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African Mission Post 12

Posted on June 1st, 2010 by Pastor Craig Houston

It is morning here in Uganda and I woke up to a beautiful sunrise and a hot cup of coffee, which is always a magnificent way to start the day. As memorial day comes to a close back home in the United States of America I would like to say a heart felt thank you to all of those who have served in our armed forces through the many years of American History as well as the thousands of families who have paid the ultimate price as there sons and daughters gave their lives. I am serving here in Uganda with at least two veterans first Brother Tom Tracht who retired from the Air Force and Brother Bryan Stensaas who served in the US Navy for 8 years during the Vietnam era and was saved while stationed in Spain. Thank you men!

Today I would like to recap the end of last week as I did not do so as promised in post #10. On Sunday night I was so overwhelmed with the events of the day that I just couldn’t think of anything else. That being said Thursday, Friday and Saturday where amazing days of ministry. Friday Brother Tom and I headed out to Ruti Technical School for there weekly preaching and teaching service. We were greeted by a man named Patrick who is one of the instructors at, but on this day was taking the place of the Principal and was charged with caring for the guest. Since it was the first day back in school for the year Brother Tom taught a tremendous message on Why we can trust the Word of God. The students at this school were very receptive and it was a blessing to hear them sing praises unto the Lord as there are several Christians that attend. Ruti Tech has students from many different countries including Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Congo so there is a great opportunity to influence future leaders from many African countries with the Gospel of Christ. We returned home and spent the rest of the day getting some much needed rest and I some much needed study.

SPECIAL BULLETIN – Monday we learned that Patrick from Ruti Tech attended church at Mbarara Independent Baptist Church and came to faith in Jesus Christ. What a tremendous blessing to hear that this man that Brother Tom had been planting seeds of grace and he went to church and another Brother watered and God gave increase.

Today is Wednesday morning just after 7AM and I am starting again to finish this post as last night after teaching for over four hours followed by a two hour Q&A with Pastor Bryan with the pastors we had a very special Birthday party to attend. Matthew and Kiela Stensaas daughter Kurstin turned four years old. She is a precious little girl and even gave me a big hug and a little kiss on the cheek. O how I miss my precious little girls back home after last night. On a sentimental note Emily do you remember the Strawberry dress from Naomi and Anna that you always wished you had never sold at the garage sale in St.Helens? Well all is well a precious little missionary girl is wearing it know and it certainly brought me back to when our older girls were bouncing around the house. (I must stop now as I cant se the screen)! Thank you to all the missionaries who have treated us like family. We don’t know all of you well YET, but we love you and thank God for what you are doing here in Uganda. Anyway when I returned home from the Tracht’s, after chatting with me sweet daughter Naomi, my wife Emily and having devotions with Anna (we are going through the amazing Gospel of Mark) I totally crashed with work still on the bed next to me when I awoke. So for those who may have been waiting for a new post, SORRY!
Saturday was an amazing day which began with the privilege of preach the soul winning challenge before a going out into the streets of Mbarara. This is not a short 10 min challenge like we have in the States but a full 45 minute sermon which I brought from the Book of Titus 2:11-15 on the work of Grace in our life. This text reveals that God’s grace not only brings eternal salvation, but also sanctification to the believers life here on earth and it also is what empowers and emboldens us to preach the Gospel in the midst of a World that hates God. Following the challenge we as shared before spent a few hours handing out John and Romans in the local language and a few English copies as well. What a joy to do our best witnessing pointing people to John 3:16 and a few other key verses so they might read them.

