UPDATE FROM MICAH AND GRACE RWOTHUMIO:
This is our second mail to you, as you take time to read this
please know that we totally covet your prayers for us as we move close to the
end of the year 2012. The past six weeks I have had the opportunity to simply
sit under the teaching and preaching of some of the emerging leaders of UCF. It
is so enriching to see someone else preach. You keep thinking that is possibly
what I would say if I was the one on the pulpit. That said, I have had a good
time learning and be encouraged by others especially as I deal with grief in my
life.
In this blog I would love to share with you two key areas of
concern and prayer needs in regard to what is going on at University Community
Fellowship (UCF).
University Community Fellowship (UCF).
The church is about ten years old now, there is not much
change in the dynamic of our ministry.
We continue to be committed and fully involved in the lives of the
students. Over the years we have
NOT experienced real turn over in church from the students who have graduated and
are settling in the city. To put it bluntly UCF has continued to grow but the
growth is more in terms of new people coming and going but not staying.
This puts us in a real dilemma. Each school year we deal with new students, but basically
the same needs of students, and
each year we invest in the new students who will be with us for the next three
or four years and then they are gone. Less than 2% of those who graduate
basically will stay with UCF. So over the years, as I have said, the turn over
has not been encouraging.
Just imagine you have over 100 students who have been part of
the church, they then graduate and less than 10 stay around. So for years,
retaining the students has been a huge challenge which brings us to the second
concern. We have to date not been
able to build a viable, self sustaining ministry here at UCf, in terms of
giving and footing all our bills. If it was not for the support of friends like
you, ministry at UCf wouldn’t have been possible. Can I say thanks for praying,
thanks for loving us and thanks for supporting God’s work at UCF.
Most of our meager giving has helped little in developing our
ministry. As much as we are starting to see some little change, we still have a
long way to go. Sometimes we feel like changing our vision to focus more on
those graduates who have left school and are in the market place. But we recognize that God has
called us and given us this one vision to “Touch Our Nation From The Top” continuing
to provide an environment that students can be reached with the love of Jesus
and challenged to think biblically and live godly lives so they can impact
their world for Jesus. So to date
we strongly feel that we cannot deviate from that vision even if sustaining
that vision continues to be a huge challenge for us.
The numbers of students who are settling at UCf may not add
up, but the testimony of changed lives is exactly what really keeps us going. There are times I keep asking myself
what if the thousands of students who have gone through UCf all met in one
place? I meet many of our students who have graduated, some working in the
banks and others in different places.
They know me but I have no clue who they are when they stop me in the
middle of the street be it in Kampala or Nairobi. The conversation would goes like this--- Pastor how are you? My first question to
them would be where have we met? And the reply is often, I used to be at UCf. And my response is “soooo where are you
now?” Pastor I’m at home or I now pray at my parents church. So over the years
I have met so many of our students in many places on planes, in Dubai, in New
York, in Chicago in Los Angeles where ever I go.
I want to share with you a brief story of one of
our student who became an adopted son in our family called Joseph. Joseph was a
shy guy when we met. He was quite
young and was in his second year at Makerere University. He came from a fairly
big family – a family in which every one is basically for themselves. To Joseph I became like a father, for
some unknown reason I just loved the young guy. He was always there when you
wanted anything done and he became so used to us that we brought him literally
into our home on most Sundays after church. Joseph became a huge helper to our little girls, he had a unique
love for children, they became so close and loved him. Joseph loved God with
all his heart and anywhere you sent him he would go and do whatever was
asked. He had a unique love for
sounds and music and eventually became
our real high tech guru in the church. To make a long story short Joseph
graduated from the university and immediately got a job in radio as a producer
and just two years later got married. Today he has two kids and a key Elder at
UCf faithfully serving Jesus. He is one young man that I am so deeply proud of,
and together we keep dreaming of
what great things we still need to do for Jesus. I wish for many more Joseph’s and
am praying for more Joseph’s type to emerge.
As we continue to grow our deepest desire is that God will
establish His work at UCF well. We
are right now in the middle of a HUGE building project that we started early
this year constructing our main worship hall. We have reached a stage where we
can not move further without additional help and prayer and support from you. So in this blog I just want to ask you
to pray with us that God will open the doors and provide the resources we need
to fully complete this big project that we strongly believe is for His glory.
Two key area of prayer support that I kindly ask you to join
us in as we look to God.
1. Do pray that the Lord will raise a new brand of passionate
students (the Joseph’s type) who will really desire to honor God with their
lives and consider to be part of what God is doing right now at UCf. For my own sanity, I would really love
to see God answering that prayer. Ten years is a long time to be in a place
where hundreds come and hundreds walk out with just a few remaining, lots of
people keep saying hey, welcome to student ministry! But I am asking God to
change that for us; would you join us in praying specifically about that.
2. For the huge building project that has left us totally
paralyzed and flat on our face. Would you pray that God will supernaturally
provide for His work and literally multiply the meager giving of the student’s
congregation. We know “He owns a thousand cattle on a hill” our prayer is that
some of those cattle that God owns will be sold and the money given toward the
completion of The UCF building. Please pray specifically for God’s
supernatural
provision on our behalf.
Once again can I say to you, thank you friends for your love,
thank you so much for believing in us and thank you for your continued prayers
and support. As we journey toward
the end of this year our hearts desire is that God will truly glorify Himself
as He shows Himself strong our behalf and with your prayers we trust God will
do that which will truly bring Him glory.
Every blessing to you.
For His renown
Micah and Grace Rwothumio.
