you When I was here last time, there was a lady asked me if I'd like a copper tie. I said, I've got one already. So if she's here, I will have a coffee instead, please. My wife will tell me off for telling that joke later, you know that. And I got the boys laughing. They did smile, they liked that one. I'm going to start this evening, before I call Natasha up, let me just say thank you again for inviting us back. It's good to be here, good to see some familiar faces, good to see our man Courtney there and a delight to be here. We found it easy getting in and hopefully the same getting home. Now in Uganda where we work, where we've been there nine years, I made a mistake recently. I was invited to a party of one of the graduates had a little party and I went without having a prepared sermon because of course nearly every time you go somewhere they will ask you to preach. And at the last minute I thought, what am I going to say? And I opened my Bible on this passage and spoke on this passage. And this is a very apt couple of Bible verses for Uganda, but also really here. This is the New King James Version. The word study in there is because that's in the AV. Be diligent or study to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly divide in the word of truth, but shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. And of course, these are Paul's instructions to young Timothy. But this is also something that I wanted to say to James at the time. James was one of our graduates. I'll show you a picture of him in a little while. Some of you, if you follow me on Facebook, you'll see that there's a kindergarten we have a little bit of involvement in and James, he runs that. Well, he had a little Bible study and there were a few other so-called pastors there at this party and I spoke on this and I wanted to start with the word study. And I'll be diligent and study. There's nothing wrong with studying, is there? We should all be students of the Bible. We should all study. And it was good to hear about the young lads taking their studies on. And even me, in my older years, I went back to university and did some study. And I still want to study. And I think we should all want to be studying and continually studying. We shouldn't give up studying, especially the Bible. But we see here also that it says, study to present yourself self-approved to God. So when we study, we approve ourselves to God. And also, I think God approves of study. That's what this verse is saying. God approves of us studying. We're not to be lazy. This sounds an obvious thing to a reformed audience, but if you've come from a Pentecostal background, many of them will say you don't need to study. The Holy Spirit will teach you what you need to know, and I'm sure you've heard that yourselves at some point. But I used to preach it a lot, but most churches have heard it now. But I preach a sermon called the wisest African in the Bible. And can anyone think who that is? The wisest African in the Bible? Yeah, well, in the Ethiopian unit, that's right. And there's a lot of reasons why he's wise, why he's reading his Bible, he's a humble man, and he's trusting God, and so on. But one of the things in that passage that I often remind Ugandans of is that the man is probably the most important man in all of Ethiopia. because he's in charge of all the Queen's money. And yet he's in a chariot and Philip sees him reading Isaiah and Philip says to him, do you know what you are reading? And what does he say? Well, of course I do. I'm an important man. No, he doesn't say that, does he? He says, how can I unless someone teaches me, unless someone guides me? And that's why, you know, it was the Holy Spirit that sent Philip, a man, to the Ethiopian. He didn't reveal the truth to the Ethiopian, this African man, East African as well, if you think about it. He didn't, he sent a man. And I said, that's why we need to study. You know, this is a good answer if anyone ever says to you, oh, you don't need to go to Bible college, you don't need to study, the Holy Spirit will teach you. Well, you can say, well, that's not the way it is in the Bible, in the New Testament. And so James had studied, and now he is a worker who does not need to be ashamed. And again, there is a shame. You know, certain people say, shame on you for going against your church and going to Bible college. But this says he does not need to be ashamed. And I think even all of us, we need to remember this if you're ever going out, and I know some of you do the open air. You know, going out in the open air, I do it, and I do it in Uganda, I've done it here, you'll see some pictures later. And it can be sort of hard work, it can sometimes, you feel embarrassed. you know that you are in a sense in the minority and you know you get a lot of conflicting issues about when you're doing it it's not an easy thing I'm sure you know but we're not to be ashamed. We're not to be ashamed and in fact, we're to be the opposite. We're representing the king and the king of all the universe, God approves of what we are doing. So we should be encouraged and even at work to witness. Don't be ashamed that you're the only one. Don't be embarrassed. You know, remember that you represent the king of the universe and he approves of what you are doing. And as this old man used to say in my church, God is no man's debtor. Don't be ashamed. And James, who is now studied, does not need to be ashamed. And then it says, to study, to rightly divide rightly dividing the word of truth and there what are we dividing? Well truth from error, right from wrong and good from evil. that's what James can do. My own mother, I have some issues in my family when my brother and niece and my mum writes in a text, well you might be cleverer than me and you might know the Bible better than me, but I know that God loves us all and all of us are going to heaven, not just the righteous. Well, she