The Harris Family Update August 2018

“Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.” Colossians 1:28-29

This past week our ministry chose to make this verse in Colossians our theme verse. I am so grateful that God has placed our family within a group of like-minded individuals whose desire is to make Christ known and understood through abiding in the Word of God. We have been sent by God through you, our brothers and sisters, that we might labor to reveal Christ here in Uganda. So, thank you for being partners with us in the Gospel! It is so exciting to see how God is working and moving all around us. Some days are more exciting than others, and we aren’t always on spiritual mountaintops, but we trust Gods promise that His Word won’t return to Him void.

 

In the last month, we had the opportunity as a family to visit one of our students’ churches for a Sunday morning service. We were so blessed to see 200 or so people crammed together to the point of no more standing room, in a grass hut structure, with hearts and minds focused on Jesus Christ. Sometimes it can be scary to visit churches outside of America because, as a visiting adult male, the chances that you will end up preaching the sermon without any warning are very high, and that visit was no exception to the rule. Luckily I had guessed it would happen and I came prepared:). Please pray for Adak Deliverance Church, that they would grow in their understanding and knowledge of our Savior through a love for His Word, that they would be filled with the Holy Spirit, and that they would abide in Christ. Our future hope/plan is to visit one of our student’s churches on the third Sunday of every month.

 

 

This month had it’s highs, but it also had it’s difficulties. This past Sunday night was one of the most difficult things I’ve faced so far in life. After Noelle and I were asleep there was a knock on the door by our nursing staff from the clinic. A small child needed to be transported to a more equipped hospital due to his critical condition. He had far stages of malaria teamed with anemia. I drove him in the ambulance, along with his baby sister and his mother to the closest large hospital through extremely bad road conditions due to the rainy season. Upon arrival at the pediatric wing of the hospital, I learned that he died literally seconds before. Death is hard, but cross-culturally, handling a situation like that is even harder. I’ve had time to be candid with God and come to some closure, but please pray for the family of the boy.

 

Concerning our school, our first class of pastors just finished studying through the whole Old Testament, and our second class finished the first book of the Old Testament, Genesis. This coming week we will be teaching through the book of Exodus. Through my time studying through Exodus in preparation for teaching, God has really been showing me His faithfulness to His Word in the way that He remembered His covenant with Abraham and kept all of His previous promises. God is faithful. May He make us a faithful people who are content to honor Him day in and day out.

 

“I also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they sojourned. Furthermore I have heard the groaning of the sons of Israel, because the Egyptians are holding them in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant. Say, therefore, to say the sons of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you to the land which I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession; I am the LORD.’” Exodus 6:4-8