Updated July 5th
I used to be an
Ostrich
About two weeks ago I was visiting with one of the people that my wife
and I had led to the Lord. A while back her adult son died and she
has had a very difficult time since then. She is saved, but she
has not been coming to church very much, and she told me that sometimes
it is better to just hide. She did not want to be involved in fear
that she may get hurt, and she did not want to do things that would take
her away from the memory of her son.
I told her that she
is acting like an Ostrich. You will not solve your problems by
sticking your head in the sand. The problems are still there.
We are also supposed to serve the Lord and if we choose to not learn
what he has for us to do then we will still have no excuse for not
serving Him.
On Sunday she came to Church and
she was very happy to be there. Then that evening one of her
relatives died. He had gotten saved at our church so we know that
he is in heaven. However, it was a very difficult time for many
people as this was a very nice young man. My wife and I went to
her home to visit her and she is doing all right. She told my
wife, "I was being an Ostrich, but that did not help me and now I am
going to face things and serve the Lord." What a blessing it was
to hear her wonderful testimony.
She will be out of town this
Sunday to attend a funeral, but she said that she will be back in church
next week. She is excited about being back in Church and serving
the Lord. I praise that Lord that she is no longer an Ostrich!
Today I had a wonderful time out soul winning. I had the privilege
of seeing 4 people get saved. Three of them were from one family.
I met a 26 year old man and he asked me to come to his home and to share
the Gospel with his family. We walked to his house and I then
shared with him and his mom and dad and they all got saved. They
are supposed to be in Church this Sunday.
We are starting our church revival this Sunday. It will last for 7 weeks. We have the revival services at regular church times. Many of the people here in Kampala work 6 days a week and many do not get home until 7 or 8 in the evening. So it is easier having the revival time during the regular services. Please be praying for us during this time.
On Monday Paul Hudson and I will be traveling to Northern Uganda for a funeral. One of the young men that used to be in our church was in an auto accident and died on the scene. He was a member of one of our churches in the town of Soroti. He was a good Christian young man and this has come as a shock to many people. Please especially be praying for Mrs. Phyllis Hall. She is one of our missionary ladies who had basically been like a mom to this young man. He was a blessing and he will be missed. We just praise the Lord that Dennis is now in Heaven. Please be praying for the church services in Soroti as they will be having a special memorial service on Sunday morning and they are expecting many lost visitors to come.
Well I have to go for now. Thank you for praying for our family and for the ministry here in Kampala.
James and Cheryl Pridgen
Updated June 16th
We do wish all of you Dad’s out there a Happy Fathers Day.
Things here have been going very good. Today in the morning services we had four visitors who had just moved into our area from Tanzania. All four of them responded to the invitation and were saved. After Church I spoke with a man by the name of Joe about salvation. He is a Ugandan and he just recently returned from the U.K. He and his family have been coming to church for about a month now. His family professes to be saved, but he is not. He enjoys coming to our church; however, he still has a lot of questions. I have talked with him before and after church today we spoke for about 45 minutes. Next week we are supposed to get together to go through the first lesson of discipleship which deals with salvation. I am praying that this lesson will help him in understanding and that he will get saved.
“THAT’S WHAT I WANT”
On Thursday during soul winning I had the opportunity to talk with a 92 year old man by the name of Yasef about salvation. I had visited him before and every time I would visit with him he would be sitting out front reading his Bible. He had said that he was saved in 1939. However, one of his grandchildren who has been coming to our church told us that his grandfather was not really saved. On Thursday evening as I began to talk with him he again told me that he was saved. I asked him about how he got saved. He told me that he had stood up in church and confessed his sins. I then began to share with him some scriptures from the Bible. He then told me that he believes in God. As we continued to talk he began to see the difference in what he had done and what the Bible says. I then asked him if he had any questions. He responded by saying, “THAT’S WHAT I WANT”. It was such a blessing to be able to see this man get saved.
When you consider that the average life expectancy is 52 years of age (up 10 years from the year 2000) it is amazing to meet a man this old here in Uganda. Mr. Yasef has a great love for the Lord and he is now wanting to do the discipleship material.
I just finished our discipleship book with with another new convert. This week we are going to continue to meet and we are going to go soul winning together. He is very excited about this. Be praying for him that he will continue to grow in the Lord.
Our son Stephen is now 2 years old. The day after his birthday he found a black marker and scribbled all over the floor in the living room. Cheryl said that he is now officially in his terrible twos. However, I told her that our son is advanced for his age and that he has been in his terrible twos for the past 6 months J. Anyway, all of us are doing well. Kimberly is taking some Flintstone vitamins that have iron in it and it is helping her. Michelle has to take allergy medicine about 4 or 5 times a week before bedtime, but she is doing better. She has not had to use the Nebulizer machine for a while now.
Be praying for us as prices continue to
rise here in Uganda. Just this past month the dollar here lost 6% of
its value and gas prices continue to go up. We are now paying $6.67 a
gallon. Grocery prices as well as some other things have also risen in
price.
