Prayer Requests for our trip

1. Travel Preparation - We have not been able to prepare as adequately as we had hoped the last few weeks due to the death of Monica's father on February 17th. Pray the LORD will continue to pour out strength and joy and steadfast hearts in us so we can be a blessing to Emmanuel when we arrive. Isaiah 40:28-29

2. Preparation to Preach - Last time I checked I am licensed as a doctor and not a preacher. I told Emmy I would be happy to preach at his church. I just didn't realize this meant all of us would be preaching at nearly all of his churches. Pray that the Holy Spirit gives all of us the right words to encourage the people of Uganda and that we won't get in the way. Mark 16:15

3. Travel - Pray for safe air travel, commuting on the ground, safe food to eat and restful sleep away from our home. Phil 4:6

4.Our Mission - Finding a way to support Pastor Emmy to be a voice for his long awaited vision to build a permanent school and orphanage for the orphans of Uganda. John 14:18

Our Schedule for Uganda 3/6-3/18/08

Thursday March 6th : We leave from DFW at 415pm for an overnight flight.

Friday March 7th : We arrive in London on Bailey's 13th birthday. We hope to catch a few sights and have a special lunch for Bailey. We leave late that night for an overnight flight to Entebbe Uganda.

Saturday March 8th: We arrive in Entebbe, Uganda to meet up with Pastor Emmy and travel to his hometown of MBarara to meet Emmy's wife Sarah and his family, orphans and church.

Sunday March 9th: Both Monica and I will be preaching at Emmy's church. We will also be honored to give the students of the Ezra School of Ministry their certificates of completion.
We will have a special lunch at the church.

Monday March 10th: We visit Emmy's school from 9am -1 pm where Bailey and Libby will be teaching the kids the Word through the use of string tricks. Later that day we will all visit and preach at a nearby branch church.

Tuesday March 11th: We visit the Masaka district branch churches all gathered in one location. We will preach once to all the believers and then Monica will preach to the pastor's wives and I will preach to the pastors.

Wednesday March 12th: We visit the Ibanda district and bring 2 messages to the people and the pastors and their wives.

Thursday March 13th: We start to make our way to the capitol, Kampala and on our way we will stop at Sanga from 10-11am to bring a special message. We then move on to Kakagate where we will do the same from 11am-1pm. We check in to our hotel in Kampala later that evening.

Friday March 14th: We visit the American Embassy in Kampala and begin our effort to help Emmy acquire a visa to come to America later in 2008.

Saturday March 15th: We leave Uganda for London England.

Sunday -Monday March 16-17th: We stay in London to rest, visit Big Ben, see the Tower Bridge, have some tea, and eat some fish and chips.

Tuesday March 18th: Back in Tyler to share this great experience of what the Lord is doing in Uganda.

Pastor Emmy's Story

Pastor Emmanuel's life as a child was very difficult and neither he nor his wife Sarah received the parental care that they needed growing up.  Emmanuel's father was a "drunkard" and married nineteen women.  Emmy's own mother was only 15 years old when her parents forced her to marry his 60 year old father.  Emmy's mom later divorced his dad and Emmy stayed under his father's household.  One stepmother seriously mistreated Emmy after his own mother left at age 8.  By age 14 he was forced to travel by bike 56 miles to bring food for the family and water from two miles out.  Often times his bike would fall over on top of him with the heavy  jericans (large containers of water) and leave him little strength for the rest of the long journey.  He often had to wait for someone to lift the bike off of him.  Many people felt sorry for him but did nothing to help him out of his sad situation. Once home he still had to split firewood.  Emmy  said it was as if he was a slave in his own home.  

His stepmother would only feed him dinner while the rest of the family had two meals a day.  

The stepmother even tried to go to witch doctors to hurt him but God protected him and nothing harmed him.  She became threatened by Emmanuel when his dad was about to die because he was the oldest child and would become the heir of his father.  One day on returning home he found lunch waiting for him and was so happy that they had thought of him.  However, by God's divine protection his little stepsister ran in to tell him secretly "don't eat that food because I saw mother put something in it and I am afraid for you."  He hoped this wasn't true especially since he was so hungry from working hard but he listened to her and fed the food to their pig.  The next day the pig was dead and at age 15 Emmanuel knew he had to run away from home.  A relative took Emmy in and helped him get odd jobs as a houseboy, and a porter to Engineers who built buildings.  God's hand was on him and he applied for a job to teach third grade which he got.  There the Lord blessed him as he met his future wife Sarah  and gave him favor to do his job well to be promoted.  Emmanuel and Sarah Nnyanzi were married in 1989 and they came to know the Lord this same year and put a burning desire to serve Him in their hearts.  

