Update: Thursday, April 24

I have now been in Uganda for one month! It feels like it has only been a few days at most, but at the same time it could have been a year. I am getting to know everyone more and more, and the men I live with (their names are Patrick, Samson, Obadia, Mehdard, and Amos) are becoming like brothers to me. The ABIDE Program is going well and the discipleship is yielding some incredible fruit. Its been a time of growth - both in leadership and in learning. I get to be both the discipler and the discipled; the teacher and the student. I have learned so much and we are only 1/4 of the way through ABIDE.

Our ABIDE schedule consists of classes Tuesday through Friday from 9 am until 4 pm (Monday's are our day off). During class time, we are discussing the Bible, specifically John chapters 13-17. We are also reading "How to Read the Bible for All its Worth" (which discusses how to analyze and interpret the Bible yourself using the original languages of the Bible - Hebrew and Greek, mainly - and it also discusses context and applying the Bible today). The second book we are reading is "The Master Plan of Evangelism" which discusses how to share the Bible the way that Jesus did and how to be effective at sharing the Gospel. The third book we are reading is "The Cost of Discipleship" which is also my favorite. It is by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (spelling?), and if you don't know who he is, then SHAME on you! Bonhoeffer was German (No, really?!) who was murdered in 1945 because he stood up, as a Christian, to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime. He was very vocal at how horrible Nazi's and socialism were, and eventually became part of a plot to assassinate Hitler. It failed and he was caught, and was hanged just weeks before the Nazi's were stopped. He is a Christian martyr and was a voice for the people who Hitler tried to keep quiet. Read this book as soon as you can!

On the weekends we are doing outreach. We are visiting nearby churches and helping with worship, sharing our testimonies, and preaching. We are also doing community outreach through service projects and prayer. We are praying for our neighbors around us, getting to know them, and sharing our faith with them as well. People have been so receptive and the culture towards Christianity is much different here than in America. You are also allowed to openly preach and share with children at public schools - and most of the time, it's because you were invited by the teachers...praise God!

I am also leading worship and teaching a computer course every Friday so that the students can learn some practical skills while they are a part of ABIDE. It's been difficult so far trying to teach computer skills to people who have never touched a computer...can you imagine? But that's why they need to learn it, especially today.

Word of the week: Akamassimye! which means: PRAISE GOD!

I will leave you with a verse: Hebrews 2: 5-9

It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. But there is a place where someone has testified: "What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor and put everything under his feet."
In putting everything under him (Jesus), God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.