“However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.”  

John 16:13-14

The night before Jesus died on the cross He discussed the future with His disciples and one of the main topics in their conversation was the coming of the Holy Spirit. Jesus explained to them that the role of the Holy Spirit was to illuminate and glorify Himself. This is a very important message for Ugandan Christians to understand as many “funny” things are done through “the filling of the Spirit”. Recently I witnessed the Holy Spirit in action when four people stood up during the announcements at church and declared that they had come that day in order to accept Jesus and be born again!

In 2021 I became one of the pastors of Calvary Chapel Gulu, and it has been so exciting to see God moving in and through our church more. But it has been hard to be involved with the church family while we are living so far away. We are thankful for Gods’ blessing of placing our new home very close to the church, and with the time we will save from the commute we will be able to be more involved. Among other things, we are specifically looking forward to creating new believer classes that will help new converts become grounded in their faith.

Last month our team was blessed to be trained in a holistic approach to ministry called Community Health Evangelism or “CHE” for short. CHE is designed to help a community recognize their own physical and spiritual deficits/needs and work together to solve them using what resources they already have. This method is being employed in every continent of the word and is having tremendous impact in communities in areas of health and hygiene, how to raise families, business ventures, agriculture and animal husbandry, and many other things. It is even being used to plant thousands of churches. After finishing our training, a few of us had the privilege to tour Northern Uganda and even South Sudan to see other groups of people who were implementing CHE. We believe that we will incorporate this into our Bible college curriculum, and we are excited about how the Holy Spirit will use it to transform communities around us!

Please continue praying with us that:

• We will be able to fully adopt our daughter Apio Cynthia.
• God will bless our transition into a new home and community.
• Many people here will be touched by God’s Holy Spirit and will come to a saving belief in Jesus.
• God will give us boldness to preach and represent Him.

In Christ,

Matt & Noelle & Family