The Colorado team sees God at work in northwestern Uganda

A few days ago we posted some pics from the Colorado Springs DTS outreach in a Congolese refugee camp in southern Sudan.

Today we want to show you more photos and share more testimonies about the amazing things God is doing in and through this team in Uganda. Be blessed as you read!



The team went from Sudan to a small town called Paidha in Western Uganda, where they met

Pastor Sipi and his wife Mama Rose.

The pastor and his wife hosted the team while they were busy doing ministry in the town.


The team started off with doing open-air crusades where they

worshipped God,

acted out skits,

and preached the Good News!

This man, Alfred, was in the crowd at one of the open-air crusades, and then started visiting the team at Pastor Sipi's house to ask questions and learn more about God. After several discussions, he decided to give his life to Christ! He is the first in his family of Muslims to become a follower of Christ.


Joam was given the honour to baptize Alfred, after which he was prayed for by Pastor Sipi and given a new name...Joshua. Please pray for this lovely man as he goes to his family in Congo to share with them the Good News!

















These women were also at the open air. Gloria, one of the team's faithful translators, is on the far left with the crutches. The woman on the far right of the bench in the green shoes is Mama Rosalyn. She was lying uncovered in the bus park waiting to die. Her relatives chased her out of her home and then burned it because she has Epilepsy and they didn't want to care for her any longer. She hadn't eaten for five days and had just cried out to God to save her when we came along. She is now well fed, clothed and staying with the pastor and his family.






The team also spent three days in Paidha running a youth camp. There were over 150 children and many adults who came to learn and play. On the first day this dear girl, Makieve, walked up to Britnee and shyly asked her if she would be her friend. She was there at every event they held the entire week and would walk up to Britnee so she could hold her hand.













This precious girl also followed the team everywhere they went.













The team made lots of friends and were able to input into many people's lives.

Joe, Shadrach, Nick, Francis, Ben have a hug and a smile on the day they left Paidha.


Please continue to pray for their remaining weeks with us here in Arua. Another post coming next with stories of the team in Maracha seeing the lame healed, the blind see and the deaf speak!! Don't miss it!

Colorado team shares God's love in Sudan

The Colorado Springs DTS outreach team is with us here in Arua after spending several weeks at our sister base in Yei, Southern Sudan. Here are some pics of their time in Yei.

In the next few days we'll also post pics of their time in Paidha (Uganda) where you can see them baptizing a former muslim who accepted Christ after hearing them preach.


Please keep praying for the team as they share God's love with the people around Arua.


Open air in a Congolese Refugee Camp.

Brienne said, "We spent a few days ministering in the camp and were touched by the people we met there. We split up into two groups and stayed in tents in the middle of the camp. We wanted to live as close to the people as possible.
The refugees were mainly from Congo and were displaced by LRA activity. You can see the white tarps supplied by the UNHCR to each family. There were over 20,000 people in this one camp with more arriving each day."

Brienne playing jump rope with some girls in the refugee camp

William and Britnee play soccer with the kids

"Hatia had been struggling with mental illness for the last year. When we met her she would just sit around in her own world wrapping string around a stick again and again never looking and never smiling. We prayed for her healing for two days and on the third day we were ecstactic to find here helping her mother cook our lunch! Her mother, Mama Mary, basically adopted us and came to our camp site each morning to cook and care for us. She wouldn't let us do anything for ourselves and was a huge blessing. We would not have been able to minister as much as we did if she hadn't blessed us."

This is the son of Pastor Phillip, who was our guide and translator for the time we were in the refugee camp. He is playing with a toy truck that was a gift from supporters in Colorado.

Back at the YWAM base in Yei...





Isaiah is an orphaned boy with AIDS. He was brought to the YWAM clinic on Yei base by his 9 year-old sister two weeks before we arrived in Yei. He and his sister Rose stayed at the base for almost two months while he regained health. They are now living in an orphanage just down the road. Isaiah really became a part of our team and could be found in the arms of one of the boys whenever we were in the compound.



Isaiah and Derek

Isaiah and Nick

Kurt with a crew of boys at the Iris orphanage where Isaiah and Rose are now living.











We praise God for the many lives He is touching through this team!

Headin' to the hills

The staff of YWAM Arua took a much-needed break this last week and headed to Biku Retreat Center in Paidha, 2 hours south of Arua.

It rained all morning as we drove up into the hills, which made the journey quite terrifying as our vehicles fish-tailed back and forth on the muddy murram roads.







We co-opted some of the Colorado DTS team that are here on outreach to come lead worship for us, so it was a huge blessing to have Brianne, Joseph and Derek singing, strumming, and drumming for us.


























We were also honored to have Les Hall, another YWAMer from Colorado Springs, speaking to us and encouraging us in God's Word. It was the first time someone came from outside our base just to speak into our lives, and it was a big blessing to us.







Thank you so much, Les!!! We love you!









The rest of the time we enjoyed various team building activities, lots of good food, energetic dancing around the campfire (and s'mores!!) and quality time with God and each other.

Lowering a stick to the ground...it's much harder than it looks!

It was pretty cold the first two days, and our team members came up with some interesting head gear to keep themselves warm.












The other method of warming up was lots of singing and dancing.














Thank you, God, for special times like these of fun, friends and refreshment. We needed that!