Dearest Friends and Family, April 16, 2008

I don’t know where to begin to share the fullness of my heart….
As I am travelling through America, sharing in places where I have been invited, I am seeing more than ever the stark difference between the western church and the body of Christ on the move in northern Uganda.

My heart is weeping now for America. Is it just a wake up call we need? Is it CPR? Does it have to take suffering or tragedy to make us desperate again for the ‘full gospel’ of Jesus Christ….. “He who saves his life will loose it, and he who looses his life for my sake will find it.” (Luke 9:24)

Are we filling the house of Jesus with the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind, compelling them to come in so His house might be filled? (Luke 14:21) I find this paralleled with the army He has called and is raising up in Micah 4:6, 7 “…I will assemble the lame, I will gather the outcasts and those whom I have afflicted; I will make the lame a remnant, and the outcast a strong nation…” Is this His Bride in Romans 8:25, 26 “I will call them My people, who were not My people, and her beloved, who was not beloved. And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people, there they shall be called sons of the living God.” Is this the land and time of His restoration? “The people who survived the sword, found grace in the wilderness.” (Jer.31:2) The army He is raising up to see “…the earth filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea”? (Hab.2:14) The men and women that know the meaning of the ‘full gospel’ of Jesus Christ and are ‘working the works of Him who sent them while it is day; for they know the night is coming when no one can work any longer’… (John 9:4) Are we taking Jesus as seriously as they are? Are these ones who know that where their treasure is, that their heart is there also? And so they have treasures laid up where moth or rust can never destroy them, and where thieves cannot steal. (Matt. 6:19-21)

Their focus is fixed on Jesus and His words, and they live with eternity in their hearts, marching to heaven’s drumbeat, knowing this world is not really their home. These are the ones that have counted the cost, have forsaken all to follow Him, and have loved not their lives even unto death. (Rev. 12:11) These are ones that are hungry to know the meaning of the ‘full gospel’ of Jesus Christ, the whole words and counsel of God, and want to live it faithfully until the end. Will these be some of the heroes of faith, ‘…of whom the world is not worthy…’ (Heb. 11:38)

We must be lovers of the truth, in order not to be deceived. (II Thess. 2:10, 11). Jesus’ words are all truth. And it is His truth that will set us free, from anything that holds us back from stepping into revival and becoming the glorious, overcoming bride that He is calling us to be. Northern Uganda is loving the truth, and they are being set free! And setting others free!

Shall we ‘consider our ways’, for it is His house that has lain in ruins? Are we in America ‘doing our own thing’ or are we busy building His house? (Haggai 1:4, 5)
His house is made up living stones, built up as a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, in order to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (I Peter 2:5)

These living stones are also the lives of precious precious people whom Jesus died to redeem and it is His heart that ‘none should perish, but that all should come to repentance.’ (II Peter 3:9). His house is made up of and filled with those which were outcasts, lame, blind, bleeding, rejected, wounded, broken, imprisoned, crippled, forgotten, maimed, hungry, and naked.
When we find these, we find God. (Matt. 25:45).
When we love these, we are loving God. (John 14:21)
When we serve these, we are serving God. (John 13:12-17)
When we have laid our lives down for these, we have laid our lives down for God. (John 15:12, 13)
When we haven’t found these, we haven’t found God. When we haven’t served these, we haven’t served God. When we haven’t loved these, we haven’t loved God. When we haven’t laid our lives down for these, we haven’t laid our lives down for God.

It is the sobering truth. And so my heart travails for America. Can we have hear what God is doing there? Will you be a part of what God is doing there, in order to live in the truth of His Word and His calling for His Church to be the Church, and truly, ‘Go into ALL the world?’ (Mark 16:15) Will you GO into northern Uganda and the 10/40 window with us right now, by sending His people forth to do the works He has called us to do? Unless we work with our brothers and sisters who are getting the gospel out fervently, desperate for His Kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven…Unless we work as one with them, how will the world know that Jesus was sent from the Father? (John 17:21, 22) And how will the lost ‘…call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent?’ (Rom. 10:14, 15)

Will you send your brothers and sisters right now and these things for which they are trained for, and yet needing the resources and supplies to send them out with?

-The children’s school opening in the north- for Godly education and training, equipping our children and those of northern Uganda, to ‘know the hope of their calling…’

-An extended ministry partnership with Sudanese believers in south Sudan for Bible College training, portable Bible schools, trauma counseling, prison ministries, and children’s ministries particularly to abducted children who are sold for slave trade.

-Sending spiritually equipped and trained Acholi believers northward into the Muslim nations, unreached with the gospel and often dangerous territory. But these precious lives and countries need Jesus as much as you and I, and the believers in northern Uganda are ready to be ‘sent out’ as fast as they are being trained.

-The youth of Gulu reached as a whole generation- lost, abandoned, orphaned, abducted, and born during the war, are wandering the streets of Gulu, with vandalism, ganging, drug use, prostitution, aimlessness and hopelessness, and crime on the rise. The pastors and Body of Christ are praying desperately to reach this generation corporately with evangelism, discipleship, fathering, mentoring, educating them, giving them homes and families, and seeing God restore purpose, value and destiny to a whole generation in our city.

-The government officials are being served by the Body of Christ in northern Uganda. Served a meal, Bibles, gifts, prayer ministry and then ongoing Bible studies in their offices. This is reconciliation in action.

-The public schools – every one of them in the district has asked for 50 Bibles to be given to them to use as textbooks in the classroom. This is being done.

-The Missions Training Course for interns to be trained in missions in practical ways in order to reach unreached people groups of the world. This is an application and study of the life and character of Jesus- missions as lifestyle, not an event. It will have practical ‘hands on’ mentoring in obeying all of His commands. This opens and begins Sept. 1 this year in Gulu.

-The House of Prayer, which seats 500 now in the middle of the Gulu marketplace is occupied daily with the united voices of the believers collectively in the district, praying in the strength of unity for peace, and for the provision and the advancement of the gospel into every tribe and tongue yet unreached.

-The 50 plus pastors in the town of Gulu who meet almost monthly for prayer, vision, partnering- over all denominational barriers, continue to deepen in their vision for healing and restoration of the land in the name of the Lord. They are working together to begin developing small businesses to see families restored with livelihoods, villages resettled, communities healed, and churches planted in the name and for the glory of God alone!

These are only a few of the needs for the advancement of the Gospel. Will you send those who are ready to go? Will you be a part of building His house, out of the living stones whom He is calling together out of darkness and into light, to become a spiritual house, the and a dwelling place of God?

With my heartfelt prayer,
Carole

Please note our address change to our new U.S. area of operation:
Favor of God Ministries
P.O. Box 4652
Riverside, California 92514

www.favorofgod.org
www.favorofgodblog.org

405-659-4673
info@favorofgod.org
For a list of current ministry needs, please write Rob Vis, our U.S. Administrator at our e-mail address