answered herself really, didn't she? When she said at the beginning, you know the Bible better than me. And I had to write back and say, well, mum, that's not the truth. And in a discussion with my niece, I said, you know, after she argued and called me a bigot, I said, well, it's the truth that sets us free. And so I sort of again felt some ease with that. And James and all our students, that's what they're learning in Uganda to divide. And we need to know it today, don't we? People call good evil an evil good. You know, these really are the last days, aren't they? I mean, we see these things, there's no denying them. And that's why. And again, I added this verse 16 because this is an important thing as well. We're to shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. And in fact, one of our past students emailed me today and said, what about these tongues in the Bible? And I said, well, they're idle babblings. I said, you know, the tongues in the Bible are foreign languages. And Paul spoke in more tongues than anyone. Well, because he was a missionary, wasn't he? Who went to the most islands. So he needed to speak more languages than anyone. And I said, every time you hear the angels in the Bible, they're not speaking in any sort of language we don't understand. It's very clear what the angels say. So I said, you know, you've got to keep yourself away from that. And one thing we notice in a lot of churches in Uganda, but also here, Britain and America is, there are three things that they like to do in these churches. One of them, of course, is praying in tongues, babbling. The other one is they like a word of, say, prophecy. I've got a word from the Lord. And the third one they'll say is, well, let's have a testimony, a word of testimony. And I say to my students, these three things that are making up the service, none of them require any study, do they? None of them require any preparation during the week, none of them involve the pastor having to get his Bible out and the commentary and do some diligent study but you see our students from African Bible University that's what they have done and they are not vain babbling, they are not idly babbling in the churches, they are rightly dividing the word of truth And we thank God for that, and we thank God for them. And the same for us. Let us be diligent, let us study the word, and not be ashamed, and not be drawn to such idle babblings, but let us rightly divide the word of truth in boldness for our God. Amen? Now it's a bit, please, a bit louder, because I'm coming from Africa. Amen? Amen. Hallelujah. Now I'm going to invite the chief registrar up from African Bible University to come and help me tell you a little bit about the work. So you're probably wondering why there was a picture of Wales up. That's not Wales. Although from here it looks a bit like that, doesn't it? But this is actually Western Africa, Western Uganda. This is like the west, this area here, and at the bottom of this mountain here, you would have like the area where the gorillas are. This sort of borders Rwanda, where that lady did the film, Gorillas in the Midst. And some of our students who live down there, they say they would sometimes go out to the farm in the morning, and there'd be gorillas on the field, you know, and they'd have to chase them off to do the farming. But if you leave African Bible University and drive even only five, 15 minutes, you can see a view like this. Because we're high up and we're on the equator, it's very equatorial. If you go sort of north of Uganda, it'd be rather dry and flat, but where we are and towards the west, it's beautiful and green like this. So there's every reason for you to come and visit. And we were talking earlier over dinner, there's not many creepy crawlies. Don't worry about those. These mountains in the background are the Roan Zori mountains and when the first explorers went there like Speaks, Richard Burton and Henry Stanley, Henry Stanley, Henry Morton Stanley and they said there was snow on the equator and the National Geographical Society said oh you're talking rubbish but there is and people do go mountaineering in Uganda. Me, I prefer the warmer lowlands. But yeah, so if you do come, this is what you'll see. Now, I'm Sean and this is Natasha Kinsella. We've been in Uganda nine years and when we go back, it'll be our 10th year. So what we've been doing this summer, because you haven't been for a while, we're sort of showing a bit of the past and a bit of the present for you to sort of see some comparisons. the first one I'll tell you where we live this is Uganda it's landlocked so everything we ship comes across from Mombasa there up by road to Uganda and we live about there This is Lake Victoria, and we live between Kampala and Entebbe. I chose two random places on the map, and this is basically the Entebbe Road, and we live in the middle, this place called Loboa, where you'll find the African Bible University. And you can see this is all Lake Victoria. So we can walk out of our house, walk five minutes up the road and see the biggest lake in Africa. It's very beautiful. We live on the Entebbe Road, well just off it and this is what the Entebbe Road looks like around four o'clock in the afternoon. Around 11 o'clock in the morning it looks the same as that both ways. So if you want to go into town you need one of these guys. These are called boda boda guys because they would ride the motorbike from the border to the border. So boda boda became boda boda. Now I have my own which I use if I need to go into town because you don't want to drive through that. But I very rarely take it out because you can imagine it's pretty chaotic. But I have a helmet as well, so I'm very careful. but now the Chinese are all over Africa really, and we have a few Chinese students even, but they built this road, this is the Entebbe Expressway, and this junction is about a mile