March 2009  The Bombo Uganda Story

We have been working closely with Pastor Alex and Millie Ojera of Bombo Pentecostal Church since July 2005. Together we are addressing each of the components of P.E.A.C.E. [Promoting Reconciliation, Equipping Servant[s] (leaders), Assisting the Poor, Caring for the Sick, Educating the Next Generation] and are working together to make Bombo Pentecostal Church a model for New Testament missions.

When we first met Pastor Alex and Millie we watched, listened and prayed as to whether this was where God intended us to work. As we sat silent and watched we saw God was at work through Bombo Pentecostal Church. He had given Pastor Alex and Millie a heart of compassion for the lost and down trodden. As they will tell you they left a relatively comfortable life working with a larger church in the city to move and pastor a small struggling church in rural Africa. We then saw that each of them desired to be in God’s will regardless of the cost and that God was in control of their lives; God was already at work in the lives of the people of Bombo, they just needed spiritual direction, which Alex and Millie provided.

In July 2005 we introduced them to the five purposes in the purpose driven church continuum of delegating their church into the five purposes or functional areas of ministry: Fellowship to incorporate God’s family, Discipleship to educate God’s family, Ministry to demonstrate God’s love, Evangelism to communicate God’s Word, and Worship to celebrate God’s presence. God was leading us to enter a partnership with them, as we were praying, so were Pastor Alex and Millie. God lead this partnership together it is not something we imagined or orchestrated. He was and is the composer and the director and allows us to play a few instruments, although He is the One who keeps them in tune. This time of prayer, and moving forward into a partnership caused a real crisis of belief; we knew if we proceeded our life would not be the same, it hasn’t been, it has been better than all we could imagine, however crazy. So we started making major adjustments in our life to join God in what He was already doing. Likewise, Pastor Alex and Millie were also doing the same in regards to developing a life changing ministry. Millie as you will read came to the 2005 HIV/AIDS conference and her eyes were opened and her already compassionate heart was set ablaze. She shared and soon her husband was making adjustments to move where God had directed.

We, together, with Pastor Alex and Millie have seen God accomplish much through us, so much more than we could ever ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). Align Ministries has joined a partnership with Bombo Pentecostal Church to follow God’s lead and to help encourage, empower and resource each other in developing a missions model that will be shared throughout Uganda, Africa, and throughout the world. We share the same goal to see Bombo Pentecostal Church and all of their church plants become completely self-governing, self-perpetuating, and self-sustaining (The Great Omission, Steve Saint). As you will read they are self-governing and self-perpetuating. We together are working on them becoming completely self-sustaining. This is their desire.

Our partnership has developed and strengthened over time, it started by building trust through prayer. After we left from our first short-term missions trip with them in July 2005, we remained in contact, sharing personally with each other. I do have to say that at the beginning of our first trip, Millie, Pastor Alex’s wife, was very skeptical of us. Millie told us she was thinking, “Oh, boy here come a bunch of short-term missionaries from America who are going to tell us how to do things, waste our time and leave”. This was so refreshing for both them and us. They were becoming brutality honest with us, usually an American fault, but something that is necessary to forge a lasting relationship and partnership; and we did not do what they anticipated. We actually listened to them. Building the relationship has been the key to success in this partnership. We can both exchange ideas and have the freedom to say if the idea will work or not work in that culture.

To further our relationship, while we travel on short-term missions to Uganda, they travel to the United States on short-term missions. We are becoming students of each other’s culture. It was a result of this partnership that Align Ministries was born; born from a desire to share Christ and to resource Bombo Pentecostal Church. As we stated at the beginning we are working together in addressing each of the components of P.E.A.C.E.

Below is a summary of what has taken place in Bombo Uganda:

