Hello Jimmy,
Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Yes, God still changes people’s lives and a great witness to this is here in Naguru . Today is the last day with Manna Ministry in Naguru Action Two, but not the end of the story because Jesus has changed lives here in Naguru: The former drunkards , pipe smokers, witch doctors, pagans, Idol worshipers, the desperate and the poor people of this community.

Jesus Christ has left a great mark in the lives and hearts of the people of Naguru that cannot be easily erased. People are now telling each other the story of Jesus which is His-story of Eternal Hope.

For example, today , the last person I last visited with my group is called Adong Sylvia. She testified that God has changed her life. By the time IMFC met Adong, she used to spend nights without food with 5 children, but it has become history in her life. She gave her life to Christ, is working on Bible Way materials and now she has opened her small compound for the House Church. Monday will be the first day for this house church to kick off. She decided to join me to mobilize other people for the House Church.

This story of Adong has encouraged me and I know that God still changes lives. If it’s not being observed that side of the world, come for the mission trip. You will witness this with your very eyes and you will be blessed to be here in Uganda.

Yours,
Deo

Want to go to Kampala? Want to experience what Deo is talking about? I will be going in October this year and January of 2011 before the elections. Elections are always critical in Uganda, so before they happen we want to do all we can do to win as many as possible to Christ – to see our Lord Jesus change many more lives. Our heart is on getting many more people into Bible Way and starting churches before the elections, then pray for peaceful elections.

So, want to go? There is room and a place for you. Email me or call me if you are interested. God is doing a great work there. Go and experience it yourself.

Email me: jimmy@imfc.us
Call me: 678-478-6097

I look forward to hearing from you.

I am called Mukiisa BBale, I come from Masaka District, Uganda. Where for 7 years I was a professional teacher qualified to teach primary 1-7. I resigned from teaching in 1990 due to poor wages and very poor working conditions. A primary teacher is the most poorly paid teaching personnel; those in active service have said that there is still no improvement.

So that’s why I left being teacher. I tried my hands on any job I could find. From doing comedy shows around to forming a music band. All this did not work out for me here in Kampala. So I was very desperate!

Manna found me when I was really struggling. I was suffering! My family was suffering! Manna came in at the time when we were at the point of giving up life. I had no business that was working out for us. And even the house where we are living in is in a wetland area and many times we got threats from the National Environmental Authority (NEMA) that we should leave that place. But there is no other place that we may get affordable rental house. So everyday we lived in fear of being thrown out of the area.

And so anybody who comes into our neighborhood asking questions, we either denied them word or we gave them a very unwelcome reception. This is how we first welcomed pastor Benon when he came into our house asking question on needs assessment. We were very suspicious of the Manna staff that came to our house that time! We thought that they were disguising themselves. Pretending to be from another organization when they could be NEMA officials or even investors! But what made us believe Benon and Manna Ministry to be true is when he and the rest of team returned to us with a bag of food and shared with us the Gospel of Jesus!

We really wondered how Manna ministry got to know all about our struggles! But now we know that God sent Benon!! He and his team were not against our stay, but they were concerned about how we stayed! So IMFC gave us Manna!! If no staff from Manna had returned, we were sure that NEMA people found us out and that out fate would not be a good one! So thanks for returning to us, the way you did!

Yes, me and my wife did enroll for Bible Way and our student numbers are 62200 and 62201 respectively. We have been so blessed to have the chance to study the word of God as family! I love this very much! My wife loves it too! We are now in the fourth book! That is Mark part 1.

Manna changed our life completely! I used to find time to waste. Now I do not have that time!! I study the Bible Way materials and even serve in the men’s ministry in the house church here! With the help of Manna through food distribution I saved up some money and I now make eatables which I sell and get money! Life is now worth living!! Without Manna I could not have found this business! I quit teaching with the hope of doing business. Manna Ministry made my dream come true!

