Church Blog

A Fruitful Uganda Mission Trip

Above: Photos from the Uganda Mission Trip earlier this month. Below: The contents of an e-mail from Isaac Hydoski to his fellow pastors upon returning from Uganda. (Robin Boisvert was also part of this year’s team; he expressed gratefulness for his first ‘missionary journey’ in a separate blog post.)

First off thank you for sending us with your support and prayers to Uganda this year.  It’s difficult to put into words how meaningful it is to know we have a church that is sending and supporting us throughout in prayer.  We reflected on this fact together many times and were strengthened each time.

I’m happy to report that the gospel is continuing to make great inroads into the community and culture of western Uganda where we are working. Moses’ [Pastor Moses Nkwatsibwe] church [Kiburara Gospel Centre Church] is lively and producing many new leaders and young men who are zealous for the gospel.  His church is characterized by passion for Christ and a zeal for spreading the gospel.  There is much work of discipling and equipping these new believers to be done.  Moses has his hands full!

The four village church plants seem to be thriving as well. Each currently has between 25-75 members who are mostly new believers in the last 1-2 years. This is significant because it is in the villages (small farming communities) that witchcraft and syncretism are still widely practiced and embraced.  It is truly heartbreaking to see children of all ages carrying multiple scars from the blades of local witch doctors who slice them open in rituals intended to bring “blessing” to these children and their families.  It is not uncommon that children are also sacrificed in the worship of satan and demons in these wicked rituals. 

God is having mercy on these villages though.  As these church plants are established, it brings the light and power of the gospel into these communities.  The believers there are exposing the wicked nature of the witch doctors, and as people are saved they are looking only to Jesus and turning away from the practice of the villages.  God is demonstrating once again that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation and is bringing much good to these communities.

I’m also happy to report that this team was highly effective.  Each man was one that I could lean on and ask to serve at a moment’s notice.  Every man was privileged to preach the Word and did so effectively in various public contexts (including the leading of six different church services on Sunday).  Each team member served Jesus Christ with joy and passion throughout a very exhausting and grinding schedule.  What a joy it was to watch them in action everyday serving the Lord with gladness, encouraging and discipling the believers and compassionately and urgently preaching the gospel to the lost. 

God used them to encourage literally hundreds of people, and we saw many people turn to Christ.  By grace, it became a common experience that each day we had the joy of seeing people trust Christ for the first
time.  On our last day in Kiburara we baptized 39 new converts to Christ! 

Last, I need to give major props to our Robin Boisvert.  Man, what a kick it was to watch this guy in action.  You never would have known that he hasn’t made this kind of trip before.  The guy is a gamer and worked hard along with the team everyday. Watching him teaching the crowd of pastors with such skill and with a pastors heart literally brought tears to my eyes.  God really gave a deep, personal connection with the men there, and they were so eager for his teaching from the Word.

His training of these men is so needed.  These are men pastoring local churches with zero theological training and no help from other churches; they often don’t own a Bible.  What Robin gave them over those three days is priceless, and the fruit of his investment will carry on into eternity in the lives of countless believers across Uganda.  God be praised! 

Thanks for praying.  We’re happy to be home and grateful to be back in the fellowship of Covenant Life.

—Hydro