from where we live, and you can see that the journey from Kampala to Entebbe, which used to take about two and a half to three hours. Anything up to four hours now takes about 40 minutes. So we're very grateful for that. Also, the university has grown. This is, you can see here, this is a new gymnasium. Up there, the church isn't there, but now it is up here. That's the chapel. We've also built new dormitories and new houses since this was here. I think, did Palmer Robertson come here one time? Well, when Parma came, this is what it was like, and this is what it is like now. Now, the pitch is the best football pitch in Uganda, and I'm sure Parma told you that as well. And we know it is because the national team come and train on the football pitch. and in the past they would come and see me and they'd say oh can you can the doctor come and pray for us and if he didn't maybe I would and we'd go and pray with the national football players and they would love it and when they were going off abroad they would stay with us the night before because I think the coach thought it was good discipline for them to be away from their girlfriends and so on and be and get a decent meal So they would come and we'd pray with them and then they started winning and they put it down to the fact that God was blessing them and I wasn't against that idea you know and we would pray to that end. Well then they had a little bit of a bad run and they sacked the manager. He was a Serb and they sacked him and they got a French manager in and of course the French and their philosophies, he didn't want to train at ABU anymore and he took him away but guess what happened? They started losing, that's right. And so what did they do? They sacked him and they got the Serbian back. And before you know it, they were back in the university training and we hope they start winning again. But it's a great opportunity for us. It gives us a higher profile because a lot of people come and watch them train. And also, Now the gym has got the only wooden floor in Uganda. It's the only gym with a wooden floor. So now the national basketball team are training at the university. And again, it opens the door to many opportunities. And in fact, I think Jeremiah went in one time with Melanzia and I think gave a short message and prayed with them. So you can see there is opportunities to reach those in high places. Pray for that work. So this is a picture of the faculty when we joined in 2013. So you can see the Robertsons there and ourselves. There's also Charles Magasha and Justice Musunguzi. And in fact, the two Ugandan staff and us are the only ones that are still serving at African Bible University. Sadly, all of the others have moved on to different things. And I'm sure you know that the Robertsons have moved back to the US and are now serving the Lord there. So this is a picture of our recent graduation in our chapel. So we have our new VC, Jeremiah Pitts, and Charles is still with us, and then we have other families, the Hawks, the Sinclairs, and the Washingtons. So the Robertsons left in June 2019, and this is a picture of them when we visited in 2011, so you can see how young the boys were there. And this next picture is a recent photo of them at Murray's wedding. So Murray's now married. You can see Doctor and Joanna there. And then their two boys, Elliot and Daniel. Daniel's now the tallest of them all, even though he's the youngest. But yeah, so Doctor, they're back in the USA, so... They're in Cambridge. They arrive in Cambridge soon, actually. They'll be in the UK. So... The last time we were here we were asking for prayer for a new vice-chancellor because it's so important to have a good godly leader for the university and we are really happy to say that the Lord has answered our prayers and he sent us the Pitts family, Jeremiah Pitts and his wife Kari and their children Maya, Mitchell and Ezra. We're now the only British on the campus because Joanna has gone with Palmer. But Mitchell here, who's only 11, by the way, he actually thinks he's British, because he loves the great British bake-off. And his dad says he's very good at the desserts. But he loves it. He sort of loves everything about Britain. So we think we're going to make him a nominal Brit to join us. Now this is the 2013 intake, so we joined, we first were called to ABU in 2011 when we visited, but we didn't see there was, the timing wasn't right. And then two years later when suddenly I was looking like I was going to be out of work, Palmer came back to us and said, would you consider coming to Uganda? And then we couldn't see a reason why not to go. And our church supported that decision. And so when we joined in 2013, we were like first years. And this was the first year class then. And we sort of still know them all. We get on very well with them. We love them dearly. And I put this picture up because we will finish the presentation tonight by looking at this class and what they're doing now so you can see the influence that African Bible University has had on them and the various areas they live. Now this was the intake last year and you can see there are a lot less numbers. But I just want to draw attention to a couple of things. One is this lady here, her name is Grace. She's Korean. We have a few. She's the only Korean we have at the moment, but we have three Chinese this man Ezra is Congolese and this was America we have some Kenyans as well and I Rwandans as well so we are still international a lot of East Africa but also Asia we have quite a few Asian students. Grace here was she lost her husband he was a missionary in Uganda and he died suddenly unexpectedly and she lost her joy of the Lord she said she lost the joy of the word and so she joined us to try and restore that joy So I told her all sorts of copper tie jokes, which she didn't understand, but she does smile a lot more now. She's one of the oldest. This