity clubs will be starting up again after this holiday/election time.

We had presidential elections in Uganda, the current president "won" but it was declared by many observers to not be "free & fair". The opposition is not happy about this, and is trying to appeal the results. Keep praying for the peace of this nation as it seems still the air is somewhat unsettled and the people are frustrated with the current situation. The current president is the only one Ruudy has known, as he has been president for the past 30 years. People are desiring change, but not getting that desired change.

Also, last but not least, Ruudy was in an accident with our van at the beginning of the month.  He is fine and that whole story, is another one altogether, but suffice it to say, we have to repair it even though it wasn't our fault, (and even repair the other people's vehicle also, like I said, it's another story altogether). We had gotten this van around September of 2014 when we found a buyer for our Rav4 and some friends were selling this van at a good price. Since that time unfortunately it has been one thing after another. We've spent quite a bit repairing it and now with this accident we are repairing more and as the mechanic has been working on the van for the past two weeks he has discovered more issues with it and is recommending that we get rid of it. We also think this would be wise as it seems to be just a hole that keep swallowing more and more money. We have a chance to buy a land cruiser that would be the cost of the van plus about $1,500, and then we would have to put about $1,500 more into making a few adjustments and improvements. Please pray with us for the release of these finances and prayerfully consider whether you could contribute something to help us reach the goal of buying a "new" vehicle. 

The damage of the vehicle from the accident

In process of repairing the van

Valentine's celebration

Had a farewell party for my computer students, Abella and I have had some chances to share Christ with these girls.

Ruudy attended a rally for the FDC presidential candidate when he came to Jinja

Goretti, Christina, Izaac and Beckie enjoying some lunch on the way back
to Jinja from the airport.

Ellie and Benj enjoying lunch too...

Thanks for all of your prayers and support. We couldn't do all that we do without your help and the grace of God. Thank you for standing with us. May God be glorified in all that we do. Be blessed.

A time to finish and a time to begin

Yesterday around 9pm, I called our volunteer Gabriel in Soroti to wish him a happy birthday. I greeted him 

Me: Happy Birthday.
Gabriel: happy birthday? ... oh...thanks.
Me: I saw on Facebook it was your birthday so that's why I called. Is it your birthday?
Gabriel: the 25th.
Me: yes, today's the 25th.
Gabriel: then it is. But I didn't know until you just told me. I was taken up with many other things. Thank you for calling.
Me: How's your dad doing? (His dad had been sick in the hospital for some time)
Gabriel: He's passed on.
Me: When??
Gabriel: this evening.
Me: Oh sorry, your dad has died on your birthday? So sorry...
The conversation continued.

Gabriel receiving a chicken from one of the LoCoDI kids

He had reached up to 9pm without even realising that it was his own birthday, because he was busy serving the Lord by attending to his father on his death bed. What a way to spend your birthday. Please keep Gabriel and his family in your prayers. He said that his father had become born-again recently, so he trusts he is in heaven, but they are still feeling the sting of the loss. They will have the burial sometime this week. Gabriel faithfully serves the Lord with us in Soroti, he always meets up with the children in our sponsorship program, and teaches the purity clubs in schools. He has done this faithfully, without pay for over a year now. So, also, thank God with us for his life and contribution he has made in the lives of many young people.

In this new year we have started teaching computer and english classes two times a week on the weeks we don't have class.Ruudy is teaching english and Beckie is teaching computer. The english class is filled with some of the students we had trained in ministry, and also some of the workers from the orphanage we partner with Welcome Home. It is a tiresome task to teach adults with no education a new language, especially english, with all of it's funny rules.

The computer class is mainly focused on learning to type properly.
The students all keep commenting how interesting it is, as some have never even used a computer and others have become very okay with the popular hunt and peck method. As life is ministry, even these classes give us chances to speak into peoples lives that we normally wouldn't be able to. So please be praying with us for our interactions with our students.

We also started out this new year with teaching our first class without the assistance of our mentors/trainers, Jose and Sol, as they are currently stateside. We taught the course on marriage and family. It seemed to go on well. And I can take this chance to brag about Ruudy because I'm the one typing this time. He is a gifted teacher, and makes the class, fun, but because he understands the culture so well, it is at the same time very impactful. I feel honoured to teach alongside him. Ok, bragging aside, I continue. Our students will have their final class march 16-18 and graduate April 9. Please pray for them as they finish up. We try so hard to not make these courses just about packing information, but getting it into the heart, and making action plans and impacting the congregations and communities that they work in.

