Posts
An ICM Church in Uganda has found various ways to reach their community. Listen below as a high school choir practices.
High school choir singing in Uganda from ICM Videos on Vimeo.
Buyubu Orphanage in Uganda
July 22, 2010 -
12:30 PM -
Meet some of the children we met on our recent trip to Uganda. This video is taken at the site of Buyubu Orphanage, which is currently under construction. If you look closely you can see the workers as they work on the orphanage!
Our ICM team has just returned from Uganda and Kenya where I was reminded of a wonderful old hymn written by Maltbie Babcock in 1901. The title recalls an expression Babcock commonly used when beginning a hike around his home near Lake Ontario: “I’m going out to see my Father’s world.” While in Africa, the ICM team had a wonderful opportunity to personally see and experience new parts of God’s world!
Uganda is known as the “pearl of Africa” for its breathtaking scenery, lush vegetation, wide variety of animals and cultural diversity. In sharp contrast, this country also struggles with rampant HIV, extreme poverty, corruption and in some locations, horrific human abuse and violence. Africa is filled with irony: beauty and hardship, love and pain, good and evil—yet it is all a part of God’s world.
In the words of Babcock’s hymn:
“He speaks to me everywhere. This is my Father’s world.
O Let me ne’er forget that though the wrong seems oft so
strong, God is the ruler yet. This is my Father’s world:
the battle is not done; Jesus who died shall be satisfied,
and the earth and heav’n be one.”
Our team saw firsthand how God is using ICM to spread the Gospel message of hope, love and peace to a hurting world. In locations around the globe where you would think hopelessness and pain might reign, it is remarkable to see love, gratitude and peace abound all the more. The purity of God’s grace can often flourish in locations where the sense of need is so tremendous.
However, whether we live in a poor African village or a sophisticated American city, God’s personal message is the same for each of us:
“I have designed you to need Me moment by moment. As your awareness of your neediness increases, so does your realization of My abundant sufficiency. I can meet every one of your needs without draining My resources at all. Approach My throne of grace with bold confidence, receiving My Peace with a thankful heart ... I give you sufficient Peace for the present, when you come to me by prayer and petition with thanksgiving.” (excerpt from “Jesus Calling” by Sarah Young)
While recognizing our neediness as individuals and as a ministry, let us go before the throne of Grace with our prayers, petitions and praise:
Pray for the Light of Christ to shine boldly through the lives of the pastors and believers in the most remote villages of Africa.
Pray that individuals and small groups in Uganda, Kenya, Burkina Faso and other countries of Africa using Mini Bible College materials would learn to treasure the Word of God as the pearl of greatest value.
Pray for the expansion of the Church in Africa … that it would be both deep in the Word and wide in its growth!
“The World is Mine, and all that is within it.” Psalm 50:12
By His Grace,
Janice R. Allen
Executive Chair
Uganda is known as the “pearl of Africa” for its breathtaking scenery, lush vegetation, wide variety of animals and cultural diversity. In sharp contrast, this country also struggles with rampant HIV, extreme poverty, corruption and in some locations, horrific human abuse and violence. Africa is filled with irony: beauty and hardship, love and pain, good and evil—yet it is all a part of God’s world.
In the words of Babcock’s hymn:
“He speaks to me everywhere. This is my Father’s world.
O Let me ne’er forget that though the wrong seems oft so
strong, God is the ruler yet. This is my Father’s world:
the battle is not done; Jesus who died shall be satisfied,
and the earth and heav’n be one.”
Our team saw firsthand how God is using ICM to spread the Gospel message of hope, love and peace to a hurting world. In locations around the globe where you would think hopelessness and pain might reign, it is remarkable to see love, gratitude and peace abound all the more. The purity of God’s grace can often flourish in locations where the sense of need is so tremendous.