is one of the youngest. This is Jane. She lost her father last month. Death is something that's always around the corner in Uganda. And do pray for her. Another one to draw your attention to is this man at the back, Godfrey Kutesa. Now he's a very interesting chap because when he came to join, he filled in his application form and Natasha looked at it and it said occupation CID. He's in the police. So we all sort of heard about this and thought, well, is he President Museveni's latest spy? Because it is believed that Museveni has spies in nearly every institution in Uganda. Now, especially in universities, because students can easily rise up, cause a lot of problems and a lot of damage. But we thought, well, we have nothing to hide. We're a Bible university. And what we teach is the treasures of God's truth. And we teach the students to be servant leaders for Christ. So when he first came, he was a little bit standoffish and very quiet. within a few weeks he would come into chapel on Monday morning, pick up a big table, carry it down the front, plonk it down and take notes all week through every sermon. And then we would sometimes have a day of prayer And we would say, can someone from the first year stand up and pray? And we'd say, Godfrey, will you pray? And he would always stand up and say how privileged they were, how wonderful ABU is, and what a great effect it's had on him. So we thank God for that. But do pray for Godfrey. He probably still is a spy, but, well, he's got nothing to hide. So this is a picture of our first graduation that we attended in 2014. You can see it was a very large class and we had a wonderful celebration that day. And this is the picture of our graduation in 2020. You see six, 2022. You can see there are six students there, seven actually graduated. This was a small class, but several are missing because of COVID and going online. It meant that many students just couldn't manage to continue their studies. You can imagine some of them go back to the village. There's no power for two weeks or more. The network is poor. So online learning was a really big challenge for us. So we trust that the Lord will help those who've been held back and that they will graduate next year. But we trust that the Lord can work by many or by few. And we thank him for each one of these students. Sharon was the only lady in that class and she's going on to hopefully be a teacher. We were just so grateful for each one of these men as well. All of our students give a senior sermon in their final year and it's such an encouragement to hear each one of these men preach. Very good preachers as well. So originally we had two degrees. But recently we had to re-accredit our programs and so working with the governing body we have moved from two to four degrees. So we now teach a Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies, a Bachelor of Mass Communication, a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in Education. You notice there that there's not really the Bible in many of those courses, but each one of our students still studies the Bible, it's just that we weren't allowed to put the name in there. We couldn't manage to negotiate that, but every student at ABU studies Bible courses, foundation courses, and then if they're doing one of the other degrees, they'll study business or mass communication. So we still kept our uniqueness as we had before, but now our students have to study more hours. So you can see there we've gone from two degrees to four. So that has put pressure on our faculty. And so we are looking to recruit more faculty. So please pray for that. And if you know of anyone who you think might have the gifts to teach in Uganda, then we would love to hear about them. So we were talking over dinner about open air work and One of the subjects I teach, I mean, I teach now six history classes. I teach two English, oversee the sport, I teach education classes. And when I go back, I'm doing a new ICT computer class. But also I teach open air evangelism. And this is when we visited in a, 2011 you can someone a little bit slimmer there and I remember this day I went out Palmer Robertson I kept writing to him saying Palmer I can do this I can do that you just tell me what you want me to do and Johanna would write back saying yeah we're looking forward to your visit and that was it and I kept waiting and writing and hearing nothing and then on the morning I was leaving Palmer wrote to me and said I've got you down for teaching two English lessons two histories to sport, preaching on Wednesday morning, outreach on Thursday afternoon, and maybe somewhere on Sunday. It was like, oh, wow. And so anyway, I just sort of improvised a board as I went out with these guys, and I got a talk in my hand. And they said, oh, this guy, he's really good at translating. So I found that if I raise my voice, because this little guy bellowed everything out, I said, over a microphone, so I could be heard five miles away. Everything I said, and I thought, well, I can see there's a need for some teaching of open air evangelism. And so, when I went back, that was one of the jobs I was given. And I found my vocation in life was to hold the board while the students did the preaching. This is O.P.O. Godwill Smith. this is Edrin Chamberday and we were preaching here one of my sermons in Kajantse and these young men they loved preaching in the open air. Now this is me with a senior class just back in May of this year and we would go out a couple of times and choose areas to do the open air and I would always start off to give them a bit of encouragement and then afterwards the students would preach their own messages. And this is Patrick Schwery and he's with James here and behind him is Jimmy Komakich and there's Gilbert Eckel and Patrick loved preaching in the open air. And he's doing his own talk here. All the students have to write their own talk. They