A letter from Executive Director Carrie Miles:
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, I want to thank you, our faithful supporters, who have continued with us despite the interruptions to all our lives. Your continued support is important because, while no one can travel right now, we have ongoing fixed costs, such as support for our partners in Africa and India, our fixed operational expenses such as our office, and our continued online presence.
Below you will find a report by African Program Director Frank Tweheyo on how, despite the rigorous lockdown he is under in Uganda, he continues to spread Empower’s life changing message while stuck at home. Pastor Frank has been broadcasting the New Man, New Woman, New Life material on a Christian radio station in Kabale, Uganda, to great effect. Radio is a powerful medium in Africa. Everyone listens to the radio. I found this out personally last time I was in Kabale. After I spoke on the radio, for the next few days, everyone I met came up to me to exclaim, “I heard you on the radio!”
Before Frank’s report, however, I want to give you an update on our global partners in the midst of the pandemic:
Uganda, Kenya, and India have been under rigorous lockdown since early March, although India has just been released. Coronavirus is not particularly widespread in these countries, perhaps because of their drastic preventative measures. Because medical care is of poor quality and people do not have much money, however, if it does take hold there, its effects will be devastating. Please pray that these countries are spared widespread illness.
While lockdown may spare these countries the worst of the illness, however, most people in these countries are daily wage earners. This means that a great many people have been not only without income but also without any means of getting food. They have no social safety nets, no food banks, no unemployment insurance, no economic stimulus checks. Although the Indian government is easing lockdown, the districts in Uganda that border other countries – which is most of the districts – are still under quarantine, as is Kenya.
Please pray for people in these countries. Several friends of Empower have been sending money to our partners in the Ugandan towns of Rukungiri, Kabale, and Banda (a slum outside Kampala) and to one partner in India, which they have used to purchase food (mostly posho, a corn meal) for the families in their congregations and schools.
People have been so grateful. You can imagine the relief felt by a parent when he or she learns that they would be able to feed their children.
The president of Burundi, another country in which Empower works, died of a heart attack last week, although it is widely suspected that he actually died of Covid-19. His widow, Denise Bucumi, with whom several of the Empower team have worked, is in hospital in Kenya fighting the virus. Nonetheless, it appears that there is not much infection in Burundi.
I do not know what is happening in Malawi, but according to the Internet, there are not a lot of cases there either. Thank God.
Our partner Dr. Zablon Mutongu at St. Paul’s University in Kenya reports that the university was able to switch its courses to online. He looks forward to resuming Empower programs, which are not offered online, when people are once again allowed to assemble. In the meantime, we do have an e-book version of New Man, New Woman, New Life available now. This will make it easier for those we train at St. Paul’s to take the material in turn to their own congregations.
New Life On the Air
Despite the rigorous lockdown in Uganda, Africa Program Director Frank Michael Tweheyo has found a way to continue to proclaim the biblical message of God’s love and its meaning for how we treat each other.
“One of the options I thought about to continue teaching the Empower message was through the radio,” Frank said.
So he reached out to Hope Radio in Kabale Town, Uganda, asking he could record a show. The proprietor not only said yes, he gave Frank an excellent discount on the price!
So Frank began a radio program, teaching through the New Man, New Woman, New Life seminar content. Listeners can call in with questions to discuss the material, and Frank has had a tremendous response.
Frank reports:
“We’ve been dealing with the Genesis material so far. People have been calling, appreciating the depth of the message of God’s original intent for human beings. They were so happy to know that both man and woman were created equal, and were happy to learn about the woman as the ‘Ezer Kenegdo’ to the man. In the culture where patriarchy is glorified and institutionalized, such a revelation was good news. (Click here to read the curriculum.)
“Many people were happy for the clarification that man was present in the garden when the woman was being tempted. The listeners were also so happy to hear that God did not curse the man or the woman but that they received the consequences of their disobedience,” he added.
“Listeners were again encouraged to know that even at the point of our greatest failure, God was already planning our redemption, through the ‘seed of the woman’ who is Jesus Christ,” Frank said.
Frank told us that his radio show is having an impact. In fact, one day while he was working at the White Horse Inn, a woman and her two teenage children stopped to speak to him. Her name was Hope.
She said she and her family had been listening to the program and how it had helped her, changing her understanding of the “curse” story in Genesis.
“I don’t call this a coincidence,” Frank said. “I believe it is God’s divine appointment.”
Frank said he plans to discuss more chapters from the New Man, New Woman, New Life curriculum on his radio program in the future.
“The lockdown is not yet lifted in our parts of the world, so the people may still need this Word for some time to come,” he said. “I wish we could even continue the series even after lockdown.”
Would you like to help support the new radio show? Frank is currently doing one show a week, at the cost of about $30 a show. You can support one show ($30), a whole month of shows ($120), or the rest of the year ($774)! You can click here to donate online, or send a check to Empower International Ministries, 14032 Enderle Center Dr, STE 201, Tustin, CA, 92780.
Prayer for You?
You too are a vital part of this ministry. Please let us know how you are doing and how we can pray for you.
Fondly,
Carrie Miles
Executive Director