Bukonde OPCU

Every once in a while, Eric likes to write a blog post.  Here is one from him today!

Today we visited Bukonde OPCU for worship, which included three baptisms and the Lord’s Supper.

The church is up in the hills, and is a beautiful drive.  Here is a picture of Pastor Leonard Mukhwana in front of the church building.  Notice the newer portion of the building on the left – that was added because of increased attendance.  Pastor Leonard’s work is a real labor of love.  The money the church pays him is only enough to cover his costs such as transport to and from the church (he lives about 10km away), but he is a real servant for Christ and for Christ’s kingdom.  

While waiting for the service to start, I looked through the church register.  I noted the average weekly offering of 11,000 shillings, and average attendance of about 55 people.

For comparison, I looked at previous years and found this page from 2011 when the average attendance was 38 people and average offering only 1,380 shillings.  That means over the past 5 years there is a giving increase of almost 800%!  This is encouraging because it reflects increased dedication to the Lord among the saints in Bukonde. (In US dollars this is an increase from 48 cents to $3.50 per week.)

The church recently opened a nursery school, and that was evident in the blackboard and some charts:

When we arrived at the church, it was already set up for communion and baptism:

Here are some photos of the worshipping congregation:

Here is one of the baptisms:

At the end of the service the congregation came to the front for a picture (as well as my family):

Of course what photos cannot directly capture are the faith in the hearts of God’s people, their hope of heaven, the many trials they pass through, and the work God is doing among them.  Bukonde is in a heavily Muslim area, and some are coming to faith in Christ.  Please pray for this congregation, for the work Christ is doing among them, for the fledgling nursery school, for Pastor Leonard, and for the elders and deacons.  Satan is always attacking and trying to disorganize, but when God’s people around the world pray for one another and love one another, God hears these prayers and blesses his people. 

I hope your Sunday today was great.  As you go into this coming week, greetings from the saints in Bukonde, Uganda!