Greetings from the Okkens! We have some big personal news to share. We praise the Lord for His wonderful guidance and provision with regards to our next place of service. I have received a call to serve as a pastor at Shiloh Presbyterian Church in Raleigh, North Carolina. During multiple Skype interviews I enjoyed getting to know the pastor, elders and deacons. Then the church graciously flew our whole family from Uganda for a ten day visit in March. The congregation was truly wonderful and the visit went very well. The Lord led us to the decision that, should the call come, we were ready to accept. On April 8 th they voted unanimously to extend that call. We decided to wait on announcing it until it was approved by the presbytery. That happened today. I am so thankful that they allowed me to meet with them by Skype. I was interviewed and the call was approved. I look forward to working alongside Pastor Matthew Holst, whom I so enjoyed getting to know. In addition to helping w...
Well, we have finally gotten with the times I suppose and have started a blog. We plan to put our updates out here for you all to read. Please forgive the delay in hearing from us. We have just finished a busy season of visitors. It was a blessing to have them here. We had a total of 4 groups that came from the beginning of June until just this past week. Some overlapped, so at one point we had 19 with us! It’s always an encouragement to have short-termers with us and our kids love having new “friends” around. It was also fun to see old friends back here (like Amy DeWit). We even had our own pediatrician here for a few weeks. Free check-ups for the kids! Dr. Gayle Murray was a blessing to have, not just for her expertise, but also her fellowship. We also had two friends from our home church here. Karen and Laura Goodhart came for 3 weeks. Laura, a nurse, worked in the medical clinic. Karen, a 1st grade school teacher did some “school” time with our 5 ½ yr old Caleb while she was here (...
Dear Friends, Christmas greetings from Karamoja! When you have lived through enough of them in this place, you don’t even bother dreaming of a white one. It is dry, windy and hot as is typical for this time of year. But, the more unpleasant the weather, or whatever other circumstances, the more precious the truth which we remember. God left the glories of heaven and dwelt in the barren wasteland of this fallen creation. Out in the fields, the shepherds were shown that the glories of heaven had broken into their dark world. In that little baby, lying in a manger in Bethlehem, the Word had become flesh and was dwelling among us (John 1:14). It was a privilege for me to preach about those shepherds this morning, first in Akuyam and then in Nakaale. Additionally, Lord’s Day worship is now taking place in a new place. Some weeks back, we had become overwhelmed in Nakaale by attendance of folks from Nakasien. This is a village where we have done evangelism and village Bible study teac...
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