We recently hosted a short-term mission group from Quaker Avenue Church of Christ in Lubbock, Texas. Quaker Avenue has a VERY LONG and loving history with the mission work in East Africa, as they began in 1981 and continue supporting the work in Kenya and here in Uganda. The group was made up of high school students, college students, and adults, youth group members and elders, ministers and volunteers, and totaled 22 people. They were here for approximately 2 weeks and it was a joy to have them.

One of the special blessings was to share with the group what God is doing through our Discipleship Cohorts and Discovery Bible Study trainings. In fact, on several occasions, the group was able to learn FROM our discipleship guys and discuss DBS together. In the first week, the group did four nights of DBS with different facilitators each night. Our prayer is God uses these group members to start DBS groups in Lubbock the same way He is doing throughout Africa.

We also took the group to visit one of our village churches in Busia, Uganda. Pastor Sebastian was thrilled to have so many visitors and Akipineti Church blessed our group immensely. Each group shared songs with one another, an encouraging word was shared, and footballs were delivered to a nearby primary school. We were also blessed by some families to host small groups of us in their homes for lunch together. It was a very small taste of the life of some of our village pastors and churches.

We also had a lot of fun with the group. We climbed Mt. Wanale, went to see some amazing animals, and had dinner with some of them in our home. We gave them tours of all the ministries of New Testament Churches of Christ, as well as everyday life here in Mbale. They took blessing bags to the maternity ward in the hospital and spent a morning serving at a juvenile detention center, as well as other projects to serve Mbale Church of Christ. They even spent a few days at the children’s home in Kitale, Kenya.

It was our first time hosting a group like this in Uganda – and a strange feeling being on this end of a short term mission trip – and we look forward to another trip. Who wants to come? We pray that God opens doors (and pockets) to bring another one of our American partnering churches to see the work here in Uganda. Mukama Yebazibwe!!!