can use my help. So what I would do is I would laminate them for them so they could keep them. And about a week after this week, there was a medical group came to the university and I got my board out. You can see now we've gone up market, got a nice furry one. and a proper easel, and I took it out, and Patrick came out with his talk, and we both were doing some open airs at the medical mission. So it was wonderful seeing him do that. And then in June, we brought some sunshine back with us, and I was in Cambridge, and this is Cambridge down by the back of St. Andrew the Great Church, and I was there, and a friend of mine, Andy Little, was there preaching and I was giving him some encouragement and he said, are you going to have a go? I said, well, I haven't got any talks. He says, my bag's behind there. Go and pick one out. So I did. I do this one myself in Uganda. Are you good enough to go to heaven? And I preached the message. And when I finished, I don't know if you know him, but Jim, um, Jim Henry shouted out, you've not lost it, Sean. I said, well, we praise God for that. So it was good to get out there and I did the message twice and we had a few good conversations. So do pray for that work as well. Like I said, the kindergarten, the Royal Child Kindergarten is a work we've been involved with. One of our students came to me and he said, I've got a kindergarten. And we're teaching children, can you come and have a look? And I sort of looked and thought, wow, the inside of the classrooms was like this. This was the toilets. And it was a little bit rough. And so we did a bit of crowdsourcing and raising a few funds. We put the path down, the gutter in. We floored the tile of the classrooms, put ceilings in and electricity, put up boards for displays. And we also built the best toilet block in Uganda. And I'll say this is why I did it. Because these are the shower rooms and these are the toilets. And what I did was I said, look, we're going to put some big buckets in the roof. And we'll put some holes in the roof. Because when it rains, it's like torrential rain. And I said, what will happen? The rain will fall through the holes. fill the buckets, we'll put some pipes from the buckets, and they go out there, come out of the wall, into a shower head, you turn it on, and you get a hot shower. How's that? And it works, and they love it. And fortunately, really, as well, it was good we did it because during the lockdown, the president shut the schools for two years. Can you imagine? And some of these people had no way of making any money. So what James did is he rented the classrooms out and people moved in and they became their homes. And so they had like decent toilets as well. So he got some good rent for them during those two years. Now we still do a little bit of work. In fact, the crafts at the back, some of the money will go to the kindergarten and some to some children that we sponsor in school. So, you know, you're the last place we visit, so if you clean us out of crafts and gifts, we'll be very happy. But James, he graduated last year, and so we sort of stepped back. Recently, he had some issues with land grabbing from his family because his aunt died, but our church stepped in, and hopefully that's sorted. They recently had, I think, a sports day, A lot of parents came, so do pray for the work. He's a lovely guy, James, and he was the one I spoke at during the graduation thing, so do pray for that work. So Martha is a Ugandan nurse who we met at church, and she lived with us for about three years, and mainly during the lockdown. And Martha has visited the UK and some of the churches that we speak at. So many people know who she is and have met her. So this is a slide to show her wedding. She got married to Nelson in August last year. She's a wonderful godly lady and he's a wonderful godly man. We're just so happy for them. So Martha now lives across Kampala on the other side of town, but we still see them on Sunday in worship. I got to walk her. So this is a picture of Olivia, myself, and Sharina. This is a picture of us going to Martha's Kwanjula, which is her cultural wedding, and we're wearing the traditional Gomezi, which is in the central Uganda. Olivia was our helper at home, and I met Sharina in 2016. Sean was preaching at a reform student organization meeting, and she met me afterwards and asked if I could direct her to a good church and since then we've been meeting for prayer and bible study and she now works in the office at ABU and lives on campus and she comes most evenings to have family worship with us. So that's the Gumezi but what Natasha is wearing there is Chitenge. this sort of patterned material comes from Western Uganda, from Ghana and West Africa, sorry not West Uganda, West Africa and it's sort of all over Africa and there are thousands of different patterns and some at the back. So this is the last slide and what we're going to do is quickly go through what some of these students are doing to tell you the difference that ABU makes in their lives. We'll begin with James Adima here. He was a Pentecostal preacher. He now preaches Reformed Theology up in the north of Lyra. He works for an international company. We thank God for that because that means regular wages. And also he still teaches and preaches in that area. He got married to Judith and I preached at that wedding and then they had a daughter and they named her Natasha. Isn't that nice? And then they had a son and they named him Bill. Yeah, probably Bill. It wasn't Sean. I tell you, I had to call him. I said, what's going on? You named the girl Natasha? He said, but he said, I chose Natasha, but Judith chose the boy's name. So I was like, all right, This is Eunice Apili, she's also from Lira in northern Uganda. She studied education and after graduation she went on to do a master's in Chambogo University, which is in Kampala. She married Simon Peter