Goals for our first year

Kenneth and I have been brainstorming this week about things we would like to see happen in our first year here.  We decided to write down some goals and share with you, our supporters and friends, in order for you to hold us accountable for our lives here.  As many of you know our hearts have always been for church planting in the villages.  This did not make our list of goals for the first year because of the necessity of having a good grasp of the language first and having relationships with key people who can bring us into the villages.  An important concept we learned while doing church planting in Nepal is Prayer, Care, Share.  We’ve been living in the “prayer” phase for awhile now as we planned and prepared to come to Karamoja.  We are continuing in that, and God has been faithful to speak.  So far he has pointed us to Matthew 25:31-46.  These verses fall in line with the second phase, “care.”  Jesus modeled this again and again in the gospels as he met physical as well as spiritual needs.  Unless we can first show people the love of Christ in tangible ways, they will not hear our words.  “Share” is the last phase and grows from the relationships formed through our care for others.  Church planting for us will take on this model. 

 

Now on to our goals for year one: 

1.       Language learning – Our friend, Monks, has been coming over once a week to give us a language lesson.  We then spend the rest of the week practicing what he gave us in the community.  His work (with a local org.) will be ending soon, and we should be able to go more in-depth with our lessons (meaning daily, for hours at a time).

2.       Complete the orphanage construction – We have received some donations and are moving forward with completing the next phase of the orphanage.

3.       Support Rainbow Mike and Shalom Reconciliation Ministry in every possible way.

4.       Make and develop relationships with people and look for persons of peace – Person of peace comes from Luke 10.  We are looking for people who will open doors to the community for us and for the gospel to travel.  This person may or may not be a believer yet.

5.       Help Monks start Karamoja’s first dental clinic – Our friend, Monks, recently graduated from dentistry school and has come back to Karamoja, his home, to establish the first dental clinic we know of in the region.  We want to help him raise funds and get supplies to get going.

6.       Develop Bible storying for our area – Once we start going to the villages, our first task will be to start telling a series of Bible stories to the community. 

The list could go on and on but I think that’s enough for year one. We would love feedback and/or questions on these goals. 

 

Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement.  We thoroughly enjoy every email, blog comment, facebook comment, and phone call.  Speaking of prayer, here are a few needs: 

1.       I have been having a hard time breathing the last couple of days.  My chest hurts, and I’ve had some high fever.  Pray for healing.

2.       Kerri and Andrew (my sister and her husband) are both sick with various illnesses.  Pray for healing for them. 

3.       Our friends Cody, Michaela, and their kids bought their plane tickets yesterday to come.  They will be arriving around the beginning of October.  We are so excited!  Praise God for that.  They have a lot to do in a short amount of time so please keep them in your prayers. 

We love you all!