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Carol and I want to give you a personal update on our travel plans, which have changed again due to the Ebola situation in our region. Thank you so much for your prayers; we deeply desire that you continue to pray for us. Please pray for Uganda, South Sudan, and especially the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). As noted in previous email reports, we are actively seeking to walk in “Prudence and Prayer” and are following all of Uganda’s protocols. We are also assisting the local government with certain necessary physical supplies.

Oswald Chambers says, in one of his works, that prayer is the greater work, not just preparation for it. And “God is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace His hand, we must trust His heart”(attributed to Charles Spurgeon). We agree wholeheartedly with this! Carol, our team at Reaching Africa’s Unreached (RAU), and I earnestly request your continued prayers for us here in Northwestern Uganda. The good news is that Uganda has reported no Ebola cases since mid-June. The Ugandan Minister of Health recently declared Uganda Ebola-free due to the absence of new cases since mid June. In my opinion, Uganda has the best protocols in East Africa to prevent Ebola’s spread. However, this is not the case in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). We’re at RAU which is only a couple of hours from the DRC’s very porous border. The Ebola-affected provinces are in Eastern DRC with most outbreaks in Ituri Province. It would be difficult for any nation to prevent this virus from crossing man-made borders. Pray that Uganda remains strong in its containment measures and that God’s will be done to stop the virus’s movement into Uganda. In the map below, you can see the eastern tip of Ituri Province in Congo. RAU is near the blue dot on the map. This is also where Uganda, the DRC, and South Sudan converge.​

​​​This week we  pushed our flights for a short furlough forward to November 16th. This would allow us to spend the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays with our children, their spouses, our 10 grandchildren, friends, and our home church Lifegate. We hope to visit our supporting churches as well as newer churches through early next year. Carol and I also need some rest. Originally, our tickets were for July 3rd, then August 12th, and now November 16th but we are holding that date loosely. Currently, there’s a 21-day quarantine required for Americans who have been in the DRC before entering America. Recently those serving in the DRC with Samaritan’s Purse were sent to Kenya for their 21 day quarantine upon leaving the DRC. Currently, Canada requires a 21-day quarantine for all those coming from the DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan.  Americans returning from Uganda and South Sudan must undergo special screenings at designated American airports. If Ebola continues to spread and breaks into Uganda, Carol and I do not want to leave our Ugandan and Sudanese teams to deal with this alone. Our teams are like family; we need to stand with them if Ebola breaks through the border into Uganda. We love our Ugandan and Sudanese brothers and sisters in Christ! Also we would not want to endanger loved ones and friends in America.

Please pray for our young Congolese friend, Misengile Samuel, and his family. He stayed with us for training for about a year and a half but has since returned to Congo. I’ve been chatting with him via WhatsApp; he mentioned that Ebola is in his village with little they can do physically.

Sam’s “on the ground report” and the one below from a missionary working in the DRC shed light on the often conflicting reports in the Western mainstream media.  

