Author Archives: jdegreef

Olson Girls Short-term Mission Trip to Uganda

Posted on July 7, 2019 by jdegreef

Hello everybody!

My name is Laura and I recently travelled to Uganda with my sister, Erin.

Laura with Young Child

We both had the chance to travel and witness the inner workings of Christian Model Ministries.

While in Uganda, Erin and I toured the various ministries that Christian Model Ministry (CMM) was involved with. This included prisons, churches, children AIDs centers, and youth hubs. We had the opportunity to not only witness these programs, but to also be involved with them.

Erin with School Children

The Saturday program we were able to visit was very inspiring. This program was for children afflicted by AIDS. It helped to treat the children, while providing financial support for their education and even extra help with academics. They also hosted the children every Saturday, teaching the children songs, Bible stories and games. We had the opportunity to help teach them and then serve the kids lunch. We then had time to play with the kids and just have lots of fun with them! It was so great getting to know the kids!

Laura With Children

We had the opportunity to travel to western Uganda to be apart of an international Christian convention. While we were there, we assisted with the children’s program. I, Laura, had the chance to teach a class of twelve children under six years old. It was a fun challenge to teach children that did not speak any English. The children were so welcoming and eager to listen to all that we had to share. This was definitely one of my favourite days of the entire trip.

Erin PReaching

During the convention, we attended the youth oriented portion. We were very excited to hear about the journeys and adventures of the main speaker and some of the youth. However, the youth part of the convention attracted many children, even though there was no program planned for them. We were asked to help entertain the children, and this was definitely a huge highlight.

I, Erin, had worked at a children’s camp the previous summer and so I had I learned many silly campfire songs. I got to teach the 100+ kids a couple silly songs and even how to play “Simon Says.” The language barrier appeared to be nothing as we thrived together, singing our hearts out.

Chilling in the City

We also had the pleasure of spending time with Dan’s wonderful family. We spent time playing soccer, frisbee, basketball, and cuddling their baby, Timothy. Every meal provided an opportunity to converse and gain a deeper understanding of the local culture. The Muwanguzi family became our Ugandan family. We sure miss them all!

Cooking in Uganda

Travelling with Richard

Overall, our favourite part of this trip with meeting all the people. We adored our time getting to know the people from CMM and the many others we were lucky to meet.

Uganda was a beautiful country, definitely including the safari we went on, and we will definitely miss it.

We are so excited to continue to pray for and support CMM, and see how the organization grows and positively influences the community.

Categories: Bible Teaching, Crusades and Evangelism, Mission Trip | 2 Comments

CMM December Update

Posted on December 31, 2017 by jdegreef

There is a lot that has been happening in the past few months and here are some of the activities that CMM has been involved in:

The bible training school (C-TBS):

Graduation of the NT and OT classes conducted at “God’s center of blessings church” at bweyogerere

Graduation of the NT class conducted at Mukono Deliverance Church.

19 NT students graduated from 5 different churches at Mukono Deliverance church.

We had 12 NT students and 26 OT students in
the two classes at God’s center of blessings Bweyogerere . This bunch is from 8 different churches.

We have had a very good combination of students. Young and Senior
ministers (Pastors). Some have been Pastors for more than 15 years
well as others are upcoming ministers. Some are highly educated well
as others have a very basic eduacation. But the Word of God cuts
across the board, Each of our graduants has a very strong and powerful
testimony to give.

Many especially those who have been Pastors for a long time mentioned
in their verbal testimonies that they have been ministering but with a
very minimal understanding of the scriptures. Some had read other
things, books etc but had not taken such a time to concentrate on
studying the scriptures.

We have had very many encoureging testimonies each of our students.
This course as they have been testifying has also provided a big
platform for their future Bible studies.

It is such abig opportunity to be part of part of what God is doing in
the lives and ministries of these individuals. And there is no dought
that as they continue in their various ministries, they will have a
grater impact in their churches and communities.

Dental Outreach/Medical Camp:
On the 16th/November/2017, In partnership with mulago hospital and kawempe worship center, CMM conducted a “dental outreach” with a team of 13 dentists, 119 people were treated (given dental care), 40 people gave there lives to christ.

Among the activities were, Dental Sensitisation & treatment, Prayer & counciling.

One of the dental patients being treated

Hospital and Prison Ministry:
CMM has continued with the weekly visits to hospitals and prisons, we pray with, council, and at times give out items like sugar, soap, etc to some needy individual patients.

