Pilgrims on the road to Kampala

There is a shrine in Kampala, the capitol city of Uganda that was built to commemorate 22 young Ugandan catholic martyrs who were killed by sword or fire for their faith in 1885.  On June 3 of each year there is a pilgrimage to Uganda that draws over 1.5 million people to visit the shrine and commemorate their sacrifice.  There is a small lake at the site where the executioners were said to have washed off the blood of the martyrs and pilgrims dip themselves in the lake seeking blessing.  Many of these pilgrims walk for days and even weeks with nothing but their clothes and a few provisions, stopping to stay the night at different catholic churches along the way.  During our last visit to Uganda in May we witnessed hundreds of people walking to the Namugongo shrine to participate in the memorial.
As we observed these weary travelers, Cyprian commented that Romans 10:2 describes their condition:
“For I bear witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge”.
This is a great reminder of why God has called us to go to Uganda to come alongside our Ugandan leadership team to establish Frontier Force Bible Institute.  Peter reminds us that:
“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,”  2 Peter 1:3
Our FFBI course this month will be “Jesus’ Developmental Plan for Healthy Disciples & Leaders.  We will spend the week of September 12-16 studying the way Jesus recruited, trained, observed and released his disciples.  Each of our 9 rural churches will send their pastors and key leaders to apply this teaching to their own ministries.  We are excited about this material as it clearly communicates the principles of discipleship that Jesus modeled for us to use today.

First Frontier Force Bible Institute Class

We are delighted to have Carleen Elledge, Scott Friesen and Karen Swanson join us from Vintage Grace Church in El Dorado Hills California.  Vintage Grace shares a common passion for church planting and dynamic discipleship with our rural ministries and we look forward to connecting El Dorado Hills with Uganda.  We will depart for Uganda on September 7 arriving late in the evening on September 8.  Our VG team will return on Sept 20 and Kathy and I will return on Sept 29.