  An observation from a  missionary working in the Democratic Republic of Congo –“My guess is 20,000 to 30,000 will be dead from Ebola by January without massive additional funding and response scale-up (recently citing a $1.4 billion need). That aid won’t come.1,354 people are dead here now from Ebola. 3,075 have been diagnosed. The WHO says the true scale of infected people could be 2 to 4 times higher than official figures. 6,000 to 12,000 people may already be infected and not yet tested. At a 46-52% fatality rate, that hidden pool alone will produce thousands more deaths. The average daily growth rate of deaths is 4.4%. That trajectory reaches roughly 19,000 dead by late September and 76,000 by the end of the year.Many people tune out when they read big numbers. Sorry. That is just the math of the current rate of daily increases in deaths: 4.4%/day. Actually, there are 15 reasons those numbers could be cut down. No Ebola virus has killed so many so fast. Ebola outbreaks usually “die out” or slow due to “depletion of susceptibles,” and intervention comes in. Unfortunately, no real effective intervention, vaccine, or cure is coming. The first Bundibugyo-specific vaccine candidate is months to a year-plus from mattering at scale. Nothing coming will change the rate of deaths in the next two to three months. The WHO and CDC have produced low estimates based on optimistic forecasts of key drivers like isolation and contact tracing. But community resistance, attacks on treatment centers, health-worker strikes for lack of pay, and four separate wars drive the trajectory towards higher numbers. Here in Beni, we hear Congolese say, or it is reported they say: “There is no such thing as Ebola,” “You only get ebola when they inject you at the hospital,” “If you go to an Ebola centre, you will die.” People here have stoned a nurse to death, beaten guards and hospital workers and burned or looted treatment centers just to retrieve infected dead bodies for traditional burial. 121 health workers are infected in Ituri alone, and 36 have died. Only 15% of planned infection-control triage units are functional.The international community far underestimated the resistance to treatment and far overestimated the impact of interventions under the control of the DRC government. Pray for a miracle.” This is from the CDC: “The response to this outbreak is challenging due to several complex circumstances in the region: 1)Limited health infrastructure, including limited access to healthcare, diagnostic and laboratory services, infection prevention and control supplies, and other basic services make stopping this outbreak more difficult.2)Ongoing conflict in the area where the outbreak is occurring creates security issues and complicates contact tracing and infection prevention and control.3)Violence against healthcare workers and shortages of personal protective equipment are leading to healthcare workers becoming infected while treating patients.4)Frequent population movement and cross-border travel increase the risk of spread to Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda, and to other areas.5)Lack of trust in the government and misinformation make communicating about Ebola more difficult.”​

In other ministry news, things have been moving along here at RAU. We’re starting the paintwork at a Arapi-Gbari Metu Mountain church which was planted in 2015. Initially, they met under a tree, then under tarps, and eventually under a tent. Now the building, including the roof and plaster work, is complete. The toilets have been upgraded, and the pastor’s living quarters improved. Our team is currently painting there right now. Praise God for that! Our hope and prayer is that this church becomes a training center for smaller nearby Metu Mountain churches.

The paint work has begun

We’ve also distributed lots of Bibles— Africa Study Bibles, ESV Global Study Bibles, Arabic Study Bibles, Arabic Bibles, and ESV Outreach Bibles as well as theological books to church leaders and congregations in Uganda  and refugee resettlement camps like Bidi Bidi. These resources have also reached South Sudanese pastors and refugees from North Sudan staying in South Sudan and  many have gone to the Nuba Mountains in the Republic of (North) Sudan. We praise God and those who have given so that we can distribute these important materials. Jesus said He is building His church. What a joy to co-labor with Jesus and those who stand with us! Praise God, more resources are on the way: another 700 Arabic  Bibles and solid Christian resource books. 

Also encouraging is the land title has been granted for our “RAU Yumbe On The Ground Branch”. This opens up further development opportunities there, including building a facility where we hope RAU ABWE missionaries will live and serve.​

These are the Bibles going out

Short Videos:

Please keep praying for Carol and me as we push forward. I am nearing 71, and Carol isn’t far behind me. We continue to pray for God to bring more missionaries to join us and  local churches in proclaiming the gospel of grace combined with being zealous for deeds of mercy. You can check out the Uganda opportunities on the ABWE site, where we have five spots open for long-term missionaries. We’re in good communication with ABWE about ministry teams and local church teaching teams visiting us. We are also grateful for the church teams which come our way.

Thank you for standing with us, for taking an interest in, and for partnering with us in all we seek to do!​

“Reaching Africa’s Unreached” was placed on our hearts in 2007. We know we are standing on the shoulders of many who have gone before us! Carol and I are very grateful for your prayers, words of encouragement, and support. 

We ask for your continued prayers and financial support! 

RAU YouTube Videos: https://www.youtube.com/@jacoblee2082/videos

At our website, www.ReachingAfricasUnreached.org , are many pictures, videos, blog posts which help flesh out our mission and calling from our Lor and Savior Jesus.

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