Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot.......
Hey Everyone,
It's that time again when everyone looks back over the year and wonders, how did I do? The Apostle Paul told us that we forget what lies behind and strain for whats ahead, that being the goal of knowing Jesus even more. It's easy to hold onto and rejoice in past victories but the important thing is not what was but what will be. This is easy for most but sometimes hard for me. I seem to have a super sensitive memory, where things that happened long ago ring in my ears like they were yesterday. These are good memories and also bad ones. Anyhow this year has brought me many blessings in the ministry. In March of this year Kwo Manyen was born. For almost 7 months I prayed and asked the Lord to let me start a youth ministry. One day after seeing the kids ministry really struggle with the older kids as well, i decided I would have a program for them that morning. I didn't even really know what I would teach, I guess I just used a backup sermon. It was that day that I asked the kids if they would want to come and Saturday and that next weekend Kwo Manyen was officially born. Since that time it has been an amazing journey. March thru May we saw few kids unless we invited and when they did come we only shared the Romans road with them not knowing if they would come again. Sunday was our main group of kids, coming faithfully. After the summertime when I came back things went back into full gear. The first few weeks were mainly rebuilding. Now we have a core group of kids who come every week and the awesome thing I know a lot about them. I don't say this to credit myself, but I'm excited because I really know them. It's a step in my ministry moving from being a mentally itinerant pastor to being a shepherd. It has taken me a long time to move beyond shallow ministry of teaching but not really involving everything to what we're doing now. God has really blessed Kwo Manyen and I'm excited to see what will happen in this new year. What's my goal? That these kids who know their stuff and live the life! Uganda is very much like the Bible belt of America. Everyone's a christian and the culture is supposedly Christians but the truth is people are not living according to the Bible, but its the acceptable lifestyle here. I want these kids to know that with the Gospel and Salvation comes a changed life. No life change, no salvation(better said Gods Spirit in us bring about new life and fruit). And the best part as we know is the Holy Spirit is the one who brings that about and of course in each decision we make a choice for or against sanctification. The ministry was also allowed to do several outreaches in schools this year hundreds of kids heard the Gospel.
Okay I know this is going long but bear with me. This summer was an awesome time for me to spend time in America. I was blessed by everyone that I had a chance to see. It was a great time of refreshment. As with any year there are always emotional dips and swings. Coming to America I was in a relationship with a really sweet girl, but as some of you know it didn't work out. The details are unimportant. God blessed me with an awesome care team while I was there, and I got to spend some quality time with a lot of new and old faces. okay I've grown tired of writing :)
Thanks to everyone who made 2013 great!
Here's a quote:
Be at War with your Vices, at Peace with your Neighbours, and let every New-Year find you a better Man. ~Quoted in Benjamin Franklin's 1755 Poor Richard's Almanac, December
It's that time again when everyone looks back over the year and wonders, how did I do? The Apostle Paul told us that we forget what lies behind and strain for whats ahead, that being the goal of knowing Jesus even more. It's easy to hold onto and rejoice in past victories but the important thing is not what was but what will be. This is easy for most but sometimes hard for me. I seem to have a super sensitive memory, where things that happened long ago ring in my ears like they were yesterday. These are good memories and also bad ones. Anyhow this year has brought me many blessings in the ministry. In March of this year Kwo Manyen was born. For almost 7 months I prayed and asked the Lord to let me start a youth ministry. One day after seeing the kids ministry really struggle with the older kids as well, i decided I would have a program for them that morning. I didn't even really know what I would teach, I guess I just used a backup sermon. It was that day that I asked the kids if they would want to come and Saturday and that next weekend Kwo Manyen was officially born. Since that time it has been an amazing journey. March thru May we saw few kids unless we invited and when they did come we only shared the Romans road with them not knowing if they would come again. Sunday was our main group of kids, coming faithfully. After the summertime when I came back things went back into full gear. The first few weeks were mainly rebuilding. Now we have a core group of kids who come every week and the awesome thing I know a lot about them. I don't say this to credit myself, but I'm excited because I really know them. It's a step in my ministry moving from being a mentally itinerant pastor to being a shepherd. It has taken me a long time to move beyond shallow ministry of teaching but not really involving everything to what we're doing now. God has really blessed Kwo Manyen and I'm excited to see what will happen in this new year. What's my goal? That these kids who know their stuff and live the life! Uganda is very much like the Bible belt of America. Everyone's a christian and the culture is supposedly Christians but the truth is people are not living according to the Bible, but its the acceptable lifestyle here. I want these kids to know that with the Gospel and Salvation comes a changed life. No life change, no salvation(better said Gods Spirit in us bring about new life and fruit). And the best part as we know is the Holy Spirit is the one who brings that about and of course in each decision we make a choice for or against sanctification. The ministry was also allowed to do several outreaches in schools this year hundreds of kids heard the Gospel.
Okay I know this is going long but bear with me. This summer was an awesome time for me to spend time in America. I was blessed by everyone that I had a chance to see. It was a great time of refreshment. As with any year there are always emotional dips and swings. Coming to America I was in a relationship with a really sweet girl, but as some of you know it didn't work out. The details are unimportant. God blessed me with an awesome care team while I was there, and I got to spend some quality time with a lot of new and old faces. okay I've grown tired of writing :)
Thanks to everyone who made 2013 great!
Here's a quote:
Be at War with your Vices, at Peace with your Neighbours, and let every New-Year find you a better Man. ~Quoted in Benjamin Franklin's 1755 Poor Richard's Almanac, December
Posted 1st January by Ryan Tomás McCabe
No comments:
Post a Comment