Last Country :(

It’s strange writing this blog about Uganda from the comfort of my own home. I can’t believe I am back home and not out on the field anymore. I will be writing a blog about my first few weeks home in a couple of days or so, but for now, this is a blog about what our ministry in Uganda looked like.

While in Uganda, my team had the chance to work with two different ministry hosts; however, at both places, we were doing very similar ministries. The spreading of God’s word is important in Uganda and has to be done primarily by word of mouth due to the lack of access to the word of God. Two of the main things we did while there were evangelism and bible study. The people of Uganda are so hungry to hear the gospel and to hear more about God. It was really encouraging to be able to bring people to Christ, encourage them in their faith, and to be encouraged by them.

My squad got the opportunity to participate in door-to-door evangelism while in Uganda. It consisted of going out into our community, where we were living in with a translator and talking to people. We would simply walk down the road and talk to people about Jesus. Ugandans are so hospitable because anytime we would stop someone to talk to them, even if they were busy doing something, they would stop to talk to us. They loved getting to hear about Jesus and getting the chance to know who he was or to be encouraged in their faith. It was really cool to see all the different interactions we were able to have with people. Even though we were there to spread the gospel, to tell people about Jesus, and encourage believers in their faith, it brought me encouragement and helped me grow in my confidence of sharing the gospel.

Another opportunity that my squad had the chance to do while in Uganda was to host a bible study. We hosted a bible study at two different locations due to having our whole squad doing ministry. One of our teams was hosting at our host’s church, and the other team was hosting at our home. I will be sharing about my team’s bible study and what we did there. When we as a team found out we were going to start hosting a bible study, we got praying. Not only for the bible study, the people who would come, but also for what we should study. We had been doing door-to-door evangelism for about a week or so before we started bible study, and a common theme we had been seeing in those we talked to was that a lot of Ugandans knew of Jesus but didn’t KNOW him personally or beyond what they heard growing up. With this in mind, we as a team decided to study the book of Matthew. The reason behind this is that it tells the story of the gospel but also hits a lot of essential topics of one’s Christian faith. We hosted a bible study every Tuesday-Thursday with the occasional Friday (depending on our schedule for the week). During bible study, we would have one person from our team lead and then offer people to ask questions. So, typically, we read a section of the passage and ask people’s thoughts and then just let the discussion go from there. Sometimes we wouldn’t get very far into the passage because someone would ask a question (related or unrelated to the passage) and then that would just start a whole other discussion. It was so fun to discuss topics that people didn’t understand or didn’t know about and be able to give them insight from our perspective or even have the Holy Spirit speak through us.

A cool side opportunity that we got was to hand out Bibles. While hosting a bible study, our squad realized that few, if any at all, of the people who came to the bible study had Bibles. So we took time to post about the need on our socials and talk to people from back home to fundraise for funds to buy Bibles. We were able to raise money to buy over 200 Bibles and give them out to those who needed them. It was so cool to experience the tangible word of God being given to someone that never had access to it. A lot of the time, the only time they would get to hear the word of God was at bible studies/gatherings and at church. So it was a blessed experience to be a part of, and we saw God move in so many ways. Due to handing out Bibles, our bible study grew from around 8-10 people to around 40 or so people every day. Serving in these countries and having the opportunity to spread the gospel while bringing the love of Jesus to people is beyond words, but being able to hand out Bibles and do something tangible that these people will remember for so long is incredible.

On our last day in Uganda, we got to experience and help facilitate baptisms for those from the church and our Bible studies that we had been hosting. We walked from our house to a nearby pool, which was about a 10-to 15-minute walk away. While at the pool, we took time to pray, worship, talk to the people getting baptized about what it means, and then actually got to baptize them. We got the opportunity to baptize 14 people that day.(About 4-6 being kids) It was such a celebratory time and was so cool to be a part of. I got the chance to assist in one of the baptisms, and it was so cool to be there up close and personal and get the opportunity to be a small part in someone’s declaration of faith. The reason I say I got to assist with a baptism is that we had two people bring the people under water, and I was the one there helping, but wasn’t leading the baptism with the declaration. We allowed those getting baptized to choose the person from our squad that they wanted to baptize them because we knew that different people had different connections with each other, and didn’t want one person just going through and baptizing all the people. It was really cool to see because everyone from our squad got the chance to either assist or lead a baptism, which is really awesome. Another thing that brought extra joy and celebration to this day was the way the kids reacted to being able to play in the water. They had so much fun and joy being able to do something so simple and overlooked by our culture.

Uganda was challenging, but it was also so good and brought so much fruit. Not only to myself and those around me, but also to those in the community that we talked to and impacted while there. During my time in Uganda, I drew a lot of strength and focused on the “mission” so much better by being fully devoted to my word. It was so cool to see the strength I got from his words. I read 2.5, almost 3 whole books of the bible, while in Uganda, which is crazy. I drew so much closer to God than I ever thought possible, and I can’t wait to share more details in blogs to come.

I know I am home now, which makes this ask an even bigger one. I am still fundraising for this trip and need to provide the organization I partnered with the funds that were used on my behalf. Please consider donating toward my trip.

I want to challenge all my readers to be a donor! Donation link: https://adventuresinmissions.servicereef.com/events/adventures-in-missions-3/january-2025-world-race-expedition-11-months-25w0102/participants/mvonrueden

I am currently 77% funded. I have passed my deadline for fundraising and need to be fully funded as fast as the Lord can move, which is instantaneous. Please consider donating toward my trip. Your donation will help me to provide my partner organization with funds from my trip.