Achero, who is another one of our graduates. and they now have two children. She occasionally teaches at ABU, but she also leads the ladies' ministry in the church where her husband is the assistant pastor. And Mrs. Museveni, the president's wife, she came and sort of led the graduation a few years back. And while she was there, she said, we need an assistant pastor at our church, and we'd like someone from ABU. And Simon Peter is the man. So he preaches in the same church that the president's wife and daughter go to. So again, it's a good thing. It's a good influence. Pray for that. Next to Eunice is Christine Joy. She was another education student of mine. She now works for Compassion International, up in again from Leroy. We had a lot of students from Leroy that year. And she married Andrew Ogwell, who was another one of our students. And often when I go around the schools, I say, come to ABU, you'll get a good biblical education. You'll get a good knowledge of who God is, and you might well get a good spouse. And that's what we hope, that all our students will marry each other, because there's nothing like marrying someone who's of equal standing, is there? So we thank God for them. And this is Pius Emesu. He's from Eastern Uganda, in Soroti. He studied business and after graduation he went back to Soroti and started training the local pastors and also planting a church. He was doing a really good work there. He recently, just in June this year, married Sharon, who is another one of our graduates. Sharon has a full-time job in a local Christian school in Kampala. And so Pius will be now moving to Kampala. So please pray that he would find good ministry opportunities in Kampala because he really was doing a good work in the village. But you see, because Sharon has the good job with the regular money, pastors like Pius of the country, they get no money. So really, that's why he has to move. You know, you always go whoever has the best job. This is Praise, Grace, Joy, Chia Banga. When she joined, I was looking at the register, I said, Praise, Grace, Joy, Chia Banga. I said, what can I abbreviate that to? She said, Praise, Grace, Joy, Chia Banga. I said, what about just Praise, Grace? She said, Praise, Grace, Joy, Chia Banga. I was like, right, okay. So that's how it stayed. And she was a very serious student, and I didn't wanna cross her. And anyway, so come the fourth year, she's about to leave. And so was our librarian. And Palmer said, we need someone that we can put in the library who the students will do what they say. If she tells them to bring the book back, they'll bring it. And we all thought, everyone was thinking, yeah, we know who could do that job. And of course, yeah, it was praise, grace, joy. She had anger, and now she's been our librarian for five years. And in fact, she does let you call her praise or praise grace if you're in the good books. She is the Dean of Women as well. So any women's issues she deals with me, I'm the Dean of Men. So sometimes we get together if there are student issues to sort out. But she's a lovely lady and we thank God for her. This is Merab Charisima. She was a business graduate, and after graduation we asked her if she would be the assistant registrar at African Bible University, so I work with her every day. I'm so thankful to God for her. She's a wonderful person to work with. We call her Merab, but many people call her Nalongo, which means mother of twins. And if Natasha was from the north of Uganda, she'd be known as? Apio. Which means? The eldest female twin. You are named what you are. This is Samuel Ntabayesi. And he's a Rwandan student, the only Rwandan in that class. Now he, most Rwandans who come from Rwanda, they want to stay in Uganda because there's a little bit more freedom in Uganda than there is in Rwanda. But Samuel, he's got family there, so he went back and he's serving in his church. He's a preacher, a very good preacher in the church, but also on the radio. He was a communications major and he's preaching to thousands over the radio. The radio is still very big in Uganda. And as you know, the African Bible University, we have our own radio station and we have thousands listening to us. And the message is going out regularly, you know, reform preaching going out over the air now in Uganda and in Rwanda. We praise God for that. This is Eric Okoth. He is now serving at the Civil Aviation Authority in Entebbe. This is Esther Shackler, our only American graduate to date. She was an excellent student. She's since taken a master's as well. And last year she married Sammy. And I believe that their first child is very imminent. So you can pray for them and the work they're doing over in the States. This is Bongamin Ben. He's from Kitgum in the far north of Uganda, quite close to the South Sudanese border. After graduating in business, he got the opportunity to come to the UK and do pastoral training with Oak Hill and the Anglican Church. So he came for a year and worked with a church in Surrey. He's now back in Uganda in Kitgum and he's working with George Kilama, who is another one of our graduates. And George graduated in 2016, and he went back to his denomination in the north. And at first, there was some challenges for him, but as he served and as he was diligent in preaching the word, they realized his gifts, and he's now been made the head of over 70 churches in that area, and Ben works alongside him. I think Ben is hoping to be ordained at some point in the future. The other corner, this is Moses Okello. And he also is an assistant pastor to one of our graduates, Solomon Okello. And they're up in Lira. And I recently went up to observe a teacher called Francis Okello. None of them are related, but they're just many Okellos in the north. And I went to the school. and France had a maths class with 100 secondary students and I was quite surprised. It was smaller than most of the students, but