FoHA adopted a strategy of partnering with the local churches to respond to the health needs in the vulnerable communities. We work with exiting churches in vulnerable communities and in communities where there is no church through which we can respond to its needs, we plant a church to give the community new hope. We adopted this strategy because the church is God's ordained means to bless his people.
In May 2015 God used us to start a church in Mityana in the village of Kibogo and he gave us "New Hope" as the name of the church. This village had been enslaved by the devil with no church and people were relying so much on witchcraft as a remedy for their diseases, for good harvest and for solutions to the challenges in their marriages. Most marriages are polygamous which has increased the spread of HIV/AIDS and hence leaving many children as orphans under the care of their weak grandparents and positive single mothers. Access to health centers and to safe water is poor and people are dying from treatable and preventable diseases.
Its through New Hope Church that FoHA will reach out to this community by supporting children to go to school, giving people access to clean and safe water with water filters to families and drilling boreholes for communities, Organizing medical missions and also construct health centers to give people access to health services.
Evangelism Mission
The church planting process usually starts with an evangelism mission through the week and then ends with the the official opening of the church on a Sunday with the first service with the new converts. However, it was a different case with New Hope Church. The church started as a fellowship in one of our Rural Health Evangelists' houses (Pastor Matovu Tom) which grew in number that the members could not fit in the house. God blessed us with a piece of land where we constructed a temporary structure as we believe God for a permanent structure.
Since then we have been praying and organizing for the evangelism mission to preach to the people in the community to give their lives to God and to join the church.
God answered our prayers and we had the mission on 20th to 23rd August. We witnessed the glory of God and 50 people gave their lives to Christ.
We started each day with our morning devotion as a team, community service and door to door evangelism after breakfast at about 11am and then concluded the day with a gospel crusade in the trading center and a days evaluation as a team to asses the day and the need for improvement.
During community service we renovated houses for the elderly people using soil mixed in with water.
Gospel crusades started at 4:30pm and ended at 9:30pm. After every speaker on each day, we showed films and these also helped to speak in the lives of many people and they gave their lives to Christ. the first movie was a Nigerian Movie called 'The price' where one of the members in church witnessed falsely against the pastor claiming she had been raped and this held her in bondage with no child that could only be broken after revealing the truth to the church leadership. The other movie was called 'Final Exit' it was a short movie of about 15 minutes with a murderer who went to heaven because he had repented and given his life to Christ while in prison during his death sentence and an advocate of good works fighting for the rights of people who missed heaven because he had not accepted Jesus as his personal Lord and savior.
It was a wonderful time and we had about 150 people in the Sunday service. We had two speakers sharing the word and the children went for their Sunday school during the main service.
We had the children's camp together with the mission. During the service we had the children share in special songs and after they went to their class during the main service.
Challenges while on a mission
Whatever we faced during the mission and while we were getting there was evident that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against rulers, authorities and powers of the dark world and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. the devil was fighting against the gospel but we witnessed the power of God and we were victorious.
Accident: We had one team leaving us to take on other tasks and they left at about 7pm. On their way they got an accident and the car was spoiled destroying the car screen and the fragments falling on the people in the front seats but with minor cuts. Glory to God that no life was lost and they are all ok. please pray for all the people who were in the car against trauma.
Sound System. Since we are still trusting God for a sound system to move with during the mission outreaches, we had to hire the system. we tested the system and it sounded fine. However when it came to evening on the first day during the gospel crusade the machines failed to work properly. please pray with us for God to provide for the public address system. We have made research and the system will cost us about $2500.
Van. Because we needed to transport the machines and the team, we had to hire one van and a costa. we are still trusting God for a van to help in our transportation and also to cut on the costs of hiring a van. Not having the van ready delayed us and we got to the mission ground late and so we did not work as planned on the first day. we ask you to stand with us as we trust God for a Van. the van we need is expected to cost about $10,000
Seats. God has blessed the church that membership and the the number of people giving their lives to Christ keeps on growing. We still have a few benches in the church that on Sunday we needed to hire more benches to make sure that every one gets where to seat. the children had to sit down on a mat. we believe that God answers prayers. please pray for God's provision, for the benches and for the church construction.
Friends thank you for standing with us in prayer and through your giving. God was good and the mission was successful. we ask you to continue praying with the church and for the new believers to grow in the knowledge of Christ. If you would like to stand with us to support New Hope Church, please contact us or visit our website to know more about FoHA and to GIVE online.