UGANDA TEAM ARRIVES IN KAMONKOLI!

After three days of traveling, we finally arrived in Kamonkoli!

Saturday was our first day of ministry. Our team of 14 came alongside of Hines Ugandan Ministries and Kamonkoli Presbyterian Church to serve the children of the village. A total of 682 children were ministered to today during Awana! It was incredible for us to see how many children showed up to see us and to sing and dance with us! We had an opportunity to teach the children on prayer. They learned that God is aware of us all the time and that we can pray to Him whenever, out loud or in our hearts. We have found that the children here are very receptive and polite. Despite the amount of kids, they all sat quietly and attentively, listening to the Bible lessons.

One of the more unfortunate things we’ve seen, however, is the increasing number of Muslims. Some of the children are growing up with the ideas of Islam being taught to them in their homes, but they are still coming to church and to Awana and hearing about Jesus. We received several responses when it came to prayer that demonstrated this fact. They would tell us that a good place to pray was the Mosque and that someone whom we can pray to would include Allah. The Islamic faith is growing in Uganda at a rapid rate and those here of the Christian faith are facing many challenges. We are in prayer for them and ask that you, too, would be in prayer as they continue trying to minister to these children and their families, guiding them to the true salvation that can only be found in Jesus.
  
After our time at the Awana camp, the men in the group continued ministering to these kids and loving on them by providing a sports camp for all the boys of the village. They played a variety of sports, which of course included soccer!  To our amazement, these are some very talented soccer players!

The women spent time back at the guest house sorting through literally hundreds of pounds worth of donations. We can’t wait to get out into the villages and begin distributing all the clothes and shoes.  We’re very eager and excited to continue serving here alongside our brothers and sisters in Kamonkoli, Uganda, and as always, are very encouraged by their passion to serve Christ and make Him known.

Tomorrow we have more activities for the children, and two members of our group, Paul and Rick, will be teaching a Bible study, while another, Jarred, will be sharing his testimony with the church. We’re confident that God will use them and their words and messages to reach the hearts of the people, and also to speak to us as well!