Thanks for changing our lives to the Glory of God! I am now a real born again!

Do you know that it is closer to the beginning of 2011 than it is to the beginning of 2010? Hard to believe isn’t it? Over half this year has passed. Time is moving swiftly and I am getting older! Plus, now I have to start thinking about Christmas gifts! It will be here before we know it.

Anyway, it is a good time to take a quick look at what God has done through the IMFC ministries in Uganda in 2010 and celebrate it. Here is a quick look at the first six months. I find it absolutely exciting. I believe you will also.

•2,437 people have prayed to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, enrolled into Bible Way and received the first book, Who Is Jesus. At this rate almost 5,000 people will receive Christ as their Lord and Savior and begin to be discipled in 2010! Beginning now, I am asking God for 5,000 people in 2010. Join me. Celebrate it!

•In June alone, IMFC gave out 1,888 discipleship books and 180 Bibles! 521 were the first book of the Bible Way Material, Who Is Jesus. The remaining 9 books of Bible Way made up the 1,367 books distributed. This work is exploding! Celebrate it!

•23 Churches have been started: 17 in Naguru and 6 in Natete. Celebrate it!

•528 Bibles have been given to people who have completed the first five books of Bible Way, successfully passing the exams and memorizing 60 Bible verses. Celebrate it!

•6 new Bible Way Clubs were opened in 6 High Schools in Kampala. This brings the total number of schools IMFC is in to 26. Celebrate it!

•73 new believers have been baptized. (Note: baptism happens mainly when volunteers are present to pay for transport to Lake Victoria. There are many waiting.) Celebrate it!

•Jinja Prison has been engaged. 3 wards of this huge prison are now involved in the Bible Way Program. This makes 14 prisons in 7 different facilities. Celebrate it!

•Leadership training is now taking place in Naguru and Natete with over 30 people participating. Celebrate it!

•These numbers do not reflect the food that has been given out month by month to over 700 people and the lives that have been changed through it. (You have read their stories here.) Nor do they reflect the volunteers that have traveled to Kampala and had their lives impacted as well. Celebrate it!

This has been a great first half to 2010. But, the work is just beginning.

I want to share the final paragraph from an email Joseph Esiana sent me who leads our IMFC team in Uganda. It is written for all of you who have prayed or given to this ministry.

I know the Lord has used you incredibly to give that has led the success as outlined above. God has multiplied your gifts and produced a bountiful harvest for himself. Will you continue to join Him even this summer and fall in what He is doing in Kampala and Uganda? Remember; “The harvest is plentfull but the laborers are few” Will you be among the few to join Him?

May the Lord God bless and honor your efforts.

Joseph Esiana

Team Leader IMFC – Uganda

I want to thank you and ask you to keep praying and giving. The growth of this ministry is hard to keep up with. Thanks.

Sarah, a former pipe smoking witchdoctor living in the slum Natete in Kampala, Uganda, has destroyed her pipe! Why? She has given her life to Jesus Christ.

Douglas Aliro, Manna Ministry leader, tells her story. It will bless your heart! Man, I love to get these emails.

Sarah Bewoze is one of the Manna beneficiaries from the slum Natete. Sarah has lived a very frustrated life! She lost her husband to AIDS/HIV and her in laws came in grabbed all the property she had with her late husband. They also took her children away from her! Sarah and her husband had business of selling metal scraps which gave them a middle class level of life, but she lost it all!

Sarah lives below poverty. She rents a house for 10,000 schillings a month (5 US) and she is always indebted to a tune of 6 months rent moneys! But because the house is in a location where the landlord cannot get any tenants, she is left to stay just to keep the house! The house is in the middle of the floodwaters. She has to wade into her house when it rains! That house and compound is always wet and muddy.

In a way to recover her former life and property, Sarah’s friends introduced her to witchcraft! Smoking on the pipe is what they use to summon the dead persons spirit and ask them for anything! But as for Sarah this has not worked either! Just as it has not work even for the other witch doctors! But threats made daily in her life by her friends and the witchdoctors, keep her doing it again and again without any gain!!

