Biblical Life Ministries

And then there was Biblical Life Ministries, a mission group working in Kenya (an eastern neighbor of Uganda) and affiliated with my church. My pastor asked if the BLM missionaries could stay with me while traveling through the area on furlough. A giant thanks to him for somehow knowing just what an opportunity talking with full-time, long-term missionaries from East Africa would be for me.

After they made friends with every garage sale shopper who dared enter, Kelly and Kathy allowed me to ask dozens and dozens of questions about how missionaries get started, how they know they’re doing the right thing, how they raise their support, and lots of other questions. Because of the proximity of Uganda to Kenya, I was able to ask some culturally relevant questions as well and I discovered there are at least a few similarities between Kenyans and Ugandans. What an amazing gift God gave me as a means to better understand the bigger context of mission work in the longer term.

Eventually we talked a bit about the business development work done with Mercy Uganda. They extended an offhand invitation to visit them in Dallas and possibly Kenya “next time I go” to Uganda to see how I might help them grow their ministry. That offhanded request to visit turned into a reality just a short time later.

A week-long visit to Dallas, thanks to the generosity of an anonymous air miles donor and the generosity of many of the Dallas-based lovers of Biblical Life Ministries, afforded me extensive and multiple opportunities to learn more about BLM and the people at the heart of that ministry. Let me just take a minute to emphasize just how gifted in the area of relationships this missionary pastor really is. A privilege in more ways than one is the only way to describe the time we spent together. I will be forever changed be having been given the opportunity to probe deeply into the lives of this missionary family.

This new opportunity was an absolute confirmation of my place in Uganda/Africa, although I am still quite aware of the various vulnerabilities. This opportunity might also be a nudging toward a very fulfilling career opportunity…organizational development with East African ministries. God continues to surprise me each day.