However, whether we live in a poor African village or a sophisticated American city, God’s personal message is the same for each of us:
“I have designed you to need Me moment by moment. As your awareness of your neediness increases, so does your realization of My abundant sufficiency. I can meet every one of your needs without draining My resources at all. Approach My throne of grace with bold confidence, receiving My Peace with a thankful heart ... I give you sufficient Peace for the present, when you come to me by prayer and petition with thanksgiving.” (excerpt from “Jesus Calling” by Sarah Young)
While recognizing our neediness as individuals and as a ministry, let us go before the throne of Grace with our prayers, petitions and praise:
Pray for the Light of Christ to shine boldly through the lives of the pastors and believers in the most remote villages of Africa.
Pray that individuals and small groups in Uganda, Kenya, Burkina Faso and other countries of Africa using Mini Bible College materials would learn to treasure the Word of God as the pearl of greatest value.
Pray for the expansion of the Church in Africa … that it would be both deep in the Word and wide in its growth!
“The World is Mine, and all that is within it.” Psalm 50:12
By His Grace,
Janice R. Allen
Executive Chair
We enjoyed a drama from the Mini Bible College students in Uganda
July 11, 2010 -
3:30 PM -
Hungry for Love
-
2:11 PM -
After visiting ICM built churches and church/orphanages in Uganda and Kenya the last few days, the vision trip team has noted one important fact; African orphans are starving for love. Everywhere we went, we met children with smiles full of joy, deafening laughter and shouting and outstretched arms seeking just a touch or a moment of love from us. The work ICM is being allowed to do by God here in Africa is indeed humbling. By His grace and by the generous giving of faithful donors, ICM is continuing with our African ministry partners, to construct church/orphanages that are not only houses of worship, but also much needed housing for orphans who have been parentally stranded by AIDS, war and poverty. Soon our team will return home with hearts full of what they've experienced here in the wilds of the African Continent. Thanks for reading and thanks for your prayers!
Brad Orchard for ICM
Brad Orchard for ICM
The Pearl of Africa
July 10, 2010 -
1:44 AM -
The team arrived at our hotel last night after an amazing day....we sensed God's presence every step of the way! The first church and orphanage construction site we visited was in a village setting far off the main paved road. As the bus drove up, we could hear the rhythmic sound of drums and voices and clapping hands. The old ladies and young children could hardly contain their excitement. Women were cooking food over an open fire situated beside mud huts. A tent supported on poles is the temporarycovering for the congregation to gather. Just behind the gathering, we saw the beautiful church being constructed. The workmen were laying brick for the walls....the pile of hand made bricks were waiting to be used. The community elder spoke with great pride over this miracle happening in their village....the answer to his many years of prayer! Their village was being transformed by having a church building of their very own! To God be the glory! It is Satrudaymorning now in Uganda and we are off to a worship service at another church orphanage project....can't wait to see what God has in store!
from Janice Allen, ICM Executive Chair
from Janice Allen, ICM Executive Chair
What is a Vision Trip? Janice posts from Africa...
July 9, 2010 -
3:27 PM -
I am often asked , “Just what exactly is a vision trip?” Most people are familiar with short term mission trips, where you go to one location and spend time on specific projects with one ministry or church. In contrast, an ICM vision trip is intended to give the team a chance to interact with multiple congregations and pray with numerous local pastors and leaders….hopefully, it is a blessed opportunity to capture a vision for how God is moving in the country and to get a sense of how ICM is being used to accelerate the vision to blanket a nation for Jesus Christ.
Of course, that is a wonderful purpose for the trip. However, I have always felt the more important goal of a vision trip is the opportunity to see Jesus. The team is already praying that our eyes would be open to see all that God has on his heart for us to experience spiritually…..we are praying that we would have spirits open to see Jesus in the faces of the men , women and children in the villages of Kenya and Uganda. We are praying that the blurred vision which can result from the distractions from daily lives in America will be refocused on God and what He is doing amongst His people to bring the world unto Himself. Thank you for praying for the Africa vision trip team!!
- Janice
- Janice