LHM—Uganda Delivers Messages to Youth on the Go

Mobile phone usage is the largest growing avenue of communication for people in Uganda between the age of 13 and 35 years. Out of more than six million mobile users in the country, young people use cell phones for more than just sending and receiving text messages (also known as SMS). They share pictures, listen to music, and exchange emails. A few even surf the Internet or hear radio broadcasts directly on their phones.

Recognizing this importance of mobile phones, Lutheran Hour Ministries in Uganda has begun using this new avenue of communication to reach out to young people and expand ministry outreach into different communities. For example, at the end of each radio program, listeners are encouraged to respond via SMS with questions or comments.

“Text messaging is a great way of enhancing response from recipients as it’s less intrusive than a phone call,” said Charles Bameka, the director of LHM—Uganda. “Plus by using a web-based text messaging interface, we have a detailed record of our SMS ministry.”

Bameka reports that the SMS ministry yields about 40 responses for every message sent to a thousand individuals.

“Many of the respondents appreciate receiving a reassuring Christian message in the midst of life’s daily challenges,” he observed.

To read more news and updates from Uganda please visit the LHM—Uganda blog.

Devotion: Fragrance On The Hand Of The Giver

The owner of a large estate once gave his gardener some red roses to take home to his wife. The flowers, however, never made it to their intended recipient. On the bus that afternoon, the gardener sat next to a widow who spoke of her loneliness. Knowing his wife would understand, he gave the roses to the lonely widow and brightened up her day.

But the widow didn't get home with them either. At the grocery store, she came upon a tearful young girl. The girl's mother was very ill. "Here," the widow said, handing the flowers to the girl. "Give them to your mother; tell her I'll be praying for her tonight."

Gratefully, the girl accepted them and took them to her mother. The roses cheered the bedridden woman, but even she didn't keep them. "They're too beautiful not to share," she told her pastor when he came to visit the next day. "I'd like the church to have them." So the pastor took them and placed them in the sanctuary where his congregation could see and enjoy them. After the service, the minister gave single roses to some of the church members as they left. The beauty of the flowers was extended once more before they wilted.

There's a beautiful poem entitled, "Flowers Leave Their Fragrance on the Hand of the Giver," and the words are true. Every good deed, every selfless kindness, every thoughtful action which comes from a heart full of faith -- a heart touched by the abundance the Lord has freely given -- has a way of blessing the giver and multiplying the gift. Like the ripple effect of a stone tossed into water, the circles that emanate can reach many unseen shores.

So it is with the greatest love of all. Jesus' redemptive work on the cross comes to us through God's Word. By the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, we are made clean and acceptable to God through faith in the salvation Christ has won for us. God's fragrance, the perfect sacrifice of His Son, is offered to everyone.

It is free. Share it the next chance you get.

THE PRAYER: Thank You, Father, for Your love. Help me today and always to have the courage to pass it on. Amen.

Biography of Author: Pastor Charles Bameka has directed LHM-Uganda since 2002. From an office in Kampala, volunteers and staff help people in need through Equipping the Saints, Bible Correspondence Courses, and the This is the Life TV program. Ministering to those living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda (more than 500,000 are afflicted with this disease) is a critical aspect of LHM's mission there.

Government Official in Nigeria Endorses BCC

During a graduation ceremony of 55 high school students at Community Secondary School in Uyo, Nigera, a top representative of the state’s Ministry of Education commended Lutheran Hour Ministries—Nigeria for offering free Bible Correspondence Courses to all for well over 25 years now. Nelson Mkpat, the government official noted that the government had a lot to learn from the tenacity and consistency with which LHM—Nigeria has anchored the program, adding that the BCCs are a perfect complement to the standard school curriculum, to help in moral edification of students. With this endorsement from the government for the BCC program, LHM staff are encouraged to get more schools to recognize and use the themed Bible courses. To God be the glory.

