Godfrey's Wall

The year before I was married to Tasha, I spent the summer in Uganda, Africa. My brother Smooth and I stayed with the Wanamitsa family for 3 months as we assisted the ministry of Arise Africa International. Godfrey Wanamitsa is the director of Arise, a non-governement mission organization consisting of Ugandan nationals committed to reaching their country with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My dad's ministry has partnered with Arise over the past 12 years sending a team of doctors, nurses and pastors every summer to assist with the enormous task of reaching the villages of Uganda with physical and spiritual help.

The Wanamitsas are an amazing family. They are Ugandan nationals who have answered God's call to reach their nation for Jesus Christ. They have given their lives to that task. I was privileged to stay in their home for 3 months. Their children practically became my own.

This past week, we received word that the Wanamitsa's home was invaded by thieves. The entire family, including their small children, were held at gunpoint as the invaders made off with every possible item of value including an undisclosed amount of money. No one was seriously injured, but as you can imagine, the family has been forever traumatized and scarred by such an incident. Godfrey's wife, Joy, and the children are losing sleep over this terrorizing event and are continually fearful for their lives.

Doubtless this incident could have been prevented or at least hindered had a concrete wall and iron gate been constructed around their property as is the custom of the more elite African families. Unfortunately, the Wanamitsas were without this safeguard. Our ministry is requesting immediate financial assistance for the construction of a wall and gate around the Wanamitsa house to prevent any further tragedies from taking place.

The cost of this will likely be in the thousands of dollars. If you can sacrificially give to this cause, we would be grateful. The Wanamitsa family would be grateful. The children of God rising up in Uganda and the hundreds of souls coming to know Him because of the Wanamitsa family will be grateful.

Send your contributions to: Rick Via Ministries, P.O. Box 582, Blue Ridge, VA, 24064. Earmark "Godfrey's Wall."

May God bless you as you consider a sacrificial gift. And please pray for the Wanamitsa family that the Lord will bring peace and assurance of His providential hand in their lives.

Travels, Remodels and John Hyde

It's been a pretty hectic couple of weeks around the Via house. Leading worship four times over the weekend plus a christian school chapel leaves one delirious on Monday morning. Tasha and I also squeezed in time to remodel our home office since we're spending so much time in here these days doing things for the ministry. It has a much cozier, Carabou Coffee feel and is extremely conducive for reading, writing, recording, learning the alphabet with Rainy's Leap Frog, wiping up Zeke's regurgitated lunch or just about anything.

On another note, we received confirmation this week that our CD "The End to Which I Strive" will arrive on February 28th and will be available as we travel and for download online. Thanks so much to all of you who have donated funds to help us finish this project. We are so grateful. Be praying for and expecting a new project late in the year that we're already working on.

Finally, here's a quotable I came across this week. I'm reading a biography of John Hyde, a 19th century missionary to India. Though he was physically limited due to a slight deafness, he labored on for many years in India. Threatening to pull him off of the field, his mission board declared him too physically limited for the difficult task of language learning necessary to reach the Indians. Knowing this, Hyde's village who had come to know him and love him made this rebuttal,

"If he never speaks the language of our lips, he speaks the language of our hearts."

I'll let that statement hang by itself. Make the application in your own life.

Filter, Learn, Be Reminded

This week I’ve had the privilege of attending The Pastor's Conference at First Baptist Church Jacksonville, FL. I'm here with my dad and two of my brothers, Jared and Jacob. One thing I've learned in attending so many Christian conferences is that you have to learn how to be your own filter. You take the good stuff and filter it down to where you live - to where it hits home for you - to where it can be applied to your own ministry, your own family, and your own world.

And most of the time it's not so much that I learn new things at these conferences, but that I'm reminded of good things at these conferences. For instance, last night Junior Hill preached a message about John the Baptist and why Jesus called him the greatest preacher who ever lived. One of the suggestions that Junior gave was the fact that he lived his life in unbelievable humility. John said in John 3:30,

"He must become greater. I must become less."

John was a guy who saw hundreds of people coming to faith in the Messiah before the Messiah had even appeared on the scene. John wasn't afraid to lose his crowd to the teaching of another, that being the teaching of the Son of God.

The top of his resume could have stated, “I, John the Baptist, baptized God.” But John wasn't concerned with popularity. He wasn't concerned with status. He wasn't concerned with having his name in the lights of Jerusalem.

I was reminded last night of the need to consistently maintain an attitude of humility in every area of my life. I was reminded that God uses humble people to do great things. I was reminded of just how much I want Proverbs 16:18 to resonate within me at all times - to be demonstrated in me at all times. That’s where I want to be. That’s where I want to live. Great reminder.