30 Days of Prayer, Day One: Our Daily Prayer

Matthew 28:6 “He is not here, He is risen, just as He said.”
This is the glory of the gospel. Jesus gave his life on the cross to redeem us from our sins, but He did not stay dead. We praise the Lord on this Easter day for His goodness and His unfailing love. There isn’t a better way to begin a month of praying together for the construction of Ebenezer Baptist Church that to lift prayers of thanksgiving to Him for the bond we share as believers across the world, a bond founded and focused on spreading the hope of salvation found only in Jesus. Our desire is that sharing this Good News is the driving force behind everything we do. It is our daily prayer.

Father, we thank you for loving us enough to die on the cross. We praise you for the glory of our Risen Savior.  Help us to honor You in everything we do, as we seek to share the hope of Jesus in the United States, in Uganda, and around the world.  Amen.

Fantastic News!

Hello Mission Mbale family! We are so excited to share with you some fantastic news! The people of First Baptist Church of Newnan, GA have begun a fundraising campaign to help with the construction of a permanent church building for Ebenezer Baptist Church in Mbale, Uganda. After an incredible fundraiser luncheon and revival weekend, FBC has already raised over $8600! After Easter, special offerings will be collected in each of their Sunday worship services with an overall goal of raising $200,000. It’s a big amount, but we trust in an even bigger God!

To support this partnership between the two churches, Mission Mbale will be posting special 30 Days of Prayer updates in the month of April.  To sign up for daily updates, add your email address to our mailing list through our website and/or check us out on Facebook. (If you've received this update via email, then you're already on the list!)  So whether you’re a member of FBC or Ebenezer, a friend of Mission Mbale, or both, we hope you’ll join together with us as we pray! “Now for him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever, Amen.”
Ephesians 3:20-21



P.S.  If you have written a short prayer devotion that you would like to share, please email Sherri at mattandsherri13@gmail.com.  We'd love to hear from all of the Mission Mbale family!

 

PROFILES IN COURAGE--MEET JULIUS OKANYA--THE EXECUTIVE PASTOR OF EBENEZER BAPTIST CHURCH

At the heart of every ministry there always seems to be one person that clearly makes the proverbial wheel go around and around!  For Mission Mbale and Ebenezer Baptist Church that man is Julius Okanya.  Julius is a genius on Microsoft Excel and his accounting skills have proved invaluable to Mary Faye as she reconciles the budgets and payments each month.  Thank you Julius for all you do for the Kingdom of God but more than that, thank you for your Godly leadership that is ALWAYS present when you are around! Your service is invaluable to the day-to-day operations of Mission Mbale!

JULIUS O. OKANYA--GENERAL SECRETARY/EXECUTIVE PASTOR OF EBENEZER BAPTIST CHURCH IN MBALE, UGANDA

My name is Okanya .O. Julius, born on the 8th December 1980 in Kotia village, Kachumala Sub-county, Bukedea District to Omongole Okia Bazil (late) and Adeke Daudesia. My parents were very strong Catholics where I grew up attending church services in my early years. I loved the church so much and reading the Bible. I remember the words of my Dad very clearly one evening while handing over a gift of a Bible to me, he said "Julius, you are going to be the servant of the Lord"

My life as a child wasn't an easy one. Dad did not have money to educate us. But I thank God for him that he tried his best even getting a job in a security company as a security guard to be able to educate us. I remember him confessing that he would love even to sleep with me on streets in the night as he is guarding and in the morning I go to school. With time he lost that Job and life became really heard. This is a story I love not to talk about. I got a job in a security company as well to be able to further my education. I would work in the night and school in the day. Not only was I looking after myself but also after my other two brothers - John and Bazil. Life was hard. I thank God for what I am today.

At the age of 12 I was attracted  to attending Church services at a nearby Baptist Church in our village where Pastor Robert Adiiba was a pastor by then.  However, my mother could always persuade me to attend prayers at her Catholic Church. She loved seeing me reading the Bible in the church service. At the age of 12, I could read the Bible fluently and every Sunday I was assigned a passage to read.

