Stensaas Family

Greetings from warm, dry, Uganda.  Yes, we have been experiencing an extra long dry season and has it been dry!  The dust is sometimes overwhelming, and prices on agricultural products continue to rise until we get some rain.  But that is typical here in Uganda.  Rainy season brings too much rain; dry season brings too much dust.  It just goes to show you that this life never satisfies, but in Jesus Christ we can always be satisfied.

Visitors Are Blessings: For the last four months our home has buzzed with blessings as we have had many people visit Uganda. This year seems to be the year for visitors.  Paul and Judith Wagoner from Billings, Montana arrived in July with much needed supplies for our orphanage. They had a great servant’s heart in helping out at the orphanage and school during their three-week stay.   In August, Pastor Jason Cochran of Grace Baptist Church in Moncton, Canada arrived with his wife and three ladies from his church.  They worked tirelessly in conducting a youth rally and three Vacation Bible Schools.  Over 80 teenagers attended the youth rally, and a couple of hundred met for the VBSs.  We are very grateful for the impact all of these visitors had on the young people of Uganda.

Charitable Children: As we are busy holding Vacation Bible Schools in Uganda, those across the ocean from us are busy giving their offerings to reach the world for Christ. North Point Baptist Church of Winston Salem, NC and the Vacation Bible Schools led by Current Gospel Chapel on the North Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas combined their offerings for a total of $1,330 to be used in Grace Christian Orphanage.  Clothes, shoes and bed sheets have been purchased, and we are finishing some projects at the orphanage, as well.  Then the children attending the VBS at Temple Baptist Church in Flower Mound, TX gave $1,856 to purchase Luganda Bibles for our churches here.  THANK YOU, CHILDREN!  May God richly bless your efforts.

Translation: Our Luganda translation team is working diligently and has reached chapter twelve in Romans.  Our goal is to be able to print a Luganda John & Romans booklet by the first of 2010.  Other translation work includes completing our discipleship course, a Bible Doctrines course and a start on a 50-lesson overview of the Bible.  Pray for wisdom in translating; it is not easy work!

Prayers For the Applegates: Along with the Canadian group, Missionary Tony Applegate was able to visit and get things up to speed in the orphanage and school.  Continue to pray for their daughter, Elysse, as the doctors determine the best course of action for correcting her deformed hands and feet.  Lord willing, the Applegates will return in the fall of 2010, thus allowing us to take our furlough in 2011.  We trust the Lord for His perfect timing in this situation.

Church Growth: It is exciting each Sunday to hear our preacher boys report on the soulwinning and services they have had in each of the preaching points.  Pray for these men as we desire to soon see independent Baptist churches started:  Brother JJ Kalanzi in Mbira, Brother Sebyoto James in Lukaya, and Brother Ssebanja Henry in Mbirizi.  In the last two months at Masaka Independent Baptist Church we have seen ten saved and twenty-one baptized.  The Lord has done some purging in our church here, but we continue to see good growth with our evening services running in the eighties.  We continue to pray that God will raise up a man with his family to pastor our town church.  I long to be out in the villages helping our men start their churches, but we are patiently waiting on God to bring us the right man who can lead this church.

Family Prayers: Continue to pray for our family and the wisdom Sally and I need in raising our children on a foreign field.  With all the work in the house, the ladies’ ministry, the children’s ministry, and homeschooling five children, Sally stays very busy.  Please pray for her strength to stay strong - physically and spiritually.  Pray for my leadership that God will give me discernment in our home and ministry.

I cannot thank you enough for all your prayers and support on our behalf.  Everything done here in Masaka is to the glory of our heavenly Father.  May He be praised and may we never forget that for His pleasure we are and were created.  May God richly bless you as we continue in His work together!!

 

 

Keith L. Stensaas