Each Sunday we have the joyful privilege to share God’s Word with a local church! We have been in Baptist, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Anglican, and Independent ones. Our English has been translated into Bari, Kuku, Ma’di, Dinka, and Luganda. We leave each congregation blessed and encouraged. Below are a few photos and a couple of videos of our ride back to RAU via Boda Boda. I will be very happy when God’s gift in the form of a 1999 Land Cruiser arrives safely to RAU!
Blessings to each and everyone of you! Thank you for your faithful and continuing prayers and support. We recognize that we could not be here without your loving support.“Missions is nothing less than an organized revolutionary assault on the unseen forces of the present darkness by a spiritual legion of soldiers who fight for the extension of God’s kingdom to dominate the Universe. And local churches are the bastions that defend that cause, forge the weapons, train the soldiers, and populate the ranks with men and women bent on spreading God’s fame, or die trying.” (Clint Archer in Missionaries: A Unique Breed , emphases mine).
Since I wrote you last week we have had a few new developments which are exciting and I believe Christ-honoring. Our mission’s name, Reaching Africa’s Unreached, encapsulates our primary calling. Our goal is to come alongside and support evangelical churches (the term used here is “born again churches”) in our area through discipleship training helping them to remain strong in the Lord and to be multiplying congregations. Secondly, we want to locate and specifically target villages, towns,districts, and tribal groups which do not have even one Christ honoring church. I am happy to report we are moving forward on both fronts.
This past Sunday Carol, Sam, and I had a wonderful time with Moyo Town Baptist Church. Many, if not most, of the members of that congregation are Dinkas, so the translation of my sermon was English into Ma’di and then English into Dinka. Many Dinka’s came to the Moyo during the war in southern Sudan. This congregation loves Jesus! After the service we had a nice lunch with the pastor and associate pastor. At one point our discussion turned to neighboring Yumbe District which is over 80% Muslim (Yumbe). There are a few churches in the district. In 2004 two American medical missionaries and one of their Ugandan students were killed outside Yumbe. From that point on in our discussion my heart burned to see churches planted in Yumbe town. Yumbe town (Obongi is somewhat smaller) has approximately 35,000 people in it . Both Yumbe and Obongi are about a two hour drive away from us when the dirt roads are dry.
We believe the Lord has given us a strategy to reach these communities and others like them. It has been my experience that in a room with, lets say, 10 people there are usually 8 or 9 who say something can’t be done and will lay out a multitude of reasons (excuses) why it can’t be done. Then there are those one or two who state it can be done and who lay out a strategy of how it can be done. A good biblical example of this is when the 12 spies were sent into the land of Canaan and only Joshua and Caleb supported the task given by God, in their case, to take over a land filled with “giants”. They said it could be done because it was ordained of God! I see great parallels of this with Christ’s Great Commission given to us. Some of the “reasons” given as to why there are no churches in Yumbe and Obongi are: 1.”It is a very difficult area” 2. “They are dominated by Muslims”. 3. “The Muslims will not let you do it!”. Christ says “Go”! Is that not enough for us? Please stand and pray with us as we seek to plant churches in Obongi and Yumbe!
Our strategy to reach Yumbe and Obongi , as well as other unreached areas and tribes, includes bringing local missionary candidates (preferably those who are from the targeted area and who know the local language already) here to RAU for intensive, one-on-one discipleship for about 6 weeks and who then, at the end of their training, would go and live among the the targeted group with the intended purpose of being shepherds in a newly planted church. We would work together with the pastor in evangelism and discipleship. RAU would also give some financial help with the understanding that the financial help would not be given indefinitely, but only until the church could be self-supporting. We have such men in the pipeline. Please be in serious prayer for Obongi and Yumbe. There are strongholds of the enemy there which must be broken by intercession and proclamation of the gospel!
Godfrey, the young man Carol told you about, is moving into one of our unfinished tukalus on the 26th of September and has already begun his biblical study assignments. He is very familiar with Obongi and has a willing heart to be in there. He has left a well paying job. Two other brothers are possibilities for Yumbe. They both speak Lubara which is the main language of Yumbe district. They, too, would stay in our tukalu’s as well. I look forward to studying the Word with all whom the Lord sends our way! Please pray that the Lord would raise up others for the many other unreached areas that do not have the gospel and will not have it unless someone physically goes to them and are willing to live with them to help establish a Christ-exalting, local church. Where there is a Christ-honoring local church the orphan and widow will be cared, the suffering and needy will be given lasting and Christ-honoring love, oppression will be resisted, and, most importantly, the living and true God will be worshiped in Spirit and in truth!
Please don’t misunderstand, I am a firm believer that the West (USA) does need church planting. My only plea for prayerful consideration for denominations, churches, and individuals in the West is to consider placing a larger portion of their prayer commitment and resources to help see that churches are planted in areas of the world which are devoid of believers worshiping the King of kings and Lord of lords. What percentage of prayer and finances are actually being used by churches and individuals to help see that churches are planted where there is no church? In this vein of thinking missionary Oswald J. Smith‘s exhortation is appropriate “No one has the right to hear the gospel twice, while there remains someone who has not heard it once.” and “We talk of the Second Coming; half the world has never heard of the first.”
I know that because of your active and prayerful support I am “preaching to the choir”. Thank you so much for your on-going help and intercession! Together with you we are “laying up treasures in heaven”!