In 1999, while in Mbale for my studies, everything changed. I remember very well that I was coming from the market where I had gone to buy food. There was a crusade that was staged at the Lions Pack Opposite Nkoma Senior Secondary School. I do not remember which Church denomination organized that crusade, but what I do remember, a woman was preaching. While on my way to my rented place in Namatala, from Mbale main market, I had this woman preach and I was touched. I intended to use a different direction to home but I found myself headed to the crusade. At the crusade, she asked if there are those who wanted to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior. I found myself among those who matched in front to receive Christ. After being led to Christ, my friend, David Emong came over and hugged me. From thereon I began fellowshipping with the First Baptist Church.

In the year 2005, I now made a strong commitment to serve God in the First Baptist Church and I was Baptized by immersion by Rev. Apollo Mwenyi in the First Baptist Church and so I became a bonafide member of the First Baptist Church of Mbale.

In the year 2006, I was privileged to be  part of the team that Included, Pastor Fred Mazune and Mrs. Olive Mazune, Mr. Nathan Wamimbi and Mrs. Lorna Wamimbi and myself, to be commissioned to begin a church - Ebenezer Baptist Church in Namatala, Doko cell at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Lorna Wamimbi. At Ebenezer, God led me to serve Him through leading Bible Studies and Sunday School lessons and I served as the Bible Study/Sunday School Director. Rev. Apollo Mwenyi, Pastor Nathan Wamimbi and Pastor Fred Mazune, mentored me well in this area.

Today, God relieved me from serving as a Sunday school Director, a position Mrs. Olive Mazune is serving in now, but kept me serving as a Bible Study Director and also as a Church Secretary.

I am married to Esther whom I met in the year 2013. God has blessed us with two beautiful daughters, Tino Elisha Okanya and Akwii Olive Gertrude Okanya.

".....................To Him be the Glory both now and forever! Amen"  2 Peter 3:18

 

Meet Shedrack (Sheddy), Mary and Adriel!

     Shedrack (Sheddy) and Mary --- Adriel

                               

The following testimony is from Sheddy,  the head of the on-site medical team at the Clinic at Ebenezer.  He was originally the Children's Minister and is still very involved in the day-to-day lives of those children working along side Joseph and the matrons of the children who live on-site in the tent.  He sees an average of 20-30 people each day in the clinic and has a desire to carry his training to the next level of becoming a Registered Nurse as he is currently the equivalent of an LPN in America.

Sheddy is married to a beautiful young lady whom Mary Faye and I met when we were there in July and God has recently blessed them with a beautiful daughter, Adriel.  We hope you enjoy reading his story!

ALL FOR HIS GLORY!

Warren and Mary Faye

                                                                                       MY LIFE STORY. 

I am Called Nambobi Shedrack, born on the 26^th/August/1986. I come from a family of eleven members, where we have two parents, three boys and six girls and am the third born.  I received Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior on the 21^st/March/2003, when I was just a 17 year old teenager in secondary school.  The decision to receive Christ came after a series of struggles that I went through as a child. Life was not easy for me that time because my parents couldn’t afford to provide the necessary home and school needs .They instead had to take me to begin staying with a relative whom they thought would offer a helping hand. Life became even harder while at this new location that I kept missing school lessons on a number of occasions because of lack of tuition, and other needs. Thank God that I became one of the best performers and the school offered me a scholarship until I finished high school.

God connected me to Ebenezer Baptist Church in December 2006. I became a children’s bible teacher and also assistant youth leader by that time. While here, I trusted God for provision so as to continue with studies since my passion was to become a medical practitioner.

After over ten years of waiting upon God, He provided tuition and I had to do a three year Nursing course at college. After completion in 2015, I had the joy of beginning to serve God through meeting the health needs to over three hundred children and some adults in Doko Cell Namatala at the Church Medical clinic. This was only possible through the divine partnership that exists between Ebenezer Baptist Church and Mission Mbale. I am continuing to trust God for increase, and expansion that the medical clinic will grow from where it is now to a health center and possibly to a hospital in the years to come.

