For the last two weeks our team of 18 people did a mission to Karamoja, a region that lies northeast of Tororo (about an 8 hour drive), a land bordering Kenya and Sudan. Karamoja is the most rural area of Uganda. It is a 3-hour drive on dirt roads just to reach the first district. There is no power or running water as of yet in the entire area. The tribes are highly unreached and the majority are pastoralists. They are also known for being warriors and for raiding cattle from each other and the neighboring tribes. For years the land has been racked with violence, theft, and drunkenness. One of the main foods eaten by most of the poor, beginning from childhood, is the sediment of a kind of alcohol that they make out of sorghum flour. The living conditions are like nothing most people in the West could imagine. Because of the danger of raiding warriors, different families join together to live communally in a manyata. This is a kind of fortress made of sticks and thorns. To get in you need to go through a crawl space. Each families home within the manyata, usually one or two grass thatched huts, is also fortified by walls of sticks, thorns and crawl spaces. Food is scarce because the place is wilderness and there is only one rainy season. In the few towns that we visited, the Ugandan army has done well to protect the people, but it was tense. We were not allowed out of our resting place after dark, even to use the toilet, because soldiers patrolling can shoot on sight without asking questions! There is a tangible fear in many places. But we praise God because the Gospel of Jesus Christ is bringing hope and transformation.

       The purpose of our trip was two-fold: to strengthen the existing churches that are there and to plant a new church that will be pastored by Paul Jaka, a Youth Ablaze missionary, who is a native of the area. We are working in partnership with a ministry called CRM (Christ Restoration Ministries), which is an indigenous ministry planting churches and reaching the Karamojong. Currently they are overseeing 5 churches in this people group. Most of the leaders are uneducated and illiterate; one was a warrior who is now an evangelist!

       For two weeks we did a mixture of seminars for discipleship, door-to-door evangelism and open air preaching. Thousands of people heard the gospel of saving faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and an estimated 425 people made commitments to follow Christ, 310 adults and 115 children.  We baptized more than 60 new converts over 4 districts.

        In Lorengachora, the second district we visited, there was a tangible change in the atmosphere as we preached the gospel. People would literally just come in front while we were preaching and kneel down waiting for someone to pray for them to get saved. Every day more people were receiving new life in Christ until on the final day we baptized 40 new converts in that one village! That Sunday we received word that the place they were gathered was packed to capacity and people were outside trying to get in.

        In Moroto, the most developed town in Karamoja, we staged a crusade for one day. Over 25 people confessed Christ and as we prayed for the sick. Many people testified of healings of ailments such as disabled knees, malaria, and headaches. It became difficult to close the meeting as more and more people pleaded for prayer and ministry, but this was normal ministry everywhere we went. People were hungry and thirsty for God and for healing!

        During our time there, most people were cultivating their gardens expecting the rainy season to come, but for two weeks it was only sun and heat. The last 4 days we were planting a church in an unreached village made up of about ten manyatas. We visited people in their gardens to share Christ with them as they were digging and sowing in case the rains would come. Each afternoon, we would gather together with a collection of the villagers, under a large tree to teach them the Word of God, pray for the sick and those who wanted to receive Christ. On the second to last day, while praying over the people, one of our team leaders began to prophecy that rain would come in the name of Jesus. The next day, which was our last day of ministry there, as we were closing our mission with the new saints, the rain suddenly came! We serve a God who is living and performs His word!

        We left the place with great confidence that the mission was fulfilled. A church was planted, people received joy and the Holy Spirit and miracles followed the preaching of the Word. A certain woman who had been disturbed by demons since childhood testified to being completely delivered.

        This mission was practical training and fieldwork for all the student missionaries of Youth Ablaze, and all of them were involved in prayer, discipleship, preaching, testifying, personal evangelism and changing punctured tires. The trip was not without trials and testings, including vehicle problems, housing problems, sickness, and labor from morning to evening, but we returned home safely by the grace of God!

        I give glory to God for all that He is doing! Truly the gospel is reaching the uttermost parts of the earth. I bear witness that He is mighty to save. Thank you to all our faithful supporters, this mission was not possible without you. We want to see more and more missionaries like Paul Jaka sent and church planting movements like CRM started in the unreached areas of the world and we can't do that without your faithfulness and sacrifice.

God bless you in the name of Jesus Christ our risen King!

- Jesse and Rachelle