The recruiting trail

Always. Be. Recruiting.

Recruiting prayer: Bundibugyo is a hard place on the front lines of where the Gospel is going forward. When I think about what if feels like to live in Bundibugyo, the verse that always comes to mind first is 2 Cor 4:8-10:

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned;struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

Hard pressed. Perplexed. Persecuted. Struck down.  These things are guaranteed in Bundibugyo. Every missionary that I know who has served in Bundibugyo has experienced this. Often. But what about being ‘not crushed,’ ‘not in despair,’ ‘not abandoned,’ and ‘not destroyed.’ This is not guaranteed. It’s not even something that you can work hard at. It is solely God provided.  If these qualities are there, they should be received with thanksgiving.  If they’re not it must be prayed for. I don’t know why God has ordered the universe this way, but He wants us to pray. And when we pray, we receive. And when we don’t receive, we should bang on God’s door relentlessly until He answers. This is Luke 11.

This last year in Bundibugyo I often felt crushed. I often despaired. I did not recruit prayer.  Anna and I are recruiting prayer for the ministry in Bundibugyo. We need your prayers.

Recruiting financial support: our ministry in Bundibugyo requires human resources and financial support. We’re providing the human resources.  But we need partners to provide the financial support.  Anna and I have been blessed by strong support teams who have supported our ministries faithfully as we have served in East Africa. We will be catching up with all of the members of our support team and asking them to continue to support us as a married couple. We will be recruiting new supporters.  I’ll also be raising support for the BundiWater fund – a special project fund that supports the bigger water development projects in Bundibugyo.

Recruiting human resources:  The harvest is plentiful…but the workers are few.  We are in need of Doctors, Engineers, Pastors, Administrators and Construction/Handymen who have a long term vision to share the Gospel with the people of Bundibugyo through evangelistic (preaching) and diaconal (healing and equipping) ministries.  And so we are recruiting.

This past Sunday we spoke at Redeemer Presbyterian Church (RPC).  It was five minutes to introduce ourselves to our home church while we are in Winston-Salem.  RPC has been instrumental in getting us housing, loaning us furniture, and making sure we are invited to dinners.  We are thankful for them and for their warm welcome as they walk alongside of us as a supporting church.

Picfare Tank Restoration

This summer I had the opportunity to work on some special projects with my engineering summer interns Jeff and Kevin, but haven’t blogged about them yet because of the unexpected refugee work in July and August.  One of our biggest community impact projects this summer was the restoration of the Picfare community water reservoir.  The plaster on the roof was breaking away exposing the brick internal masonry of the wall.  Local drainage from the nearby road and the tank’s overflow had eroded a portion of the base dangerously exposing the foundation and the valve service box had been destroyed. 

We began work at the site by fully removing the roof plaster which was separating from the concrete roof:

We then re-plastered the whole roof and used techniques to ensure a strong bond between the new plaster and the old roof:

We added a locking mechanism to the man-hole to secure the inside:

We reinforced the tank foundation with concrete:


We thoroughly cleaned the inside of the tank – which it was in desperate need of:

And we repaired the outlet valves and valve box:



We’ve finished all of the technical repairs to the tank and the Picfare community was very excited to have a fully functioning tank that wasn’t in danger of collapsing.  All that remains is the painting of a ‘safe water chain’ mural on the outside of the tank when I return to Bundibugyo from HMA.

We are very thankful to the Evans family who specifically gave to the Picfare tank restoration project!!

(Some pictures courtesy of Jeff Hosan)