Other prayer requests:
My sister Christina and her husband Benjamin Kragt are moving to Uganda with their two kids, Isaac (6) and Ellie (3) on February 4. They are joining us at Kingdom Life Training Centre. We are so excited to have them here and to see how God uses them in this ministry. Please pray for their transition as one can only assume that it's quite the transition.

Ellie and Isaac with all of their stuff coming to Uganda

In Soroti, the headmaster of the majority of our sponsored kids, Julius, was fired this last year. He was such a pleasure to work with, as he really loves the kids, and would know the stories of all the kids, and had a heart of helping those who were the most vulnerable. He would even let some study without paying just because he knew that they had no way of paying. They ousted him because there were rumours that he was getting a lot of money from our organization for himself. Though we never even gave him a shilling (or a penny you might say). We only paid the school fees for the kids we have sponsored. Pray for him as he looks for a new job. Pray that the truth would be known and accepted. Also, for wisdom for us on how to handle the situation. We want to keep sponsoring these kids, but we don't know how it will be to work with the new headmaster.

A few other photos from the end of last year and the beginning of this year.

Goretti teaching at bible class on Saturday

Goretti, Patra, and Abella with their kids after bible class

Abella with her special pupil

Abella, Beckie and Sarah enjoying time in Entebbe

Sarah and Ruudy

Thanks Remembrance Church for the sock dolls!

She was happy to receive a sock doll

The nieces enjoying salon time with auntie

We celebrated Ruudy's 30th on Christmas day with all of his family

Ruudy and Beckie with all of our nieces and nephews

We were happy to get all of Ruudy's family together for Christmas this year

Ruudy's siblings cleaning out the goat intestines as part of our Christmas feast

As always, thanks for praying with us, and partnering with us. We are so thankful for each of you.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Praise The Lord from whom all blessings come from, Amen! wow, the year has flown by so fast with so many changes and so many challenges and many triumphs. Indeed The Lord has been good and gracious to us this year, we have seen Him at work in us and though and through others, we are witnesses to His goodness.

Thank you for keeping up with us through out the year. Your support in any form has gone a great way in helping us fulfil our calling here in Uganda and every victory that we have had has been made possible by your support. We hope that you will carry on supporting us in the coming year and we are even more excited and looking forward to what God is going to do next year. We have a lot of things to update you on and we hope you will be blessed and encouraged as you read them:

Beckie, Sarah and Berna at the Airport

Smiling Sarah

We want you to meet Sarah; she is the latest addition to our ever growing household! Sarah is a 15 year old total orphan cousin of ours whose dad was killed during the DRC Congo war and mom ran away while she was still a baby. She has seen a lot of suffering in her short years on earth and just like me (Ruudy), has been tossed around from home to home to do work and has gone through untold abuse and beatings. Three weeks a go, rather than kill herself, Sarah went with her 24 year old dumb and mute boyfriend (rescuer) and we got a phone call that she was going into marriage. We knew something wasn't adding up well and we had a brief discussion and drove to the village where she was. The story is long, however, we took her in. She at first scared to go with us because she thought she would be treated like she had always been. But after a week with us, now she has this big smile on her face, she is opening up and trusting us more and dreaming again. Beckie is working with her on her reading and writing and now she says she wants to go back to school. Of course of all our teenagers, none of them went through what Sarah went through and we are learning a lot of things with her and we would appreciate your prayers for us to have good wisdom on how to be good parents and help Sarah to have a childhood that she was robbed off. This week we drove to Entebbe with Sarah and Abella and you would have laughed yourself to pee because of the look on Sarah's face because she was driving through Kampala and the airport for the first time!

Our students getting practical lessons on Farming God's Way.

Last month, we taught our last class for the year and it was a great success! This class was on God's Plan for Sustainable Development and Farming God's Way and our students were amazed that there was another form of farming that they didn't know and had never heard of! We broke off for holidays and will have the two remaining classes for this lot early next year. Keep praying for our students as they practice farming God's way during the holiday season so that they return with many testimonies next year.

Isaac leading Worship at his Church

Us in Isaac's tiny house.

Last Sunday, we went to visit one of our students at his church and later his tiny little room. Isaac leads worship in his church and the Lord has blessed him with a great voice. He is a very humble young man who spends all his life serving the Lord at his workplace and at the Church. Recently, he lost his mom; the closest person he had alive and we had gone to empathise and encourage him. We were blessed by his wonderful worship voice and after service, he invited us to his tiny room and the six of us couldn't even fit in there! He asked us to pray for him and bless him and we did. You could join in praying for him to have a better paying job (he is a mechanic instructor) and also a good wife who will accept and love him for who he is. Pray also for God's comfort for him after the death of his beloved mom.

