George's Story

March, 2012

George and 10 members of the Texas team  

I met George when our team from Early, Texas came in March.  They brought 28 people and 10 of them were going to southwestern Uganda to work with George.  He spent the night with us and we heard how he came to be in ministry.

His story:

A pastor came to their village from the Congo and witnessed to his people there.  George and others became Christians.  That pastor left  but when he got back home he called a friend of his, a missionary in Rwanda, and asked if he could  go and teach those people.

Sometime later that missionary from Rwanda showed up.  He only spent two days with them but he taught them and he planted a vision.  He pulled George aside to a banana plantation and he told him that this land would one day belong to them.  He also told George that he would be their pastor.  (George didn’t even know what a pastor was.)  The missionary left and never returned.

George didn’t know what a pastor does, but he led the others to study the Bible and to do what it said.  They started calling themselves Baptist, not because the missionary had used that term, but because they had seen it written on the car that he drove.  They didn’t know what Baptists were or what they do but they began to call themselves by that name.

They kept studying the Bible and working hard to save money to buy the land because he had told them that they should.    Eventually they did just that.

(We didn't have enough time to go all through the years so I don’t know all the connections from the beginning to now.) I do know that George eventually went to Jinja to our Baptist seminary there and earned a certificate.  Later, he was able to go to the States and get a degree from Southeastern Seminary and is sometimes asked to come and teach in Jinja.

They now have churches in his area and they have started 6 or 7 schools.

What struck me about the story was how God worked in it all.  No muzungus (foreigners). No muzungu money.  No one telling them how it had to be done.  Just the Bible and the Holy Spirit leading them step by step.    Today, George is connected.  There are teams that go there from time to time to help out in the work, just as the Texas team did.

What this story tells me is that God is sovereign.  He has chosen to work in and through those who are willing to be used.  But He doesn’t need us.  He could do it without us if He chose.  I am just thankful that I get to be here and be a part of His plan.