Through this ministry, 86 people have come to receive Christ in the last two months.

We are very grateful to all our partners in this ministry, thanks a lot for your prayers and financial support.

Dan Muwanguzi and the CMM team

Categories: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

2015 New Years Mega Mission Update

Posted on January 31, 2016 by jdegreef

We again had another very exciting and successful end of year mission!

Our programs were similar to the usual ones, and continue to build, including:

Open air Gospel meetings
One to one prayers and counselling
Ministering to the community children
Visiting and ministering to the prison in mates. We also had prepared a good meal to eat together with the prisoners which too was well received. We had a lot of dancing and a very powerful time of praise and worship with the prisoners
Giving out some clothing to very needy people
Visiting and ministering to some Churches
Playing soccer with the community. CMM verses community and this time The CMM team won for the first time!!!

And finally the New years Eve overnight prayers that attracted about 3000 people and all spent the whole of that night praising the Lord, celebrating, listening to the words of scripture and encouragement, and also being entertained by a good number of local Christian music groups .

By the time we left, we had over 230 people who had given their lives to Christ.

One of our goals in these outreaches is to give even those who have never preached in Church or Crusade a chance to teach or preach as part of training and encouraging many into missions. And this too has been so encouraging seeing members doing this and very well.

Richard and friends praising God.

Families gathering in advance of the crusade.

Praise and worship

The audience continues to grow.

Rachel, a teacher and head of CMM’s children ministries.

Again the whole team came home with a lot of joy and full of praise to the Lord.

We are very grateful for the financial support, prayers and encouragement from all our friends that stand with us in these ministries.

God bless,

Dan Muwanguzi

Missionary to Uganda

Director of Christian Model Ministries

Categories: Crusades and Evangelism | Leave a comment

24 Students Graduate Bible Course in Bweyogerere Uganda

Posted on December 7, 2015 by jdegreef

Greetings Supporters and Friends, here is one of Dan’s updates on his recent OT class in Bwegogerere:

***

This is the Old Testament class that we ran at the “God’s Center of Blessings” Church at Bweyogerere. 24 students from seven different churches graduated the OT course.

OT Bible Graduating Class of 2015

The occasion was so colourful and filled of excitement and Joy!

Joyful students receiving their certificates.

The handing out of the certificates was done in the Church during a service and we had a meal together afterwards with invited guests to cerebrate the achieved victory.

Joyful Graduation Celebration – a Great Victory Praise the Lord!

We left them with lots of Bible study assignments through which we will keep following up until March next year when we will be starting the new 2016 Classes.

We will be graduating the NT class at Mukono this coming Sunday December 6th.

Some of the students requested for this extra time to complete their assignments well. So we have been working with this class of 9 students until December 6th when they will graduate.

We, the teaching team, are so thankful to the Lord for such an opportunity to be part of what the Lord is doing in the lives of these students.

Great foundations have been laid in Biblical knowledge for life and mission in Uganda.

Graduation Ceremony Photos

God bless, and thank you everyone for your encouragement and support.

Muwanguzi Dan

Categories: Bible Teaching | Leave a comment

End of July (Western Uganda) Rukungiri – Medical Outreach

Posted on September 20, 2015 by jdegreef

Dear Uganda Partnership Friends;

I have attached some photos that will give you a better idea of what this out reach was like. This outreach took place at the end of July. In a Village called Bwambara, in Rukungiri District. We worked in association with the Anglican Church who were the local hosts of this mission.

Richard did most of the preaching at the crusade. Here he is teaching young children.

Richard did most of the coordinating and Florence led the CMM.

During that week, i was in Eastern Uganda (Soroti) teaching the YWAM DTS. Which also went on well.

Mulago hospital which is the No. One hospital in Uganda voluntarily gave us a team of 26 doctors which included 8 dentists. This is the largest no of doctors we have worked with before on such missions. But for a government institution to pick such interest in the CMM outreaches underlines the impact that the CMM outreaches are having in the communities in this nation.

The Christian Model Ministries Team

But on the same mission, another mission team from Ghana, requested to join us after learning of what we do and most importantly, our medial approach, in sharing the Gospel of Christ in communities and the positive results and at a very minimal coast.

We again had the blessings or go ahead and cooperation from the government local leaders in the district, Like the area Member of parliament and government ministers who come from that area.

The whole team was led by Florence Wanaswa.

One of the medical professionals planning with the CMM team and sharing information.