Also, the Lord has been sending us young people to minister to both while in the States and in Uganda. Two weeks a go, we had a surprise guest in our house! A young former Muslim lady whom we had led to the Lord while in Soroti had been forcefully married off by her muslim parents through an arranged marriage while we were in the States in July. After facing a lot of rejection and persecution from her own family for a long time since she accepted Christ, finally she succumbed to them and accepted to be married off to a young man she saw for the first time on their wedding day! However, this young man called Farouk is a good and humble young man. Though he comes from a family of fierce and radical muslims, he is not radical because he grew up as an orphan after his dad died when he was still young. This young lady has been coming to our house to help make for us Samosas. This time, she just paid us an impromptu visit with her husband and asked us to share the gospel with him! Our visiting friend who has a special grace on sharing the gospel was around and he showed the living word to Farouk from many scriptures. However, Farouk told us he feared receiving Christ because his own family may kill him. He asked us to keep praying for him and his wife and he promised to keep coming to our house to hear more about this Jesus. Please, could you join us in praying for this young man so that he will choose the glorious light of the gospel of our Lord over the fear of what his family may do for him? Pray for wisdom for us also as we embark on following Farouk up and sharing Christ with him. He is such a sweet and innocent young man. With all the chaos going on in the world and the fight against radical Islam, i believe as i have always done that only the gospel of love is the only solution and not weapons and bombs and how wonderful it would be for this gospel to be shared in the middle east by former Muslims? Personally, i have made up my mind to study Islam and i am committing myself to reading the whole Quran next year because i want to talk from a point of knowledge and not from rumours. Pray for me as i embark on this journey. The Lord has laid a special love for muslims in our hearts and we want to be used of the Lord in anyway he can to bring his love and grace to these lost beloveds of His!

I am also compelled to share with you about a young man the Lord brought to my memory while we were in the States in September. I went to school with Edgar and he was one class behind me. We became friends and later brothers because of our similar stories. Edgar's parents died when he was a few days old and his parents were from the Western part of the country. His half sister helped him for most of his life and she used him as her own maid and baby sitter. A security guard from my region had mercy on him and brought him to study in the school in my home district where we ended up meeting. I became his protector and his big brother and he went to my village during holidays. The two of us had a special gift; excellent brains! In our O' level national exams, i broke our school record  doing arts subjects and a year later, Edgar broke my record doing science subjects and no one else has been able to break this record since 2003! I went on to make my own academic records for the school in A' level national exams that are yet to be broken and Edgar was not as lucky as i was with scholarships. In 2010 when i went to South Sudan, we lost contact with each other until this August when the Lord brought him to my mind and asked me to call him. He told me he was working in a betting shop and not knowing what the future holds. This guy has the best science brain of anyone i have known. He belongs to the hospital or high tech engineering and if he had been lucky with scholarships like me, his whole life would now be very different. In a country with a doctor to patient ratio being more than 1:600, this guy is highly needed. I talked to him and asked him whether he would be willing to go back to high school for two years and then go University and do medicine if the Lord provided funds and he was positive. Now comes the big question; tuition. We are currently very stretched financially with many other commitments to the school needs of many other young people, however, would you or anyone you know or any organisation you know of be able to take Edgar back to school and give him a chance to serve the many people who would benefit from him? Since that time i have been fervently praying and will keep to do so and you could join us in praying for doors for Edgar to be able to go back to school. He has excellent scores at o' level and would easily get admission to any top high school here for his A' Levels. Get in touch with us if you would like to get more information about Edgar.

We hope this update has blessed you and we want to thank you again for partnering with us and supporting us. We continually pray for you and we would be happy to join you in prayer for anything, should you need it. We rejoice with all of you who are rejoicing and we also mourn and empathise with all of you who are going through some challenges. God bless you and we love you all.

From all of us!   

Catching up and running forward!

Praise the Living God! Who pours out water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground (Is 44:3)! Who does all His work in faithfulness and Who speaks and it is done, Who commands and it stands fast (ps 33:4,9)! Our souls wait for the Lord because He is our help and our shield (ps33:20), thank you Jesus!

We want to thank you for your faithfulness in praying for us. We had safe travel back to Uganda. We arrived and found the Spirit of the Lord so busy at work in the hearts of the staff we work with and the students, and we prayed that we could catch up and join them at this accelerated speed. Hallelujah! God is faithful and has helped us to come up to a level of faithfulness and depth of intimacy that we had not known before. Surely He is a living God and does not allow us to remain the same when we encounter Him, when we spend time in His presence. And so we are leaning in now more than ever.

