Almost Home | Uganda Trip #11

(January 12)

I’m sitting with Stu and Mike in the Amsterdam airport during our six-hour layover here. I’m anxious to land at MSP at 4 pm on Saturday, see Carol, get cleaned up, try to stay up till 9 pm. I hope I get a good night’s sleep before gathering with you all at FCC on Sunday morning. I anticipate dosing in and out of consciousness on Sunday, watching football playoffs.

We ended our classes this week well. Our students were engaged and worked hard at grasping how to handle the interpretation and communication of Old Testament Narrative and Law. I found our work on the law most helpful as we sought to see the law in light of God’s character and how Christ fulfilled the law before we move on to application.

Application…that is often the struggle. I notice it in my small group when we go through the FCC sermon and conversation guide. We find it easy to make observations, but how does it apply today, or to put it another way, “So what?”. Most of the troubles we have in the church is not failing to know the Bible, it has to do with failing to appropriately apply the Bible. 

There are some really incredible leaders that we are working with who are sharing leadership with us, and they seem prepared to take over our function. Then it will be all theirs, as it should be. As a matter of fact, we have identified two men that we think could be sent to other countries.

The goal of an enduring movement of gospel-centered, Bible-saturated, African lead churches seems within reach. I look forward to our next trip in May. I also look forward to being back at FCC soon!

Larry Szyman

Pastor for Missional Life