When Rev. John Charles Odeke speaks about education, he does not do it casually. For him, the opportunity to study was never guaranteed.

“I was a school dropout,” he says.

Today, Odeke is a priest serving in Achukudu Parish in Napak District, northeastern Uganda. Heis also a theology student at Uganda Christian University (UCU) Mbale University College, through the support of UCU Partners. But his path to priesthood and theological training was marked by long periods of waiting.

I got to see what most people never see: Transformation That Multiplies— Timothy, orphaned at age six, is now a Coordinator in a Father’s Family program at another church in the diocese. He is strengthening families so the children in those families are not orphaned as he once was. In other communities, we see these families become role models, informal marriage counselors, and trusted advisors on how to save, invest, and build healthy families.

This is how transformation happens. It is not quick or always visible—but over time, it multiplies.

On a Saturday morning in August 2023, Reverend Brian from the Anglican Church of Uganda stood in a remote forest clearing near his church on an island in Lake Victoria.

The Jesus Revolution will hit theatres Feb. 24, telling the story of the Jesus People Movement, which roared to life in 1970. Other famous revivals include America’s First and Second Great Awakenings, the Brownsville revival and Azusa Street. There’s the 100-year prayer meeting of the Moravians. I’m aware of Christian leaders researching the significance of revivals including the Asbury College Revival, Cane Ridge, and the great Welsh Revival. But we don’t hear so much about the East African Revival, which ignited in 1929 and lasted for decades.

When the war in Ukraine burst upon the global stage, many Americans were stunned by the tragic events occurring there. Even in distant places like Rwanda, reports of the Ukrainians’ blistering reality spiraled out like shock waves into their homes.…

I attended New Wineskins in 2019. It was just weeks after sending feminine pads and education to one class of girls in Uganda. I was brand new at this venture, and I knew that I had a lot to learn.

This ministry update letter was sent to us by Alison Barfoot, a missionary partner, on April 9, 2020 and is being shared with her permission.

When I went to school in Austin, Texas in the 1990’s, there was a bumper sticker that said “Question Reality”. That always tickled me, and I continue to question reality today.

When my husband Aaron was a fourth year medical student, we got to spend six weeks in a historic hospital called Kijabe. It is north of Nairobi and staying there was our first time in Africa, where we dreamed of living one day.

I just returned from an incredible trip with this team sharing Christ and giving goats to the Batwa pygmies in Uganda.

In 2007, I performed my musical testimony, “Lord Make Me the Person You Want Me to be” in Uganda. I was invited to do this in the town of Hoima for 1,500 residents and also at Uganda Christian University (UCU) for nearly 2,000 students. It amazed me how deeply it touched the souls of those in the audience.

As Christians, we are all called to be mission-minded, seeing ourselves as everyday missionaries wherever we happen to live and at whatever life stage we happen to be.

How do you pray for mission work when you don’t have very many details? Or, you don’t know the places where our partner missioners are working? Or, you can’t pronounce their names? Or, you don’t understand their context? Or…or…or…

In 2002, Rodger and I (Alison) created Rooted in Jesus (RinJ) as part of our ongoing relationship between the Leicester Diocese and the Diocese of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

In January, the former Archbishop and Primate of the Church of Uganda died and was celebrated. His funeral was not only a national event, it was an international marker of the amazing changes in Africa, especially within the Anglican churches of Africa.

In 2005, Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART) received a desperate request by a young Ugandan from the Acholi Tribe for help as his community had suffered frequent attacks by the Lord’s Resistant Army (LRA).

It was a blazing hot day, our second clinic day in the village of Ntooma. The Gospel tent was buzzing with activity as our Ugandan evangelism and prayer teams were ministering to the clinic patients. Dr. Chris Keenan, the team dentist, led a ninety-year-old man over to our area. Chris explained that the man had a terminal tumor in his throat and that even back in the US there was nothing that could be done medically to save him. Chris, himself a strong Christian, knew that the best we could do was offer him the Gospel and prayer ministry. Chris also told me that the aged man had been candidly told the seriousness of his condition.