Promote Reconciliation (Plant Churches): In July of 2005 Bombo Pentecostal Church (BPC) was a congregation of approximately 125. Right out the backdoor of their church were the Nubians (Muslims) that they had completely alienated and resented for a violent encounter from the Nubians to remove their Christian church from a particular area. They re-established their new church location, but had not reconciled with the Nubian community. The philosophy of the church at that time was to minister to those who came to them. Pastor Alex and Millie are very strong in their faith and knowledge of God’s Word, but there was a disconnect in how they were to reach the Muslim community for Christ. They shared an intense desire to reach the lost, build up their congregation in spiritual maturity, assist those who could not feed themselves, care for the sick, dying and orphans, and to provide education for the adults who could not read or write and for the children who could not afford to go to school. Pastor Alex, Millie and BPC embraced Purpose Driven Church and Purpose Driven Life and have seen explosive growth in number and maturity. They now have 4 church plants with 2 more planned for all 2009. Number in attendance at BPC is now about 800. At Wobulenzi PC about 80-90 members, Luwero PC about 120, Kakoge PC about 80, Mbogga PC about 60 and the planned churches will be located at, Matugga, Migyera. BPC has reached deep into the Nubian community and has seen approximately 300 to 400 Muslims convert to Christianity. Pastor Yassin of Luwero Pentecostal Church was raised as a Muslim, he accepted Christ as his personal Savior at great personal cost to him. He was rejected by his family and his father threatened to kill him. He sought refuge at BPC and decided to serve Christ on a full-time basis as a pastor. We have numerous stories of the converted Muslims and the cost and difficulties they face because of their new found faith in Christ. We will continue to resource BPC and the church plants with reproducible and sustainable tools to continue to empower them to do the work God has called them to do. The youth at BPC and all of the church plants work together in evangelism through drama, dance and music. They have formed a youth evangelical troupe to reach youth in Uganda for Christ.

Equipping Servant[s] (Leaders): We have worked with BPC to put on two Pastors Conferences in the Luwero District. One of the problems Pastor Alex identified is that the pastors in this area do not work together well. These conferences were the first steps in establishing a working relationship between the churches in the Luwero District. This is going to be a long process and one that God will orchestrate in time to break this cultural barrier. There is a fear of stealing church members, as tithes and offerings are so sparse. This must be a matter of prayer and cooperation between the local churches as in 1 Corinthians 12 for all parts of the body to work together for the good of the entire body of Christ. Men’s Discipleship is a very much needed area to address in equipping servants. With that said we have seen three young men that have been discipled by BPC and are now pastors in three of the new church plants. Two of these pastors are converted Muslims. God is definitely working in Bombo and the Luwero District. We are also working with a core group of men and women to develop a discipleship model that will work in Uganda to give them encouragement and tools to be real servants.

Assist The Poor: In reaching the poor we along with BPC want to give them the tools and resources they “need” (not want) to help them become sustainable in the future. Always praying and pointing them to the church and that their hope is in Christ and Christ alone. A few examples: At one of the first Life With Hope meetings in 2006 we met Milly Nabachwa, a widowed Muslim woman, she looked at us with tears, pain, hopelessness and fear, knowing she was dying of AIDS and had 3 children to raise and had already lost 7 to the disease. She asked us, “Are you telling me that there is hope?” We both looked at each other and agreed that we needed to say “yes” there is hope. We decided that if we only gave her the tools and resources to improve her health and move forward in life, then that is where God wanted to start. In the words of Pastor Alex, Milly is now vibrant and full of life, if not for the love, compassion and resources provided to her through Align Ministries, she would be dead today. Her children would be orphans. She is now a very enterprising woman able to have the energy and strength to care for herself and her family’s needs. She has become a source of hope to many following her with the same plight in their lives. We have seen many Milly’s and it has been an overwhelming blessing to us and the church. We remember the day that we sat and talked with Pastor Alex in his office, a small 8’ x 8’ closet. He shared on how it has been such a blessing for him to be empowered as a pastor and church to do more than just pray for someone. But to actually be able to assist in a tangible way and one that does not cripple but brings health, hope, healing and Christ’s love. BPC has established micro enterprise loans and businesses to help the people become self-sustaining. Some examples are: poultry, gardens, schools, clothing and linen, merchandising allowing the people to earn a living then tithe back to the church and help to financially support others in the community.

Care For The Sick: After Millie Ojera attended the 2005 HIV/AIDS Conference at Saddleback Church, she went back to Uganda with a broken, hurting and compassionate heart for her congregation. She had lived blindly for many years not seeing the hurt, pain and disease caused by HIV/AIDS in her congregation. Millie said, “After all, disease and sickness has always been a huge part of our lives, it is just the way it is”. As she put it so well when she was invited back to the 2007 HIV/AIDS Conference at Saddleback Church as a guest speaker, “I now looked at the pain and suffering behind the smiles that were praising God.” After I started looking, praying and communicating with my congregation, I realized that over 50 % of the congregation was infected and 100% are affected by the disease, thus her ministry Life With Hope (LWH) was birthed. LWH is a support ministry of BPC to those suffering with the HIV virus, orphans, and widows. They reach out to them to meet all their needs, physical, medical, food, clothing, school fees, transportation, prayer and community with Christ as the center. Many Muslim people have been attracted to this ministry because of the love, compassion and support. Working through BPC and LWH we have been able to involve teams coming over to Uganda. As well as giving people here an opportunity to get behind and support LWH. This provides resources and tools for them to go into the community and make the invisible God visible. This also allows people here to participate in an active mission, prayerfully, breaking their heart for missions and the marginalized and looking at diverse cultures in a new way. We have seen the church in Bombo become the beacon of hope in the community through the distribution of over 1,800 treated mosquito nets, the drilling of a well on church grounds and providing water purifiers for clean water as well as providing medical care and medications, nutritional food, and school fees to those who were unable to afford or to attain it, at least for now. We have now had other churches throughout California as well as Louisiana join us in P.E.A.C.E. and bring teams to minister with BPC. We are praying you and your church will have a desire to join us through prayer and financial support.