Its beautiful to see the Lord at work in the hearts of people. Some of our students have joined us in a monday night worship night and are receiving revelations that only the Lord could bring. Eyes being opened to the religious spirit that is so rampant here and hearts tenderised before the Lord, ready to receive any word from Him. Jose (our fellow teacher) and Emma (our security guard/student/pastor) are going to the hospital to pray once a week for people and have seen people healed and heard amazing testimonies when they go back the next week and find the people they prayed for have been released from the hospital, and many desire them to pray for them. Jesus told us we would do greater things than even He because we have His Spirit resident in us. Do we really believe that?

This last Saturday I (Beckie) went with Sol (our fellow teacher) and Berna (my good friend and helper at the school) to one of the villages we have been involved with for some time. These two had started a woman's bible study while we were in the states, and it has transformed into an "anybody" bible study because even the men and children are hungry for the Word of God.
When we arrived we first went straight to the pastor's home to meet with his wife and minister to her. Her husband is now a pastor but he used to be a drunkard/wife-beater just a few short years ago. She has seen the ugliest parts of her husband but has stood by him up to now, faithfully praying for him over the years. We wanted to bless her and prepare her to pray for healing in her own heart because we know that God wants to use her in a big way in her village, especially ministering to other women who are having the same kind of struggle she had.
We shared with her and then prayed for her and then the rain came, and we were stuck in the house and could not go back to the classroom where the bible study was located. So we invited another lady into the house who was stranded on the veranda. She came in and shared briefly her struggle with her husband and we prayed for her too, and we saw the pastor's wife encouraging her and she's the one who led the prayer time for her.

So eventually the rains stopped or at least slowed we were able to proceed to the classroom, but only had time to offer a blessing for the faithful few who waited it out, and braved the rain. We serve such a loving God, that he orchestrated such a time as this, that two ladies were able to receive healing and prayer and be empowered to share the love of Christ with others.

We have had one class since we came back. It was on the subject Teaching the Christian Faith and Catechism. Ruudy and Jose taught and it went well. The students seemed so excited and one of them shared that they needed to arrange a conference in his village and teach all the pastors in the area these truths as they really need to hear them.

We thank God for all of these answers to prayers! Our heart rejoices in Him, Because we trust in His holy Name! (ps 33:21)

Please keep praying for us and for the ministry in this season of acceleration. 

1. Our students, that their hearts would be open and thirsty for the Truth, and that Truth would set them free.

2. Our selves, that we would do all we do in wisdom and with hearts that are sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

3. Keep praying for the national elections, we've just passed through the presidential nominations, with elections coming February 18. So far at least 12 people have been killed in the campaigning.  Pray for peace and for a Godly leader to come to power. And however else the Lord leads.

4. The provision of the Lord, and the faith to trust Him as our provider

Goodbye!

Hello Beloveds;
We greet you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We trust that Father has been gracious to you. We rejoice with all you that have had moments and events of joy in your lives and families; however, we also want to sympathize with those who have gone/ are going through a season of grief and loss. We want to remind you that He knows and He is the source of all our comfort.

A lot has happened recently since our last newsletter and we know that most of you may have already known through our facebook posts what has been happening with us. We want to praise the Lord that finally i (Ruudy) was able to be sworn in this week on Monday as an official American Citizen, bringing to conclusion a process that we started more than a year and a half a go! On Tuesday, we went to Detroit and expedited my Passport processing and got it that same day. Yesterday, we were able to update my social security status to Citizen and was also able to register to vote in the coming Federal Elections! We want to thank all of you who have diligently prayed for us and supported us in any form throughout this process; without your support, we surely wouldn't have managed to go through this alone. We were also blessed to have terrific and excellent lawyers who knew what they were doing and stayed on top of things throughout this process. Now we can move freely back and forth without any restrictions and we are excited that we can now concentrate more in doing our ministry in Uganda without having any travel worries.

Having achieved one of our main goals for coming to America in July, we are now ready to go back to Uganda. We leave Michigan tomorrow Friday the 2nd and fly out to Boston Massachusetts to visit our great friends and also to share with the body of Christ there about our ministry in Uganda. We are very excited for this trip and we look forward to having a great time of fellowship and encouragement for one another there. We hope we will be able to refresh each other and make new friends and contacts. We fly back from Boston to Chicago next week on Wednesday in the early afternoon and then fly out to Uganda that same day by 7:45pm through Qatar Airways. It's going to be a long flight to Doha (close to 14 hours) and then we have a 15 hour layover in Doha and then 5 more hours to Uganda on Thursday. When we think about the length of our flights and layover, it's scary, but we trust that our bodies will be strong enough to survive through these flights.