Sarah felt she was a real loser in life until Manna came in her life!! For over 12 years she believed that one day the dead spirits would work out miracles for her, but they didn’t. Jesus did! He sent for her Manna, a message from the Gospel and a mission team visit (real messengers from Jesus).

Sarah had never expected her neighbors to visit her house. No body around has done that. But when Manna came in she saw muzungus in her house that blessed her big time! To see muzungus in her house was sign enough to tell her that God cares and that Jesus loves her deeply!

In that day of the team visit to her house, Sarah gave her life to Jesus and was offered a Bible as a gift! She attends a house church that meets very near her home! She said that she will longer have to smoke, she got Jesus!!

With the courage she got from the word of God, she broke the pipe she used for over 12 years in witchcraft! She broke it into pieces and trashed it into the latrine! This I saw with my own eyes. She has continued on with Jesus!

I want to thank all the teams who take their time to minister in the homes of our Manna beneficiaries, your presence sends a love message better than “I love you” said from afar”

Thanks to our partners for providing the funds and all the support that makes it possible for us to look up people like Sarah and minister in their own homes! Your gifts and support gives access to persons like Sarah and many more others and also to locations like Natete where Sarah lives.

Today Sarah is another that you brought to Jesus!

It never ceases to amaze how receptive the poor are to the gospel of Jesus Christ and how powerfully God moves in their lives.

Margaret Acan is 32 years old, lives in Kampala, Uganda and has had her life anchored on what the brewery in the slum Nagrur in Kampala could offer her and her family. She has worked this job since 1991.

Her name Acan means “hardship” in Acholi which describes her life. She was born during Iddi Amin’s rule in Uganda but God has changed her life through IMFC’s Manna Ministry. Here is Margaret’s story in her own words.

The brewery has never been and was not my choice job! I got displaced from my village in Kitgum district due to the Karamojong cattle thieves who raided my village, killed all the boys and men, then raped the women…young and old. My whole family died that day!

They took off all our clothes. We were all left naked. We spent days hiding our nakedness in the bushes and when the Kony rebels turned up that same week, they did not find people in their houses because we were hiding in the bush for we still had no clothes. They just burned down our homes!!

With that we decided to head to town though it offered nothing better. We were now homeless! We found our selves sleeping on the streets! I never imagined we would every do this in this life!

I got a casual job at a construction site fetching heavy bricks. This is what I did in order to get a meal! Sometimes the men at the site wanted to take advantage of me! And it’s through this kind of life that I met my husband who then brought me to Naguru here in Kampala promising me that life would be better. But that is not what I got! So because life was very tough in terms of even daily food, I was introduced to the brewery as the next best alternative! What I a bondage I was introduced too!!

Brewing job wares one out! It’s very physically demanding as one fetches the firewood for boiling the crude alcohol. And firewood is not easy to come by since we are not in the woods but here in the city. Some times when we fail to get firewood, we get desperate enough to use old car tires for firewood, and yet burning these old tires produces a very bad black smoke that has gotten many people here sick causing chest pains. Our backs ache from carrying about thirty 20 litter jerry cans daily to fill the big metal container. Our skin is all dried out and peels off with scales like features. Most have respiratory problems. Every lady here in the brewery smells like they were soaked in crude alcohol and dried up with smoke from the burnt tires/wood. The black smoke has gotten many of us to have dark red eyes.

Yes many of the ladies I worked with are sick with AIDS/HIV and many are now on treatment. A need to sell the alcohol has exposed many of us to AIDS/HIV as many men here and outside offer money to many of us in exchange for sex. This is very tempting on days when one has failed to get sales for the alcohol made that day.