In August 2006, Align Ministries was formed to address the issues of P.E.A.C.E. starting with widows and orphans infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. We asked ourselves, how many orphanages can be built? Align Ministries focus was to build the local church to be the beacon of hope in the community and to “work” in partnership with BPC to keep parents/caregivers of these children alive and healthy to raise their children to a point of independence. This was shared with us many times as we sat with the people with HIV/AIDS. They told us they just want to see their children live a life with hope; no different than any parent in the U.S.

Educate The Next Generation: The first team that went to Bombo in July 2005, left Alex and Millie and Bombo Pentecostal Church with tools and resources to start an adult literacy class, which was the beginning. Those that attended the class were so very excited and it actually changed many of their lives for the better. Some were given promotions at work and others held their heads high as they went in to do their banking and could actually sign their name. It is so well received that it inspired them and the church to reach even further into what they needed to do and could do in education for their church and community. We have continued to return each year, always joining the church in raising the bar in the area of education, in 2007 a scholarship fund was started for college age youth that could not afford to go. This has been amazing to watch as these students who received the scholarships have not only excelled in college or trade school but have started businesses in their community and are using the profits to provide school fees for other children not as fortunate, this is so great to see happen.

Also in 2007, Pastor Alex and Millie shared a desire and a deep leading from the Lord to open a preschool. It has been extremely successful and valuable to their community. They started with 7 pre-school students and now have over 100 children in the school. They are bursting at the seams and there is a waiting list to register for the preschool. They have just finished a building for a primary school that started on February 16, 2009 with primary grades 1 and 2. They are using fees for the people who can afford school fees to pay teachers salaries and save for a future building so they can expand to all primary grade levels. This is a project we are working with them to provide quality educational curriculum and funds for building a school where they can get a quality education.

The primary education system in Uganda is so poor; most children do not have the tools to go beyond a primary education (elementary school). BPC has a vision is to give all children the opportunity to have a quality primary education. A quote from Mille, “…people bring their kids to our school because they expect something superior, something different from us; they may not know it, but that difference is Jesus and a rich education. Our teachers need to be a class above what exists in the public schools now.” We know that children who grow up with life skills that will make a positive contribution to their families and their communities. In keeping with the BPC vision, children’s education is the key for long term success and sustainability, especially for children raised in an impoverished nation such as Uganda. We are also really excited to see how God is using the schools at BPC to reach many Muslims for Christ. Due to the reputation of the schools they are bringing their children there for their education.

There are no other schools in the Luwero District where children are taught with love and respect and centered on Christ; where all their needs are being met spiritually, developmentally, emotionally and physically. One of the teachers at the preschool was a former Muslim and gave her life to Christ because of the love she saw given in the school and BPC. As we continue to partner with Bombo Pentecostal Church and lead teams to Uganda, our purpose is to empower the local church to be the most influential source of care and support for the community. The results are up to God, we are called to be obedient and go where He is working. Our job is to say yes and pray and go, do and say whatever God directs.

Our goal will always be:  

• To bring glory and honor to Jesus Christ
• To be humble and to build relationships first – projects last
• To lift up the local church
• To reach souls for Christ, through a partnership with the local congregation
• To encourage and empower the local churches to be all they can be Christ
• To embrace the cultural differences and learn from them
• To change the worldview and hearts of our team o “Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God”. Bob Pierce
• To learn to see missions from the receivers point of view and not the givers point of view
• To partner with God’s Church where ever He leads to continue to identify the spiritual giants and to do P.E.A.C.E. on a personal, local and global level to fulfill the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. 

 The Great Commandment Jesus replied, “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. ‘Love your neighbor as yourself”’ Matthew 22:37-39

The Great Commission Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them (discipleship) to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20

For more information on how you can be involved, please contact us: Align Ministries Don and Elaine Herr .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) 1-949-215-7516