Hello
friends!
It has been
almost a year since my first mission trip to Uganda and once again I can hear
God calling (pulling) me back. Last year’s trip was an eye-opening experience
that changed my entire life. It is difficult to articulate how much I was
affected by the people of Uganda, but I do know that the experience made me a
better man, son, brother, friend, teammate and leader. As the youngest member
of last summer’s team, I found myself evangelizing to Ugandan high school
students and I was pleasantly surprised by my ability to connect with my
Ugandan peers despite the differences in our culture and backgrounds. I know it
was God working through me to show the young men what a personal relationship
with God looked like, and the impact a Godly man could have on his family.
My
relationship with God has been the foundation of my college experience. I
continue to be very active as a leader in the campus based ministry, CRU
(Campus Crusade), and FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes). My involvement
with FCA has been particularly rewarding this year as I followed the advice of
Pastor Samuel of Jinja and took a huge leap of faith and decided to “be bold”
and begin a weekly bible study with my teammates. In recent years, the men’s
basketball team had been the only athletic team on campus without a weekly
bible study. Pouring into the lives of
my teammates strengthened our existing bond of friendship and, more
importantly, created a brotherly bond that helps ease the void of being away
from our families.
After
having been away from home for almost two years now, I have a much deeper
appreciation for the importance of family. Perhaps that is why I have developed
such a strong connection with the Man Up and Go team. Family is at the core of the Man Up movement.
According to Roger Gibson, the Man Up and Go founder, “Family is God’s solution
for the orphan crisis. The Christian social justice mandate is not to build
more orphanages, but to help orphans stay or be reunited with their families or
to find a new family through adoption.”
The
Man Up and Go team will again be traveling to Uganda this summer (May 25th-
June 7th) and I plan to join them. I believe we have a
responsibility to use our blessings and gifts from God to help our brothers and
sisters around the world. On our 10-day journey, we will connect with the local
pastors in the cities of Kampala, Palissa, and Jinja, to provide support to
their daily efforts to reach their people. The team will also be given multiple
opportunities to love big on the orphans, do various work projects, evangelize
to students (my personal favorite), and facilitate workshops on what it means
to be a servant leader.
Most
of the women where we will be serving are poor, have several children, and have
been abandoned by their husbands. We want to love the children, encourage
the women, and teach the men and boys what it means to "Man Up" to
their responsibilities as fathers and servants of Christ. I am also excited to see
how much the children that my mother and I sponsor have grown and prospered
this past year. I sponsor an eleven year old girl named Mirembe through our
ministry partner “Return Ministries” and my mom sponsors a six year old boy named
Derrick from Kerith Children’s home. I spent a lot of time loving on them last
year and am looking forward to doing so again this year. I encourage you
to visit http://manupandgoblog.com for more information about Man Up
and all of their important ministry partners.
Last
year’s trip meant a lot to me personally and I knew before I got home from
Africa last year that I would like to return. Our amazing God has again made it
possible for me to answer his challenge to step up as a Christian and do His
work by providing this opportunity during one of the few open spots in my
hectic schedule (during the spring/summer semester break). I am very passionate
about this work and I could talk about it for hours on end but I guess I should
cut to the chase. I would like to ask for your help in two ways:
·
PRAYER! This is the single most important
and effective way you can help me. Please pray that we are able to connect with
the Ugandan people and open their hearts to the love of God. Pray for our
safety as our group will be coming from all over the country and meeting up in
Washington D.C. before embarking on our trip to Uganda. Your prayers will be
heard and will allow us the strength to complete our mission.
·
FINANCIAL SUPPORT. If you feel led to support this trip
financially, I would be very grateful. Each member needs to raise $3,000 to
cover the cost of the trip. Whatever amount God leads you to give, it will be a
great blessing to me and the people to whom I minister while in Africa. If you
feel able, please click here to donate online or go to http://www.manupandgoblog.com/donate-online/ if the hyperlink does not work.
Please be sure to designate your donation to Trip Participant Fund and enter
Tyler McCullough in the Donation
Designation field.
I would
love to meet with you personally to share my experience. Please let me know if
you would be interested in meeting and I will get back with you to confirm a
date, time and place.
I am
excited to see what God has in store for me this year. I am also excited
to see how God uses our team to spread the message of hope and love in Jesus
Christ to “the fatherless and the least of these” in Africa. May God richly
bless you as you help me bless the African people.
God
bless,
Tyler
McCullough