he did really well. And I had a look at the register and 70 of the students, their surnames began with O. I was like, oh dear. So that's a bit hard work. Good job you don't have to remember their names. But afterwards, the head teacher said to me, what is it like teaching in England? And I said, well, I said, if you were teaching in England, that many children in secondary school, I said, that guard you've got on the gate with the gun, you would need him in the classroom. And he was like, oh, it's like that, is it? I said, it's very much like that, yes. But Moses is doing a good work there in Lyra. They've just started a Presbyterian church, part of a new denomination. This is Faith Wainaina. She's from Kenya. She's an education student, and after graduating, she went to teach at Sufficiency of Scripture School in Luwero, which is in central Uganda. Whilst there, she met Ronald, and they got married. Ronald is the head of the primary section in that school, and Faith teaches in the primary section, and they have one child. This is Erastol, he's from Kenya. When he was a student I used to call him a rascal because him and Pius were like the class clowns. And the funny thing was that every joke they told or every skit they made was so funny because it was not funny. You know, so they were very entertaining. But Erasto, he studied business, he got his degree, went back to Kenya, he was working, but things dried up. So he got in touch with Moses and they must have been talking, and Moses said, well, why don't you come back to Uganda and lead the youth work in Lira? And that's what he's doing. So we thank God he's doing that. But it does give you a picture of how difficult it is for students to find work. and to keep a good job. This is Gloria Nagai. She's from central Uganda and she's currently the head teacher in a village school that one of our other graduates started. This is Joram. He's been ordained in the Anglican Church in Uganda. He's a very good preacher. We thank God for him. He recently married Rushdie and he also runs his own micro-finance business. None of the pastors really, unless you were like say in Kampala and even then it would be very difficult to sustain yourself just by being a pastor. So you do need another job and of course that's what we teach in many of them. And finally this is Jacques Mavouya, he's from the Democratic Republic of Congo. He was a refugee in Uganda and managed to get a scholarship to study with us and he studied mass communication. He graduated and after that he was serving as an assistant pastor in a local church. He's since married and has two children. And he now feels the Lord calling him back to his home country, the Congo, to minister to his own people. I'm sure you're aware of the difficulties and challenges in the Congo with rebels and different things. And so it's very hard for them. So they kind of move between Congo and Uganda right now. But please pray for him that they would be able to settle in the Congo and minister to their own people. I think last time I was here, I spoke about Opoki. You may have heard of him, the one who worked with the Pygmies in the forests of the Congo. Well, he's now in Uganda, Kampara at the moment, at ABU. And he was sending messages out earlier this year that they could hear gunfire and the whole village fled the village and hid in the forests. while these rebels came through and camped out in their village, in their houses for about a week and then moved on to somewhere else. And the situation was so desperate that the Congolese president asked the president of Uganda, Museveni, to send troops into the Congo to try and flush out these rebels. So there's still some serious fighting going on. So that's really a picture of what they're doing. You can see many of them are serving where they live. They're serving the Lord and working. Some of them doing two things. But they really are a wonderful class. And this is a good picture of what the students from ABU do and how they impact where they live. And we don't expect you to remember all their names. But we do pray for them, and especially, you know, for the jobs. We've got some prayer points here which we'll share with you if you want to take a picture of them or something at the end, then you can. Yeah, so we mentioned that we've gone from two degrees to four, and so that really has put a lot of pressure on our faculty. And so please pray that the Lord would send the right people to teach at African Bible University. Pray for more students. You can see the numbers were down. And at one time we'd have about 100 students, but because of COVID affecting recruitment, enrolment as well, our numbers are really down to about the 60s. So we do need a big intake. We don't know what it will be until we go back. And of course you can't run a university without students. So do please pray for more students. We'd like to add additional courses, we're considering IT and Law, but please pray that the Lord would give us wisdom as we consider how to move the university forward. Employment for graduates, they all need jobs, they all need an income. And like I said, serving in the church is not going to give you an income. And many of them are qualified, but the trouble is, jobs The employers might pay you for the first month, but usually the second one, they drag it away. And so you end up staying in a job because they owe you money, but the money never comes. It really is difficult and times are hard. So pray for them that they get good jobs. And the ones like James who have started their own projects, pray that there's success in those businesses. Many of our students lack their own resources to come to ABU and so we rely on scholarships. So we trust that the Lord will continue to provide for that. So please pray that he would and that more students could come. We ask you to pray for the Chin Chin and ABU family because, I don't