Church Planting in Kyangwali, Uganda

Two years ago, I had the privilege of worshiping with about 150 brothers and sisters in a refugee camp in western Uganda. We met under a tree. It was hot and dry. About 30 people came forward at the end of the service to either commit their lives to Jesus or to commit to the disciple-making mission in the camp.

Last year, Stafford Crossing provided the resources needed to build a church building on that

location. It's beautiful, because the tree that used to be the church is now used for children's classes and the worship gathering happens under a new roof. They have already taken down one wall of the church building to expand and meet the needs of nearly eight hundred people every Sunday morning.

One of the elders was telling me this story and he mentioned the need to expand the building again. I suggested the idea of planting a new church instead. He got a big smile and told me he didn't think the western church thought that way. He then pointed in the direction of two locations they were already praying over for new churches.

Sunday, February 16, 2020 was the inaugural worship service for two new churches in the Kyangwali Refugee Camp. People who have traveled from the Congo, under great hardship and danger are praising Jesus in these two new church plants. One meets under a tree. The other has fashioned a roof out of the tarps that the UN provided when they arrived in the camp.

Healthy disciples make disciples.
Healthy churches plant churches.
This stuff never gets old.

The Importance of Gathering

We just returned from the annual Elam Founders Weekend. This is an amazing time of catching up with our partners who are making disciples and planting churches in the Iran region. The stories from the front lines are always amazing and often convicting. I want to share one of these stories that I found very convicting. I'm not going to tell you why I was convicted, I'm just going to share the facts and let you process. (Some details are altered for security reasons.)

Hossein was raised in a strictly Moslem home. His family lived in a city that is known in Iran to be a very religious place. It is a center of Moslem teaching in Iran.
While on vacation in a neighboring country, Hossein was approached on the street by an evangelist from an Elam church. He heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the first time in his life and he was given a New Testament in his language. He took this information and this book hime with him where he began reading it. In a few days, he recognized Jesus as his Lord and Savior. Within a short time, his wife and two children also trusted and began to follow Jesus.
In their town, they found an Elam house church. Hossein asked the pastor if his family could attend. The pastor asked him to wait until it was safe to attend. You see, the church was under tight surveillance by the police. If this family began to attend now, the police would have all they need to invade the church and arrest the pastor. Hossein agreed to wait. The police did invade and the pastor was arrested. A few months passed and there was no opportunity to connect to the local body.
Hossein remembered the people who first shared with him in the neighboring country. He knew the church was alive and active in this place. He spoke with his wife and kids and they decided to take action. They packed a few suitcases and moved. He publicly declared their commitment to Christ and sought refuge in this nearby country. In doing so, they would never be welcome back in Iran. They left jobs and home and family and friends to live as refugees in a foreign land.
Now Hossein works a job that is well below his qualifications and experience. His family lives in an

apartment that is a fraction of the house they left. They are foreigners and a minority people in this land. The locals look down on them and mistreat them. They can't vote. They can't own land. They can only work select, low-level jobs. The kids can only attend a specific school and that school teaches only in the local language which the kids can't yet understand.
They are connected to the local body of believers. They hit the streets several times a week and share the Gospel and distribute New Testaments. They are in ongoing discipleship relationships at church where they learn from a disciple-maker and then teach a new believer. They gather to worship the Living God several times a week.
They share their story with such contagious joy.

...not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.  Hebrews 10:25