Method of White Fields

My goals as I begin to lead this church.

I intend to establish more home cells/fellowships in the different villages nearby our village to increase the church outreach, and the fellowship groups from afar may become church planting.

Training is vital to effective leadership, so I intend to train more people who will help me oversee the church and church programs. I have enrolled in Uganda Bible College and hope to get more ministers from our church to attend the Bible College.

I intend to help the church members identify which Poverty Solutions projects they can get involved with to earn a better income so that we can support the church financially.

We asked Pastor John why he was called to lead this church.

He answered, “Because I feel the willingness and the joy of doing the work of ministry. This confidence helps me know that I have been given the grace of God and His calling to serve this church. In addition, through sharing the Word of God with people in this community, I have experienced people who have put their trust in the Lord as their Savior. To me, this is proof that God has called me to lead this church in this community.

Recent Ministry:

John gave his life to Christ while he was married to two wives. We welcomed him into the church as a member because he was a new believer but not as a leader. They continued attending church with us, and the more we shared the Word of God, the more one of the younger wives pleaded with John to release her. When he released her, she married someone else. John remained with his first wife and came to tell the church how relieved he felt after letting the second wife go. Now he is living faithfully to his one wife in a biblical relationship. (editors note: This is a common occurrence in the ministry because polygamy is legal in Uganda. Our church leaders help families restore the proper relationship of One man married to One woman treating each member of the relationship with justice and fairness).

We have also seen God at work in the life of Nazario, who had separated from his wife, Editor. Editor left two of their three children with him. Life was hard for him, working and looking after the children. The bicycle he used to sell matoke was stolen from him (matoke is a plantain produce common in Uganda). He was advised by relatives to go seek help from the witchdoctor but he says the witchdoctor asked for a lot of money that Nazario was not able to raise. He came to church for God’s help and asked the brethren to stand with him in prayer. We all joined hands together in church and prayed for him about his life, marriage, children, and work. God helped him and restored his marriage and his bicycle that had been stolen from him. We thank God for answering our cry.

Sunday Deudantah was a drunkard because she drank out every shilling she worked for. She lived with four of her children and three grandchildren in Kajeyo village. She started to go to witch doctors to seek power to overcome alcoholism, as she had been advised by one of her drunkard friends. She would go as far as Ntungamo District, about 40km away on foot. We had visited before when we had just started a fellowship in Nyarushanje, and she told us she would not have anything to do with us. We continued to visit her home, though most of the time, the children were the ones we would find at home and share the gospel with. One day, when we visited again, we found her home and shared the Word of God, and this time she sat down and took time to listen to us. She then opened her heart and told us how her husband had tortured her so badly that she decided to go to witch doctors to bewitch him. When the husband found out, he separated from her, and he left for Kampala and has never returned; so she said she always felt too wicked to be accepted before God, and that is why she did not listen to us in the first place. As we continued sharing with her, she eventually accepted Jesus Christ into her heart. We invited her to attend church services with us, and through hearing the Word, she stopped drinking alcohol and then asked to host a fellowship in her home. The fellowship that is in her home hosts fourteen members. She also serves as an usher in church. Her prayer is that the Lord helps her to keep in faith and touches her husband’s heart to come back home. Her family and her home bless the fellowship, and we pray that God may bless her. 

Olivia is married to Edmond with one child, 2 years old. We met her during our home visits, shared the gospel with her, and invited her to visit the church service. When she attended, she heard the Word; she was touched, and she gave her life to Christ. She asks that we pray for her husband that he will allow her to always come and attend services and that he, too, may come and know the truth. 

Charles is a widower who gave his life to Christ this month. He was in the Anglican religion. When we met him during our home visits. he was very drunk. He became aggressive and violent, but nevertheless, we shared with him the good news. He believed and gave his life to Christ, and we prayed for him. We invited him to church to hear more of the Word of God. 

• We praise the Lord for helping us find another place to rent after our first landlord evicted us from his land, though we were still in the middle of our payment. We hope to own our own land.
• Pray for the training of leaders to participate in the ministry. We meet as leaders to share the Word and encourage ourselves in the Lord.
• Pray for our adult choir ministry.
• Pray for our children who prepare songs and learn memory verses and Bible stories.
• Pray for our three home fellowships and for our home visits to share the Good News.
• We bless the Lord for giving us an exciting time of serving His people in this community with hope in the Lord through His Word.
  

Ongoing Ministry:

Inid started praying for her husband, Bruce. God heard her prayer and touched his heart, and he has now returned home, and they burned down the shrine in their home. Bruce and Inid have three children. When we met them through home visits, they worshiped spirits and had a shrine at home even though Inid was an Anglican. The spirits punished them through sleepless nights and dreams of the dead visiting them when they erred in worshiping the spirits. The situation became worse; her husband left her and the children alone, and the children had to drop out of school. We shared with her the Word of God even though it was difficult, and we continued visiting her until she started coming to church. Later, she gave her life to Christ. Her husband is now home and they live in peace and work together, and their children have returned to school. We thank God for the unity and peace that came to this home and that the family has become a testament in the community that there is a God who can deliver from family evil covenants.

