Latest from Okkens, update on outreach effort ...

Outreach Update

Thanks so for your prayers for our outreach to Okudud. A follow-up report is overdue. (Apologies for my lateness!) The outreach went well. A good sized group gathered to hear us teach through our Gospel for Karamoja materials. This location was suggested to us by our friends from Nakathian [an outreach venue last year] who continue as the leadership of the fellowship in that village. Okudud has an interesting and recent history. Famine or other problems often force people to leave rural Karimoja in search of a better life in the cities. They do not always fare so well and many end up on the streets. This problem has led to resettlement efforts by the Ugandan government. Okudud is partly the result of such an effort just this year. So we had the opportunity to minister to such resettled folks as well as to transplants from other parts of Karamoja. They received us warmly.

There is no established church in Okudud, just residents of varying backgrounds and religious faiths (often nominal only). There were Catholics, Anglicans and Mulokoles (‘saved ones’ – in Uganda, this is the closest term to ‘evangelical’ and usually refers to those of the Pentecostal variety). There were also Muslims and Animists. We presented the gospel in four afternoons to a crowd that averaged 81 in attendance. We distributed 73 copies of our booklet—50 in Karimojong and 23 in English. In attendance was a man named Luka, a village leader whose efforts to gather the people for prayer have been unsuccessful. We gave him five copies of the New Testament in Karimojong, along with one copy of the whole Bible in English. Please pray for a harvest of righteousness in that place and for our efforts to keep in contact with the people there.

Please pray as well for our ministry to yet another village called Lomorimor this coming week. It is a season of hosting visitors from the states and so we have planned outreaches to coincide with their time and ministry with us. They have been coming along and teaching the children of the village.