Team Five Morris

Sojourn begins.  We've opened the doors, made some curtains and painted the walls.  There is shelter and we're borrowing a worship guy from Calvary Chapel and an Interpreter from Gaba Bible Institute and sound equipment form Arise & Shine.  It's a little rough around the edges but we like it that way.  We only hand out invites on the street a few days prior.  We've gotten different folks just about every week.  We had about 50 folks come out our opening night and have stayed around 30 - 40 folks since.  Our desire is to be a church in the community, for the community preaching, teaching and living the gospel out on mission for the good of the community. And we do that by living out the Gospel as a community of believers.

 

To look at the faces in the crowd as I'm preaching..........
and realize the responsibility is scary.  Yes, we are excited to see what Jesus will do but excitement doesn't carry the responsibility and realize the privilege to lead the bride of Christ.  Saying that, it's not with grit teeth as if a duty to perform but a delight to be called on.  None the less it's sobering to the bone.  My experience is limited but my foolishness for the Lord and childlike faith is pretty good.  And with some help form the fellas at Acts 29 (thanks Nate, JD and Tyler), I'm willing to attempt something for the glory of God.

 

Sojourn kicked off with a Pastor's conference headlining Jonathon Dodson from Austin City Life.  He and Justin Hroch lead the teachings as Dave, Jessica and Emily lead a children's program at Wabigalo Primary.  The guys taught the three perspectives of the gospel, history of missions/church, missional communities and how the gospel changes us.  The response was amazing from the pastors.  For some it was like they had never known the gospel before this point.  Others had their eyes opened to the legacy of church and mission of the gospel.  While yet others were ready to build more relationships with other churches to join and serve as missionaries in their communities. Austin City came bearing gifts for the pastors as well.  ESV study bibles as well as some doctrinal and missional books were handed out at the close of the conference.  Over all the conference was a success and we were honored to have hosted the event.

One month in and Sojourn has sent it's first pastor to school.  I've been associating with Gaba Bible Institute lead by the Dean, Jeff Atherstone for about a year now.  This is one of only six accredited bible colleges/seminaries in Uganda.  And is the only Evangelical based school.  Moses Odongo, my good friend and pastor I work with is on his way to a Diploma in Biblical Studies.  We're excited to see how God uses this education in Moses' life and ministry.

Not only are we a church for the community but we seek to partner with and help grow other pastors and their churches.  We are not an island church and so desire to strengthen the knowledge of Christ in as many pastors as we can so the Gospel can be preached to more people than we could ever reach.  God has put in my path many pastors whom I've been building relationships and trust with.  They've accepted me as one of their own, even installing me as the Secretary of the Disciplinary committee for the local Pastor's Unity.   In addition, I'll be leading a mentorship group at Gaba Bible Institute and hosting interns next term.  This is an opportunity to disciple aspiring men and existing pastors for the work of the Gospel and giving them live experience in a Gospel centered, Community building, missional church.  We are anticipated great relationships and even leadership to come out of this.

One of the community based project we're looking forward to is "family development".  Partnering with Vintage 21 church in Raleigh, NC lead by Tyler Jones, we're seeking to answer the question, "what does redemption look like in the slums".  That question bears quite a weightiness to it and produces many possible answers.  We want to start with the obvious.  Half the population of Uganda is 15 years old or less.  Most will not finish school and many will not see the inside of a class room at all.  So we're working on sending a few kids to school and implanting ourselves into their lives and family.  In Wabiglo the kids are poor and malnourished, often running in packs and playing in open sewage drains because there is nowhere else to go.  One meal a day is about it for most kids if that.  In addition to the schooling they also receive two meals per day while attending.  We feel this avenue to be the most obvious and holistic way we can meet these needs and beginning to answer that question.  It will be a good voice of the gospel coming from a local church into the families within our community.

One last thing that Sojourn is involved with is trying to cultivate intimate community with our neighborhood.  We've experienced great casual friendships with many who live and work in our neighborhood. We've had many guest before but we want to step up the hospitality.  We enjoyed a great dinner with Dungu, Abas, Che-wa, Yousef, Denis and Kostia the other night.  We laughed till we couldn't breath, shared stories and stuffed ourselves Ukrainian style.  All of these guys are from our street and we see them daily.  We want to cultivate this sort of atmosphere for our missional community side of things.  We are finding our rhythm here in Wabigalo after almost two years and are thrilled to be a part of what God is doing.

It's not all fuzzy bears and smelly flowers.  We have a building to pay rent on, operation cost and a budget that isn't there.  Our stress level and frustration with Uganda in general seem to be pouring out all over the place and it seems that around every corner lies a snare.  We believe that if we are prayerless and faithless that it doesn't matter how well we strategize, network or plan.  It has to be brought together, built and made strong by Jesus. Jesus really is all we have in this life yet he's the greatest Treasure to posses and give away.  We need a constant reminder of this and we need your prayers.

"Because we, children of Adam want to be great, Christ became small.  Because we will not stoop, He humbled himself.  Because we want to rule, He came to serve."

May we be changed by the gospel and confomed to the image of Christ.  Change our hearts Lord, so that we might sing to you a song of praise with our lives and worship you in Spirit and Truth.  May we labor by your power, to your glory and our joy.