As we leave, we remember all the great and nice memories we have shared with most of you. We thank you for the meals that we had in your houses, for the coffee time and tea time and time together praising and worshiping our King. We feel blessed to have you as our friend, partner and family. We hope that you will keep praying for us and partnering with us. We pray blessing over you, your family, your businesses and jobs and ask Father to keep loving you and revealing Himself to you as you seek him. We pray healing over all you who are sick emotionally and physically; we ask the Father to send His word to heal all of your diseases and take away your infirmities.
For those of you who can, we would love for you to come visit us in Uganda and see what we are doing and what you are helping us do. Let us know if you are considering this and we can help you plan your trip and give you more guidance. We would be encouraged very much by your visit.

As reported in our last newsletter, i have started another blog where i blog about my thoughts. If you are interested in reading my thoughts, you can check it out here: https://raisinghairs.wordpress.com

As we depart, we would like to share our prayer requests with you and ask you to join us in prayers. Here they are:

1. Pray for our flights. That we would fly safely and our bodies would adjust faster when we return so that we can dive in quickly and do the ministry.  
2. Pray for us to have more faith. We feel the Father asking us to have more faith. For we do not know what lies ahead and that's why we need to have more faith in God, that we would trust Him more and more in different situations.
3. We still need more partners for the work of the ministry in Uganda. Pray that we would get new partners and that we would have deeper relationships with our current partners.
4. Pray also that we would be wise in our decision making and that we would also live in good health and not have any serious medical complications.
5. Pray for the pastors and church leaders we train, that they will learn and be transformed and molded by the Father into the perfect plans that He has for them. Pray for young people in our sexual abstinence program; that they will be receptive to our message and that they will be willing to offer their bodies as living sacrifices for the Lord, ready and worthy for His use. Pray also for the kids in our sponsorship program; that they will learn very well at school and turn out to be good and useful Citizens.  
6. Lastly, pray for Uganda as we go into election season. Campaigns are starting this month and the elections will be held in February. Pray for the peace of that country and for the people to make the right choices as they ponder on who to elect. 

   

Seasons

Dear Beloveds,
Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen. We trust that the Lord has been gracious and merciful to you all and has kept you in perfect health and peace from the last time we communicated.
Since coming back to America, it has been a different season in our lives and as we keep adjusting and praying and seeking Him daily, He keeps revealing His plans and mysteries in our own lives and in the lives of the people we are serving, praise Him!

We waited to update you on what is happening from our end, because were waiting for some good news to share with you all regarding what the Lord is doing in Uganda.
Last year in August, we were privileged to be a part of a new class of students who had enrolled at Kingdom Life Training Center and as the months progressed, we got to know each of them deeply and go attached to their unique personalities and stories. We have watched the Lord do a great work in most of them with awe and seeing the glee in their faces as they continually discovered higher truth in God's word as we taught is priceless. Every month, they came for three days for 10 months. Last week, they came for their last class and graduated on saturday the 15th! We were disappointed not to be there, but through photographs from our team mates, we felt a sense of worth to the Kingdom. As we looked at each person in their graduation gown, our hearts were filled with joy knowing that we helped plant seed in some of them and helped water seed in others and to see the work come to completion was amazing. We thank God for counting us worthy and faithful of this call and we thank everyone of you who made this and continue to make this possible. It cannot be over stated that christianity in Uganda is miles and miles wide, but an inch deep; the need for discipleship is enormous and that's why we are grateful to be able to contribute in this humble way. It's our prayer that these amazing servants of the Lord will put what they have learnt from the school into use and disciple and grow God's kingdom in the different villages they come from and wherever the Lord will take them.

The happy graduands pose for a group photo.

Valerie Pade made delicious cakes for the occasion.

We also had a huge surprise that none of us had expected. One of our students was pregnant and she expected to give  birth this week. She was determined to complete her course and graduate before giving birth and so she came for the last class on wednesday the 12th. on Thursday the 13th, during class, she got her labor pangs and before long, she had given birth in one of the rooms at school! The good thing though, our team mate Valerie is a trained midwife and she had the help of other three ladies with some nursing experience, so, Susan was in excellent hands and she preferred to give birth from the school rather than the hospital because she knew she would not get better attention and service there than the one she was given at school. She gave birth to a bouncing baby boy and her class mates roared in praise and worship to the Father for this good news! We never thought such a thing would ever happen at school and thank God our team mate, Sol, always has kits ready in the store for just in cases like this. The mother graduated on Saturday and she left with two things; her son and a certificate! Keep praying for this baby, that as he was born in Lord's school, he will live his earthly life for the Lord.

