Reaching the Unreached

“How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!” Romans 10:14-15

“The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”  Luke 10:2

           6 days

                 4 towns

                        9 villages

                              1 mission:

REACHING THE UNREACHED for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Between open air preaching, one-to-one evangelism, and the Jesus Film we were able to reach over 2,000 people and more than 200 people came to salvation and a new life in Christ! Praise the Lord! Definitely one of the most, if not the most blessed experience I’ve ever had!

We took an 8 hour bus ride up north to Kitgum. We spent three nights in a village in Orom…yes, I got the opportunity to spend not 1, not 2, but 3 nights in a legit hut. It was quite an experience in itself. Between the cockroaches, rats, and snakes, there were a couple times when I thought I might lose my life haha  They didn’t attack me, but a rat definitely left me a “special present” on my pillow while I was sleeping. Awkward, I know. The nights we didn’t spend in the village, we spent in Kitgum town at a missionary couples house.

We traveled to different villages everyday: Lotodore, Lukwanya, and Lukwor, right outside Kitgum; Karenga, Pire, and Lobalangit in Karamoja, which is a couple hours north of Kitgum; and we visited about three different villages when we traveled to Pajule, which is about an hour outside of Kitgum. We went to what seemed like the uttermost-uttermost parts of the world. I was literally the second white person to ever step foot in Lotodore Village (the first white girl) so some of the kids were even scared of me haha

The first few villages we went to people were so open and they were all accepting the Lord. It was awesome! We would go from hut to hut, and people would hear we were coming around and they would be waiting for us, to hear the gospel. There were people who would meet us at houses and want to get saved. There was a family of 15 that accepted the Lord! We talked to a lot of Catholics and we talked to people who had never heard the gospel, who got saved!

When we were showing the Jesus Film in Lukwanya Village, which is close to Karamoja, we had kind of a scare. Right before the crucifixion everyone started screaming and running all over the place, trying to get back to their homes. This is what they will do if the Karamajong warriors are coming. (And everything is pitch black in the villages because there’s no electricity, so it’s hard to see what’s going on in the first place.) We finally figured out that there were a couple drunk local defense guys who were fighting, so we got everyone calmed down and finished the movie. But, unfortunately, a lot of people ran away so not many people got saved that night.

We had to be very careful when we went to Karamoja, so we couldn’t show the Jesus Film. It almost caused problems that we were there. The people in Karamoja were very hard-hearted and stubborn, not open to the gospel at all. There is such a stronghold of alcohol in all the villages! It’s insane! We saw a few people come to the Lord; three ladies even came up to me and wanted to get saved, which really surprised me. People would gather around wherever we went to listen to us, but in Lobalangit, it was everything we could do to even get out of the car. People wanted to hear what we had to say. We would all have a section to open air preach and the people would just stand there and listen to us for hours, but not one accepted the Lord. They were all so worried about having to give up beer, because their local brew is how they make their money. It’s ridiculous.

We met a recently delivered demon-possessed woman and a former child soldier (JB), who is starting Calvary Chapel Pajule. His story is incredible! Much of the land up north in Kitgum was attacked by the LRA. A lot of where we walked in Pajule is where former LRA camps would be located. They held up to 78,000 people hostage, guarded by soldiers. Some of the people we saw were probably former child soldiers, but you would never know it. In Pajule, a couple of our team mates got to burn some witchcraft items. JB was going to go back the next day to finish burning the guys stuff and he wanted to get saved! Praise the Lord!

On Friday we went to Kitgum prison. The guys showed the Jesus Film to the male prisoners and saw 50 out of 200 give their lives to the Lord. You would never know some of them are on death row. Ritah and I talked to the female inmates and 6 out of 20 gave their lives to the Lord. While I was talking, a couple of the Catholics took their rosaries off, which is amazing. They’re die-hard Catholics and they don’t even know why they pray the rosary.

So, that’s a brief overview of what we did. Praise the Lord that His name was glorified and will continue to be to the ends of the earth! Let us all continue to be willing vessels, that the Lord might use, send out, and speak through; that people would be added to His Kingdom, and that we might receive the fruit of the labor, as our labor is not in vain in the Lord (1 Cor. 15:58). The word of God is living and powerful (Heb. 4:12) and when it is sent out it does not return void (Is. 55:11).