The team attended to 842 medical cases, 208 were dental and the rest were general. The team treated diseases like Malaria, Cervical cancer screaning, skin diseases, stomach problems, UTI infections etc etc.

We had 346 people give their lives to Christ.

Some of the local people hearing the Gospel and learning God’s truths.

We are so thankful to all our partners, in prayers and financial support.

Than you so much.

God bless;

Dan

Categories: Crusades and Evangelism | Leave a comment

C-TBS 2014 Bible Teaching Class Update

Posted on December 15, 2014 by jdegreef

This is an update from Dan Muwanguzi on the Church based Training in Biblical Studies course Dan taught in Uganda in 2014.

*****

The Graduation for both schools did take place on the 16th November. We joined the occasion and we were all at the “God’s Centre of Blessings Church” at Bweyogere. It was part of the Church service and
the Graduation was the theme of that whole service which had more than 300 people who attended. And after the service, the Church leadership had organised for the graduates, teachers and all invited guests a very good Ugandan meal that we ate together.

Graduates of the 2014 C-TBS run by Dan and the CMM Team.

We graduated thirty-four students in total and this graduation has been the largest in number since we started running such courses or and even ever since i started getting involved in the SBS/C-TBS in 1992. One of the reasons being that this time, we were able to run two schools concurrently.

The students have lots of encouraging testimonies to give. And other than the ones we heard on their graduation, I have every now and then received very many encouraging testimonies from the individual
students regarding this course.

Florence and her husband Wanaswa. Florence has been one of this year’s Bible students and she is
among those who performed very well.

A few days ago, I did meet with Pastor Steven Mugwanya at “Gods Center of Blessings” where most students were from and he also gave me very positive and encouraging feedback about how the students were performing in ministry in relation to before the Bible teaching. Pastor Steven has given each of the students a chance to teach in the Church . I have been receiving calls from other churches where these students (Graduates) are ministering and they are all encouraging.

Dan presenting and handing out certificates at the graduation ceremony.

“SELF DISCOVERY” The inductive approach includes or involves a lot of self discovery. And we have a saying in this course: “One student – you, one book – the Bible, and one teacher – The Holly Spirit”. This makes this course unique more especially in the African setting where we are not a reading culture. This is also a course which does not end at the graduation but if you want, the graduation makes the real start. What I mean is that at the end of the course, the students are now able to continue their studies and research using the same approach.

Two happy recent graduates from the 2014 C-TBS cohort.

Next year, we will again be running two classes, one at the same location as this year and the second one at Mukono Deliverance Church. We will be running the Old Testament class at Bweyogerere God’s Center of Blessings Church and the New Testament at Mukono Deliverance Church.

And though it looks a bit far but we will appreciate prayers from all our friends during the preparations for both schools. We put the dates to the first weekend of March as that is when most parents have taken back their children to school and can now settle for such studies.

Categories: Bible Teaching | 1 Comment

Butaleja Mission Report – September 11th – 13th, 2014

Posted on October 4, 2014 by jdegreef

Dear friends and CMM co workers. This is the summery report of the above mission.

The CMM team of six members, joined with the dentists from Mulago hospital conducted a “Dental” outreach in Butalejja. This again turned out to be very sucessful and interesting. We are so grateful to those that are regularly praying with and for us in these missions.

This was a two day mission. The activities involved:

The dental outreach;
Praying for and counselling individuals;
Sharing the Gospel, on one to one approach;
Ministering to the children;
Meetings with the Local pastors and distributing disciple ship books;
Teaching women how to grow mushrooms.

Many people turned up those two days to get dental treatment, extract the bad teeth and to get dental education. This happened after prayers and sharing with the community – the purpose of such outreach.

Richard working with the dentists before the Buteleja outreach.

Pulling out teeth.

We usually start by teaching the people how to care for their teeth. And this is usually done by the profesional doctors. The idea here is that “prevention is better than curing”

Teaching about caring for teeth.

During the two days, we worked on 328 people that came with tooth related problems. And most of there people had their teeth extracted while a few needed treatment or advise.

Every person we attended to during those two days received a gift of a piece of Colgate and tooth broth. These too were very well received. We had 38 people give their lives to Christ during those one to one sessions of praying, counselling and talking to individuals. In some incidents, there are individuals who came specifically because they wanted to accept Jesus and these could approach any of us with such a request.

Rachel teaching some of the children.

We also had the opportunity to meet with many who had accepted Jesus during our previous visits and we received some exciting testimonies from some of them.