know if you know this, but on July the 7th, our president, Dr Paul Chin Chin, who'd been in Africa for 50 of his 58 years, he died. suddenly died over his laptop doing some work one night the wife went out looking for him and there he was dead and um but he's gone to glory we thank god for that but he left behind a wife four children and the only i think the week before had held his first grandchild so we've lost a president and um you know it would be worrying times but the lord encouraged us through the appointment of uh Dr. Jeremiah Pitts. We were so worried when we were last home about who would step into Palmer's shoes. Jeremiah was Palmer's man and God provided a great man, better than we could have ever thought. And so we trust that the universities and the college in Malawi and Liberia are in good hands because they're in the Lord's hands. And the Bible says that contentment with godliness is great gain. And so please pray that for us. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your patience. As we go through these talks, it gets longer and longer every week. Sorry about that. But if you've got any questions, you can ask questions. If not, you can speak to us after. We'd love to answer any questions you have. Sorry? If you didn't have them at the university, they probably wouldn't turn up. So that's why we keep them at the university. Well, there was, There was a bombing in the city center a few months ago, and I think a few people were killed. There were two, but you know, we heard that Museveni sent the army straight to the mosque, and the imam was shot in the mosque, one of them, and the other one ran off from where these men had been sort of indoctrinated. So I mean that was really sort of quite extreme because in the past Museveni has like tried to appease them but we don't hear much of it where we are. I think there are incidents that are scattered around But one of the more significant things is that in Rwanda, Kagame shut down 6,000 churches and mosques. And that idea of whether Uganda will follow suit is another thing. Because these men were not trained, Kagame has said, if you want to open a church or a mosque, you have to have a degree. So that might be good for us, but there's a sort of balance of the heavy-handed government, but also sometimes, like I said, there's a lot of vain babblings going on in these churches. Saudi Arabia and Iraq and Iran, they're pouring money in to build these mosques. And of course they'll do it as well to schools. They'll build schools and they'll offer scholarships. So any Ugandan really, because it's the idea of a degree, they'll say, oh yeah, I've become a Muslim. It's important. I think a lot of Ugandans are not savvy to how dangerous Islam is. A lot of the times I talk to the students and the mosque is going off and they're like, it's okay, it's nothing really. I say, no it isn't. I say, because one day I said they'll be shouting from there, let's kill the infidels and you'll be thinking nothing because you don't understand it. But you see, they don't realise the danger. They don't realise what Islam can do. Is there much of a presence of any of the cults? Do they come over from America? Yeah, massively. Prosperity. Prosperity is a big thing in poor countries. You know, they say, don't they? Really, prosperity gospel thrives where there's poverty. Because it's like the lottery, isn't it? A lot of Ugandans think they don't look bad upon these preachers, even if they're found out to be charlatans. A lot of Ugandans think, well, one day it'll be my turn. There is a lot of that, there's Seventh Day Adventism, the Mormons are there, we see them, and there are Jehovah's Witnesses. Jehovah's Witnesses were outside the supermarket one day with their board, and I was talking to them, and I just stood there, and everyone came up, and they would say, do you want to leave? And I'd say, yeah, because it's teaching lies. And they looked at me, and the next one, do you want to leave? And I said, it's teaching lies. They said, are you going to stand there all day and do that? I said, as long as you're standing there, I will. They didn't like it. I said, if you're giving those out, I've got to correct them from error. I said, I'm from the Bible University. I said, it wouldn't be much faith of mine, would it? If I let these people walk in there and believe in that rubbish, they stop going out in the supermarket now and they've gone elsewhere. But yeah, there's a lot of that. They have a huge distribution centre right next to us. They're our neighbour. Yeah, the biggest in East Africa. So we're praying for that. And also, a lot of witchcraft, you know, is still there, still prevalent. Praise, grace, joy, Natasha usually tells you about. She changed her name. Her name was a witchcraft name. And that's why she insisted on the whole name. No, no. Yeah. One of them, Kenny McKenzie, who built ABU from Scotland, he built a school nearby. And the witch doctor next door would throw chicken sacrifices over onto the dormitory roofs. And he kept doing it. And then when they finished the building, he was the first there with his daughter. Kenny McKenzie stood on the gate. He says, you're not coming in. You come back next year. She can't come in. They'll teach her for doing that. Can you imagine? It's mad. But they still fear it. I mean, like for me, one of the students, we went to an area, I was going to do an open air. And I said, this looks good. And I said, under this big tree, let's do it here. And then he came over to me and he said, which doctor over there in that house says you've got to leave? And I was like, I ain't leaving. I ain't scared of him. I'm not bothered. And I wasn't. But he said, you know, he could get people to harm you. They would do it because the witch doctor has told them. I said, well, all right, maybe we move on then. But a lot of Ugandans, they would be very fearful of the witch doctor.