Here is a few minutes after arriving to the Earth!

The mother smiling with the Nursing Crew that helped her.

Our second class will continue and they will graduate sometime mid next year, depending on how the electoral process goes in Uganda, it's something for you to pray about and we are excited for them.

It's not only the ministry side that has been exciting, also, i (Ruudy) received a long awaited envelope in the mail last week from USCIS with my citizenship appointment date, yay! September 15th, 2:05pm is the date and time in Detroit. I am trying my best to study and prepare for this and we want to thank all of you who have been praying for us in regards to this. Even though we rejoice and celebrate for this news, we still have to continue praying for favorable outcome from the interview and the oath thereafter.

On the side of our ministry in Soroti (Loveworld Community Development Initiative), we are glad to inform you that our application for a 501(3)c status for Loveworld Foundation here in the States has been granted, meaning that you can now get tax exemption for all your contributions towards sponsoring a child, sponsoring a pastor, sponsoring a purity activity and any other giving to the foundation. For more information about this foundation, you can check out our website (though it's still going through some construction) at www.locodi.org or send us an email.

Requests:

1. If any of you has any of the following things that you could donate for use in the ministry in Uganda, we would be glad for your partnership as these would go a long way in helping the ministry there.

• Your used/ old laptop.
• Your used/ old iPad.
• Study Bibles.
• Used/ old camera.
• Used/ old phones.
• Used/ old kids study Bibles and materials.

2. In order to repair/ replace our spoilt laptop, we have decided to start a special fundraiser for it by asking for your pop cans/ bottles. You can donate these to us and then we can take them to meijer and get the cash. No amount is little, we would appreciate if you got back to us and then we would discuss about pick up options. We can also help cut your grass for a small donation towards this special project. This project is specifically for people who live in Michigan.

3. We are still short on our fundraising goal and we feel we have reached and asked everyone we know. We need to tap into new people; some of these could be your work mates, church, church mates or friends. We would be glad if you introduced us to your circle of friends, they may not partner financially, but they may know someone who could and may also partner through prayers. We appreciate those who have already responded to this request.

Prayer Partnership.

We are calling for your prayer partnership with us in the following areas:

1. We need physical healing in our bodies and would appreciate if you prayed with us.
2. we also need prayers for new opportunities and favor as we continue to do more fund raising.
3. Pray for our students who have just graduated and those who are still at school that the Lord will continually work and mould them into his own image and that they would do what the father created them to do and walk in his perfect will.
4. Pray for strength and rejuvenation for our team mates who are continuing to do the ministry work in Uganda in our absence.
5. Pray for us to keep falling in love with the Father and with each other every day, so that we may become a very strong and unbeatable team for Him and for His glory. Pray especially that we may enjoy this season of our lives and the next season that Father has prepared for us and for us to always be ready in season and out of season.
6. Uganda is already in the political and election season, please pray for the peace of Uganda and for the peaceful electoral process so that the leaders whom the Lord has ordained may get elected in a relatively free and fair process.

Finally brethren, we want all of you to know that we continually mention you in our prayers to the Father. We know some of you are still grieving the loss of your loved ones, some of you have been sick and are still sick, some of you are discouraged at heart, some are emotionally tired and frustrated, we understand what you are going through and empathize with you. However, we would like to urge you to always run and drink from His well, drink his living water and be refreshed. Remember, he is your rock, your shield, your strong tower, don't run away from him but run to him and be in the company and community of fellow believers. For whatever light affliction(s) you may be going through, they are just but for a moment and can not compare to the glory that is awaiting those who persevere to the end. Be encouraged in the Lord and be safe in his shadow. We love you and thank you for giving us an opportunity to live out our dream in Uganda, Serving Our Savior and King! God bless you, we love you dearly,

With You, For Him, 

R&B Olupot.

Created To LOVE.

A selfie with some of the beauties in the orphanage.

