January 2003
Dear Partners in Ministry,
Psalms 15:8 – “I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.”
Can you believe it? 2003 is already here and in full swing. I hope you enjoyed our Christmas update. We want to give a special thank you to Wendy and Greg Mueller for printing and mailing the Christmas update. If you remember in the update we had an article about the national pastor Eliab and his bride price. We are happy to inform you that the Lord worked on three people’s hearts to provide the money for the 3 cows. “My God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory.”
The visit with Dr. Herbster, Mark and Mike Herbster went very well. It was thrilling for us to receive the Christmas packages they brought from Liberty Hills Baptist Church and Tri-City Ministries. There is a picture included in our letter of the heap of food and presents we received. Special thanks to all of you who had a part in these packages and also to those who sent us Christmas cards. Christmas time was the hardest time of the year for us to be away from home and all the letters and gifts made things a little easier. It was a joy to hear Dr. Herbster preach and Mike and Mark sing in our church in Kyahi. The people thoroughly enjoyed the visitors. They had a work day making everything look very sharp inside and outside the church. I believe God really worked in Dr. Herbster’s heart regarding the gospel reaching the ears and hearts of every person here in Uganda.
Our Christmas service in Kyahi was fantastic. Since our plans for Christmas were to travel to Soroti and spend time with the Stensaas family, we had our Christmas service with the people early. Instead of Wednesday the 25th we had the celebration service on Sunday the 22nd. We learned that everyone comes home to the village on Christmas vacation. The big cities are nearly emptied and everyone goes home to their families. Sadly there are many split homes during this time because of ladies and children wanting gifts, but no money is there to get them. Eliab was telling me more fights and arguments commence during this time than any other in the year. Greed and strife are problems all throughout the world. On a more encouraging note, we had 170 people in our service on the 22nd. We were able to hand every family a bar of soap and feed them Chipatis (like big tortillas) and give them drink. The singing was fantastic and there was definitely a level of excitement in the air. When Eliab preached on the 25th there were 150 people in attendance. The ladies did a great job of decorating the church with banana tree branches wrapped with bows and flowers.
As you know already, funerals are a common occurrence here in Uganda. The hardest ones to attend are the precious little baby’s. Wilson, a man in our church, lost his 8-month old little girl, Daphne. The wife is a strong Catholic so I had the opportunity to witness to her. As a church we paid for the coffin and food. A custom for funerals is the family has to feed all the people attending the funeral plus feed those who stay all night with them in mourning. This becomes a large burden for the family of the deceased since most of these people are so poor. Over one hundred people attended the funeral, and I had the special opportunity to give the gospel message. I used John 14 as the main passage and assured the family that their baby was in Heaven with Christ, citing also the death of King David’s first son. Exciting is the fact that Jesus is preparing a place for those who have been born-again. Nobody moved to accept Christ, but I am praying for the Holy Spirit to draw someone unto Christ.
Thank you for your continued prayers and support in the ministry here in Uganda.
In His Service,
Tony and Kristy Applegate
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