BCC graduates

Feel the Fire

The Int'l LLL Convention is fast approaching and I'm starting to feel the excitement. I am especially looking forward to the entertainment that we have lined up for the International Ministries breakfast on Saturday, July 18th. I can confirm that Djembe Fire will be performing a fusion African music and dance.

Djembe Fire consists of six to eight drummers and dancers from across Africa, who tell stories through rhythmic drumming and singing.

So, if are in Greensboro, NC, during that week, we invite you to enjoy a hot breakfast (and hotter entertainment) while you spend some time with our visiting international directors.Come and hear, first-hand, how God is using LHM to reach the unchurched in each of the regions in which LHM serves.

The performance of Djembe Fire represents the kinds of culturally appropriate events that LHM staff and volunteers, abroad, use to reach out to the unchurched.

Cast Off, But Not Forgotten

LHM—Ethiopia celebrated Easter, this year, with over 160 patients at the Gerfesa Rehabilitation center for the mentally challenged. The staff sang songs, and told the Easter story - message of hope to the patients. Many of whom have been cast aside by society.

 

“Although they felt helpless, we went there on Christ's behalf to show them that they are important to Jesus and they are not forgotten by Him,” said one staff member.

Nuru Media Director Attacked

Two weeks ago after having started moving my family I went back to my house to collect other things and I was immediately faced with a problem. My own neighbours (who are predominantly Kikuyu) confronted me and said that they are not allowing men to move out since they would be attacked by the Luos on the other side. They made it clear that they were not giving us any option and could do anything if we attempted to move out.

There was a lot of fear that the neighbourhood would be attacked and therefore I called my wife and told here I had to spend the night in our old place.

That night the Luos truly attacked, and they overwhelmed the local security. There was burning of houses, looting and many people were attacked with machetes and other crude weapons.
They broke down my gate using crowbars. I chose to stand in a narrow corridor since I could not be attacked by more than one person at a time. That decision probably saved my life. I only had a hockey stick with me but I was able to hold them off. I was hit with a crowbar which has sharpened edges on my left side below the collarbone.

The area has remained the most volatile in the city but I am now on the other side. I am now able to go the office.

The Grass is Hurting

Life has taken a dramatic twist in Kenya after the announcement of the presidential results which were hotly contested. Each side of the divide is claiming victory which leaves the citizen deeply polarized and ethnically divided.

As the African saying goes, “when two elephants fight it is the grass that gets hurt” this saying is true now to the residents of Kibera. We had the privilege of visiting the displaced citizen in Kibera slums where thousands of people are homeless; they have pitched camp in the Nairobi international show ground. Lillian is a young girl aged two and half years is a victim whose parents have been displaced and are spending chilling nights in a make shift camp.

The problem began when they were told to vacate their home since they belong to a different ethnic group that lives in the area. Their house was torched and her family could not salvage anything. Lillian’s family represents a bigger population of more than 500,000 thousand of Kenyans who have been displaced as a result of this post election violence.

The Nuru Media Ministry staff has taken the forefront in trying to help most of the displaced people at the Jamhuri show ground. We are kindly asking for your prayers and donations to try and help the human crisis we are facing. Help us give hope to the hopelessness victim.

Lutheran Church Torched

Hell has broken loose in Kibera slum the biggest ghetto in sub-Saharan Africa. Kibera is estimated to have over 1.2 millon people who live in shanties. Most of its residents earn less than 2 dollars a day making life very difficult.

It is unfortunate that Kibera has experienced the worst violence after the election, because of its multiethnic population the tension and fighting is very high with the opponents torching and destroying houses and properties.

Our affiliate church known as Springs of Life Lutheran Church in Kibera was not spared either. A group of arsonists burned down the church and other facilities within its compound.

The arsonists and thugs first looted church equipments and later burned down the medical center that had been set up recently and a nursery school that were within the same compound. This unfolding of events has baffled many because church as a sacred as it is has been desecrated. Pray with us for peace and calm to return to our beloved country.