Lastly, I thank God for the vision of ministry to; children, youth, women, orphaned and vulnerable groups, that He gave to Ebenezer Baptist Church under the leadership of Pastor Fred Mazune and other leaders. God is continuing to grow the vision that begun many years ago in a small way to many visible things that we see now just for His own glory.

May the name of our good Lord in heaven be praised forever and ever-Amen.

Shedrack

 

PROFILES OF COURAGE!!!

Over the next several weeks we are going to be highlighting the men and women who are the "hands and feet" of Mission Mbale in Uganda!  These are those who have dedicated their lives to bringing a future and a hope to the children who struggle daily to survive the cruelty of life that is their constant companion as they grow up in the Namatala Slum in Mbale, Uganda.

Today we are going to start the "Profiles of Courage" series by introducing you to Joseph Mabonga, the Children's Minister and Child Sponsorship Officer at Ebenezer Baptist Church.  Joseph and his wife Mercy have three children, the latest, a boy named Azariah Jireh Enock, was born this week and is joining his older brother Zion and sister Shalom in this awesome family that is dedicated to serving the Lord!

If you are one of our Child Sponsors then you are familiar with what Joseph does ... he is the one who writes the profiles, takes the pictures of the many activities that your sponsored child is involved in, and he works long hours to provide the personal letters and cards that you receive from your children.  He is a very crucial link for Mary Faye and I as we strive to keep you, the sponsors of these precious children, up to date on their well-being and activities.  God bless each of you for what you do for your special Ugandan child!

We hope you enjoy these "Profiles In Courage".

My life story ------ Joseph Mabonga (Child Sponsorship Officer)

I am Joseph Mabonga, born on 14^th June, 1986. My father was a Kenyan while my mum was a Ugandan. My mother produced 2 boys and 1 girl with each child having his/her own father; and I was the last born. Because of so many struggles, while my parents were in Kenya, they decided to bring me to Uganda to my grandmother when I was 5 years of age.

We lived a miserable life with my grandmother and I had no hope of going to school. Together with my grandmother we used to survive on doing manual labour in other people’s gardens to be given a daily meal. In 1994, the village well-wishers helped me go to school. In 1997 my mother died and my father also died in the following year. When I became a total orphan God caused one of the charity organizations who came to our village and they got for me full sponsorship and I gained hope from that time.

In August, 2003 in my second year in high school I got an accident and I underwent surgery after breaking the hand. December 2003 is when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior after the preacher sharing from Mark 8:36: For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?  

In 2006, my grandmother died and as a result I had nowhere to stay. That’s when one of the pastors in Baptist Churches in town picked me to stay with him while my education sponsorship was still continuing. God helped me and in 2015 I graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration majoring in Accounting.

God is graciously using Ebenezer Baptist Church in partnership with Mission Mbale in Namatala slum to preach the gospel of our Lord in words and deeds. God is touching one child at a time and children who were hopeless now have the joy and the purpose to live. Children are fed, provided with clothing, beddings, medication and above all preached to the message of salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ.  With my background, I know what it means to be sponsored for I look back and appreciate the love and support of the sponsorship I received. I would love after 10-20 years from now, that our sponsored children can also testify like me.

To God be the Glory!

Joseph Mabonga

Children’s Minister and Child Sponsorship Officer, Ebenezer Baptist Church

FROM TENTS TO TIN ROOFS...A JOURNEY OF HOPE!!!

HELP THE WHEELS ON THE BUS START TURNING FOR JESUS!

CLICK HERE TO CONTRIBUTE:  BUY THE KIDS A BUS!

        

FEBRUARY 28, 2016                     MARCH 2018 

THEIR FIRST REAL HOME!              NEW BOYS AND GIRLS DORMS!

          

   THE MISSING LINK!!!

