Excuse Me….

Today Esther, one of our VOICE workers, and I had three meetings, one after the other, with people interested in Values.  Each one was encouraging, but I’ll focus on our middle meeting.

A person we’ve talked to lately about VOICE Africa had suggested we contact this certain Pen. Today that happened at a downtown restaurant. After initial introductions and an overview of VOICE, Esther took the lead to summarize the content of the Truth module by going through the Visual Aid Book. She had hardly started when, out of nowhere, a white gentleman approached our table and said “Excuse me.” He had seen the visual aid from his table and was drawn to listen in. Very soon, he asked if he could bring someone else to join us and a tall African woman joined our table. As it turns out, he had just been looking in a bookstore for something to help him teach godly values…and came away disappointed. His ministry includes students in a rural district just east of Kampala; the need for instilling Biblical values is so needed. As the sharing continued, he commented, “Now I know why I came to this restaurant today rather than the one I had planned to go to. Here I found you with exactly what I was looking for!” Before our sharing ended, he purchased the Module we had brought as a sample. Our new friends went on their way rejoicing with a promise to be in touch as he added the teaching of values to their ministry in the village. Needless to say, Esther and I were also thrilled!

As we continued sharing with Pen, it became obvious that she is a “mover and shaker” for

Esther and Pen

Biblical Values. Her passion has been stirred by the current downward spiral in the educational system, some of which she explained to us--heartbreaking stories of godless curriculum creeping into schools, cults, devil worship, and child sacrifice.  Within the last while, she has presented in 18 schools an excellent and persuasive power-point of the rationale for godly values including powerful teaching on moral purity and abstinence. She told us that the government has given her 100 schools where she can present her material! She also has used that same presentation in a number of churches.

But that’s not all. Just last week, Pen and her team approached Government to expose the godless curriculum present in some schools and to advocate Biblical values.  They also stormed Parliament with a backup of hundreds of students dressed in their uniforms who politely waited outside showing their agreement that godly values must be taught. 

We thank God for Pen and pray God will show us His plan as our ministries seem to complement one another—hers is a one-time presentation while ours is a weekly 6-class series. We don’t know how God will allow us to work together but we are assured that He is the One who opens doors that no man can shut. As we wait for God’s “excuse me….” we take fresh courage that He is working and will lead us to others He has called into His harvest field.