Summary:

-        Luke is starting a new ministry of his own, Theological Education by Extension, to give Bible training to church leaders and parishioners that have not had the opportunity to receive such training.

-        Luke’s new location is in the Yumbe District in Uganda, which is home to the second largest refugee camp in the world and is also the only Muslim majority district in Uganda.

-        Would you join him, or continue partnering with him, to serve the local Ugandan and South Sudanese churches?

See below for additional information on this exciting new chapter.

The Next Chapter: Starting Something ‘New’

June 2022 marked the end of my one-year commitment with World Embrace as their Youth Park Program Director, as unfortunately the funding and construction of the park slowed down over my first year there, meaning the Park ministry had not opened/started, and it was an additional 6-12 months away from opening. So the Lord led me to explore new opportunities around Uganda. After taking 3 months of visiting and researching the best opportunities out there, and consulting with Hillside Community Church, whom I directly serve under, a new opportunity started to crystalize.  This new opportunity was to start my own ministry work for the first time in my now 23 years of mission service. This is an exciting new endeavor, but one that brings with it some added challenges and fundraising needs that I will talk about below.   

Theological Education by Extension

After being involved around Africa for so many years, in different types of ministries, all with the aim to assist and empower local churches and ministries, I have long seen the amazing effects of the quickly expanding scope of the local churches across East Africa.  But with much rapid growth, the rate of Biblical training for their pastors and leaders has not been able to keep up, for various reasons.  First, the amount of Bible colleges or seminaries that people could attend are very few, as they are all private institutions, that need a lot of funding to be run.  And as well they are far away from their home areas. And secondly, the overall discrepancy in poverty and the ensuing low amount of tithes given to churches, means a lack of available funds to assist individuals with going to full-time Bible training. I have been told recently that about 80% of the East African pastors and leaders have not received formal Biblical training, which is shocking, knowing what their primary aim is as leaders of their churches.  So, though there has been rapid amount of growth in the number of churches (the “width”) in this part of the world, the lack of Biblical knowledge of its leaders has led to a “shallower” amount of faith and overall impact on the individual Christians’ lives. 

That leaves an amazing gap that needs to be addressed.  And I found an awesome ministry model called Theological Education by Extension (TEE).  It substitutes the old “residential model” for Bible college/seminary with a grassroots, closer to home model.  Instead of a church needing to raise the funds need for their leader’s tuition, transportation, housing, and feeding costs to send them far away for two years, TEE uses local available church buildings to host once-a-week in-class teaching sessions, followed by assigned reading, memorization, and class assignments to be completed by the students throughout the week.  And instead of one central location, TEE has many learning centers that they can attend the teaching sessions at so that students can live and eat at their own homes, and serve in their churches, and continue to conduct their means of earning a living, like farming or working in a shop, and be able to walk or bicycle to the teaching locations.  The classes offered are not at a ‘seminary difficulty level’, but start from where the typical church leader here is able to learn at.  Especially when English is usually their second or third language, and most people in this region have not graduated high school, with some not even having the means to finish elementary school.  So, understanding and capacity levels have to be geared to their appropriate levels, while still creating a curriculum and learning environment that leads to a very strong Biblical understanding and foundation so as to enable them to appropriately minister in their churches.  I have found this TEE model after visiting a friend and fellow missionary using it, who thankfully developed a relationship with a Christian University here in Uganda, who has fully accredited this TEE program.  

My New Home: Yumbe
After site visits and conversations about where TEE could be utilized next, I decided upon the Uganda district of Yumbe.  Yumbe is the only Muslim-majority district in Uganda, meaning it has the most opportunities for the spread of the Gospel, and the need to strengthen the existing church leaders as they minister in their communities.  The people group from Yumbe are the Aringa, see below statistics/graph from “The Joshua Project”:

Yumbe is also the home to the second largest refugee camp in the world, known as Bidi Bidi, which has approximately 200,000 South Sudanese who have been forced by war out of their home country.  The South Sudanese still hold a dear place in my heart after I served there for almost 6 years.  And the notable aspect for South Sudan, is that the UN ranks this country dead last in terms of their “Development Index”, which means they are the poorest/most “in need” country in the world.  The Lord has made many things work together for me to serve in this very far-fletched region of Uganda.  FYI It is in the very north-west part of Uganda, and is about 10 hours drive from our capital city.  I have recently moved to Yumbe on October 24th, 2022 to start the relationship building and preparation work to start TEE in 2023. 

I am so blessed by Hillside Community Church to see it as part of their involvement in my ministry to not charge any administration fee. So, EVERY CENT of your donation goes directly to my ministry!

However, there may be fees on certain types of donations as follows: Cash/ Check: 0%, Online Bill Pay: 0%, Stock: 0%, ACH/EFT: 1.25%, Credit Card: 3.2%, PayPal: 3.8%

I am committing myself for at least a three-year term to Yumbe & TEE, for the preparations, setup of TEE, and different start dates for the different TEE centers so that they can all finish a two-Year TEE Certificate Program Cycle.  Though now in my 23rd year on the field, I don’t foresee me leaving the field anytime soon.  So, I am interested in people that can join my ministry team for the short or long-term as I continue following His leading to impact churches and ministries. Would you please consider becoming an integral part of the work in Uganda through prayer or financial support? 

Instructions for those interested and able to give financially: After hitting the “Give Now” button below, it will take you to Hillside Community Church’s donation platform Breeze, which you can give as a visitor or by creating an account for ease of ongoing giving.  You will first type in the amount to give. Then most importantly you hit the first drop-down arrow and select “Give to Missions – Luke Runyon”. Then on the second drop down arrow choose if it is a One-time gift, or a monthly recurring gift. Reminder: all gifts are tax deductible.