We are officially moved to our new home in a new city serving with a new church. One of the hard parts of being a believer is the fact that we are called to be willing to go anywhere. The Bible refers to us as strangers and exiles (1 Peter 2:11), yet not without a place (Ephesians 2:19). I think one of the biggest errors Christians can fall into is believing they never should leave a place. The reasons usually sound good, but I believe it borders on idolatry. The idea that you cannot leave a place because your family has always been there or that you are the Christian that God never expects to leave or move. The fact is that we are born, knitted together by God to bring glory to His name. We do that by making His name known throughout the world. It is a universal requirement of believers. Our citizenship in heaven supersedes our earthly origins/family/tribe. It is hard to leave family and home, but we must remember that Jesus tells us He must come first.
37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Matthew 10:37-39
There can be no limit in where we will go for Jesus. There can be nothing we are not willing to give up for him. Anything short of full surrender, full willingness means we cannot follow Him.
23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? 26 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
Luke 9:23-26
It pains me some to know I have disconnected my family from the rest of our family, but then I see what God gives us in churches we have served with and the things He has shown us and I remember that they will be better and more able to serve the Lord as adults, anywhere, because of our emphasis on not having a permanent place. What about you? What stops you from going, moving, giving up? Do your children know the King is first in all things? If you presented your reason before Jesus, would the Bible support it?
We are in our new home and it could not have gone any better. We had so much help from family and from church. Our church packed our pantry and set us up for a good start. Maybe the biggest blessing is being so close to church. It is just a short drive down the road for us. Speaking of church we are full in swing with all the various activities that are going on. We are planning for VBS, there is a mission trip to visit a church plant in Oregon, we just had the youth serve families in a vday banquet. We are also working our way through the Book of Romans in service. Will you pray for Siloam Baptist as we work through Romans and for the health of many of our saints?
Meanwhile in Uganda……
Jacob, Carol, and RAU (www.reachingafricasunreached.org) have been very busy. There was a youth conference in Yumbe district, with teaching, open air preaching, and one on one evangelism.
Good News! Reaching Africa’s Unreached (RAU) is growing as a Bible and Book Distribution Center!
Currently we have 20,000 softcover ESV Bibles, 500 ESV Church Pew Bibles, and 500 Concise Study Bibles on their way to RAU. We just recently received 1000 Story of Redemption Bibles and a good number of hardback ESV Bibles. Along with all of these, we have received, through Christianbook International Outreach and Crossway Global, many thousands of good Christian books, specifically for church leaders. One of the means for RAU to walk out 2 Timothy 2:2 is by ensuring that every church leader has a Bible; if they can read English or Arabic, we do our best to put in their hands a good study Bible. By God’s grace, since 2013, RAU has received around 30,000 ESV Global Study Bibles, many Arabic Study Bibles and some local language Bibles. In much of Uganda, as well as among Sudanese, English is known and read because of educational systems whose primary learning mode is English.
Please take a few minutes and read more about RAU’s growing opportunity as a Bible and Christian Book Distribution Center for Ugandans and South and North: https://reachingafricasunreached.org/2024/01/30/bible-and-book-distribution-center/
As the years go by the major areas of Christianity have shifted. If you notice that by 2050 Africa and what is considered the Global South will be the majority of Christians in the world. This is why it is essential that the believers, pastors, and others are properly discipled. They will be the ones carrying out the work in the future!
Jacob and Carol Lee can not be spoken of enough. Beyond their faithfulness in the field for years, they have been a massive encouragement to us. They have even help bring in a new church family to support us, all the way in TEXAS! Here is a chance to get to know them.
Interested in partnering with us? We will go if you will help send us. If you are interested in partnering but want to give later please let me know.
Monthly: 24%
One Time: 44%
If you have questions please reach out to me: ben.pryce@abwego.org
Please give here: www.abwe.org/prycesofafrica
Pryces of Africa 