This blog is a switch up today to give glory to the ONE by sharing testimonies of what He did while we were in Uganda!! I could honestly write nearly ten blogs just about this trip, but we’ll stick with a summary for now!
Jesus really blew our minds on this trip! We got to be apart of 125 salvations (that we know of), 37 baptisms and so much more!! There are three stories from our trip that I want to highlight.
Schoolhouse Salvations
This testimony began a few months ago. While the school house was being built, Pastor Charles (the local pastor we are partnered with) hired local workers to build the school. Every day Pastor Charles would go out to oversee the building process, and while he was there he would minister to the workers by sharing the truth about Jesus and His kingdom! He was so faithful to continuously witness to these men and two of them gave their lives to the Lord: Daniel and Sunday!!
I got to meet both men during our trip and it was such a joy to see how God already had purpose for our school house even before it was a finished product! If that was the whole purpose of building the school house that would’ve been worth it! But I know this is just the start and that the Lord has so much more in store!
Since giving their lives to the Lord, the both regularly attend the local church, and Sunday has begun serving the church! He even served the conference we held for church pastors and leaders throughout Uganda and went to serve with us when we did prison ministry.
While we did prison ministry, Sunday shared his testimony of recently being saved and how much more joy, purpose and peace he has in his life that only comes from Jesus! It brought tears to my eyes to get to serve alongside him in the prison ministry and see how faithful Jesus is!
5 Years in the Making
What some of you may not know is how we got connected with this pastor and church that we are serving in Lira, Uganda. In October 2018- September 2019, I took a gap year in college to do a nearly year long mission trip around the world that went to a new country every month called The World Race. Each new month, each team would be assigned a different ministry to serve (that whole trip is a story for another day); Pastor Charles and Mama Moreen (as she is known in Uganda) were my last assignment for my final month! There was a beautiful and special connection we had right off the bat; instant family.
During that month in 2019, we traveled around Lira and did nightly crusades in different villages. At one of the crusades, I met the craziest little 3 year old named Edmon. He had the most spastic energy of any toddler I’ve ever seen. He came from a rougher part of town, and for whatever reason, I felt the Holy Spirit draw my heart to him and had an overwhelming love for him.
A few short months after the World Race, COVID hit and unfortunately ceased all my international work that I longed to do. (Yet, the LORD always has a purpose for us wherever we are and I learned that in a huge way during this season of life). I didn’t do any international missions work for nearly three years, but I still stayed in contact with Pastor Charles and Mama Moreen.
At the start of 2022 I longed for the LORD to open the doors to send me back out to international missions and began praying He would. He then placed Uganda on my heart and miraculously opened all the doors to send me back (another amazing story for another time)! So two of my friends and I went (this trip was actually a huge catalyst to launching FTO).
On our trip in November 2022, the Lord reminded me of Edmon, and caused me to search him out. He wasn’t a regular church goer, and he was also 4 years older at this point. I couldn’t remember which village he was from, so I kept showing his 3 year old picture of him to everyone! On the last day of our trip, his friends brought him to the me at the church (my initial reaction was to show him his picture and ask him if he was the little boy on my phone to which he replied he didn’t know because he didn’t recognize himself- which is crazy because they don’t have childhood pictures or good mirrors for him to remember himself! So his friends had to confirm that he was in fact the boy I was looking for.) Nothing happened extremely significant on this trip, just that the LORD had me seek him out.
Now here’s where the story gets good: recently on our trip to Uganda, I got to see Edmon again! He has been regularly attending the Porridge Program which is a feeding program the church hosts for the kids who are too poor to go to school, so they are guaranteed a meal once a week, and they are taught English and the Bible (this program is a major reason why we built the schoolhouse!) Come to find out, sometime between our last two trips, Edmon gave his life to Jesus and is consistent in going to church!! So on our most recent trip, I had the biggest honor of getting to baptize him which just makes me cry the happiest tears ever!!!
I know the initial moments don’t seem like anything big, and sometimes we don’t always see the fruit come from the seeds we are planning, but there is something so special in being even a tiny part of someone’s journey of coming to know the LORD! I know the Holy Spirit was working in this boy’s life, and it is so amazing to see the change in his heart over the years of knowing him. If even the small part of my seeking him out had anything to do with motivating him to go to church where he heard the truth of Jesus then I’m so forever grateful to have been used by the LORD to reach this boy!
In loving Memory
This last story is something near and dear to our hearts personally. When I was 13 and Jacqui was 10, our dad had a sudden heart attack and went to be with Jesus at the age of 44. This is a huge part of our testimony. Life hasn’t been easy since we lost him and the pain of his loss still lingers. Yet, we can’t help but give God glory that HE is our father so we are not fatherless! We have always held on to the verse Romans 8:28, that “God works all things together for God for those who love him.” However, in a tragedy like losing a loved one, sometimes it’s hard to see the good.
This past October, Jacqui had the idea to have all the funds be raised in honor of our dad. We felt this would be a beautiful way to honor him and his legacy. We raised nearly half of all we needed for the total cost of the schoolhouse which was a testimony in itself! When Pastor Charles and Mama Moreen heard of us dedicating the month of October in his honor, they told us they wanted to dedicate the entire schoolhouse to him and his legacy. This was honestly something we never could’ve dreamed of or could’ve even thought to ask for, but it was the most touching and beautiful thing for us to witness. This is now one of the “good” things we can see God doing through his death, and also allows us to see some beauty instead of only pain. This was so powerful for us to witness the truth of Romans 8:28 and see how faithful God is to His word.
Our dad was the most loving dad, the most faithful servant of Jesus, and the most dedicated man to reaching the lost for Jesus. As a missionary himself, his blood runs through us and we get to carry on his mission and heart to reach the world for Jesus and share the hope that we get to see him again because of Jesus! This schoolhouse couldn’t have been named after any one better and we believe the children who are touched by this school house will grow up to be strong men and women of God who also have a heart to reach the world for Jesus just like the man it is dedicated after as they are taught and trained in the word of God!
In loving memory of Eugene William Butterfield October 8, 1966- January 7, 2011.
This week’s memory verse:
”And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.“
Romans 8:28 NIV
Love,
Ashley
FTO Co-founder
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