Pray: My Country is in Flames

Kenya is in the midst of violent turmoil and upheaval following the recent presidential elections. The violence erupted when it was announced that the incumbent president, Mwai Kibaki, a member of the Kikuyu tribe (the largest ethnic group in Kenya), had narrowly defeated challenger Raila Odinga of the Luo tribe in the Dec. 27 polls. Supporters of Odinga claimed widespread voter rigging by the electoral commission in favor of Kibaki and, as a result, have aimed their anger and frustration at the members of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe.

John Maina is the Director for Lutheran Hour Ministries in Kenya and related his first-hand experiences via e-mail.

"Our country is slowly grinding to a standstill. Within a week, a nation that was so hopeful as it went to the polls after the most open and democratic campaign period this country had ever seen, is now covered with a cloud of despair. It is surprising how quickly a country can collapse.

My eyes have seen sights in the last week that I had only read about in other countries or watched on CNN. I have watched a mob hack someone to death 10 meters from where I was standing. Three days ago, 10 bodies were collected on the street where I live - victimized for belonging to the "wrong" tribe.

Church services that were scheduled for New Year's weekend were cancelled. I had been asked to lead the service at the main Lutheran Church downtown on New Year's Day, but instead we were frantically calling everybody we knew telling them not to even attempt to step into town.

Criminal gangs from both sides (of the conflict) are taking over the city posing as demonstrators, looting and burning. I have spent almost the whole week holed up in my house and was only able to come out yesterday [Jan. 3]. Two sections of my residential area are populated by people from the tribe of the opposition leader and they are attacking, indiscriminately, anybody perceived to not have voted for their leader. Gang rapes have been reported in the rift valley and even in the city.

The most frightening thing is the lack of food in some sections of the city, since mobs have broken into shopping centers and there is nothing left to buy. The desperation is now causing mobs to break into peoples' homes.

I would like to ask for prayers for the members of our staff. Most of the staff lives close to, and in, the Kawangware and Kibera areas that have seen the worst outbreaks of violence in the city. Yesterday the Lutheran Church in Kibera, along with the school, was burned down.

The city is not even the worst hit area. The rift valley's beautiful town of Eldoret, where we were planning an outreach event for February, has more than 700 people in the hospital with machete wounds and 84 bodies in the mortuary. This is the town where women and children who had sought refuge in a church were burnt to death.

If the tension is not broken within the week it will be extremely difficult to salvage the situation. I am afraid it could turn into a civil war, particularly if the big Kikuyu tribe starts to revenge the killing of their people in other regions. This is something that has not happened in the 40 years of Kenya's independence.

The opposition is encouraging demonstrations with the intent of putting pressure on the government and there is a plan to march to State House (the Presidential home). In response, the state has cancelled meetings, explaining that the protestors cannot be controlled because every time the mobs assemble for a demonstration they also burn and loot.

The two leaders, both the incumbent President and Raila Odinga, are not showing any signs of reaching out to each other. Archbishop Desmond Tutu is in the country to mediate and we are hoping for a breakthrough. Please pray for that.

I have managed to move my family outside the city and I am in a place close to the LHM office. But I cannot go into the office since its location is a center of mayhem. Please pray for our caretaker who lives in the building, which is very near where three gas stations have been burnt down.

We were planning to re-open the office (after being closed for the holidays) on Jan. 4, but I have changed that to the 8th, if the situation allows. There is very little available public transportation and people are being pulled out of vehicles and beaten if they are identified as being from the "wrong" tribe.

At this point I have advised the Global Work & Witness team that was scheduled to come to Kenya next week to definitely postpone their visit until further notice. We cannot guarantee their safety at this time."

Click here to financially support the Kenyan ministry or call us at 1-800-944-3450, ext. 4275. Thank you for your prayers and your gift. May the Holy Spirit use them, as well as our staff in Kenya, to share the Savior with all of those who are struggling to find hope during these difficult times in Kenya.