After lunch we then headed to Western College of Mbarara the private Muslim college out in Kyahi area where I had preached on Sunday. This college like Ruti Tech has students from several different African Nations and so the possibility to influence is great. We arrived at 2 as planned and there was only one young man in the room waiting for us. (This is the same school that Tom teaches Bible in on Thursday but Saturday is not required an is a preaching time.) None of us were discouraged or at least none showed any disappointment. We started talking to some students around the college and realized that most were still eating lunch. A few more people came to the meeting room and Brother Tom began to talk about a few things. Students all of the sudden began pouring in the room and Tom started teaching them a memory verse by writing it on the chalk board and then removing a word or two at a time until the board was blank and the verse has been put to memory. Now the class room was totally filled as people kept leaving and coming back with even more friends. I am guessing that there was at least 50-60 students by the time we started the preaching and each one was there on their own accord. They listened with great interest as I had the privilege to open the Word of God and preach the inaugural Saturday sermon. I took my text from Psalm 19 and spoke of God’s revelation to mankind through both His creation and His Word. They were locked on two what was being said and unlike the people at our church back home they even laughed at my humor (Did you hear that Jeremy)!
Toward the end of the sermon the Principal who is a very sharp and articulate young man had slipped into the room without me noticing. To close the service by quoting the memory verse which was Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Upon hearing the students quote from memory this verse the Principal radiated with a huge smile and exclaimed that it was wonderful and that this will now be on the front of the School sign as the number one guiding principle of the college. You see beloved saints that are all wise Sovereign God had gone before and blazed the trail in this strong hold of the enemy by allowing Brother Tom to have them memorize the verse that they already had on the back of there school sign which we did not see until we were leaving. Only God knows all that He has in store through this ministry at a Muslim college, but I have a feeling that He has great plans. Please pray for the Tracht family as Tom and his family serve in this school.

Please pray for me as the last two days I have taught almost Ten Hours on the Family to a wonderful group of pastors and pastors in training at the Mobile Bible Institute where the men spend all morning learning Farming God’s Way and in the afternoon and early evening Fathering God’s Way but really it is Family God’s Way. Tonight I will finish with the men an hour early and then I have the privilege to preach again at Independent Baptist Church of Mbarara.

I love you all and thank each one of you for keeping us in your prayers and writing such encouraging comments on the blog.

MAY THE LAMB WHO WAS SLAIN RECEIVE ALL GLORY AND HONOR FOR IT IS DUE HIM AND HIM ALONE!

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African Mission Post 11

Posted on May 30th, 2010 by Pastor Craig Houston

It is currently 6:37PM Sunday evening in Uganda and I have much on my heart to write after just returning home from a full day of preaching in the village of Kyahi. This Lord’s Day is one that I will remember for the rest of my days as it was a great honor to preach for Pastor Eliab and the Kyahi Independent Baptist Church. The church family was very warm and gracious and they were very easy to preach to as they seemed to listen very intently. I had planned to preach from Titus 2:1-10 on the importance of Sound Doctrine in the Church and how it is passed down from older men to younger men, and older women to younger women, but the Lord changed my message as we drove down the road to the church. Along the side of the road I saw a young women sifting grain and I watched the chaff blow away in the wind. My mind was immediately brought to the fact that God is sifting out the righteous grain and the chaff is going to be blown away in the judgement that is to come found in Psalms 1 so I preached from this text. The passage allowed me to draw from the agriculturally rich valley with its banana plantations, water source that feeds the rich soil and abundant fruit to illustrate the truth of the text regarding the Christian who is planted in the Word of God.

Following the service I had the opportunity to hold a precious little girl named Joanne who was very under nourished and has lost at least one of her parents. She is an Orphan that as far as I could tell is being cared for by a little girl of about 8 and lives with a distant relative. This little girl made my heart ache as I know that she has not had much tender care and as I held her she cuddled very close and was not scarred at all. My wife and I have always said we are willing to adopt and today that was heavy on my mind and heart. The possibility to adopt in Uganda does exist, but this precious little girl would probably not be a candidate because she still has a living parent as far as I was able to find out. My daughter Anna came over with a Protein Bar that she was going to eat as she was getting hungry and then we asked if they had anything to eat today. The answer was NO and Anna immediately broke the bar in half and gave it to Joanne and her cousin. Of course this is not an uncommon problem in many third world countries though for the most part Uganda seems to be well feed, but that does not change my heart for this little girl and those orphans like her who are in need and I hope it never does. Jesus is clear that children are the greatest in the Kingdom of God and the Bible even says that if we would offend one we should jump into the depth of the sea with a milestone about our neck. We are also to minister to the least of these and practice pure religion which is to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction.