Daily, for all that time, I use to make 4 jerry cans of alcohol having 20 litters each. It would take me to start work in the wee hours of the day. So from 2:00am in the morning I would start. We do not have any light in that place so women here have been robbed and raped!

Its very hard for us to pray to God for safety because we all know that our kind of business did not build His kingdom, yet we needed the money for livelihood. The guilt I had was killing me on the inside!

Everyday I prayed for a better alternative job. The brewery has only brought grief to God and families here. The alcohol we supplied has caused many husbands to leave their homes. They have also beaten their wives. Some people have reportedly died of over consumption of alcohol.

The brewery has also killed some of the workers it has had. There are days when the heavy hot boiling metal container has burst spilling all the hot crude alcohol on those around it! Some people have been burnt to death. Also, when it rains here there is no way to keep dry and then the next day I would be struggling with fever!

In all the 20 years I have been in the brewery, I have completely nothing to show that it has done for me and my family! It was as if I was a slave to a very bad master!

Many of the women here in the brewery live tooth and mouth. It’s so interesting to see. The brewery owns the lives of all its workers and it determines how and where to spend ones day! I spend all days here in tears, here in the brewery! The women here spend all their days in tears! Tears are what we ate daily!

That’s is where Manna Ministry found me! I was very suicidal when Manna came into the brewery! Business was getting from bad to worst! Bills to pay were piling up. I do not know how you people found me out! But what you did is great in my life! At the time you came in I was even separated from my husband! He left the kids and me!

You came and changed my life and all the women at the brewery when you took us into the food program and brought ministry to our lives!! We got food and also the house church! We did not go to church, but now there is church very close to the brewery! The word of God preached here changed my life! The food gave me the encouragement to see other better opportunities of work that would make God happy!

So I quit the brewery!! I am done with it! I have saved up money that helped me start a food stall. I also found out that I know how to dance the traditional Acholi dance which I also now do for money! With all this there is so much joy you brought to my heart! I am now born again and freed up to serve God!! When Bible Way comes in Acholi translations, I will get enrolled! My husband has also returned!! Thanks for your encouragement and love!!

Today I am a life you have freed from the bondage of the brewery!! Everyday I get to go back to the brewery to encourage the rest of the women still trapped there to trust God for something better now that He has provided Manna!!

This year has been the best–real joy experience I got!! Thanks to Manna!!

“…there is a big church just behind my house but they have had nothing to do with me…” –Mbala George

This quote is from an email I received from Douglas, who leads IMFC’s Manna Ministry. Here is an expanded portion of his email:

During follow-up visit into the home of one of the Manna beneficiary called Mbala George, we had an opportunity to share the Gospel with George and his household. George and his son prayed to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior!! And George was pleased and excited to open his house and courtyard for a house church. Their meeting day is Sunday at 4:00pm. Another ministry opportunity that we saw was that people were very many in that area and the same courtyard could be used for showing the Jesus film. That too would be for Evangelism in that area.

George said something that really touched my heart. This is what he said:
“there is a big church just behind my house but they have had nothing to do with me, even when I was starving , none of the members saw me, but you Manna people came all the way, along ways from here and saw me… God must have sent you and thanks for coming!! You came and just asked me questions about my needs and here I am now, prayed to receive Jesus as Lord and Savoir. Your kind of heart is what we poor people here need!! I am so encouraged!!”

Why is IMFC working in Kampala, Uganda? In a country that is not “unreached” for the cause of Christ. In a country where the gospel has been preached for years. In a country that has many churches. The answer: George.

George is neglected. Sick. Desperately poor. Helpless. Sinful.

Kampala is full of slums populated by Georges. These slums are the mission field the Lord has place IMFC in. They are truly ripe for harvest.

So, why doesn’t the government help? Why will they plow down their meager mud huts to make room for upscale apartments? Why?

And why don’t the churches get actively involved in helping the Georges that live near them? Why do they obsess over their buildings and programs and overlook the very people Jesus cares so deeply for? Why?

