In December, I had an opportunity to have a zoom meet with some of the team at Deliverance Church Rubongi and the Compassion Canada staff. If you were at LifeSpring in the 2010s, you may remember that we took 3-4 mission trips to Uganda during that period. We would visit different cities and churches there, and one of the places that we had an especially good connection with was Rubongi. A big part of this was because of a growing relationship with Pastor Joseph who heads up the Deliverance Church there.
Through discussions with Pastor Joseph, we discovered that a major need at the time was for a clean source of water. We helped to have a water catchment system installed in Rubongi. After this, Rubongi became a Compassion site, a location where Compassion could invest and run programs to serve the village.
Last September, you may remember that we had a small team from Compassion Canada come to speak at LifeSpring. Dan and Donnett shared about the Mother’s Survival Program that Compassion runs. As a church, we committed to sowing into this program. Through my meeting, I discovered that this program was being run by Pastor Joseph at Deliverance Church Rubongi.
You can find the link to that Sunday here.
During my meeting, I had an opportunity to hear some of the testimonies from the staff and women who are a part of the program in Rubongi. It’s amazing to hear what God is doing there, and even more amazing to be able to partner with Deliverance Church Rubongi and Compassion in this work. I felt so encouraged by the testimonies.
You can have a listen to the testimonies at the links below, and be encouraged as well. The work that we do together makes a real difference for others.
Pastor Joseph – https://youtu.be/JOSx_iAIHRc
Babra – https://youtu.be/I4KzKhm6Rxk
Something that all of this reminds me of is that fact that as Christians, one of our most fundamental callings is to care for others. I think our current memory verse from Matthew 28:18-20 says this in an interesting way.
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
This passage is often called the Great Commission, and we can see why. Matthew 28 begins with Jesus’s resurrection and the story of the empty tomb. After appearing to the women, Jesus appears to his disciples and gives them this commission. The Gospel of Matthew ends with this passage, almost like Jesus is expressing his final will for his followers.
The command is simple; go and make disciples, baptize, and teach. One way that we could summarize these into one idea is to go and care for others. Walk with people and make them into disciples. For new believers, baptize them. And teach people you know about what I’ve taught you. Care for those around you, care for people from all nations, just go out and show care.
LifeSpring, we are called to be a Kingdom Family, but one that cares for others. I pray that this year, we would learn more about what the Great Commission means for us as a church family.