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Without a Bible you cannot
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The best evidence of community impact is when a community sees itself as God sees them and as they steward what God has placed before them."
LeadershipGod has so clearly drawn Pastor Bernard Monday, Pastor David Okumu, Reverend David Isais, and Mike Studdard together.
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From left to right: Mike Studdard, Okumu David, Peter Mugabi, David Isais, and Monday Bernard
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Pastor Monday BernardPastor Monday is a pastor in Namayingo District, Uganda. He is married to Nabwire Alice and have four biological children two boys and two girls. As pastor, he saw children on the streets who were abandoned and sniffing glue. He did something about it. He founded a school on the streets of Namayingo for street kids. Today, New Hope School and Orphanage sits on a campus of 23 acres outside of Namayingo town.
He wears many hats and is looked upon by his family, his church, and the many organizations and individuals who know him and trust him, as a seasoned leader, a Godly man, whose heart is always Kingdom minded. He has been involved in church planting in Uganda and East Africa for over 20 years. He is a coordinator of E3 Partners, a global church planting organization. In that role, he has planted hundreds of churches. He is regional overseer of associations of Baptist Churches, board member of Proclamation Task - a pastor training and university outreach organization operating across Uganda, as well as a mentor to countless young pastors and Christians trying to find a way to lead well. He is a treasurer of Namayingo Buyinja savings and credit co-operative society limited, which helps in the transformation of the lives of the rural poor. He got involved in Africa Bible project after planting hundreds of churches and realized that most members of these churches do not have Bibles and cannot grow spiritually without studying the Word of God. |
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Pastor Okumu Waddy David Wanyama is pastor of Busia Town Baptist Church and married to Rachael. God has blessed them with six biological children.
A renaissance man, he has both vision and the ability to get things done. That includes diagnosing a vehicles engine problem, developing strategy and tactics for the church’s leadership development center for youth, or mentoring pastors who need help in repointing them to their calling. He was part of the launch team for the Samia-Lugwe Bible in 2019. He coordinated over 190 pastors from many denominations to join in celebrating the first complete Bible translation in his language. He is the chairman for the Baptist Association in his district and last year he was elected the chairperson for the Pastors forum in his district, a forum which has over 250 evangelical churches. Over 19 years, he has been involved with International Commission, which conducts evangelistic outreach across East and Central Africa to reach areas where the Gospel has not been heard or the church is weak. He has conducted crusades among the five refugees camps in Northern Uganda in which hundreds and thousands come to profess Jesus as their personal Savior. He volunteers with Samaritan Purse under Operation Christmas Child as the Busia regional coordinator where they reach out to over 3,500 children every year with a shoebox, and disciple every child. Over the last 12 years, he has taken the gospel to prisons in East and Central Africa where he has seen God change the most hard core prisoners and many have come to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. He has a heart for pastors who cannot dig themselves out of “the poverty bucket” and find the needs of the congregation too much to bear. These pastors are often frustrated with not having time to work to provide for their family and eventually leave the ministry. He has worked tirelessly to provide ways for rural communities to develop means to provide for themselves with the local church involvement. Trusted, respected, and first and foremost a disciple of Jesus Christ. |
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Serving with American Bible Society (ABS), David focuses on executing and implementing Bible projects with people and organizations that have the desire to impact at a global level through Global Generosity and Strategic Partnerships at ABS.
Over the last 5 years, he has been involved with building and executing a National strategy in Cuba to deliver 1.8 million Bibles. The Bibles were donated to Cubans in all 16 provinces through more than 115 denominations with the approval of the Cuban government. In Central and South America, he is wrapping up national partnerships for evangelism and discipleship to place 1,000,000 New Testaments through local churches and Christian non-profit ministries which can walk on a daily, weekly or biweekly basis with the individuals receiving the NT, as well as developing the strategy for an upcoming project to India and Central Asia. We are thankful for his entrepreneurial gifts of solving seemingly intractable problems for the glory of God’s Kingdom. Especially as it relates to Africa. Currently, David is helping us tackle a long-standing problem. How to efficiently and effectively deliver a quality Bible to every African who is praying and yearning for God’s Word. The obstacles are many. There are hundreds of African languages, some of which cross national boundaries. Each country has regulations and laws and customs/duties related to importing goods into the country. The primary printers serving this region for quality Bibles are located in South Korea and China. These printers can produce the best quality Bible at an excellent cost by printing enough Bibles to fill one shipping container at a time. Printing Bibles in languages that require only a few hundred Bibles at a time is very expensive to print and ship. Working with United Bible Societies, a fraternity of 150 Bible Societies worldwide that serve in 200+countries, David is helping us to solve a problem of how to efficiently provide a quality Bible that will last 5 to 10 years in the harshest climates, humid, dry, sandy, hot that many times are without access to electricity. By God’s Grace and favor, David has tackled many problems knowing that God wants His Word to go forth. He is tenacious in trying to do what God wants even when it seems to be impossible. We are thankful for his leadership, his compassion for African Christians who have a desire to follow Jesus closely but have gone 15,20,25,30 years without a Bible because they cannot afford their own personal Bible. David’s desire is for the Kingdom of God to come in its fullest sense now by having His Word in every hand to reach every heart and every home with Hope, Grace, Mercy, Forgiveness and Love as they encounter God personally and engage daily with His Word. |
Mike StuddardMike is not a pastor or a saint. He is a former corporate guy who fell in love with the African people who love God with an open heart. Since 2010, Mike has seen first-hand the lack of growth in rural African churches. These churches were planted with the best of intentions and with the hope that the Kingdom of God would spread from these new churches.
Often though, instead of growing, he found the same people in the same church year after year most of whom did not have a Bible. They were taught by men with God’s call on their life to preach His Word and lead their flock. But often they were not equipped to deal with the challenges of a rural church or trained in God's Word. And some did not even have a Bible but borrowed from another pastor. A consensus of mature church planters is that rural pastors need to know Scripture to teach the truth of the Gospel, need to be able to support their family as the church cannot through tithes, and must show families how to get out of the “poverty bucket.” Mike believes
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