Rukundo and Ainembabazi struggled to believe, and we continued to visit them until they were willing to allow us to pray for them and they gave their lives to Christ.  Rukundo and Ainembabazi and their three young children faced attacks from deadly spirits, and they sought guidance from witch doctors, who could not help them. We met them through our home visits, shared the Word of God with them, and they were healed which led them to destroy the shrines and the herbs they had.  They now attend the fellowship in Ruhega and church. The family depends on selling labor to others and subsistence farming on their small piece of land and we pray that God may open financial doors for them to buy enough land for cultivation.

We met Vanise through home visits and found that she had been tormented by spirits ever since she entered her marriage into a family that worshipped spirits. Vanise is married to Emmanuel with two young children. Vanise told us that these spirits would attack her during the night and torment her in her dreams and she would wake up weak and tired. She started drinking alcohol to escape from the torture she was going through. She also sought higher witch doctors to calm the spirits tormenting her, but the witch doctors could not remedy the situation. We prayed for her and invited her to our church for more prayers. We thank God that when she came, we prayed together, and God healed her. She gave herself to Christ and is now in church serving God.

 Bosco, who is 17 years old, was saved at church after hearing the Word of God during night prayers. He gave his life to Christ, and the Word of God has transformed him. We pray that he may strengthen his faith and remain serving God.

• We thank God Almighty for the gift of life and His saving grace upon us.
• We thank God that the community is being transformed and people who are lost may know the truth about Jesus Christ. 
• We thank God for the place where we worship and pray that God may provide land as church membership is increasing.
• We pray for Bibles for the work of ministry to continue with understanding.

Miracle, 23, is a single mother with two children: Cosma, one, and Clever, three. She was a drunkard, and we have been visiting, sharing the Word with, and inviting her to church, but she has been refusing. One day, as she was passing by the church and going to the trading center to drink alcohol as usual, she said that she heard a voice telling her to look for us. The following day, she came to our church, and we had a Friday night prayer service; we were preaching about seeking Jesus and how Nicodemus came to Jesus, John 3:1-6. After the service, she repented and gave her life to Jesus Christ. That day, she joined the church and stopped drinking alcohol. Her life is a testimony of how God is gracious and mighty to save even the very lost. She is interested in joining the Praise and Worship Team choir. We pray that she remains firm in faith and keeps serving our God.

An Update from Pastor Sunday

We have seen God working in the life of a man known as Ambrose, forty-six and his child is four years old and known as Precious. Ambrose was a drunkard and an aggressive one. Because of this, he would spend nights out of the house and come home after he had sobered up a bit. At one time he came to the church for counsel and prayers because he was tired of all the challenges that alcohol was bringing to his life. We shared the Word of God with him, and he accepted Jesus Christ into his heart. HE has changed for good, is no longer drinking alcohol and is settled at home with his family. He has even promised to come and study at the Bible College because he is interested in joining the work of the ministry of preaching the Word of God. He is pictured here with his wife, sharing his testimony with Pastor John Sunday.

We praise God for He has given us a place to worship Him. It is a rental house that is no longer being lived in; we removed the walls inside so that we can have enough room.

We are praying to God to provide a way that we may buy more land for the church so that we can have a place of worship that is permanent.

Deodanta is forty-eight and has six children. Felix is thirteen, Olivia is eleven, Patience is fifteen, Bonita is twenty and the other two are residing in a semi-permanent house in Kajeyo zone. Deodanta fell sick and the husband abandoned her in the house and went to live with another woman. She was bedridden for a long time without any medical treatment because she could not afford it. When we found her in her home while we were doing home visits, she could not even get out of bed. We entered her bedroom and prayed with her and believed God to intervene only as God can. The Lord heard her and after some time, she came to church to testify of God’s healing grace to her. She then gave her life to the Lord during the Sunday service. Today she is in church, still standing in faith and serving God in the choir. She is also our treasurer. Her children are also in the choir, and she opened her home to host one of the fellowships that we have started. Deodanta survives by selling hard labor. We pray that God provides for their survival and her children’s school fees.

We have multiple ministries taking place. One group is the church choir, and we have a church youth group.

We are training others to participate in ministry by giving them a chance to serve in leadership in the fellowship and in other programs in the church.

An example of how God is changing lives is that of Nazerious, who is thirty years old. He was working in a fast-food restaurant but had a problem of gluttony to the point that his boss was incurring losses because Nazerious would eat much of the food that was meant to be sold. So, his boss terminated his services and Nazerious went home. Because of the challenges of the time, he resorted to drinking alcohol, he got very sick, and his wife abandoned him.  After some time, he came to the church, shared his story with us, and we prayed with him. He surrendered to the Lord and ever since then has changed and is no longer drinking alcohol. When word reached his wife that Nazerous had changed, she came back and now they are together in their home, working together and are at church together. There are a number of homes that had been broken or separated, but when the Word of God is introduced in such families, trust is restored, and families are healed.

The church is reaching the community through home visits and fellowships. We have two fellowships, one in Ruhega and another in Kajeyo zone. This month we visited eight homes and shared the gospel with ten men, fifteen women, and six children. We thank God who enables us every day to His work with such effectiveness. Thank you for supporting us to reach the communities around us with the good news of the gospel.