As is common across all kinds of cultures when guest visit a church a meal is provided. The food was great but I had a hard time eating as I was sick in heart and feeling like a hypocrite to sit and dine when the little children were still waiting outside. I was assured that food was going to be given to them as well which this church does for many on a daily basis. I praise the Lord for this churches care for the children of Kyahi.

We left the church and headed down the valley just a little ways and there was a good group of 80 to 100 that had assembled to hear the preaching of the Word of God in the middle of the village. This time the Lord led me to preach from Psalms 19 on the two ways in which God reveals Himself to mankind. First, verses 1-6 shows that God declares Himself through His creation which is easy to point to the visible illustrations all around us with a plantation behind me, mountains surrounding us and the beautiful blue sky above with puffs of white clouds sometimes hiding the sun. The Bible is also clear that the crown jewel of Gods creation is mankind from all nations, tongues and tribes of the earth. The second part of this Psalm deals with the specific revelation of God found in His Word, which is perfect in converting the souls of men as well as giving all the instruction we need for life. Upon concluding the message I asked Pastor Eliab to pray and close the service which he did. But first he asked if there where those who had trusted in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and 4 men and 1 women stood indicating that they had trusted in Jesus. This was a great blessing to see God work through His Word and through this feeble messenger. All glory and honor goes unto the Lord and we thank Him for the fruit that is produced in and through is children.

The third preaching station was postponed as a more important matter came up and we were called upon to help. This is where the day really shook me as I was asked to preach for a funeral of a 3 year old boy named Ambrose pronounced (ambruce). I had been told just before the first morning message and so there was no real time to prepare except to beg God to help, by giving me the words to say to this family that I have never met that has just lost their son.

When we arrived at the funeral there was a few hundred people gathered outside of the house of the parents and tarps covered at least part of the crowd. We were ushered in through the crowd to the very front to be seated near the family. Please try and understand at times like these you feel so helpless and so out of place and yet you know that the Lord has placed you there for “such a time as this.” Very quickly after our arrival a little casket was brought out of the house draped in a white clothe with a red cross on it and I was told that it was time for me to preach without even having time to meet the parents. For this funeral the Lord directed me to Is. 61:1-3 which declares that I was anointed to preach, binding up broken hearts and comforting those who mourn. These verses were followed by Mark 10:13-17 were Jesus says not to suffer the little children who are the greatest in the kingdom and that He cares and sometimes calls the little ones into His presence so that He can hold them and comfort them. In these times of grief and loss we can find solace in the words of King David found in 2 Samuel 12:23. Those who experience the loss of a child must understand that their child will not return, but that through knowing God they may return to their children who have departed. This same hope and comfort is possible today if we know the Lord as our Savior. This truth is found in John 14:1-6. I concluded with the hope of Psalm 30:5 that says weeping may endure for the night but joy comes in the morning. Though the grief and mourning is severe today, God will bring joy again. The crowd then proceeded about 50 yards in the midst of the banana plantation where the little casket was lowered into the ground. I was overcome once again with tears as I watched many different men come and take turns shoveling dirt on top of the little casket. Even though I could not understand the language that everyone was speaking these acts of support and community did not need any interpreter. The service was officially concluded but the event was not as everyone in the village stayed for a meal with the family, but we had to depart as there was yet one more preaching engagement to travel to and this one was up a little bit of a goat trail.
We had traveled this road before on Thursday while out visiting with Brother Tom and Pastor Eliab without any major problems. Yet today was different because we had the vehicle packed with 10 people and as we attempted to go through the one major mud bog we got stuck. Mind you at this time of day we were all pretty tired and it would be dark in about two hours. Everyone unloaded and thankfully Garrett and I were able to push Brother Tom out of the mud hole with no damage to the vehicle and only a spray of mud/manure like substance splattered thoroughly on our Sunday dress clothes. It was great especially when Brother Tom was convinced to try it again this time with absolutely no problem, just a little four by four fish tail action. All ten of us that were ridding in the Land Cruiser pilled back in and up the hill to the next little village that we were to preach at. Upon arrival they set out chairs and then since we were late we only did some introductions of Missionary Tom Tracht and family, Anna and I as well as Pastor Eliab whom I am sure most of these men and women knew.

