No fisherman should work or eat alone

I woke up this morning to a typical beautiful, sunny day. As I was drinking African tea in my tiny mud house on the Island of Lake Victoria, I watched people go about their business. All these people have arrived to the island from different ends of Uganda and neighboring countries.

They are fishermen and work very much as a community. They are a village and together they build it. They have a common saying: “No fisherman works alone and no fisherman eats alone.

Last night a storm washed back into the lake most of the “mukene” or silver fish they had laid out to dry on the hills earlier that day. This morning women and children were selecting thousands of tiny fish to bring back up to the hill and discarding the fish that had gotten spoiled. This reminds me of the vast task we have: to go out and work together, as fishermen do, from dusk to dawn; in the tempestuous nights, as well as in the quiet and calm; in the dangerous waters, and in the peaceful lakes; mending the nets together, throwing them together and as one team, pulling them in to shore, together.



I see the call of Mark 1:17 repeat itself daily in the African waters: “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” If the contemporary church had the same approach toward laboring for God as the fishermen of Lake Victoria, working together as one, we would have committed church members seeking to pull together in the same direction: the Kingdom of God.

Ironically, the very fishermen who remind me of the Great Commission are the same people to whom we need to throw out the net of the gospel, bringing them to Christ. Many of them are lost in their ancestral ways and urgently need God, even if they do not admit it. Let us mend our nets, throw them out together, pull them together, and in due time, we shall all sit at the table together. No fisherman should work or eat alone.

~Ruth Palomo

Ruth was born and raised in Mexico, where she first heard the gospel from a missionary couple. After graduating from the Hispanic Institute of Ministry, she moved to Uganda to share the love of Christ with the people living there.

Surely We Can Do Better...

In Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus charged his disciples: "God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age." (Message)

It’s been said that for the first time the Great Commission is doable in our generation. So, what’s the hold up?

SUPPORT.

Our missionaries are not receiving the support they need to fulfill the commission. The economy slump has not helped much either. This past year has been extremely difficult and many of our missionaries had to leave their posts to return to the United States to itinerate (fundraise) for their budgets. Sadly, our soldiers on the forefront aren’t being welcome with open arms. Yes, these are tough times indeed but inviting a missionary to your church is inviting them to share their story. Missionary Neil Lawrence says, “I have a burning desire for people to know about what God is doing in Kenya and sincerely feel they must be given an opportunity to support the harvest. Though some have expressed surprise at our required ‘job’ of itinerating and view it as ‘begging’, I never think about it this way. Instead, I view this aspect of our work as a ministry and know that it is really God who provides for us.”

The bottom line is this: missionaries come from our churches, our cities and from amongst our people. It is our responsibility to support the work they do. You’re probably thinking “I don’t have the finances to help keep our missionaries on the field”. That’s quite okay. Financial support is just one facet of missionary support. Our missionaries need your prayers. They need your encouragement. A little card in the mail or an email just to let them know you’re thinking about them speaks volumes. Offer to fix a meal for a visiting missionary, or to babysit their children for an evening. Give them a CD or a small gift.

These are OUR missionaries sharing the good news in places we may never see … lets take care of them however we can.

~Veryll Doorasamy-Bowe

All I want for Christmas is a piggy-back ride...

My trip to Hogar Agape (Home of God’s Love) was life changing in so many different ways. As I look back, I’ll honestly tell you I left half of my heart in Nicaragua and at the orphanage. The relationships that you build with the children, who have without question experienced more tragedy and helplessness than any of us here probably ever will, is something that I will look back on as a moment that redefined my faith, how I view this world, and how I view the underprivileged.

Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Coming from the United States, this was the biggest culture shock of all. I had never seen children running around unclothed. I had never seen so many people without showers for so long. I had never seen so much trash spread through the city along the sidewalks and even in the parks.

Yet, the people are so much more thankful for so much less. They are so humble and respectful to everyone they meet. The children at the orphanage were the most well behaved, cheerful, and grateful children I have ever met. We also had the chance to give them their Christmas for the year, which was backpacks filled with clothes, shoes, soccer balls and many other things. We brought them more than just gifts, which they were thankful for, but the chance to ride on someone’s shoulders or hug them, or to just look us in the eye was all they needed. It’s a humbling feeling, to understand toys don’t mean everything, but relationships do, even to a 6-year-old child.


The final life-changing experience for me was saved until the final full day of our trip. We were taken to the city dump La Chureca in Managua to get our first view of what life in Poverty was really like. A place, or better yet, the home to over 4,000 native Nicaraguans who have never known anything else. The majority of people here were second and third generation to call La Chureca home. They were born into it, and most likely will die in it. It was the most disturbing and horrifying thing I have ever witnessed with my own eyes. As we drove down the street you could hardly see one hundred yards in the distance because there was so much haze and smoke from the fires and dust the swarmed the air. There were animals malnourished and left alone to die, and children playing in the mud that will most likely be their bed that night. As we drove deeper into the entrance of the dump, a woman kept pace with us as she help a cup of nearly black water. I do not know what was in her water but I can only imagine the amount of disease that engulfs these people day in and day out.

I have tried to explain it time and time again to everyone who asks, but I can never find the words. Perhaps there are no words? You must experience it for yourself for it is something you will never see in the United States, a country that has everything in luxury.

The biggest lesson I learned on the trip was that we must pray, we must give, and we must act! Too often, myself included, we sit in our homes and watch television and ignore the five minute commercials asking for money for a starving child in Africa. The time is now for all Christians to unite and make a change for Christ! It doesn’t necessarily have be the commercial you see on television. There are many other ways to give such as Compassion or World Missions, but I feel it is the duty of every single Christian to give to the least of these, and every day that goes by, is one less day we can help.

If there is one bit of advice I could give my fellow Christians, it would be not to pray over what God has already commanded us to do. He has already told us to go into the nations and into the communities and homes and make a difference in the lives of His people. Instead, pray that He will give you the opportunity to go and equip you for once you get there.

- Jared Barnes

In December 2007, Jared traveled to Hogar Agape in Nicaragua with a group from Lee University.