May 2017 New Horizons

The Challenges and Joys of Missionary Life in Uganda

by L. Charles Jackson

Before we left for Africa, we saw a TV show that said Americans were particularly incensed with “line-cutting.”_There is something about a person cutting in front of you in line that strikes most of us as unfair and even rude. Ha! The first time you buy groceries in our “big” store here in Mbale, Uganda, called Bam, you suddenly realize that there are five brown hands of various sizes filled with milk, bread, candy, or rice pushing their way in front of you. It’s as if the first person who can trick the cashier into taking something becomes the winner. Your first instinct is to blurt out, “No butting in line!”—but then you remember that you’re a missionary. You remember that you’re here to give the gospel, and yelling at all the “cutters” might not be so great. If you get angry, you’ve blown a good testimony, but if you stand there politely, you may never get to buy your goods. Heading to the “queue,” as they call the line here, always makes me smile a bit, as it is one of the ... Read more

Following Jesus in Karamoja

by David J. Robbins

The mid-morning sun filters orange light into the waiting room. It’s a little slow today at Akisyon a Yesu Clinic in South Karamoja, Uganda, but there are a few people scattered on the benches that line the walls. I greet them. We have good news for the sick. The passage is Mark 2:13–17. Jesus says to Levi, “Follow me.” Not only Levi but many sinners follow him, and he eats with them. What a marvelous meal that must have been! But Jesus’ actions provoke the self-righteous. Follow me! The words are foreign, strange. How could the holy and righteous One, who will not even look on sin, not only tolerate but actually invite the company of sinners? He does not shun the thieves, the drunkards, the murderers. He does not dismiss the guilty, but calls sinners of every stripe to come and follow him. Follow him to the cross, where he will break the power of sin, cleanse its stain, and pay its deadly debt. Follow him to heaven, where he has now gone before us, leading his people up to perfect ... Read more

The Reformation of Marriage

by Alan D. Strange

Marriage and family were prominent among the many issues that the Reformers addressed. The Western church before the Reformation made both too much and too little of marriage. The Roman Catholic Church made too much of marriage in that it considered it a sacrament. In its sacerdotal view of grace and salvation, taking one from birth (baptism) to death (extreme unction), one’s life choice was sacramentally defined, either by marriage or by ordination. The Reformation discovered, however, that marriage is not a sacrament given only to Christians through the church. Rather, it is a creation ordinance given to all mankind in the state of innocence and continuing thereafter for fallen man—though its purposes, as our wedding form reflects, are properly realized only in Christ. Rome, on the other hand, also made too little of marriage, because it was regarded as inferior to the other life choice, holy orders, which involved celibacy. Because of the assumption that even married sexuality was less than ... Read more