Bill Campbell And The Team - Lira, Uganda
July 31, 2004
Bill and the pastors are back in Jinja, Uganda now. Thank you, Jesus! And thank “you” for praying.
Please read the enclosed letter from Linda. She condensed reports from Bill and several of the pastors into one email for you. J
Bill is planning another trip to Lira, Uganda in two weeks. If you want to help financially with the next trip, please see the info at the end of the email. (No pressure meant)
God Bless you all,
Debby
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From Linda Campbell:
To our dear friends and prayer warriors,
Thank you for your “faithful prayer coverage” for Bill and the team. Any evil that was raised up to harm them was immediately disarmed. They were unaware of any danger. Praise the Lord, who is worthy to receive glory, honor, power, and praise. “We have arrived back in Jinja well in body yet heavily burdened in our souls. Jesus, let us see what You see. Jesus, let us feel what You feel. Let us enter into the suffering of Jesus with the love and compassion that He demonstrated. We thank God for His protection, favor and journey mercies over Pastor Bill, Pastor Hudson Suubi, Elder Jackson Eyotia, and Pastor Simon Toli, who traveled together with Bill. God bless them and their families and churches. God always chooses to partner with human vessels. He is amazing and moves in miraculous ways when we trust and obey!
Pastor Bill drove the SUV belonging to Dan Peters. Yes, he tried to stay on the left side of the road. He had three pastors with him to keep reminding him, “Veer left!” That must have been an amusing sight to see a Muzungu driving. They are usually amused or scared just to see a Muzungu-“white man”.
There has been an extensive drought in Lira with no rain for over three months. As we neared Lira, the heavy rains began to pour from the skies and continued for seven hours. This spiritually significant event spoke to us of the refreshing rain that Holy Spirit was about to release over Lira Town. We arrived at 5PM and were received warmly by the host, Pastor Francis of Agape Love Ministries. We were driven to The White House Hotel to freshen up. Many of the pastors of Lira met together later in the evening. Pastor Hudson shared with the other pastors how God had moved upon Bill’s heart last March, after reading a story of the torture of Apio by the Lord’s Resistant Army rebels. We had a wonderful time together in the Lord, as Bill ministered to us.
The next morning, we prayed over the food and donated clothing. There were a total of seventeen large bags of flour and beans. There were three large bags of clothing donated by the loving people of Jinja and Lugazi. It seemed like it was 5 loaves and 2 fishes to feed 5,000. However, we were being faced with 20,000 starving people. The first camp we were taken to was formed in 2002 and is the home of over 17,179 people from 24 sub-countries from northern Uganda. We were not allowed to distribute the food because it would have caused a riot. It will be given out through Agape Love Ministries.
Water is in short supply, which has aided in the increase of sickness and disease. The leaders of the camp begged us to help them get more wells. There are only 5 hand pump wells to sever the 17,000 people. There are some temporary latrines, which are far from adequate to service all the people. The smells were overpowering. People die every day, mainly of starvation, cholera, dysentery, and malaria. “Please pray for these people and stand with Prepare the Way Ministry, as we seek God for provision and how we are to be involved,” suggests Pastor Hudson.
The team believes that God is giving PTWM an opportunity to train up missionaries from these camps to go back to their villages when the war is over and spread the gospel to northern Uganda and bordering countries. The Christians in the camps cry out for spiritual and vocational training. Children are becoming the heads of households and caring for their younger siblings because both parents have died. Hudson writes, “Pastor Bill and the team encouraged the people, caring for them, touching them with the acceptance of Jesus, sharing God’s Word and praying for many, many of them.
The second camp we ministered in had a great need for shelters. It is hard to express the conditions that these people live in. This camp houses over 1,000 families. Pastor Francis shared, “An outside organization provided some tarps but not enough. Many shelters flood every time it rains. The tarps are good shelters and cost about $25 dollars each.” Even though world organizations bring in food, it only happens once a month. Due to the number of people, the food doesn’t last until the next shipment. The families search the bush for anything they can find to eat. You can try to imagine it, but you don’t feel it in your heart until you actually see it with your own eyes. There was a man squatting in a hut the size of a bathroom stall, boiling what looked and smelled like weeds over a fire made of scraps of wood. Another shelter was made of food sacks, and the smoke was pouring out to such a degree that I was concerned that the woman would suffocate. Hunger drives people to do the unimaginable. The camp leader said, “Please bring us tarps.” The rains from the night before had washed parts of their huts away. These “huts” were not as nice as the mud huts in the villages. They were made of scraps of material covering sticks, which had been shaped into a small dome just big enough to squat in. Bill reports, “Even in their misery, a few were able to smile at me. What could I speak? Words failed me. I told everyone to squeeze together as close as they could so they could hear me. I asked them to reach out their hands and touch me. While I was sharing Jesus with them, a man came and reported that yet another refugee had died. No one seemed to notice, not even blink. I cried out to God on their behalf. God…. hear my prayer!!!!!!”
Hudson writes, “On short notice, we gathered the pastors of twenty-six churches in Lira together, and Pastor Bill shared a timely message with them after being at the camps. The pastors pleaded for a pastor’s and leader’s conference, as well as a crusade mission outreach into the camps to encourage the Christians and reach the many who do not know Jesus. As Pastor Bill shared out of his heart from Matthew 9, the pastors called out to God for help to become the kind of laborer that God was looking for. As they cried out to the compassionate King, they were shaken and challenged with fresh fire and impartation. Bill said that while he was preaching to the pastors, he could hear gunshots in the night. No one flinched, as they trusted God for their very lives.
After the preaching, we were immediately rushed off to the home of a couple, who are caring for 100 orphans. These children are being provided for by Agape Love Ministries. A building is presently under construction, to properly house these little ones. World Orphans is supplying the funding this blessed project, and Duncan Hill, a wonderful, precious man from Montana is overseeing the operation of it. Pastor Bill prayed and broke the orphan spirit over the children. They are adopted into the Heavenly Father’s heart. They have been especially chosen by Jesus, Himself to be His children. Pray that God will supply their daily needs for food and education.
After reading the letter from Bill, I started to pray. I have such a comfortable and easy life in America. I already go to Africa. We minister in hospitals and orphanages. We do crusades and pastor’s conferences. My flesh cries out, “No danger, no suffering, no hardship.” Do we have to go into the deepest, darkest places of the earth? Softly, in my heart, I heard, “How much do you love Me? If you don’t have My compassion, you’ll not carry My glory. I will take you to the depths of My heart to the degree that you are willing to feel what I feel and love like I love.” God is preparing a Kingdom of kings and priests that will minister their love to Jesus. They will be fearless lovers of Jesus, able to overcome the evil before them. His heart cry is “Who will go.” His love compels us to go, and feel, and cry, and pray.
As we listen and hear God’s voice, He will give us radical strategies that we know not of. As we lean into His heart for His children of Uganda and not rely on our own understanding, He Will Bring It to Pass. He loves these people more than we do. He has a divine plan. Please continue to pray. Bill plans to go back to Lira in two weeks with more food and more Bibles.
Blessings,
Bill and Linda Campbell
Donations: If you wish to donate to Prepare the Way Ministry, you may do so by sending a check to the address below or using your credit card online at http://www.preparethewayministry.com/. All contributions are tax deductible.
Prepare the Way Ministry
2616 SW 9th Terrace
Lee’s Summit, MO 64081
pastorbill@preparethewayministry.com
Location: Lira, Uganda
Website: http://www.preparethewayministry.com/
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