Dear friends,

Greetings from Uganda. By God’s Grace we are well.

Yesterday after prison ministry, since I do not have a car, I decided to walk a distance before boarding a taxi. As I was walking, tired and thinking, a car stopped right by my back and out came two men.  They asked,  “Are you pastor John?”

John Mugabi (in blue next to guard) bringing food supplies to a prison

I said yes, and they said “We both were in prison and we used to see you come, and sometimes we could listen to your preaching, but we never responded.  Pastor John, could you please come with us for lunch?”

I wanted to turn their offer down, but I felt the Holy Spirit was telling me to go and eat with them. (Cindy’s editorial note:  If John at first felt like turning them down, he had to be DEAD TIRED!  His favorite place to be apart from his family is with prisoners.)

Finally we got to the place and food was served. One of the guys Tom made a major confession. “Is it possible for me to accept Jesus here and now?”  I said yes and he got down on his knees.  And this man came to Jesus!

He told me that ever since he came out of prison, he was feeling an emptiness in his heart and has been restless.  He gave me an invitation to go and reach out to his family.

Dear friends, we should not give up on doing good.  Doing good is godly and in time God pays it back. Our job is to sow seeds after which we pray and watch God do the rest.  We should not resist doing the will of God, which is in doing good.

I hope this testimony will bless your lives.
Brother John Mugabi.

Remember at the beginning, John said, “Since I don’t have a car…”  Want to help buy the ministry a truck?!  It is so desperately needed as they travel thousands of miles to 10 different prisons, some in remote locations, to carry out the ministry of evangelism.  We are half-way there!  We have $7000 and just need $7000 more to buy a (used) truck!

Check out the catalog page (HUGE thanks to our volunteer, Teresa, for creating this catalog!) in the sidebar at right to see the items we’re currently asking God to provide…through His people of course!

As Richard Stearns, President of World Vision, has said, “We are the ones who will bring good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, and stand up for justice in a fallen world.  We are the revolution.  We are God’s Plan A…and He doesn’t have a Plan B.” *

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Matthew 9:37-38

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” Romans 10:14-15

*From A Hole in our Gospel, page 277

You will notice another new change on the sidebar…a link to Katie’s Blog.  We’ve featured several of her posts here.  We LOVE reading her blog, and I know many of you do as well.  Every time I read one of her posts, I think, “Ooooh…I’d like to share that one!”  So instead of trying to pick and choose, now there’s a link!  If you aren’t addicted to her blog yet, check it out and you soon will be. 🙂  Her post from yesterday (4/2) is particularly amazing.

For those of you who don’t know her background, she’s 20 and living in Uganda, the mother of 13 (or is it 14?!) orphaned children–only God could orchestrate this!

I’m not done YET!  There is another wonderful opportunity to store up treasure in heaven.  Bryan and Andrea Thiele are in the process of bringing home (adopting) 3 orphans from Ethiopia.  This will bring them to a total of 9 (4 biological, 5 adopted).  Maybe they are trying to keep up with Katie?!  They are raising the funds to complete the adoption. They are accepting cash of course!  And they are also having another mammoth garage sale 4/23-4/26 (in AZ).  To contribute, contact Andrea.  You can read about it on their blog.