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IT IS TIME TO RESPOND

August 21, 2009 - Read all blogs

WHAT HAPPENS IN THE SOUL OF A MAN WHEN HE AND HIS FAMILY ARE FORCED FROM THEIR HOME INTO A REFUGEE CAMP? IN ORDER TO SURVIVE THEY LEAVE THE VAST LAND OF THEIR FATHERS AND MOVE TO A 15x15 FOOT PLOT TO LIVE IN A MUD HUT. WHAT HAPPENS TO HIS HEART WHEN HE HAS NO CHOICE BUT TO EXIST IN THAT CAMP FOR TWENTY-TWO YEARS?

The conditions are so poor that survival becomes the highest possible hope! World organizations have been sent in to help, but in the eyes of the people these organizations became their provider, deliverer, educator, healer, and counselor. Year after year passes by. In the hearts of the people despair turns to resentment and they began to die on the inside. They have some type of existence but they are by no means living. Many commit suicide to escape camp life. Others take their chances at escape only to be murdered by the rebel army.

 

Close Quarters

 

As time goes on the elders begin to die off, and with their death go the culture and life skills. Even God becomes a distant memory. New skills and attitudes have to be learned. Stealing, deceiving, and lust for what they do not have replace the culture.

 

You Can Not Forget the Past

 

Satan uses all his strategies to squeeze the life out of masses of people. The Ugandan army chased the rebel group out of Uganda, and to their thinking the land was now safe for the people to return to their homes and restart their lives as they were twenty-two years ago. Suddenly hundreds of thousands of people were told they had to leave the camps and go home. The war was over! The humanitarian assistance was over!

 

Kids are everywhere

 

The people are now returning to their homeland and are now required to fight a new battle. Many of their homes had been burned down or otherwise destroyed. Their land had become so overgrown, it is impossible to distinguish it from the jungle. There are no schools to send their children to. There are no churches or pastors anywhere for miles around. DOES GOD SEE THIS? DOES GOD HAVE A PLAN TO RESTORE THESE DESPERATE PEOPLE? GOD ALWAYS PREPARES THE WAY! GOD ALWAYS HAS A PLAN!

 

This Man Was From Congo

 

Three years ago, Linda and I visited one of the largest camps consisting of over 73,000 people. It was located in the Gulu area in the Pabo district. We were overwhelmed! What could we do? What were a few loaves and fish among so many? When I walked out of that camp, my heart was stirring.

I recognized that I had NO ANSWERS! The Lord began to drop a plan into my spirit. This plan was to train men and women in the word of God preparing them for the time when the people would be dispersed. They would be equipped and ready to take the message of God’s Kingdom through northern Uganda.

 

The Cool Evening Brings Out the Crowd

 

Nearly six months later, I held the first Prepare the Way Ministry pastors and leaders conference in the town of Gulu with Pastor John Bosco. Pastor Bosco was unsettled, and I later came to realize that it was because he was not walking in his calling. His calling was to be in the camps training people to become pastors and leaders. Working side by side with Pastor Bosco, we started Prepare the Way School of Ministry in one of the largest camps in a Pabo trading center.

Over the next two years, the Bible school struggled. Although we had no financial assistance, we printed the books. We not only taught the material in the books from Faith Bible College, but we also trained the people the principles that we have learned at World Revival Church. The students received solid Bible teaching and a fiery passion to impart the message of Jesus. In the fall of 2008, thirty graduates dressed in cap and gown proudly displayed their one year certificates.

 

The Everyone In the Family Comes to Receive the Certificate

 

Shortly after the graduation, the government began to require the displaced people to return to their homes. Within a year, the population of the camps had decreased by 80%. This spring, I met with some of the graduates to talk about this window of opportunity to penetrate into northern Uganda and Sudan with the gospel. God developed a message within me for the pastors and leaders of the area. There is a harvest! The laborers must have an urgency and intensity to recognize what God had placed in front of them.

The people needed a transformation in their minds from being “sponsored” and maintained in a camp to being “partners” with God to bring the presence of God to the north. One of the strategies God had given us is that the most practical way to travel would be by motorcycle as most areas are unreachable by any other means. God provided motorcycles for Pastor Bosco and me through Faith Revival Church’s generous heart. We began going into the bush to the small villages to bring encouragement and a plan of how we would be involved in their lives over the next few years. Due to the drastic shortage of pastors, we would use circuit preachers who would go from village to village teaching and instructing the Christians and bringing the message of salvation to the lost.

 

The Whole Village Camp Would Listen and Get Prayer

 

We rode our motorcycles all the way to the border of Sudan. We prayed into the continuing plan of God to go “north”. This summer, we are sending a small team into Sudan to find the best pathway and make “divine” contacts. We are asking God for the kind of people He has given us in the past to be appointed by Him to work with us in Sudan.

 

Motor Cycle Break

 

At our base in the Pabo trading center just outside of the camp, we had an evangelism week. I purposely did nothing but observe. It was run completely by the pastors in the area. We had an combined attendance of 2,000 people. This is a great opportunity!

 

Many People Responded for Prayer

 

The Lord has shown me that if we are going to be effective as leaders in this region, Linda and I must identify with the people and their culture. These people don’t have a lot of exposure to the world and don’t have the ability to accept us as “American” as we are. Our differences, whether they are where we sleep or what we eat can enhance or set up a road block to the gospel. I identify with Paul when he said “I will be all things to all people.” I must lose myself if I am to be effective there. Most western ministries bring their comforts with them. The Ugandan listen to them, but their long term impact is minimal. The Lord has said Prepare the Way Ministry needed to change the way we represent ourselves. I no longer stay in a hotel (as simple as that was), but I now stay in a hut with a grass roof which has been built in the traditional Acholi manner. There was a snake in the rafters the first time I entered my hut. I have no electricity and no running water. I have learned how to eat the local foods whether it is insects (live ants), roots, berries, or practically any part of an animal including lung, intestines, or chicken feet.  Our meetings occur many times in a small grass hut with a low ceiling where 50-60 people squeeze in to receive from God’s Word. When Jesus said, “Follow Me” he didn’t paraphrase it with the promise of comfort. He said, “Take up your cross and follow me.”

 

Bill's Grass Hut

 

We recognize that this “Window of Opportunity” will not be open forever. THIS IS A “NOW” MOMENT IN NORTHERN UGANDA. If we don’t respond to this urgency, another “religion” will come in with a lesser god with the teachings and tactics of terrorism.

 

If you say, “Go”, I will go,

 

If you say, “Wait”, I will wait,

 

If you say, “Step out on the water”,

 

And they say, "it can’t be done",

We’ll fix our eyes on You and we will GO!

 

With love and blessings,

 

Pastor Bill and Linda Campbell

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