Robin Hardy Online

Reader Christy's parents, Greg and Margaret, recently returned to the United States after fifteen years' mission work in Africa. In introducing us to their work, Christy said:

I have been blessed to visit Africa a couple of times. I went to Kampala, Uganda. Uganda is a beautiful country. You can still see the effects from living under the rule of Idi Amin. My parents lived in the house of the former Prime Minister of Uganda. He started a Foursquare church with the help of another missionary family and the gardener. The church was in the garage, which is as big as my apartment. My parents were reluctant to live in the house. Even when God told them to. It was a big house and they couldn't see why God would want them to have such a big house. But they obeyed and took the house. 

One of their first converts asked them to come to their village. They agreed and his family accepted Christ.  This man's father had waited 20 or 30 years to become a Christian. He had heard the message about Jesus, but nobody explained to him how to become one. It was then my parents realized their home was right next to the oldest "slum" of Kampala. It was where the prostitutes and thieves lived and even the police wouldn't dare go in. But they did, and shared the message of Christ and loved the people. They also found that down the street was Uganda's renowned witch doctor (who lost his powers after the church was built) and a mosque. And right in the middle of this was the church.

The people are wonderful. So open and so loving. I have never experienced anything like that. And there is this feeling in the air...almost electrifying. When I go to Africa, I can hear God's voice so clear and so loud. Almost audible. One day when I was enjoying a wonderful worship service (nobody worships God like the Africans. They worship God with their whole bodies) the presence of God was so strong I was nearly to my knees. . . .

Above: a worship service in Kanungu, Uganda

On his blog, Greg's Africa Thoughts, Mr. Fisher speaks plainly about the biggest issues facing this continent: [Corruption] is a disease which kills more people in Africa than Malaria, HIV-AIDS, and Tuberculosis combined. Even so, I doubt very much that we will be seeing any internationally famous rock stars spear-heading a drive to raise funds to combat this disease. The world's outpouring of concern for the plight of the victims of HIV has become a point of strengthening the grip of corruption more than alleviating the disease. This has led one international newspaper to observe, "Money for AIDS projects can make things worse: the Global Fund had to suspend grants to Uganda in August after uncovering evidence of systematic embezzlement." The Standard

Case in point: The Uganda experience with Global Fund initiative to fight HIV-AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis. In 2002, Uganda received a generous 201 million dollar commitment from the Global Fund to fight disease. You may remember that this fund was a Bush administration initiative to fight the three deadly diseases. (At the time, I once met with one of the Senators spearheading this initiative and answered questions about my experiences in dealing with the HIV-AIDS crisis). By December 2005, when the light of Justice James Ogoola's inquiry began to shine into the fund, the trail of corruption, theft, and mismanagement was staggering. Here is an example: The DFCU Bank in Kampala agree to pay a generous Ush 350 million ($190,000 ) brokerage commission to a Kampala lawyer for influencing the choice of the DFCU Bank to handle the Global Fund account. What exactly did the lawyer in question do to earn this hefty slice of the global fund pie, Justice Ogoola wanted to know, ". . .he gave the bank transcripts from an Internet website detailing the US government's commitment to disburse US$201m to Uganda." AllAfrica

Above: Greg leading a class at left, and with Emmanuel and his lovely wife at right. Emmanuel is Director of Campus Crusade in Rwanda.

In response to our e-mail asking for an update on his work, Mr. Fisher replied: Currently, I am the Regional Manager for Africa at Hosanna/Faith Comes By Hearing . Hosanna is a ministry that produces the New Testament in adramatized audio format in 204 languages. Why is this important? Because more than 50% of the world's population is functionally illiterate and unable to read or understand the Bible. In my present position I help to facilitate the recording of languages in Africa, and the establishment of Faith Comes By Hearing listening groups in villages and churches. It is an exciting ministry to be doing right now. The missions world is just now beginning to wake up to the fact of orality...that many cultures--including some of the post-literate cultures in the West--learn by hearing rather than by reading. Our goal at Hosanna is to record and produce the audio New Testament in 2000 languages by the year 2016. That will make the Word of God available to about 97% of the world's population.

Mr. Fisher's video blog, Let Me Tell You Something, is here.

Our best wishes to the Fishers in their continuing work, and our thanks to Christy for introducing us.

Originally posted Oct. 31, 2006

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