I have to ask this, “Why are we ‘Christians’ like this?” Why do we step away from, ignore, overlook the very people Jesus came to help? The very people who were always around him, pressing in on him trying to touch him? Why?

Maybe, I need to get more personal. Am I guilty? Do I do the same thing? Am I overlooking people around me? Will the Lord have to send people from the other side of the world to care for the people I have neglected near me? Do I need to take the “speck from my own eye”?

If so, WHY?

What do the poor people living in a slum in Kampala, Uganda use for a foundation for their mud homes?

Rock? Wrong.

Sand? Wrong.

Concrete? Wrong.

Garbage? Yes!

In all my travels to Kampala and all the times I have walked through the slums, I had never been told that some of the poor living in these slums used garbage for a foundation, nor had I seen houses built on garbage foundations – until this April. Until I walked deep into the slum Natete with Benon and Joseph.

Natete is a large slum on the edge of Kampala that floods every time it rains. The poorest live in the lowest sections of this slum and their homes constantly flood. If it begins to rain in the middle of the night, they have to hurriedly move out of their homes to beat the flood water. There is no relief. As soon as the flood waters recede, they move back until the next rain comes.

And this flood water that fills their homes is not pure and clean. It is filled with pollutants and what ever else your imagination can dream up. Toilets are flooded and all that refuse is flushed out and sent downstream into homes. I have actually seen a dead goat floating down a large ditch overflowing with flood waters. The living conditions are beyond horrible. I know of nothing to compare this with in the US. The human suffering in Katrina and Nashville do not compare. Life is not fair.

So, these poor people use garbage for foundations. Why? First, it elevates the house a little. Maybe some of the flood waters will not make it into their homes. Second, its permeable. The waters can seep through it and move on. Third, they can afford it. They actually spend a few schillings to have garbage brought in and dumped where they want to build.

Pray for these people in Natete. Life is hard. Relief is no where to be found. And there are very few to no options?

IMFC and Manna Ministry will begin work in this section of the slum Natete August 2010.

God is at work in the prison’s of Uganda! Here is a story from Luzira Prison in Kampala, Uganda:

“Praise be to God! I thank Bible Way Correspondence School because now I know who Jesus is.”

“I grew up in my life not knowing Jesus is the way, truth and life because my parents were muslims and not in a clear/right way. But through reading this course Who is Jesus from you, I have understood Jesus as my Savior. I have now asked him into my heart to be my Lord and Savior.”

“Glory be to God.”

Ramadhan Lubega
Bible Way Student no.62148

This guy is–WAS–a muslim! Today, he is a follower of Jesus Christ. Pray for Ramadhan as he continues his studies in the Bible Way materials. Pray that when he gets out of prison his friends will see that he is a new man. Pray that through him many more muslims will come to faith in Jesus Christ.

Is Ramadhan’s story unusual? No. Unique? Yes! It is his story and it is unique to him, but there are many more prisoners coming to faith in Jesus Christ, just like Ramandhan, in the prisons of Uganda. You can read several stories on this blog from inmates who have given their lives to Jesus Christ and have been changed forever. And the doors keep opening!

I received this email from Joseph last week about a new opportunity-a new open door-in Jinja Prison.

Joseph writes:

In June 2010, Bible Way starts work in a new prison in Jinja. This prison is 1hour 30 minutes east of Kampala. It is just next to Lake Victoria.

Today I went on a fact finding mission and just meet with the Officers in Charge of the Prison facility and lay strategy on how best to reach to the prison. This is what I found out.

Jinja Prison is divided into four sections, namely; Remand (those whose cases are still investigated); Women section; and Jinja Main prison which is sub divided into two i.e Convicts (those who are serving their sentence); and Condemned (those on death penalty).

Statistics:
The total inmates’ population as of today is 1,764 adult inmates plus 13 children ages 0 – 24 months.
Remand has 658 inmates; Women 36; Children 13, Convicts 900; and condemned 170.