The lease on our house is also expiring this month. I have spoken with
the landlord, and he is going to renew our lease for another 5 years and
he is increasing the rent. With the current housing situation here in
Kampala he could have raised it by at least twice the amount that he
did. So just be praying that he does not decide to raise it again
before we sign the new contract. We should be signing it this week
sometime. Also be praying for us as we should be renewing our work
permit this coming Friday. It has been in the process of being renewed
since February of this year. Be praying that we will be able to talk
with someone who will allow our kids to get a regular dependents pass.
I have heard that prices there in the states have gone up as well. So we will be praying for you all as you pray for us here.
Thank you for praying for our family and for the ministry here in Kampala, Uganda.
James & Cheryl Pridgen
Jennifer, Michelle, Kimberly & Stephen
Updated May 12th
We have been having problems with our internet again. However, besides this things are going well. Cheryl, Jennifer & Stephen are in the States right now. Cheryl and Jennifer are in Cheryl's sisters wedding. They will be coming back to Uganda on the 25th of May. Be praying for Michelle, Kimberly & myself as we are fending for ourselves here in Uganda. My girls have been worried about what we are going to eat. However, it has been a week now and we have not missed a meal. We have had some interesting meals, but everything is going well.
The Lord is still allowing me to personally see people saved every week. We are also having others saved every week through the services and through church members going soul winning. Today (May 11th) I had a visitor come to church and I will start discipling him this week. He seems very excited to be in the church here and he seems to have a desire to grow in the Lord.
This evening I was not able to go to the evening service. This is the first time in a long time that I have missed a service. However, on Friday I started feeling a bit sick. Then Saturday evening I had a terrible headache. It was very intense and I also had some other problems as well. It was so bad that when I called one of the men in our church I had trouble even being able to speak. I had a couple of the men ready to preach the Adult Bible Study and the morning service in case I was not able to come Sunday morning. However, the Lord blessed and I was able to be in the morning service. However, by the time I got home (about 2:00) I was very tired and a bit dizzy. So I missed the evening service and one of the men in the church preached the evening service. He called me after church to see how I was doing and he told me that the service went very well and that one person was saved.
We have finished our first year of Bible College. Our students did very well, and they are all planning on returning next semester.
We do thank you for praying for our family and for the ministry here in Kampala.
Please be praying for me as I am still not feeling very well.
Your Friend,
James Pridgen
April 14th 2008
On Wednesday we had several missionaries visiting our church. Since we are in the capital city we get to see many of our missionaries on a regular basis as they come to town. During our 5:00 p.m. service I asked them to each give a testimony and if they desired to also share with us the Word of God. It was wonderful to hear of how the Lord is blessing in other areas of Uganda, and they each shared with us different Scriptures that spoke to our heart. At the end I shared a few things from the Word of God, and we finished our service a little later than we normally do. During the 7:00 p.m. service some of our people were disappointed that they did not get to hear the testimonies of the missionaries who had come. We have two services on Wednesday because some people refuse to go out after dark and then there are others who do not get off of work until about 6 or 6:30.
This Sunday we had a group visit our church from Valley Forge Baptist Temple in Pennsylvania. They had been visiting one of our other missionaries in Uganda and they were in Kampala because they were preparing to leave to go back to the States. Anyway, they were a great blessing. This past Sunday both of our Youth teachers were out of town as well as two of our children's teachers. Some of the folks in this group were youth and children's teachers in their home church and they volunteered to help teach in some classes as we were short handed. It worked out great and our people also enjoyed getting to fellowship with them.
On Sunday we had a good group of people in Church and the Lord allowed us to see one person saved and another person followed the Lord in Believers Baptism. I was a bit busy on Sunday as our Church Van driver was also out of town. I drove the van about 30 minutes one way to pick up some folks for church. The people we are picking up in the van are from another area of the capital city where we are praying to start a church one day.
The Lord is still allowing me to see people saved every week through personal soul winning. Last week I had the opportunity to lead a man to the Lord by the name of James. Then today (Monday 14th) I had set an appointment to disciple a man at our church. This man is the brother of one of our faithful church members. I had met him before and he told me that he was saved, but I had not been able to talk to him about it much. He expressed a desire to grow in the Lord so I set up the time to disciple him. The first lesson in our discipleship book is on salvation. The man whom I was discipling today was named James and he brought a friend with him by the name of Moses. After going through the lesson they both said that they had never been saved according to the Bible. So I had the privilege of leading them both to the Lord today.
Please especially be praying for the man by the name of James who got saved today. He is a talk show host on one of the radio stations here in Kampala. He is very well known and he has also done some acting as well. He even ran for President just to show people that he could do it. His run for President only lasted about two weeks, but he was on the ballot. The Lord had been working on his heart before he got saved today, and he does seems to have a great desire to serve the Lord. I believe that if he continues in the direction that he is going that he will do a great work for the Lord in bringing many people to Christ.
Well I have to go for now. I am grading test that our Bible College Students took last week. Please be praying for us as we only have 3 more weeks before the semester ends.
Thank you for praying for our Family and for the ministry here in Kampala, Uganda.
Your Friend,
James Pridgen