I would like to finish this post with a few reflections from today. First I am more certain than ever that we are to live our lives dependent upon the Holy Spirit of God which we all know in theory but to often not in practice. Secondly we must place our confidence in Scripture and not human cleverness when preaching because the Word is applicable in every context. Thirdly on a more Ugandan specific note I have the utmost respect for Pastor Eliab who is a man of God and is not only a pastor of the church but a pastor to the entire village. He does not demand respect he commands it.

I am emotionally drained, physically tired with much work to do on Fathering God’s Way which starts tomorrow and yet I feel as if today was most certainly ordained of God and things took place that I could have never orchestrated nor would I have in the same way.

May the Lord receive all glory and honor as it is all due Him!

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African Mission Post 10

Posted on May 29th, 2010 by Pastor Craig Houston

The past two days have been FILLED with much exciting ministry and I have been unable to post due to exhaustion and an all day power outage (our third since being in Uganda this one being the longest). The Lord has allowed wonderful preaching opportunities for both Tom Tracht and I on Friday and Saturday as well as the opportunity to hand out many John and Romans.

I plan on a full post upon my return from preaching today in the village church of Kayhi as well as two times further out in the valley beyond the church. It will be a busy day and preaching with an interpreter is always more taking on the mind. Please check back later for a more detailed record on the past two days.

For those who may be wondering Anna is doing very well including out witnessing and distributing John and Romans pointing people to key verses. I am so blessed to spend this time with her.

Have a wonderful nights sleep and a blessed Lord’s Day!

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African Mission Post 9

Posted on May 27th, 2010 by Pastor Craig Houston

Tonight I write at about 11:00PM after a great day of ministering again in the village of Kayhi which is about 15 minutes out of town and yet in a totally different environment. We arrived at the Independent Baptist Church of Kayhi where Anna and Katherine would be helping in the school classroom again today. Katherine took the lesson today and I know did a wonderful job though I was not there to hear it. I was able to observe them with the children during their recess sining the new song that they had learned the day before and it thrilled me to think of my daughter having had a part in teaching these children about the love of Jesus.

When Brother Tom and I arrived we went directly into the church and were introduced to Raymond who had just been led to Christ. We sat with him, the Pastor, and one other man rejoicing in the goodness of God and the redemption that He gives to those who would receive Him. This meeting included a breakfast of porridge which is made everyday for the children in the school. It was actually quite good tasting a lot like cream of wheat which I enjoy. This was made with the clean water supply that our church family had a part in bringing to this village through our labors with the Tracht family. I have been shown a bottle of the water that the villagers once used and it looks like a really dirty fish tank water that has not been cleaned in a long time. It is no wonder that the new water which is collected from rainfall in clean, secure tanks is called by the villagers “WATER FROM HEAVEN”. The next time you go to one of the many faucets in your house and pour out clean, pure water please remember that many people around the globe don’t even have water that is fit to drink. Do you think Jesus cares about that? I do! In fact the Scripture says in Matthew 10:42; Matthew 25:31-46 that in so doing you will not lose your reward because you are doing it unto the Lord.

Well after a time of food, fellowship and rejoicing we took a box of John/Romans and headed into the village and beyond to go house to house handing out the Scriptures in this area. (Did I mention Raymond the new convert came along on his first day as a believer.) We are also inviting people to Sundays church service which I have the privilege of preaching at as well as at two other preaching points further up the valley from the church building where there are ,amy people leaving betwixt the banana plantations in mostly mud houses. We met many kind people who were also very thankful for the Scripture portions that they received as we visited often following the pastor through a trial that seemed to just lead into the bushes but ended up at a house. We also delivered several gallons of water to a very elderly couple which invited us in to sit. The wife appeared from the back, and it became obvious that she was blind, yet upon hearing that she had company her leathered face radiated with a huge smile and her almost blue eyes sparkled.