Grace and peace to you all in the marvelous name of our Risen Savior and Lord Jesus Christ! Greetings from Michigan!
We just want to start by thanking everyone who prayed for us to have safe travels back to the States; we made it safely and were given a VIP welcome by the Mom and the Aunt who attracted a lot of attention at the waiting lounge because they were fully dressed in the Ugandan traditional outfits! We are trying to adjust and then get going again. As most of you already know, we are back because Ruudy's Green Card only allows him to be out of the country for a certain time and so, we hope we will be able to complete his citizenship process before we return. We are also back to do more fund raising since the need keeps increasing and the costs keep going higher and higher. But we will tell you more about these later and when we meet one on one. For  now, we would like to share with you what God has been doing in us and through us in the country of Uganda:

A student sharing in class.

A student relaxing on our swing.

June has been our busiest month yet this year ministry-wise. We had two classes for the pastors and church leaders that were well attended. However, we added in a third class for the married couples and we called it "Marriage God's Way Class". We were booked to capacity and had to turn down many other interested couples. This class was facilitated mainly by our team mates' Australian friend whom the Lord has set aside and called into ministry to the marrieds. We were all challenged by the new revelations about marriage and it was great seeing couples open up and share love publicly in a culture while love in marriage is left for the bedroom only. There was forgiveness and rekindling of love flames afresh and our eyes were opened into the importance of having more marriage seminars due to the great need for truth in many marriages. Though we were tired physically and emotionally because of all the organization and preparations for all these classes, we were encouraged by the results and rejoiced at what the Lord had done!

Prayers in Ruudy's small group

Ruudy one on one

A new ministry for Ruudy has been unraveling this past month. He has been teaching with passion these last months and every one in the team is just very happy to see him be immersed into the ministry and speak the much needed truth to his fellow Ugandans passionately. In response, these pastors and church leaders have started coming forward to seek for advise and counseling from Ruudy, something that took him by surprise! The focus of the school is in the heart and not the head knowledge as most schools do and we are starting to see the fruits of our labor. Just in June alone, over 6 students have contacted Ruudy and opened up about their own personal struggles with sin and their past. Usually, when someone tells you "there's something I want to talk to you about", you think they want to tell you about their financial needs and they want your support. We have heard this many times and that's what we thought when they would ask to speak with Ruudy in private. But it turned out they want to talk with him about their personal stuff, struggles and addictions and Ruudy has been sharing with them the truth from the Bible about their situations. Ruudy has gone through the transformation of the heart program as well as Freedom in Christ for himself, but had not known that, the Lord would bring others to him who would need the same teachings. Please pray for wisdom for Ruudy and we are thinking that may be he should do some kind of pastoral counseling course so that he will be in the best possible situation to help some of the students like these ones. We are excited that the students trust us and see us as people who can help them beyond the classroom with things that they are personally struggling with, praise God!

Oscar needs a home.

Beckie and the kids at the orphanage.

We have also had some great time with the kids in the orphanage. There's no better way of feeling loved and giving out love than going to the orphanage and be swarmed by all these smiling and laughing kids. Each time we go there, we have to be prepared to be dirty, to laugh our lungs out, to smile and to be ministered to. The kids are full of life and energy and it has been great to just go there and dance with them, hold the little babies and lull them to sleep, pray for the sick ones and allow them to touch us, pray for us and minister to us too. You can never go in there and come out the same way. We are always glad when they find families here in the States and are able to go home to a loving family. Last month, one of the kids whose paper work had taken over a year and half was finally able to go home with his mom and all of us were joyous because the Lord had answered our prayers in His Time! If you know of a christian home looking to adopt from Uganda, let them know that there are still some very cute kids waiting for their parents to show up and take them home. We are glad that Michigan is adopting many kids from Uganda and hopefully more kids will keep coming.

Huge crowd of Students listening to the purity message in Soroti.

Back in Soroti, the purity clubs and child sponsorship program has been and is still running very well. More and more kids are making the right decisions to abstain from sex until marriage and more people are responding to the call to sponsor a child. We have had a family in Chicago sponsoring two of our kids last month, a friend of ours in Chicago was also able to lead a fundraising effort to buy a bicycle for one of our kids who used to walk 9 miles per day to go to the vocational school because we could only afford to pay for his tuition. Saturday Bible Study and Sports programs are on going and our volunteers are doing a great job coordinating and running all these activities with our minimal supervision.

Humble beginnings. Our house in Soroti and Gabriel with neighborhood kids.

