Vail and I are both very happy and know we are exactly where the Lord wants us to be.  We appreciate your prayers for us which we realize are vital for our success.

We have visited with the President of HCI-Uganda, Bishop Roman Okware in Kakira along with other HCI-Uganda church leaders.  I have also visited with Pastor Robert Muhumuza, the Vice President of HCI-Uganda.  Let me re-confirm what I have said before – poverty and lack are the greatest challenges facing the ministers and the churches in Uganda.  When you meet with them one-on-one this is what it always comes down to.  Literally every day I get phone calls, text messages, and emails from ministers from Uganda and the surrounding nations who need money for school fees, medical expenses, and just day to day needs. They need a long-term solution that will empower them and bring genuine transformation into their lives and families.   Unfortunately, this is more the rule here in Africa than the exception.  There are some very serious issues that must be addressed, and preaching and teaching alone cannot get the job done. 

The Lord has led me to partner with an existing microfinance institution (MFI) here in Uganda, rather than starting from the ground up.  Interestingly, this all came about as a result of some preaching and teaching I did in a youth conference back in 1985.  Joshua Lwere, the founder of BANCS Microfinance attended those meetings and was profoundly  impacted apparently, so when we met up again after all these years, he remembered me and even still had the notes he took from my teachings.  Vail reminded me of what the Lord told me two years ago, “It is time to once again build on the foundation that was laid in Africa.”

BANCS (BANCS stands for Born Again National Credit Services) began in 2007 and has provided basic business training for1400 people. It currently has 800 active loans.   Our commitment in BANCS is to integrate the spiritual, the physical and the financial to effect genuine transformation in the lives of families, churches, and entire communities.  I have sent out several letters giving more details about this phase of our ministry, and if you are interested in knowing more, please feel free to contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  I will definitely be sharing more exciting news in future reports about how microfinance can empower the poor and how you and/or your church can get directly involved in giving people a hand-up instead of a hand-out.

The greatest opportunities you and I will ever have come through relationships.  Joshua Lwere, in addition to pasturing and being my partner in microfinance, is also the General Secretary for the Born Again Network of Churches here in Uganda which numbers over 23,000 churches.  He is very interested in HCI and the structure the Lord led us to develop in the States, e.g., the three pillars of Pastoral Care, Church Empowerment, and Missions Mobilization.  Many of the African Churches feel they could genuinely benefit from the structure developed in the early stages of HCI.  Joshua has spoken to Steve Vickers via video conference and has asked him to consider how HCI might be able to work together with the Born Again Network here in Uganda to move them from being a loose-knit membership network to more of a community of churches that provides genuine empowerment benefits for its members.  I see this as a huge and very strategic opportunity that gives all of us in HCI a huge platform for ministry across Uganda.

The President of Uganda will be making an official visit to our microfinance office and will also visit the adjacent slum transformation and housing project.  This is a huge thing for us that has the potential to open many doors we need opened as we make our plans to expand the microfinance outreach into the northern parts of Uganda where the spiritual and physical needs are so severe.  For the past month many of our team have been working almost round the clock making preparations for the visit.

We (BANCS Microfinance – BANCS stands for Born Again National Credit Services) have signed a contract with the top microfinance consulting firm in East and Central Africa to do a five-year strategic plan for us.  We want to begin the process as soon as possible after the presidential visit.  Having a well-known and highly reputable outside company like this come in and do the amount of critical and objective work they will do makes a huge impression with funding agencies.   

Microfinance is an amazing empowerment tool for the poor – and a powerful tool for helping bring financial empowerment to African churches.  Most of my time is spent in my office at BANCS.  My impression so far is that the need for micro-loans seems inexhaustible.  We have 200 approved loan applications right now, but are waiting for more capital.  We have an application in with the government of Uganda for a loan, and believe the presidential visit will speed up the approval of the loan.

One of the greatest needs in major cities in Africa is for decent low-income housing.  Hundreds, even thousands of souls pour into these cities every week and most of them wind up staying in some disease-ridden slum area.  We have some very amazing solutions to that whole issue – in fact, seeing what has been built already is one of the main reasons the President is coming.  The impact - spiritually, physically, and socially -  is off the chart.  Our long-term goal is for the slum-transformation projects, along with the microfinance outreach, to be fully self-supporting.

The Lord has not had me doing a lot of preaching but more one-on-one teaching, and has me involved in a lot of counseling and mentoring of pastors and leaders.  Joshua, whom I work with, and I are planning an itinerary for the second half of the year that will cover the entire nation, bringing scores, even hundreds of pastors and leaders together to talk about the Kingdom principles of: 1) multi-dimensional transformation and 2) financial empowerment strategies.  We will be able to not only teach, but offer some practical ways to help, which is where having a microfinance bank really comes into the picture.  As you know, it’s always a process and we must meet people where they are.  Some must begin at square one and have their eyes opened to the fact it is going to take more than preaching to bring transformation to their people.  For others, the greatest need is some capital to move forward with. 

On a personal note, we have been here five months and stand amazed at all the Lord has accomplished.  We are literally three years further down the road than we expected to be at this time.  Yes, we are busier than we ever have been, yet we are very fulfilled doing what we are doing.  We live in a furnished one-bedroom apartment right in the middle of Kampala, and thanks to our friends and partners have a paid-for van that runs well.  We’ll work on upgrading the housing and the vehicle later. 

We love and appreciate your friendship and support.  You are in our thoughts and prayers.