Out of the total number in the prison, 84 so far have been discovered to be living with HIV/AIDS and only 30 are receiving treatment (ARV treatment).
18 of the staff are also HIV+

Prayer Points:
• Like many of the prisons we are working in, Jinja prison lives in total darkness in dear need of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

• In the next six months, we want to reach at least 70% of the total prison population through sharing Christ with them; proving them with our Bible Way Materials like Who is Jesus etc. These materials though need to be reprinted.

• We want to provide each student who goes through our courses with a Bible.

• We want to be visiting the prison to share Christ, carry out counseling, teaching etc at least twice every month.

• Those who are living with HIV/AIDS need special attention like diet as well as the children.

• As the Lord provides, we would also provide them with the basic needs like blankets, laundry soap, sugar, sports equipments and drugs.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support which has helped us to reach to the unreached in the prisons.

God Bless.
Joseph.

Pray that the Lord provides the funds to enter Jinja Prison. It cost only $100 per month to enter a prison of Uganda with the Bible Way materials, but the results are priceless.

“My Dad’s story from drunkenness to serving the Lord was a turning point in my life!”

Now that is influence! A Dad’s influence!

Her name is Constance and her Dad’s name is Smith. That’s his picture above this article. He used to be a telephoner. Meaning, he made calls–but not with a telephone–with a long straw about three foot long coming from a community pot filled with local brewed alcohol! Smith was a drunker! But God changed him and now he and his family are born again and are disciples of Jesus Christ.

Today, there is a church that meets in front of Smith’s house that I have worshipped with many times. And, three weeks ago when I was in Kampala, he was involved in a training I conducted for a group of church leaders in Naguru. He even shared with the group how God had changed his life. Smith is a true story of God’s grace.

Here is a email Joseph sent me this week detailing the influence Smith has had in one of his daughter’s life. It’s in her own words. What a great thing! A daughter praises her Dad for the influence he had in her life bringing her to faith in Jesus Christ.

When we entered Naguru slum last August, Smith was lost in sin and captured in drunkenness. Even though he was physically alive, his family was mourning for him. He spent all the money he earned in drinking.

Two months later, on October 23, 2009, Smith gave his life to the Lord. His Daughter Constance was too happy that something incredible had happened to her dad. She started watching him to see whether there was actually a change in his life.

This is what Constance had to say in her own words …..

“We as a family were in a sorry state due to our dad’s habit. We lived without meals because he drunk all the money he earned. The landlord actually threw us out of his house due to failure to pay the rent. We pleaded until he allowed us to live for one more chance. We did not know where or to whom to turn to for the habit of our dad.

October 23, 2009 was the turning point in my dad’s life. When members from Manna visited my dad, he prayed to receive Jesus. They gave him a book to read called Who is Jesus?

I started to watch whether there was really a change in my dad’s life. The first two weeks he was sneaking out to drink with his colleagues again. One of the members of Manna (Deo) kept on moving around inviting people to come to what he called a house church meeting every week. My dad asked us to come with him to that church. My dad started attending the church regularly and I begun to realize a change in his life. He repeated the scriptures he was memorizing from Bible Way to me. This was amazing!

As I too continued to attend the house church and was enrolled into Bible Way, I realized someone supernatural had touched and changed my dad’s life. His name is Jesus.

My dad’s story from drunkenness to serving the Lord was a turning point in my life! On January 18, when a group of Americans led by Deo shared the good news with me, I gave my life to Jesus. Since I had watched a change in my dad’s life, I decided to give my life to the Lord. Thank you for coming to the rescue of our family. God Bless you all”

Constance Slazia.

Today, Smith (Bible Way Student no. 61054) is doing his tenth book Ten Rules for Living. He has received a Bible from us and participates in mobilizing for the house church plant in Naguru.