Working together with “Uganda Ministries”, we met with over 45 local pastors from different churches. Our goal in this is to emphasize the significance of discipleship training within our local churches in Uganda. We gave out the Discipleship Books (written by David and Anona Banks) , one for each church. These were very well received and the pastors promised to make good use of these materials.

Rural pastors in Uganda receiving the Disciple training book, one per church.

But besides giving out books, CMM always endevours to maintain good relations with the local pastors in all the areas where we minister. And also emphasise the significance of unity as churches as one of the keys in reaching out to our nation which consists of more than 40 different tribes (Langueges).

Florence Wanaswa and the other CMM ladies taught how to grow mushrooms “professionally” for consumption but also as business. Such is one of projects that every lay person can manage financially but if done well as guided, can be used for home consumption but also for business. Florence met with ladies twice to teach them how to grow mushrooms. CMM will run a mushroom sample project in Butalejja in the next few months to work as a model for those who will pick this up. CMM will also be providing the seedlings, advice, and any other practical help to those who will be interested. The purpose of this is to help more especially the mothers to get some small income out of such projects.

KEY PROGRAMS UP TO END OF THIS YEAR ARE:

19^th October 2014 – will be a Thanks Giving day. We will be inviting all those we have worked with us in different capacities, and all CMM family members will meet at Florencis place (one of the CMM members home). We will praise and worship together, share a “GOOD MEAL’, dance and cerebrate, share testimonies what every good thing that we have seen the Lord doing since we started. And share the future vission of CMM with every one who will be there. Please keep praying with us regarding this.

In later November, we will be visiting Rukungiri with an outreach very similar to that of Butalejja, as outlined above.

And finally, we will go for the end of year Mega missions in Butalejja during the New Years Eve as usual.

Please keep praying with us in regards to those.

The two C-TBS Classes are continuing and going on very well.

CMM Members are so grateful to the Lord for what has happened so far. And look forward for what is yet to happen. We are so thankful.

With much love and greetings;

Dan Muwanguzi

Categories: Crusades and Evangelism | 1 Comment

Summer 2014 Bible Teaching (C-TBS) in Uganda

Posted on July 4, 2014 by jdegreef

The need for more solid Biblical training in Uganda is paramount to Church discipleship, especially among the leaders of the Uganda Church. The C-TBS (church-based training in Biblical studies) is a program run by Dan and CMM to combat this big need.

Dan Muwanguzi has been very busy the Spring and Summer of 2014, teaching two classes for his inductive Bible teaching. Unlike in the Past years where we have run only one Bible class per year, the Lord has put it on CMM’s hearts to run two classes now and in the coming years. Reason is the same. The need for training is “BIG”. This to some extent has been noted by the Pastors and Church leaders nation wide.

Training Church leaders is so key and should be given a priority so the CMM Team prays and believes God for a stronger Church which can make a stronger impact on the nation. The Bible is the “Word of God” and has a key role to play in the long term change and development of Uganda, East Africa, and the whole world at large.

God’s Center of Blessings Bweyogerere C-TBS Class in Uganda summer 2014.

This year – CMM is running two concurrent C-TBS’s in two different locations. And all together training over forty leaders from seven different churches.

From Dan Muwanguzi –

We have a class going on at the “Gods Center of blessings'” Church at Bweyogerere. This class has 29 students. We started this class Mid March and will be ending in November.

The second class is at the”Matugga Search Light of God” Church, which started late March and will end End of November too. This class has 12 students.

Both classes are going on well.

C-TBS The Search light of God Matugga class - with Dan in the centre back row.

God’s Center of Blessings Bweyogerere C-TBS class – with Dan in the centre back row.

We have already received very encouraging personal reports from the students. Recently in some of our class discussion sessions, two of the students mentioned that they have felt an urge to go and put things right with their relatives “Parents” whom they had cut off communication for so many years. Others have mentioned that the class or school disciplines have helped them improve on their respective jobs as well. And the majority as usual are talking about this training as an eye opener in regards to studying and understanding the word of God. And so many other testimonies that we have received.

The Search Light of God Church in Matugga, just north of Kampala, where we spoke one Sunday and help two days of dental outreaches for the local population.

Biblical studies is “Spiritual warfare”. We therefore request all our friends, supporters, and co-workers around the world to keep praying with us and for our students as we continue in this crucial ministry.

