(Click the picture to see larger version) The Uganda team included GTN staff members Dan and Debbie Smythe, Wilf and Arlene Meeds, and Joel and Kathy Madson. Also on the team were Carol Denny and her daughter Callie, Cindy Dillen, Nathan Meeds, Sarah McElfresh, and Dale and Theresa Crull.

Dear friends: Debbie and I and other people on the GTN team (see photo above: not pictured is Joel Madson taking the photo) returned to the states late yesterday from an amazing time of ministry. We saw the Lord do far more than we had even anticipated. I will be working on our February 1st newsletter in the next few days that will give pictures and stories of what the Lord did. For now, however, I’ll just share some of the numbers to give you a glimpse into the things we witnessed as the Lord was providing His ministry to the people of Uganda.

Prison ministry: Our team made two trips to the men’s prison near Kampala, with the first outreach being attended by approximately 300 prisoners, and the second day of ministry by 400 prisoners. 23 prisoners responded to the gospel by putting their faith in Christ, and as we were leaving these prisoners had lined up to be given follow-up ministry by the prison chaplain in the weeks to come.

Church ministry: On the two Sundays while we were in Uganda our team preached in ten churches, to a total of 2,580 people who heard the Word in the various churches around Kampala and Entebbe in which we preached.

Conference Ministry:
We were able to teach the Word at a Gideon Youth camp to 150 students and adult leaders as they were in their final day of a week-long time of ministry when we arrived in the country.

Our primary reason for going to Uganda, however, was the Pastors’ and Church Leaders’ Conference in Nkumba. Here are the final numbers on that six-day conference:

A total of 960 people were in attendance at the conference (including the men and women church leaders and student (future) leaders, the children, and the workers from John Mugabi’s church who provided staffing assistance). Last year our GTN Ugandan conference had 650 people, this year 960 were at the conference.

We baptized 84 people in Lake Victoria on the fifth day of the conference and distributed 150 ESV Study Bibles to senior pastors, as well as many complete sets of Bible-based children’s curriculum (with training on its implementation) and birthing kits (with training). Infant death is a huge issue in Uganda (with 9 times more Ugandan infant deaths than US infant deaths occurring due to poor nutrition and a lack of education on proper birthing methods, both of which were addressed in some of our sessions to the women).

There were a total of 68 teaching presentations at the conference, with 60 of those being Bible teaching and leadership equipping sessions. We also were able to provide one day of village ministry to people who were unable to get to the conference, providing them with training, prayer, Bible resources and birthing kits.

Future Bible distribution: One of my goals was to connect with a few strategic church planting and training leaders in Uganda, with whom we could establish a link for sending ESV Bibles and Study Bibles into Africa in the future. John Mugabi introduced me to two such men at the conference with whom I will now be engaging our plan for Bible distribution this year and into the future.

Health and Transportation: We had good health except for a few cases of stomach issues by some of the team, and the Lord provided healing as needed so that the ministry to the people was never hindered by sickness of our team. We also had one disabled flight on our transition from Kenya to Uganda, with our flight having to return back to the airport in mid-course and all baggage and passengers off-loaded to a different flight to then make the final leg of our travel on into Uganda.

We had three disabled vehicles during our time in the country, (with one of them occurring at 2:30am in the morning as Debbie and I were in a rented vehicle being transported by John Mugabi from the airport to our hotel — a few hours after that disabled flight had occurred), but the Lord, again, met all of our needs.

In summary, it was one of the most powerful times of ministry that any of us have witnessed, and we thank all of your for your prayers, your financial partnership, and love. This truly was a ministry of the Lord through the lives of hundreds of Christians from the US into the country of Uganda!

Photos, more of the amazing details, and stories will be provided in our February newsletter which will be processed to you next week.

Praise be to our great God!

By God’s grace … to the nations,
Dan and Debbie Smythe