The last stop to be made was several miles by Land Cruiser into an area that does not see many vehicles to the home of a widow named Annette. Before we arrived there though I saw a women outside of her home and asked for Brother Tom to stop the truck so that I could give her a John/Romans. Going behind her house by the cooking shed the women was very surprised and gladly received the Scripture portion in her native tongue. What was different about this women is that she began immediately to read the Bible aloud and I could even pick out words about Christ. I went back to the truck and asked the pastor to come and invite this dear women and her children to church. Thankfully the next house up the road was that of Annette whom she new so there was a Christian to connect her with.

As I said our last stop was to be at a widow ladies home is faithful to the Lord and His church in the village. I was surprised to see how young she was when we arrived. She is the mother of five children and is currently caring for another child whom either just lost its parents or they are very sick. Annette had a smile you could drive a truck through and was truly an Elect Lady of great hospitality greeting us by getting on her knee to shake our hand showing us great honor to which Tom and I responded with the same honor (this is not given to ladies in Uganda) because we were humbled by her Spirit. How does she make it? With Jesus, working as a hairdresser, tending a garden, maintaining a banana plantation and being faithful to church serving faithfully weekly even though she lives a few miles from the church house. Sometimes I feel like our Christianity in the States is so wimpy. We get a hang nail or a sunny day and its questionable whether we will be in church and if anything difficult happens in our life we certainly cant be joyful through it, yet when I meet people like Annette I am reminded again that when you have JESUS you truly have everything the you will ever need and much more than you deserve. Please pray for our sister in Christ to witness to her neighbor as she requested more Scripture portions from the pastor because she had given all that she had out. Please pray that these past days of tilling the soil in this village will prove of great profit this Lords Day.

Leaving the village we stopped by for the areas weekly market. This was Anna’s first experience in an open market and though it was not a huge market we found a couple of things including some fresh Avocado, potato’s, onions, and a few clothing articles. When we got home we snacked on avocado slices and fresh pineapple followed by a lunch of toasted, avocado, bacon, cheese and lettuce sandwiches. YUM!

Then we headed to the very first time of instruction at the Western College to teach about the Word of God. This school is a Muslim School and yet we have been given unrestricted access to teach on Thursday and to preach on Saturday. Tom taught today since it was the very first service and I get the joy of preaching on Saturday. Please pray as I believe this may be a huge producer of Spiritual fruit in future generations. Tom told them that they would all get a Bible of there own in English and the class erupted into applause.

After the College we headed back home where Brother Tom dropped Anna and I off before going to teach at the Bible institute at the church in Mbarara. I stayed home to work on the Curriculum that I am trying to put together for translation and production for next week. I also had the privilege of visiting Matt and Keila Stensaas house for about an hour before coming home for yet another wonderful dinner. Thank you Cheryl Tracht for the great cooking.

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African Mission Post 8

Posted on May 26th, 2010 by Pastor Craig Houston

Wednesday was a wonderful day of ministry starting with the village of Kayhi that I mentioned in my earlier post where Anna and Katherine taught the children. I also had the privilege of helping by having races with the children during their break, teaching them the names of all of my children while pointing to each one on a photo that I brought with me. They loved this English lesson and the picture. The children were very scared upon our arrival some having been taught bad things about the mozongu (white people) but after they spent several minutes gathered closely around me taking turns rubbing my beard we now have a great relationship. (who knew that a beard could be used to strike a peace accord with small children who don’t speak much English and are fearful of white people).

I was also able to hand out some John and Romans in the local language, while brother Tom was doing some house to house or hut to hut visitation. We will do more of that on Thursday as well.

I was able to study for about an hour and then had a meeting with a pastor in the area that needs some serious help doctrinally. He asked me to preach last night from 8-10 PM which followed my first preaching engagement from 5:30-6:30 PM at Independent Baptist Church of Mbarara which was started by Bryan Stensaas and is also where the orphanage is being built.

My post tomorrow will have more information about todays events but I must retire because it is 2:46AM and I am finally on a normal schedule since last night thanks to your prayers and being exhausted at the correct time last night after our trip so I could fall asleep.

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