[Sonlifeafrica-newsletter] Uganda Trip Update

["Mark Tittley" <mark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear friend

Here is a news report that sounds more like it could have happened to the 
apostle Paul that a true life story:

....Sonlife Africa director flees from pastors home in a community on the 
outskirts of Kampala in Uganda when he realised that the pastor is an 
advocate of gay and lesbian rights and is living with a young boy who refers 
to himself as the pastors "bride". Training material is abandoned in a 
living room as the director fears for his life and decides to take sanctuary 
at a church about a mile down the road. One of the pastors at the church 
provides shelter for the director who spends a night in a hotel near the 
airport and manages to secure a flight out of the country a week before he 
was scheduled to do so....

Yes, I am sad to say - it is all true! The "pastor" was the person who was 
our representative in Uganda and was supposed to be helping us launch our 
movement in his country.

So, what did I learn from this traumatic episode this past weekend in 
Uganda? Well, I believe that I have paid "school fees" (to use a phrase that 
a dear friend of mine taught me last year). This weekend cost us dearly 
including the cost of flights and visas, plus money that I advanced for 
training costs, plus money that was stolen from me before I managed to 
escape. But these were in a sense, school fees that were paid for invaluable 
learnings that I came away with:

* You cannot work with an individual in today's world without doing your 
homework and checking out references and connections.
* It is better to work through youth ministry networks in a country rather 
than with an individual.
* We must do more work in "surveying the land" before we commit to get 
involved in ministry in a specific context.
* God is always at work, even when we experience what humanly could be 
referred to as a failure.
* God responds to the cries of His people for protection from danger.

I have been able to follow up other connections that this wolf in sheep's 
clothing has in terms of ministry and have shared my testimony concerning 
the lack of integrity and honesty in the life of the person concerned.

I also made contact with some real men of God while I was in Uganda and they 
will prove most valuable when we start to make plans for a return visit to 
Uganda.

If you are interested in a full report of my ordeal, just drop me an email 
and I will send it to you. It promises to make for interesting reading!

Thank you for you prayers - maybe now you realise how important it is for us 
to commit to pray for one another in our respective ministries!

Regards

Mark Tittley
Director, Sonlife Africa