Last week we had a good time with our friends, Tom and Sandy from Virginia, they were here for a leaders' conference for five days. Tom and Sandy McElfresh started a ministry called The Pastor's Friend International, which partners with our ministry to reach out to pastors especially village pastors to train them and equip them to serve God effectively and efficiently. Tom and Sandy come to Kabale, 
Uganda once every year for a leaders' conference and each time they come with bibles as a donation to pastors and leaders that cannot afford buying a bible. Our mission as a ministry is to transform communities and one of our goals to achieve this is to reach out to villages and communities with the saving gospel and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and plant churches. It is important to plant churches in these villages for a place of worship for the new converts and a place where people come for 
fellowship, prayer and studying the word of God. Every time we preach Christ, people believe, they need to learn and follow the ways of the true and living God. Most of our communities still practice witchcraft and idol worship, drink a lot of alcohol and do a lot of evil. We thank God many communities are being transformed as we preach Christ and plant churches in these villages. However the pastors and leaders need training to be able to lead and serve God and his people in these villages. What happens is that when a new church is planted, we appoint a few people to come back to teach the new believers and the one who pick up quickly is 
appointed leader of the rest. These pastors with no formal training cannot teach much to the people in the church. Many times they don't own a bible, bibles are very expensive for these pastors who earn very little from their crops and casual labor. Our churches in Uganda are so poor, they don't pay salaries to pastors. Three years ago Pastors Tom and Sandy started annual leaders conferences in Kabale and our pastors have been so blessed that they always look forward to this important week every March of the year! Many have said they almost gave up ministry because of the hard situations they were going through. These pastors serve God in very tough places 
and hard situation and yet are very poor that they cannot afford to support their families. It means so much to our pastors when visitors come along side to train them, love them and pray with them. Last week conference was exceptional as Tom and Sandy took these pastors into in-depth teaching and the pastors were excited to know more truth that will help them to serve their flock and communities. They also brought more bibles for the pastors and leaders without bibles. One pastor who attended this conference for the first time said; 
"I have been praying for a bible for the last four years, I am so happy to own a bible for the first time!" A bible is a treasure in the hands of these precious pastors and leaders who have a passion to serve God and their people in the hard to reach areas. There are places where only one bible is shared among church members and many pastors use borrowed bibles to study the word of God. It is always horrible to see pastors with bibles which are too old, bible pages falling off, 
and some books missing especially Genesis and Revelations. Friends, please pray for these pastors and their families and in case you want to put a bible in the hands of these pastors; each Rukiga (our local language) Bible costs $10.
Thank you Tom and Sandy for being a special blessing to our pastors and leaders, you have surely made a difference in our communities.If you want to know more on how you can help our pastors please write to us: jbakashaba@gmail.com or write to Tom and Sandy at:sandy.mcelfresh@gmail.com