Categories: Bible Teaching | Leave a comment

Providence Team Visits Uganda – Part 2, Visiting and Supporting Local Churches

Posted on May 25, 2014 by jdegreef

The Christian Church in Uganda is large, which is great, but often pastors lack strong Biblical training to guide and support their large congregations.

When the Providence Church Team visited Uganda and CMM, went traveled to remote villages and churches where CMM ministers, whether through supporting local children’s school fees or with Dan Muwanguzi and team providing solid, inductive style, Biblical training.

Here we are visiting with a Pastor and church leaders in Kampala where Dan recently took them through a 6 month Bible training program.

Getting ready to speak at a small church in Moroto, Karamojja region, Northern Uganda.

In most of the churches, half the congregation were small children. This made for a lively worship service for sure!

We handed out Discipleship books, written by John Banks, to rural pastors and church leaders. These books were jammed packed full of scripture, and nicely organized.

We handed out Discipleship books, written by David Banks, to rural pastors and church leaders. These books were jammed packed full of scripture, and nicely organized.

I brought some copies of this book back to Canada and have the electronic version, if anyone wants it, email me at james.degreef@deiyo.com.

A well used Bible in Northern Uganda. The Sunday School Teachers were asking us to bring teaching materials and children’s Bibles when we returned – which we will.

A church in Matugga, just north of Kampala, where we spoke one Sunday and help two days of dental outreaches for the local population.

Saying a big good-bye to a church in Kotido, Karamojja region, Northern Uganda. The pastor is on the left, and many children attend this church. Some of these children go to school under the CMM child school sponsorship program.

It was very encouraging to see the pastors lead their congregations, and they have such vision and passion for their work and their people. It was an honour to visit them and to hopefully work with them and support them in the coming years.

Categories: Bible Teaching, Crusades and Evangelism, General Update | Leave a comment

Providence Team Visits Uganda – Part 1

Posted on April 2, 2014 by jdegreef

Providence Community Church in Oak Bay Canada, sent five adventurers to Uganda for 20 days, to visit Dan and the CMM Team, and to witness firsthand the needs in Uganda, the CMM team at work, and to support, encourage, and participate.

Right from the start, in the planning and preparations, and throughout the trip, God was present, showing his favour and providence in this short-term mission.

The CMM Team were very hospitable, and we felt loved and part of the CMM family right away. Now that we are back in Canada, we dearly miss our Ugandan brothers and sisters.

We left Canada on Wednesday February 13th, flew to Holland on the 14th, and then got into Entebe Uganda on Friday the 15th. So basically two days of travel to get from Victoria Canada to Kampala Uganda. Dan’s family and the CMM team were very kind and gracious in meeting and caring for us. Miriam, Dan’s wife, and Florence, a CMM Team Leader, were great hosts and cooks for us.

Interestingly, although I ate a lot of good food in Uganda, I did end up losing 4 lbs.

The first Sunday, Dan split the Providence Team into two, and we went and preached at two rural churches on the outside of Kampala, and also taught Sunday school.

Chris Regelus was a big hit with the children at the Gombe Church just outside of Kampala. He was a crazy Mzungu, shared a Bible story, and had fun interacting with the children.

Christian Model Ministries conducts crusades and outreaches in Uganda, and one strategy that has proven very effective is to hire a couple Christian dentists to provide free dental care for rural Ugandans. This draws a big crowd, who wait for their dental visit, and they also get to hear the Gospel message and interact with Christians for prayer and counseling.

The CMM team planned two mini Dental outreaches for us to participate in, one in Gombe on the Monday and Tuesday, and one in Matugga on the Wednesday and Thursday. We were amazed out how tough the Ugandans were, getting rotten teeth pulled and other various treatments.

Kurt Hafso is getting ready to administer pain killer to a dentistry patient.

The dentist tools were a bit more crude than what we are used too, but they worked and hopefully we helped relieve much pain people were suffering with. The patients were very thankful for this gift to them.

Four days of ministry, preaching, counseling, prayer, and giving clothing gifts, complimented the dental ministry.

Much clothes, shoes, tooth brushes and toothpaste, toys, and other supplies was donated to our team to bring to Uganda by the Compassionate Resource Warehouse in Victoria BC. This was an amazing gift to the Ugandans. Thank you CRW!

We’ll be posting more on our Uganda Visit over the coming weeks.

Thank you.

Cordially,
James DeGreef (blog poster)
One of Dan’s Canadian Friends

Categories: Bible Teaching, Crusades and Evangelism, Ugandan Children | 1 Comment