Dear Friends,

I hope this post finds you well! A belated happy Mother’s Day to you mothers and those that are playing that important role in someone’s life. I remember, with fondness and gratefulness, my mother, grandmothers and great grandmother. I have seen first hand  how these “mothers”, as well as Carol, have been examples of Christ’s love. I will forever be grateful for them!

Recently, it has been pressing on my mind to add some acres to RAU’s campus for future development. From the very beginning, Health Care has been one “branch” of our vision to have some kind of medical facility and outreach into the community. Many in our area suffer as a result of the lack of high level care, having to travel a good distance at great expense to reach a hospital which can provide for their medical needs. I am envisioning a small, well-equipped, well-managed health center or small private hospital that can serve both our local community members and, possibly, those across the border in South Sudan.  Providentially, a landowner with 6 acres adjoining the eastern boundary of RAU, has agreed to sell it to us at a reasonable price. Both our RAU American 501c3 Board and our RAU Ugandan NGO Board gave their “Amen” to move ahead in raising funds for this development. Even though it may be some time before any building takes place, I have a sense of urgency to get the land now while prices are still reasonable and it is available. The road going north between our two current properties is soon going to be upgraded and become a major thoroughfare for Ugandan-South Sudanese commerce, from many cities in Uganda to Juba, the capital of South Sudan.

 As the years pass, Carol and I have come to the conclusion that one of the reasons the Lord has sent us to Uganda and near to South Sudan is to be “road builders” for the generations to come who will follow in the vision of RAU. Whether it is in RAU’s pastoral/church leadership modules in the Hall of Tyrannus, development of the land as an example for “farming as a business“ for church leaders, host community and refugee farmers, or ongoing renovations on campus making the way for long term missionary families, it is our heart’s desire to do all that we can so that RAU “bears fruit” until Jesus’ return!

In light of this, I am asking you, our faithful partners, to please pray and consider “jumping in” on this opportunity to help us raise the $20,000 needed to purchase the land, process a clear land title, clear it, fence it, plant eucalyptus trees along the perimeter and plant grafted mangoes within the land. Then later, in God’s timing, the medical facilities can be set in place. Can you help us?

Tax deductible, charitable donations may be made via PayPal or check. To give, please click on the PayPal link below. PayPal deducts a small amount from each gift as a processing fee. Make a notation: For Land. All gifts given through PayPal and by check are tax deductible as Reaching Africa’s Unreached has 501c3 tax exempt status as a charitable organization.  If you wish to write a check you may write it out to R.A.U. and mail it to Lifegate/RAU , 395 Lifegate Ln., Seguin Texas 78155.

YouTube video Carol and I made so that you can see it first hand… 

“Opportunity to Buy 6 Acres to Expand RAU’s Ministry Scope“

We are still in the midst of mango harvest. The trees have done very well and have much fruit on them. There are 11 varieties of grafted mangoes among the 640 trees on the RAU 20 acre demo farm which will keep maturing up until August. We may be able to add 300+ mangoes to the new land (until building begins–after which we would sacrifice any mango trees where construction would be done). We have had a good number of vendors coming to buy mangoes at well below market price. Some mangoes have made their way to Juba!  We are eager to hear from a juicing plant between Yumbe and Koboko which has said they will come and clear all mangoes off the trees.  That will be a wonderful opportunity for RAU as well as the many farmers/church leaders who have received training at RAU and have been strongly encouraged to plant grafted mangoes. 

As you know from past newsletters, we have, as one of our goals, economic empowerment for the church and community via agriculture with grafted mangoes and our 18 box gardens for vegetable demonstration. In the last two months we have had 868 farmers from Refugee settlements and host communities to our demo farm for learning, in addition to the pastors/leaders who have received hands-on training during modular theological retreats. We hope to do this more and more and to be able to see with our eyes that socioeconomic conditions have changed for most.

Some recent events have been very encouraging to us:

• On Monday, we received friends from our partner ministry, ABWE (Association of Baptists for Worldwide Evangelization):  Caleb and Alair Mitchell and two of their children, as well as Ken and Eileen Lorow. Caleb is the Regional Director for East Africa and Ken is the Member Care and Leadership development coordinator for Africa. It was a great time of fellowship, getting to know one another, vision-casting and strategizing for the future, especially when, Lord willingly, the two ABWE families are able to join us.

• We met and enjoyed 7 South Koreans serving as missionaries with “Better World” in the Moyo area! We so appreciated their hospitality and friendship and fellowship

• Many of you have been praying for Anzoa, the Metu Mountain village young girl needing heart surgery in India. Thank you  for helping make this possible.  She has been admitted to the hospital, has undergone tests and is scheduled to have surgery on either the 14th or 15th. Please continue your prayers, especially that follow-up care will have long-lasting results and well-being.

• We continue to send out ESV Global Study Bibles to church leaders and fellow bible training organizations. The Bibles, as well as Arabic Study Bibles, Christian books (English and Arabic), dual language tracts , and the Aringa “Message of Hope“ have been distributed to strategic places in Northwestern Uganda, South Sudan, The Republic of Sudan, and Chad.

• Survey work has been done for two more boreholes (water wells). Soon, drilling will begin and two more villages which had no access to clean water will have clean water! This brings the number to 25 boreholes, the project to which many of you donated your hard earned money.

Tax deductible, charitable donations may be made via PayPal or check.  PayPal also has a way to make recurring monthly gifts. Recurring monthly gifts are very helpful to the ministry. To do so, please click on the PayPal link below. PayPal deducts a small amount from each gift as a processing fee. All gifts given through PayPal and by check are tax deductible as Reaching Africa’s Unreached has 501c3 tax exempt status as a charitable organization.  If you wish to write a check you may write it out to R.A.U. and mail it to Lifegate/RAU , 395 Lifegate Ln., Seguin Texas 78155.

Seeking to walk out 2 Timothy 2:2,

PayPal Link for donations: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WAR99DL4JFWXQ

Go to RAU’s Facebook page for up to date reports, pictures, musings, and exhortations: www.facebook.com/ReachingAfricasUnreached

RAU YouTube Videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRmHafoBSemE7jS8kEHCG6Q/videos

RAU’s Mission and Vision Statements/Statement of Faith: https://reachingafricasunreached.org/about/

The greatest evil is having the gospel and not doing everything within our power to get it to those who do not have it!

Sowing seeds of love and kindness should not be separated from preaching the gospel of sovereign grace but completely intertwined with it!

When at least 35% of the world; “the unoccupied fields”, have no access to the gospel, we (believers) must all do all we can to reach them. We who are saved owe the gospel to every lost person, most especially the 2.4 billion who will not hear unless someone breaks into their “unoccupied field” with no thought of their own life!

Sowing seeds of love and kindness should not be separated from preaching the gospel of sovereign grace but completely intertwined with it!

I am sure that none of us will say when in heaven that we prayed too much, we sacrificed too much, proclaimed the gospel too much, and were too passionate to get the gospel to those who have little to no access to this gospel of grace. Let us together press on to make it our  ambition to preach the gospel where Christ has not been named!

Our goal in our gospel witness is to take our eyes off the “risk” and place them on the cause for the risk. When God compels us like this he often will not tell us the risks…after all there are no risks for the all-knowing, all-powerful God. So let us be AMBITIOUS (Romans 15:20) to see that ALL are reached with the gospel of grace (Romans 1:16) in ALL places…there are no closed doors to the gospel, just some which are more difficult to go through!

Jacob Lee