Web Site: www.ReachingAfricasUnreached.com
Blog: www.ReachingAfricasUnreached.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ReachingAfricasUnreached
Small packages and letters may safely be sent to:
Jacob & Carol Lee, PO. 55, Moyo Uganda, East Africa
Our “wish lists” may be found at Amazon
————
6. Tile on our wrap-around veranda to create an extra barrier between the Guesthouse and snakes! It would also make it easier to clean. We would have to bring the tile up from Kampala. The estimation to do this is $3000+-.$3000 has been provided! PTL!!
Tax deductible charitable donations may be made via PayPal. PayPal also has a way to make reoccurring monthly gifts. To do so please click their link below. PayPal deducts a small amount from each gift as a processing fee. All gifts given through PayPal are now tax deductible as Reaching Africa’s Unreached has 501 c3 tax exempt status as a charitable organazation. If you wish to write a check you may write it out to R.A.U. and mail it to Lifegate Missions, 395 Lifegate Ln., Seguin Texas 78155.
*If you have questions on donations please email Jacob at JacobLeeRAU@gmail.com
Randy Alcorn in his book “Money, Possessions, and Eternity” states:
“The reality of eternal rewards inevitably fosters an investment mentality. For instance, with $15,000 I may be able to buy a new car. With the same money, I could help translate the Scriptures for an unreached people group, support church planting, feed the hungry in the name of Christ, get gospel literature distributed in Southeast Asia, or send out multiple Nigerian or Indian missionary families, and support them full-time for a year. If I have an investment mentality, I ask myself, What’s the better investment for eternity?…Of course, it may be God’s will for me to buy a car. True, a car used for his purposes can also be an investment in the kingdom. But I must be careful not to rationalize. A used car or no car at all may serve his kingdom purposes equally well or far better—and allow me to make an investment in heaven that will never get scratched, dented, stolen, or totaled. And if I invest the money in his kingdom and ask him to provide a car at little or no expense, might he choose to do that? Why wouldn’t I give him the chance?”
This short and powerful video of William Booth’s vision of the lost perishing without the gospel exemplifies God’s call given to each and every follower of Christ Jesus. Let us shake off our complacency and set our eyes upon Jesus lifted up and seated at the right hand of God. Surely as our eyes are opened to see Him who died for our sins the the things of this world which we are chasing and living for will be seen as trite as they really are!
——————–
The Mont-Joux pass is the erstwhile name of a particularly treacherous mountain pass in the Alps straddling Switzerland and Italy. For centuries thousands of lost sojourners perished trying to cross it in the biting winter. When a snowstorm unpredictably arose, there would be a whiteout, and with no way to stay on course travelers would get disoriented, distressed, irrevocably lost, and slowly freeze to death.
But, suddenly, in the 1700s the death rate declined drastically. The reason was not due to any serendipitous technological advances. The climate hadn’t changed. The reason the increased survival rate was due to a dog; or to be more accurate, a breed of dogs. This uncanny canine breed possessed a prodigious aptitude for navigation in the blinding fog, a preternatural stamina in below freezing temperatures, and an almost mystical ability to locate lost people in a blizzard.
By this stage in history the pass had been named for the monastery founded by St Bernard of Mont-Joux, so naturally the dogs were also canonized, as St Bernards.
During the 200 or so years that the faithful saints served on the St Bernard Pass, over 2,000 lost souls were rescued from the frost-bitten clutches of an icy death. When the “saint” found a lost soul, they would rescue the iced travelers with a simple but effective, methodical process: first, they located them in the snow with their super-sniffer abilities, then they would deliver a life-saving supply of whiskey and bread in quaint oaken barrels strapped around their necks, and finally they would lead the revived popsicle back to the monastery at a blood-stirring pace by borrowing a pathway with its broad chest at a determined gait.
The rescue dog breed is an apt metaphor for the intrepid sub-species of Christian, the full time missionary. This is a breed of believer that exhibits extraordinary stamina and perseverance, and the exceptional abilities to sniff out local spiritual and physical needs, and lead disciples by example, into the soul-saving truth. Missionaries also admit that they are impotent to help the lost soul, except for delivering the life-giving elixir they carry with them, namely the gospel message.
Missionaries are men and women who are never content with the status quo that creeps like a pall of apathy over the church. They constantly sense the adrenal urgency in Christ’s great commission to reach the world with the gospel.
Missionary C. T. Studd captured this sentiment in this pithy couplet:
Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell; I wish to run a rescue mission within a yard of hell.”
As the world turns people scurry like ants to build their respective fiefdoms of influence. Companies merge and grow, populations explode and expand, empires conquer and reclaim, and societies upgrade and increase in the interminable pursuit of betterment. And all the while the real kingdom growth is happening silently but surely in the spiritual realm. We call it missions.
• Matthew 6:10 Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
• Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
• Luke 17:20-21 Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
• Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Missions is nothing less than an organized revolutionary assault on the unseen forces of the present darkness by a spiritual legion of soldiers who fight for the extension of God’s kingdom to dominate the Universe. And local churches are the bastions that defend that cause, forge the weapons, train the soldiers, and populate the ranks with men and women bent on spreading God’s fame, or die trying.
When Paul was commissioned to take the gospel to the Gentiles, his journeys blazed the trail, like a gallant St Bernard, for those who would emulate his example in the future, those who eschew the sedentary life in favor of a mobile mission.
Of course, all Christians have a compulsion to spread God’s glory and the good news of salvation in Jesus. But some have a deeper urge driving them, the craving to go.
What’s your role? Ask God about whether you could be someone who goes, tunneling into the barren spiritual tundra of a foreign land. Or consider whom to support.
Thank God that there are still men and women who hear the clarion call of God to storm the gates of Hell on foreign soil. And thank God for the many supporters who make the campaign possible by holding the ropes.
Reaching Africa's Unreached 