Dear beloved friends and prayer partners,
Warm and special greetings in Jesus name from Jinja, Uganda.
It is indeed our delight to update you on what transpired during the past six months and the apparent future direction the Lord seems to be guiding us into. By doing this, in a way, we are being accountable to you all our prayer partners.
We had less ministry in the word this year compared to last year: Apart from the Bible school in Bujumbura in late January this time, womens conference in Thika, Kenya, and Sunday services where I am engaged, usually with various churches. Our efforts had been centered on saving lives of the most vulnerable people from a raging famine. With support from various donors, we were able to support about 1,000 households from places such as Anyara, Otukei, Wera , Abarilela, Otuboi etc. Our relief efforts were triggered by deep compassion over the vulnerable people.
We want to thank God for the provision, and thank you for the prayer support. I would like to thank, in a special way, those who were able to send gifts to save life. Our relief effort has not stopped.
Yes, I’ve returned and recovery is in progress, but the famine will not be over until September. The Harvest will be about 40% as a result of the diseases that attacked the crops at their tender age, most especially maize. Let us all pray that the second growing season, August to December, will be fine.
In March, Rev. John Absai from Kenya went to Bujumbura and taught in the Bible school on my behalf. It is wonderful to share ministry. in May, no one was able to go to Bujumbura. In July, I will be travelling to Bujumbura to teach in the Bible school. After that we will be left with three course units to complete; a course that will lead to a certificate in Bible and Theology.
In my opinion, it might be good to complete the Bujumbura Bible School before the end of this year, If this is to be possible, we have to step up the effort and have the courses running monthly, rather than bimonthly, as it had been so far.
New Short Courses Next Year
The Lord has been speaking to us more clearly about next year 2018. We are developing some specific groups of courses, as you can see from this Information page on: The New Short Courses.
You are invited to become involved as a facilitator/teacher, or a sponsor of one or more students.
This does not mean that we will not be involved in other countries as before. It does imply that more effort will be employed developing specific leadership groups in our training base in Soroti. We also would like to involve facilitators from different cultures across the globe.
We still desire your prayers support on the following specifically URGENT areas:
1). Please pray for the Lord to help us to upgrade our training facility in Soroti in preparation for 2018. Millions of Ugandan shillings is needed to put modern sanitary facilities, temporal classrooms, kitchen, repair beds and other items that were destroyed during the LRA incursion in Teso sub region.
2. Pray for me to have a car, this is our greatest need at the moment. I am often involved in funerals, social events like marriages, picking children from schools, ministry trips etc. Without a car life has been harder and more expensive: (Renting a car is very expensive in Uganda. I pay a Tour Company an equivalent of USD 30 daily to drive myself, and that is not counting fuel).
3. I am repeating the prayer request for the Karamojong girl, Angelina Nakoyan who longs to do Clinical Medicine and return to help her people, the nomadic and hostile people of North Eastern Uganda. Nakoyan needs USD $750 per semester and the course takes a total of six semesters (3years).
We have broken this need into three sessions of USD $250 each so that it might be easier to find sponsors for a smaller portion than the total. If we can find a Foundation to assist, that would be well and good.
4. Ministry in Bujumbura has been a challenge: I need not less than USD $400 for transportation, accommodation, rent of training facility etc. Kindly pray that God provides this need as well.
Thank You very much
Rev. Isaac Peter Oyako