They now have 5 children and over 15 orphans who live with them.  By God's grace they have planted 27 churches (the first of which is a powerful testimony we'll share soon) and have a school and ministry to over 150 orphans.  They struggle to pay 5 teachers salaries so they can teach the children for free.  Their heart is to transform their world with the parental love of the Father.  Emmanuel hopes to build a school and home for the orphans and we hope to help the Lord in His marvelous work to care for the orphans of Uganda.

Emmanuel's friendship has personally been an answer to prayer for our family.  He and his church have spent hours fasting and praying for us and we are so very thankful for his labor of love.  Jesus knew just the way to network us together so long hoped for prayers would be answered not only in Uganda but in Tyler!  We are excited to see what the Lord has planned to show us as we go to visit and pray with our dear friend and meet his family.  

How the Barrets were led to Africa

The Lord's timing and ways are perfect. In 2004 we traveled to Saltillo Mexico as a family and God began to give us hearts of compassion for the poor and lost. The last day we were leaving Saltillo many tears were shed because we were so overwhelmed with God's love from these humble, precious people.  As Christmas 2006 approached, our youngest daughter Libby (age 8 at the time) gave Monica and I a Christmas card that she had written at school. It stated, "Dear Mom,  I feel this Christmas we should be missionaries and help the poor.  Jesus keeps pushing me to tell you.  Merry Christmas!" From this little one being sensitive to the Lord, God opened up clearly His will for Monica to go to Mozambique Africa.  The Lord quickly led Monica to feel this was for His good purposes.

I (Bub) was still uncertain and was not willing to consider sending my wife across the other side of the world .  I was so overwhelmed with sick kids at work in late December of 2006 that I had had very little time for the Lord to speak to me.  I was very tired. I couldn't hardly even give it some thought much less prayer.  The last day of work before Christmas came and finally I had seen my last patient before my few days off with my family. There was finally a calm and peace and at that moment I asked the Lord to speak to me and sure enough He did. I saw the mailman walk in our pediatric office right then and I decided to follow him. I quickly looked through the mail and noticed the Jan 2007 edition of Christianity Today. I thought this might be a good read for Christmas. However, on the cover was a title not meant for the coffee table: Red Light District in Thailand, a story on child prostitution. So I put the magazine down but the Lord said pick it up. I flipped through it. Inside this edition I was suprised to find an article labeled: "Blessed by Friendship. " It was an article from a graduate student sharing her observations from a recent trip to the same tiny little African town that Monica would be traveling to in February. My mouth almost hit the floor. I knew the Lord was speaking directly to me. In my own defiance, I promptly put the magazine back on my desk and left it at the office. Throughout the afternoon I wrestled with my flesh and selfishly asked myself how could I send my wife half way across the world during the middle of winter in the busy season of my pediatric practice and who would take care of the girls, etc.?  It just wasn't going to happen in my eyes. The Holy Spirit continued to draw me to the Lord's plan. I knew He wanted her to go after more prayer and His help to yield. I told the family we were going to have a share time later that evening and promptly went back to the office to get the magazine. ;o) We all sat together and shared and prayed and realized the Lord's plan. Bailey, our oldest daughter who thinks much like me, had a peace about the trip as well after hearing my story of hearing from the Lord directly and the Lord spoke to her heart also.    

It was a little over a month later that Monica was in the sky headed for Mozambique Africa one of the poorest nations in the world. The Lord opened every door - visa, shots, applications, packing for two weeks, care for our children. All the while He also was giving us great peace and excitement in our hearts for this new opportunity He was opening up to us. Those 2 weeks in Africa in February of 2007 were powerful and life changing, for all 4 of us. Monica was able to visit two orphanages under the care of Iris Ministries in Pemba and then Maputo. The orphans and widows are being served well by this wonderful ministry.  Monica and the team loved, prayed and worshipped with the orphans and widows.  The word says God will not leave us orphans - He will come to us!  The Spirit of the Lord there was so mighty and so beautiful and those children just drink Him in and rest in Jesus' arms.  The orphans and widows ministered much more to Monica than she ever could to them.  One great memory of the trip there was an outreach to preach the gospel in a muslim village one night under the stars of Africa - we worshipped then showed the Jesus film and Heidi preached and then prayed for a deaf child who the Lord healed on the spot.  The elated 7-8yr old dancing around was surreal. Many people in the village accepted the Lord as their savior and the next day asked for help to clean out their home of idols and wanted to build a church immediately to God's glory!  The highlight of the trip for the whole team was the privilege of meeting Pastor Emmanuel Nnyanzi from Uganda. Emmanuel quickly became a dear friend and his love, compassion and inner strength are evidence of his wonderful connection to the vine - JESUS! For his amazing story and his influence on our lives here in Tyler..... see his post.