he elephant does not limp when walking on thorns. Adversity is the key element in a ministry which purifies 
and strengthens the people of God. “And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end…” (Daniel 11:35). The dark and black storm clouds of difficulty are, in diguise, the bearers of the showers of blessing, and “there shall be showers of blessing” (Ezekiel 34:26). The forceful winds of trial are the means of the casting away of the chaff, and the binding together of the sheaves, “yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth” (Amos 9:9). We at Baptists for Africa are no strangers to hardships, and have learned, in the words of a hymn, to “bear patiently the cross of grief or pain,” and that “in ev’ry change he faithful will remain.”
Greetings to all the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. As discussed in our previous letter, the biggest development transpiring in this ministry of late is the moving to a new, significantly larger compound, and the massive renovations being performed to make it suitable for congregational use. While moving is always difficult, for us it is particularly challenging, given that we must do so in haste, and must practically re-design the new rented property to facilitate the functions of the church (as well as carefully deconstruct our structure at the current property). It, like the present place, is a house in an enclosed coumpound. The locating and negotiating process with the landlord itself was hard enough, but within a 3-week time frame (the last week of March and first two weeks of April), all must be accomplished. Not having the resources to hire a contracted engineer, I (John) have had to use my maintenance and construction experience to assist me in successfully designing a structure which will be able to accommodate the hundred plus people (and growing) who come for church. How many people have been dissuaded from coming to church because there was almost no room for receiving them in the past few months at this current smaller property? A hearty thanks is in order to the many at this church who are freely volunteering their own time to instrumentally assist. The continual prayers of you all for us have certainly availed much also. Please pray that all necessary renovations would proceed safely and swiftly, and be fully competed without a problem. We indeed have “a mind to work,” but we need a strength from the Spirit. The plan is to move on April 10th, right after Easter, and hold the first services from there the following Wednesday. We have never (nor will now) skipped a single church service for it or any other reason, which can be understandably difficult in a time of transition.
What astonishes me (Jesse) is the tenacity with which John and many others have not ceased to go soul-winning, teach discipleship, and/or attend church during this tumultuous time of transition. In fact, the church services have never been fuller, with a record breaking 134 people on a Sunday morning service a week before, and 81 people on a Sunday evening service just last Sunday! Because we would have our praise always be in the gospel (see II Corinthians 8:18), we have not (nor ever shall) cease to witness of the truth of Christ’s saving message, and during the month of March, our church saw 796 people personally profess faith in Christ through confrontational evangelism. It seems God has been testifying through new comers to church, too, that a bigger space is necessary, because we had 60 new believers attend their first discipleship lesson in March (which is roughly equivalent to the number of new people who visit the church, because an overwhelming majority of new visitors are from soul-winning and follow-up). We had 7 people finish the discipleship lessons, and also had the blessing of confirming 3 new people as soul-winners in March. Please pray that this new location would see many more people coming and consistently remaining at church.
“Won’t You Preach to Me Too?” by Jesse
It was an unusually receptive Thursday for me out soul-winning, walking from Namuwongo to Nakawa. One after another after another after another listened and received the gospel, until over 7 hours later, I counted that there were 22 people I preached the whole gospel to, and 16 of them prayed to receive Christ the Lord. Now, I prefer breaks of sitting on the well and preaching to a Samaritan woman, as it were, to regain my strength, but I could find no place to repose for even a few minutes profitably, and so continued until the sun was near-setting with my feet, though beautiful, yet duly wearied. I do not know if I had ever had that many profess faith in one day, and naturally, despite the fact that daylight was dying, I desired to try and preach to just one more person. But my fatigue was overcoming me. “When I reach that main road, I’ll be done,” I determined. Just a few steps before I reached it, however, I passed a young woman who by her excited gaze almost demanded that I preach to her. Perhaps she had seen me earlier in the day preaching to someone else. “Hello, how are you?” I beckoned in my usual manner. “Yes, I’m fine! Won’t you preach to me too?” I remember her responding. If there was ever a person I knew God had prepared for me to preach the gospel to that day, it was her. Her name is Mercy. And thus, notwithstanding my waning strength, with the divine mercy of God filling my soul, I set out to explain the gospel just once more. And she could not fail to believe. What is most remarkable about it, however, was that she was one of the only two people from that day who actually came to church when followed-up on! As the Africans say, “The big game often appears when the hunter has given up the hunt for the day.”
“The Renewing of the Mind” by John
While preaching door to door in Kisugu near where our new church property is to be, a great door and effectual was opened unto me as I decided to turn aside to re-knock doors afresh that were previously knocked a month prior. I soon met with Bonny Thankyou (for so her name is), who was a Western Ugandan in her mid-20s. She humbly but severely resisted the gospel of grace, and kept quoting from Romans 12:2, saying, “but to go to heaven the Bible says that you have to be transformed by the renewing of your mind!” Try as I may with the light of the word, her foolish heart was darkened, and the god of this world blinded her mind. At last, when I belabored what it means to believe in Jesus (saying it means to trust in him, resting upon his finished work), she at length appeared to have her mind renewed with a divine spark––and for the first time in her whole lost life, she received the regenerated mind that she thought so much of having, and perfect peace too, when her mind was stayed on the Lord, because she trusted in him (Isaiah 26:3). Indeed, how transformed is her mind now, which has been steadfastly in church and out illuminating other people’s minds with the light of the gospel!
“Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof” (Ecclesiastes 7:8), and how exciting it was to finally complete the expositional sermon series through the large Biblical book of I Corinthians! It is hard to express just how dramatic and life-chaning verse-by-verse preaching is to an African congregation, who beforetime knew literally nothing of expository preaching. When lies about the gospel and nonsensical noise about money, wealth, and prosperity have been your staple diet from the pulpit for decades, what a spiritually-nutritional difference the regular and faithful reading, explaining, and applying of the scriptures the preaching at Bible Baptist Church must be! We are continuing the book of Romans (now in chapter 12), and will begin the book of Philippians. We are convinced that there really is no better way to let the Head—that great chief Shepherd of the sheep—regularly speak to his church than to make most of the sermons beholden to a program of preaching set by his own word’s order.
We will be holding a Baptism Day on Easter, April 9th. There are a number of faithful discipleship graduates and soul-winners who will be getting baptized (due to the fact that we have not had a big baptism day for many months), as well as others. It will be a good day for many to make a public profession of their faith in Christ, and to make the commitment to walk “in newnness of life.” 
There are a couple other exciting events that are soon to transpire in the coming months too, for which we are praying and planning assiduously. Your interest and support of this ministry in its still-early stages is bound to have a profound effect on what we hope will be a wild-fire evangelization across the continent in God’s timing. This we keep before our eyes, the joy set before us, as we endure the difficulties of our personal crosses in the work of the Lord. Saving, helping, keeping loving, he is with us to the end. And what will it be when millions upon millions of Africans are truly converted to Christ, but life from the dead?