THESE CHILDREN NEED A REAL PLACE TO CALL HOME...WILL YOU HELP US GET THE CHILDREN INTO THEIR NEW PERMANENT HOMES BEFORE THE COLD, WET RAINY SEASON BEGINS IN A FEW WEEKS? THE BUS IS THE MISSING LINK IN THIS PROCESS!!

The day was February 28, 2016...the place was a slum village in Mbale, Uganda...the occasion was the birth of HOPE!

On February 28, 2016 HOPE was birthed into the lives of 20 orphaned and at-risk children in the Namatala Slum in Mbale, Uganda.  It was on this day that these precious children were welcomed into what many of them would call their first real home...a 40' x 40' modified "revival" tent located on the grounds of Ebenezer Baptist Church.  On that day these precious children received their very own beds, complete with mattresses, sheets, blankets, pillows, and even a mosquito net to protect them from being bitten while sleeping! For over two years these children have lived in this "home" always giving thanks to the gracious God who provided the tent. All the while we have continued to seek this same willing God with hopes for more permanent housing for the 29 children who are now living in the tent.

These children have lived under the shelter of the tent without complaint, even in the midst of the storms that partially collapsed the tent on several occasions, the floods that have washed through the tent leaving thick layers of mud across the floor, the cold & wet nights of two long rainy seasons, and the hot and dry days of two long Ugandan summers! But in the evenings and early mornings if you have had the privilege of standing outside those tents, those precious children can be heard praying and singing praises to their God for giving them their new home!!! We continue to join them in praise to God, while still wanting so desperately to get them into permanent homes with indoor plumbing and electricity, under the protection of a tin roof that is void of the thick dark cover of mold now covering the ceiling of the tent.

AND GOD HAS BREATHED LIFE INTO OUR VISION OF PERMANENT HOMES FOR THE CHILDREN!!!!

The dormitory homes for both the boys and the girls are now finished at the farmland property, where the new school is currently under construction. The property is completely surrounded by 7-foot high security fences, and security lighting will soon be installed. This property is about a fifteen minute drive from their current tent "home" and the school which they currently attend, so the only thing standing in the way of us getting the children moved out there is the need for a bus to transport them back and forth to school.

Exodus 2:25b declares: "And God knew..." and surely He must have known our needs. Our ministry Board of Directors met on Sunday evening and we voted to push forward with securing a 30-passenger bus. (It will be very similar to the one pictured above under the heading THE MISSING LINK). Before we could even get the first announcement out about the need for the bus, a cost of $20,000-$25,000 which includes insurance, registration, and the training and certification of two drivers to transport the children, God had already placed almost $3000.00 in our hands!  And ALL the time God is good!!

THE CHALLENGE:  RAISE THE $20,000-$22,000 NEEDED TO PURCHASE THE BUS BEFORE THE RAINY SEASON BEGINS IN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS, WHEN THE TEMPERATURES WILL ONCE AGAIN BEGIN TO DROP IN THE NIGHTTIME!!!

IF YOU WANT TO BE A PART OF THIS AMAZING CHALLENGE YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE THROUGH ONE OF THE SEVERAL WAYS LISTED ON OUR WEBSITE, OR BY CLICKING ON THE FOLLOW LINK:  BUY THE KIDS A BUS!!

I ALSO WANT TO ADD THAT THIS BUS WILL ALSO BE USED TO TRANSPORT THE TEAMS WHEN WE TRAVEL TO UGANDA, SAVING THE MINISTRY ON AVERAGE $750-$1000 PER TRIP IN RENTAL COSTS!!!

Thanks again to each of you for your faithfulness to stand with us in this ongoing journey that is reaping so many souls for the Kingdom of God!  Lives truly are being transformed beyond anything we could have ever imagined, and your prayers and generous support have gotten us to where we are at today... STANDING IN AWE OF THE MIGHTY GOD WE SERVE!

ALL FOR HIS GLORY!!!

Warren and Mary Faye Moore                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Mission Mbale: Transforming futures and hopes through the love of Jesus...One child at a time!!!