Constance is in her sixth Bible Way book Responsible Christian and is an active member and mobilizes for the house church and Bible Way. Thank you for your prayers and financial support that helps us to reach to the slums, prisons, and high schools in Kampala, Uganda.
-Joseph

As I read the story of Smith, I’m reminded of 1 Corinthians 6:9-11:

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Pray for Smith and his family. Pray for the church that meets at their house. Pray that God would raise up some “Smith’s” in our own neighborhoods and churches. Pray that we dad’s could have the same influence on our children that he has had on his. Pray that people looking at our lives we will see the power of Jesus Christ and become Christ followers too!

What a story!

God had plans to provide a new ministry center for IMFC in Kampala that would be less expensive and would provide homes for the IMFC staff! I just never knew it. So, He surprised me.

By now you would think that I would know better. After all I am over fifty-five and have served the Lord for almost forty years. But I never learn! Learn what? That God’s plans are not always my plans and His ways are not always my ways (Isaiah 55:9). The result is that I am often surprised by what God does.

Here’s what usually happens. I make plans, then the unexpected happens and I get upset. I ask God what is going on. I may even complain a little or a lot. I become disappointed, frustrated even. But as events play out over time, I am humbled to see how God brings everything together (Romans 11:33-36) to an end far superior to I had expected or hoped for!

That’s what happened on my last trip to Kampala. I went with an agenda. To meet with the new IMB missionaries in Kampala, make arrangements for the volunteer teams going over this fall and gather data and dream of future ministry plans. But, God had another plan. One He didn’t share with me, or maybe He did, but I was too busy making my own plans to hear His. Whatever the case, the Lord surprised me.

One week into the trip we received a letter at the ministry center from our Landlord. His purpose for writing–to tell us to move out of the house we were renting for a ministry center from him within two months! It was his house and he wanted to move back into it. Talk about a change in plans. From this point on we were focused on one thing–finding a new place to house our ministry. And we did not have long!

After we got over the shock and disappointment of this unexpected news, we begin to see the hand of God at work. He had been involved in this situation from before the planning of my trip to Kampala. This may have caught us off-guard, but it did not catch the Lord off-guard. In fact, I now think He was behind the entire episode! Here’s why.

First. Food prices are on the way up in Kampala. The inflation rate for food prices in Kampala is over 16% per year! In February we had to renegotiate our contract with the company suppling food for Manna Ministry. Beginning in June of this year we will have to pay almost $500 US more for food we give to poorest of people in the slums. This seriously impacts our budget!

Second. Our landlord in Kampala instructs his son to tell us in March to move out by June. He wants to give us time to look for another place, but his son does not deliver this message. In fact, he tells us he needs rent money in advance to help with medical bills for his sons sickness.

Third. We (IMFC Board) see the need for me to go to Kampala to meet with the new IMB missionaries and to evaluate the work and dream with the IMFC staff about future expansion.

Fourth. We agree to pay six months rent to help meet the needs of our landlord. So, I take a lot of cash to Kampala.

Fifth. While in Kampala, We receive the letter instructing us to vacate the property in two months.

Sixth. We search for and find a new place. A brand new, just completed, never lived in compound with three houses on it to accommodate the needs of our staff closer to the slums we work in. With this move IMFC saves almost $500 US a month. Exactly what is needed to cover the increase in food price! Plus, I have the funds with me to negotiate with and to make the down payment needed to secure the compound that were intended to pay for rent at the old place that is no longer needed!

Seventh. We sign the contract on the new location on Friday morning before I leave to come home. The team moves into new ministry compound first Saturday in May. Now Joseph, Douglas, James and Vincent live in new homes with their families right in the areas where we do most of our work. Exactly what they had been praying for for years.

Do you believe this is all coincidental? Never! Could all of this just happen? Never. God was behind this all the way.

Surprising to me? Yes. In my plans or on my radar screen? No. But it was in the Lord’s plans and on His schedule. Yes.

He never ceases to amaze me.