Sunday, March 10, 2013

Update from Tubur Church


Dad, Natalie, Glen, and I helped with a church plant in 2011 in Tubur, Uganda.  A friend from church (James Bobo) visited the church today and sent home an update.  What wonderful, happy news!  I imagine my feelings in heaven will be very similar to the ones I felt when reading this update.  GLORY, GLORY, GLORY to HIM!  Thank you to all that prayed and gave to make this church plant possible.  May you be blessed by this news as well.

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In 2011, the Soroti Presbyterian Church and Midland Bible Church partnered in the establishment of a village church in Tubur.  They met under a tree for the first eight months and in the summer of 2011, a number of you assisted in the week-long crusade and the church dedication that followed.  I preached there this morning and I thought you might like an update.

The first question I asked was how many of them had been part of the “church under the tree” two years ago.  It was encouraging to see how many stood up.  The church building was full today and it had one of the best balances between men, women, children and youth that I’ve seen in a village church.  Usually, the vast majority of the attendees are women and children.

The man who sold the land to the Eastern Presbytery to build the church on got up after the service, along with his wife, and presented me a chicken to express their thanks for the gift of the church to the village.  They had been married in a civil ceremony some 50 years ago and last May, they had a church wedding in the Tubur church.  They never thought they would have a chance for a church wedding and were very excited to have had one in their own village.

One of the elders then got up and provided an update on several of the ministries of the church.  There are many widows and orphans and they have done two ministries, in particular, to assist.  They now have a pre-school at the church with 70 children and six teachers.  This is a service to church members and to the community as a whole. 

They have also created a “helping hands” ministry which focuses upon the needs of widows.  They have built two grass-huts thus far for widows that had no place to stay and they have set aside land and work it to provide crops to support ten widows currently. 
They have an AWANA ministry mid-week that currently has 120 children from the church and community coming.  In addition, they take up a small offering every Sunday that is used to focus upon medical needs of the poor and needy within their church.