Staying with Soroti, we thank God that finally we were able to move the boys who stay with us and who we are supporting for over three years now to our new little house in our land! It has been hard for us to keep renting the house in Soroti for the boys to live in as well as our house in Jinja. With our little resources, we started constructing a small house in our land so that these young people will continue to have a place they can call home and we can get relieved from paying rent in Soroti. Though the house is not completely finished, we had to move in and already, it looks like a ministry to the neighboring kids is in the pipeline thanks to our volunteer Gabriel who seems to be a magnet with the kids; they all love him and keep following him each time they see him. We were surprised to see kids come into our compound from different direction looking for Gabriel when we visited! We are very glad with the humble beginnings such as these ones.

Challenges and Prayer Requests:

We have also had some challenges and challenging situations this month. Just last week on monday, we lost a very very dear friend and sister in the Lord and founder with us of Loveworld Community Development Initiative. She was one of Ruudy's greatest friends and a family sister. She worked for us tirelessly during our wedding. She loved every child like her own even though she has none of her own and was known for her generosity not only in church, but to anyone who was in need. We were particularly saddened because our pastor had urged us to go see her that sunday but we thought we would go see her the next day on monday only to be called on monday at 8 in the morning that she has passed on to glory! We dashed to the hospital to see her body in the morgue and were glad to be of help to her family during that trying time. She was only 41, not married and had contracted HIV/AIDS from the only boy friend she had and that caused her death! This is why we passionately love teaching teens about sexual abstinence and she has been doing this together with us. She was very fierce when it came to sharing the gospel and she shared it with everyone she knew including politicians and government officials, no wonder there were over 10,000 people in her burial and over 200 received Christ during her burial. Even in death, she led many to Christ through her exemplary life. What was amazing was also the fact that she knew her time had come and she told her mother God had told her she was going home that day. She loudly confessed all her sins and asked for forgiveness from God and everyone, she also loudly forgave those who had wronged her, she named everyone she owed money and asked her friend to help her pay off these debts and then she passed on. It was great that she knew she had run and completed her race here on earth and was ready to pass on to glory.

R.I.P Hellen.

The other big challenge we are faced with is the need to raise more funds. The ministry has grown because there's great need for discipleship and what we are doing. Someone once made a comment that "Christianity in Uganda is miles and miles wide, but only an inch deep" and we totally agree. But, we know that even one heart changed by Christ in the village can begin a serious transformation of the entire community. So there's great need for discipleship and training and not just discipleship that pumps only head knowledge, but one that focuses on the hearts of men and women. Because of this great need, we had to start a second class so that we could have two classes running every month. This has stretched our faith and our meagre finances to the limit. To be able to continue running these two classes well, we need to raise an extra $5,000 per month. Right now our average total monthly income for both ministry and personal is $2,300! It's a walk of faith and we are glad that the Lord has kept us running smoothly thus far. This means we need to find new supporters to partner with us and in case you know someone who could be interested in partnering with us in what we are doing, let us know or if you also have a fundraising idea you could share with us, let us know or still, if you have a gift in organizing fundraising events, also let us know and we can get in touch. To our current supporters, we say thank you very much for your continuous financial support and all these kingdom changes we are seeing in Uganda are because you made it possible for us to be there!

Also, because of the expansion taking place in our ministry, we currently have a ministry one time need of $3,000 to help renovate and repair the classroom and dormitory block so that we can have more class room space and sleeping dorms. If you feel called to help us meet this one time need, please call us and let us know.

Yet another challenge we faced was the breaking in of our home and the theft of our iPad, which we use for taking ministry pictures and keeping people to date across the world. It was discouraging as it happened in our house, while we were there at only 8pm. The thief cut a hole in our locked screen door so he could unlatch the door, and grab the iPad which was nearby, while we were in other rooms. The entire previous week, every evening we had been having a time of worship together as a family, because Beckie had heard God put it on her heart that for this week don't bring your prayer requests, but just worship me. The night this iPad was stolen was the last night of this set aside week, and we thank God that we could still come to him that evening after everything that had happened and keep worshipping Him, it reminded us that no matter the circumstance, keep our eyes fixed on Him, not on what's happening around us.

We still need prayers for Ruudy's citizenship issues. The congressional office is helping us follow up the case and hopefully, we should be able to hear back from the responsible government agency about Ruudy's interview appointment date soon. We would like this process to conclude soon so that we can concentrate in serving the Lord in Uganda without any distractions.

Finally, we would love to meet up and share with you personally more about what God is doing in Uganda while we are here. Please let us know if you would like to meet us and we can schedule some time to meet you. Thank you very much for standing with us and know that we daily mention you in prayer to our loving Father and we hope Father has been good and gracious to you. Remain in his loving kindness and peace. Blessings.
Ruudy and Beckie Olupot.