Today I want to begin my newsletter with what I hope will be a soul searching question. Whose responsibility is the spread of the gospel? How we answer this question will go a long way to explain our response to the need of the millions of lost people around the world? To be honest I find the need too great that I always find the temptation of indifference to the need a safer bet than my consideration of it, purely because the cost involved is just too costly. In the past, my passion for the glory of God to cover the earth has so driven me that I have too often minimised the cost involved because of the mere delight to serve him. But there are days when the cost weighs on you too strongly for you to ignore. You can feel your passion wane, your love leak, and your hope fade. Like in the words of Paul, ‘so that we despaired even of life’. To understand this you must enter my world, hopefully in a few paragraphs you will have a hint of what am talking about.

It has been sometime since my last newsletter and am so excited to share vision in this newsletter. Apart from the inconvenience that covid19 has caused, it has helped us a lot to evaluate our ministry, strategize and see how everything we have been doing connects together. So brace yourself for a slightly longer newsletter than the usual, I hope to share what we do, how we are doing it and ultimately why we do it. I hope sharing this will bring you closer to the in-workings of our work in Kaabong among the Dodoth and Ik people.

Our end in mind has always been to make disciples but overtime we realised in a least reached people with no churches, it was paramount that disciples be gathered into church communities to grow together, serve and celebrate Christ together as they seek to be a light to their communities. It is out of this realisation that we set out to catalyse for a church planting movement in Kaabong as we pray, preach, teach, equip, and name it.

On my way back to Karamoja I had so many questions running through my mind. This pandemic still seems to be raging on and here I am trying to get miles away from a place I am familiar with. What happens if I get sick along the way? What happens if I am carrying the disease to this remote place? Most of my questions were coming in along those lines (what happens…). I want to imagine many other people have such kinds of questions as they are potentially putting themselves and their loved ones at risk of contracting the disease. Then I figured many people had their reasons to get back into harm’s way.

We recently woke up to different noises outside in a distance. Normally we hear the cows being led out of the kraal and then that’s our cue for a new day but this day was different because while we could hear the cows make the sounds, it did-n’t sound like they were leaving the kraal. So when later we decide to leave the house we notice that there is some smoke coming from the centre of the kraal but we didn’t give it much thought at the time. A little later people start to gather around and also the cows are still there so we figure something else is going on. So we see someone we know passing by coming from the direction of the kraal and ask him what was going on and he tells us they are making a sacrifice. So of course the next question is, sacrifice for what? So Christopher tells us it’s to guarantee some kind of protection to the people and their livestock as well as to usher in the rains. Wow, we all didn’t know what to make of this. I mean we have al-ways heard of sacrifices being made but to see this being done was a whole different experience and it got me thinking of its implication. And I believe there are some people out there who after seeing something of the sort realised that the implication is much more than just the action going on. As someone who identifies as a Christian my desire is to see the Karimojong worship God in their culture in truth and spirit so this sacrifice that was being made reminded me of why I am serving in Karamoja because this can’t be true of God that he desires sacrifice.

This is one of those times we are able to acknowledge the need for a saviour. I believe for some on realising that we don’t have every-thing figured out as humans are probably looking for someone to step up and save the known world from the pandemic that seems to be holding us hostage. So may I take this time to remind us of a saviour I found in Christ Jesus. A saviour not just from the sickness but also to carry us through the uncertainties that we always carry around.

In this time the devil will try to whisper in your ear, “you see; I told you, He (God) doesn’t care about you. Where is he? (His old age trick to challenge His (God’s) goodness; does Genesis 3 ring any bells)

But the question for me for him is, “but Satan this is your very scheme devised to tear down our confidence in our Father’s loving character. We know this world is under your control (albeit temporary) 1 john 5:19 and that you’re the god of this age (again temporarily) 2 Corinthians 4:4.

What this corona virus that is spreading all around the world has of all things reminded me; is how urgent our work of world evangelization is. The work has always been important, but this pandemic is even helping me to see much deeper than the importance of world evangelization, but to also put into clearer perspective the urgency of the gospel to reach the lost on time. We never have as much time as we think we do, time to tell that young man who has never heard about Jesus that there is hope. Unlike this covid-19 which we don’t yet have a vaccine (which I hope we get), there is a vaccine for our sinful, rebellious independent hearts and we are reluctantly taking it (that is even when we do take it) to the spiritually dying world.

It’s now been two years and two months since I moved to Karamoja. I didn’t know much especially on the how or where but one thing I knew was Jesus had commanded us to go and make disciples of all nations; now more so those who have little or no access to the gospel. And I knew from reading the scriptures that going to the least reached was the will and desire of our Lord, so compelled by his love and convicted by his word I went. I honestly didn’t know how this work would look like, but after two years certain things start shaping up.

Greetings from Kaabong. I want to thank you for always standing with us in the work of propagating the gospel to the least reached people in every way. The year 2019 ended well with me taking time off to visit family at home. This was also affirming of the work as I am always aware of how different our societies are in as far as knowing our saviour Christ go. Back at home Christmas is a time we are looking forward to being home with family and remind ourselves of the birth of Jesus Christ our saviour while many other places including Karamoja this craze is almost non-existent. This helps me to appreciate the step our fore fathers took to stand in the gap for us to be able to have a culture filled with the gospel. And it’s because of this knowledge of the risen saviour that I am convinced explains the love people back at home in Mbarara have for each other and it’s this same love that has taken me to share the good news elsewhere.