Sometimes we fail to realize that
the insignificant things of life may only be insignificant at the moment they
occur. Time has a way of allowing those
insignificant pieces to stack up until they are no longer insignificant or
small. Finally this year God has allowed me to understand just what the sum of
many small things can be when they are placed into His plan at exactly the
right time. The truth is that everything I have once thought I understood turns
out to be much more than I could have ever imagined.
For as many years as I have been
traveling to Uganda there has been an equal measure of progression toward what
has become a picture perfect example of God’s sovereign grace. When our
ministry first decided to take a much bolder approach to teach and train the
Ugandan bush pastors some folks said it was too much too fast. During the early
years of our ministry we traveled from village to village holding All Saints
conferences. These conferences were open to pastors from surrounding villages,
but had a curriculum structured for new believers. It did not take long to
realize that these bush pastors lacked the training needed for their churches
to escape the negative influences of such a severe culture. It was time to
commit to these pastors and to offer them the much needed help; although, the
cost would be much greater than our small ministry had experienced up to that
point.
It was out of the need to teach the
bush pastors that we pursued a format that would invite a new group of people to
join us. From first glance this change looked pretty insignificant, but after
some time it would prove to be much more than significant. One of these people
was Ancelett, a pastor from Nairobi who has become a real brother from a
different mother. This man who has devoted his life to biblical education has a
presence that invites people to listen and a smile that would melt any heart. Ancelett
is a great preacher and has started to work as a part of the American team on
all of our missions. The other significant person is a Congolese pastor who was
introduced to this ministry through one of the most farfetched stories ever
told. In fact, this story, which I won’t go into in detail, is so unbelievable
that only those who have witnessed the glory of God through supernatural events
could even entertain it. Nevertheless, this Congolese pastor pursued us through
our Ugandan counterpart (Pastor Simon) to come to the DR Congo. We had found yet
another new hurdle to overcome as our faith was challenged through this new
acquaintance. It had been very satisfying to travel to Uganda twice a year and
teach bush pastors so we really did not have any reason to travel to the DR Congo
and expand the ministry.
Without a clue to the far-reaching
possibilities, 4 Him in Africa Ministries once again found it necessary to
expand the work we were doing. This expansion meant making a decision that
would cost us financially much more than we were used too. It is important to
understand that every time our ministry budget increases our faith must span a
much wider gap between what we have and what we need. This larger leap of faith
results in God’s provision being poured out through the hearts of His people.
It might have been the fact that God provided the funds needed to plan and
travel to the DR Congo and train an additional 200 pastors or it could have
been how our traveling partner from Nairobi was able to get us through the
frequent roadblocks by speaking Swahili with a mixture of street smarts and
personality but, either way it did not take long to realize that the new group
of people who had crossed our path were not insignificant. On the day we
crossed the border between Burundi and the DR Congo I watched as the Congolese
pastor used his influence to move us through every potential obstacle as if we
were invisible, while our friend from Nairobi explained the customs and dangers
of the culture in a way that two Americans could understand making it look as if
this had all had been in God’s plan all along.
What I am about to share is the
reason for this seemingly pointless article and the reason I believe our
ministry is witnessing a movement of God which will result in changing an
entire country. Last October while in Uganda we visited a newly opened refugee
camp near the village of Kamwenge. Our investigation uncovered some interesting
facts about the camp and its residents. Each week the camp staff processes
seven hundred Congolese refugees and will continue to do so until they reach
the capacity of sixty thousand. These Congolese refugees are being displaced
from the northern regions of the DR Congo due to the civil war happening there.
How convenient that on the same trip in which we were going to the DR Congo we
would find a Congolese refugee camp in a remote area of southwest Uganda.
What’s more the camp was open to evangelism giving us an opportunity to start
an ongoing ministry there. Could it be an accident that the people from a war
torn country, which due to rebel activities and rugged jungle terrain is almost
impossible to evangelize, would move to a place where we have been training
pastors to do just that (evangelize). Is it even more interesting that the
pastors who attended our training in the DRC were very much interested in
helping with the evangelizing and disciplining of their countrymen while
waiting for them to return to take their place in the churches of the DRC.
Actually, there are so many tiny, insignificant pieces stacked up together in
this situation that I am sure it could only have been God who orchestrated it.
So “why it is this so important”
you may ask? As I write this article,
the pastors in Uganda that we have been training have rallied their churches
together to do outreach at the refugee camp. The vision needed to evangelize
sixty thousand people is not one that a Ugandan bush pastor would normally entertain;
yet they are. The idea of people who have little to none, in the way of possessions,
collecting donations of food and clothing for the Congolese at the camp is
overwhelming. And if this is not exciting enough then do the math; the camp has
a forty-year lease, which means that in forty years these people will return to
their country. They will not be the same, this time when they go back they will
be taking their new religion with them. Their religion will be Christianity and
a personal relationship with Jesus Christ will be its foundation. Did I mention
that sixty thousand Congolese will multiply several times over in that span of
time. This means that the number of Christians returning to the DRC will be so
staggering that the country will have to be affected by their return. What this
means is that a country that has suffered from war, abuse, and exploitation of
every kind throughout its history will now be evangelized by its own people.
And the Christians responsible for disciplining these new evangelists will be
the Ugandan bush pastors who have been discipled by a very small ministry
called 4 Him in Africa Ministries. It is not a bad plan and I wish I had
thought of it, but I was too busy with the insignificant details.
I should not miss an opportunity to
make a pitch for www.4HiminAfrica.com and the need for sponsorship to send the
Uganda children to school. Did I mention that these children will go to our
church run Christian schools? Did you
ever think that for less than a dollar a day you can send a child to a
Christian school who in the next forty years will become the church who will
evangelize and disciple these Congolese refugees that will be responsible for
changing the heart of their country?
