Holy Spirit in the Old Testament and the Ministry of Jesus

We are now talking about the various issues that the church in Kampala faces as they seek to share the good news about Jesus.  One issue is around the role of the Holy Spirit. In Uganda, there is a great focus on the spirit in religion.  Some say that if you don’t speak in tongues or have a certain gift of the spirit, you are not spirit filled.  Some focus so much on the spirit and the spirit’s gifts, that they lose focus on Jesus.  It is possible that they have become filled with deceiving spirits that are evil, not the Holy Spirit.  They also are lacking in the “fruit” of the Holy Spirit and tend to glorify themselves because of the gifts they have.  The Holy Spirit filled person focuses and testifies about Jesus.  Jesus is their center, not the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit enables them to testify about Jesus.  They have the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

The teaching continues.

Steve teaches intense lessons outside the Somalian hotel about the cross of Christ. Also, Jimmy is serving porridge ... a special bowl with milk for Steve is awaiting.

Photos from our Sunday morning worship.

Four were baptized at this morning's worship. Mugisha Michael, Shukuru Glory, Robinah Okella (the preacher's daughter), and Barbara Mugundi.

Worship at Kampala Church of Christ, Okello preaching.

Four were baptized this morning.

Enjoying roasted maize in Wakiso!

One of the church community development projects is the Maize in Wakiso.  Church members farm 2.5 acres of maize and the harvest is now. Rebecca roasted it for us and we enjoyed snacking on it.  It is a very firm kernel with the taste of popcorn.  Jim Risk sent over more hand held corn shuckers for Francis and Mbaziira to share with the team.

Our work has begun in Kampala.

Our journey to Uganda started at 10:45AM on January 15.  Thirty hours later, Steve and Leslie Kenney and I arrived in Entebbe, Uganda.  We were greeted by several dear friends from the church in Kampala and as always it was so exciting to see them.  We had a good night’s rest at the Tagy Hotel which is right next to the church.  The same attendants were there at the hotel to greet us.  Our first day was spent at the church building resting and visiting with our extended family.  Many members of the church and folks from the community do not have jobs, so, they come to the church for friendship and fellowship even throughout the week.

Our activities began on Friday when we met with the church advisory committee to discuss our trip objectives.  With a flip chart, we documented several issues that the church is facing.  Where the church meets is a home for many in the community to not only spend time fellowshipping, reading books from the library, but also, many come to worship the Lord.  Several people who participate in Life Care Groups, are also members at other churches in the community.  This mixture of people with different views on the Bible tends to create various issuessimilar to any other church anywhere else in the world.  Though the issues are common to us, they are never the less difficult to determine how to address and maintain unity in the church.  As such, our trip objectives will be to help create a framework for the leaders and members to consider the issues and have a better way of addressing them. 

The next day, Steve spoke on a Narrative of the Bible.  This is basically what he has been preaching over the last two years at North Central, but compacted into four hours.  The lesson and discussion afterward helped the roughly thirty attendees to learn that there is a bigger view of what God is doing in the world and we exist for the sake of God’s purpose and what He is doing in the world.  This was a new thought and formed the basis for putting the issues into perspective. 

Today is Sunday.  We will worship together this morning, have lunch and then continue the teaching.  Steve will continue teaching and working with the Advisory Committee concerning the issues that face them.  Please pray for open hearts and a deeper understanding of the Lord’s Word.
Yours in Christ,
Nancy Harbron

Steve Kenney takes a moment from speaking to the Advisory Committee.

We made it!

Dear all, We made it safely and smoothly to Kampala!!  The flights and everything went very well.  We are resting today and greeting everyone.  We will start blogging probably tomorrow….  Love to all, Nancy

Reflecting on reconciliation.

"Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God."

As broken and estranged from God and from one another, we are in constant need of a savior. In our broken relationships we are in need of the restoration that only He can give.

In the "High Priestly Prayer," (Jn 17), Jesus says, " I am not praying for the world but for those whom You have given me," meaning the believers of that day. Jesus specified to the Father that His prayer was particular to those followers and prayed that they, "may be one, even as We are one." It was His deep desire that Christian's oneness be in Him and in Him alone.  He later extended that prayer to include those who would come later.

So as those who have come later, we are called to oneness with our brothers and sisters in Christ. In Cost of Discipleship,  Dietrich Bonhoeffer says that peacemakers "maintain fellowship where others would break it off." We are called to oneness even when it would feel better to cross someone off of our fellowship list. For the cross and for the sake of the world, we are "partners in Christ's work of reconciliation" to reconcile person to person, people groups to people groups and ultimately people to God. We are called to the one fellowship and thus to the reconciliation found at the cross, where Christ Himself is peace.

I believe that our North Central team has taken the work of reconciliation seriously.  Last year, our motto, "unscripted" led us into unfamiliar territory as we set out to see what God was already doing in Honduras and to participate in it fully. We were lead to connect three groups, La Vega church, Solidaridad and the Isopo community to partner together to bring the gospel while empowering the Isopo community. We had already witnessed God's work in each of the communities, but never could have imagine how lives would change when they united. Because we took that injunction seriously, God has blessed those humble attempts in ways hard to have imagined 12 months ago.

In His prayer in John 17 Jesus prayed preemptively for future Christian believers. I believe he was praying for us, for all Christians who would come beyond his ministry on earth when he prayed for, "those who will believe in me." Quite boldly He asked that we, "may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us..., that they may be one even as We are one, I in them and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as you loved Me." His deep desire is that believers 'be as one.' In repeatedly asking for oneness He is emphatically emphasizing this oneness. But He doesn't stop there for He states the purpose for this oneness and this is, "that the world may know me."  It is for the sake of the world, that we strive toward oneness in Him.

As peacemakers, reconciling human to human and humans to God, this Honduran team from NC are acting, I believe, within the High Priestly prayer, and within the vision of these past two years. 

Peace,

Leslie Kenney