Summer 2026 Newsletter
Missionary Story - Mary Slessor (1848–1915) was born in Gilcomston, Scotland to an extremely poor family and soon moved to Dundee. Her father struggled with alcohol and often made life hard for her and her mother. To help her family, Mary had to work in a cloth factory at age 11, working long, tiring hours for very little pay. But Mary’s mother taught her to trust in Jesus, read her Bible, and pray. Mary, a small red-head with big blue eyes, learned about a famous missionary named David Livingstone and dreamed of going to Africa one day to share God's love with people who had never heard of Jesus. She became a Presbyterian missionary who devoted nearly 40 years of her life to serving in Calabar, present-day southeastern Nigeria. She arrived there in 1876 and became known for her courage, compassion, and willingness to live among the local people rather than remain in mission compounds. Mary shared her Christian faith daily, established schools, cared for the sick, and became especially known for rescuing abandoned twins. At that time, many villages believed twins were cursed, leading to their abandonment or death. She also worked to promote peace, settle disputes, and improve the lives of women and children, earning the respect of local leaders and the title “Mother of All the People.” Mary died in Nigeria in 1915, where she was buried. Her legacy lives on through the churches, schools, and humanitarian work she inspired, and she is remembered as one of the most influential Christian missionaries in the history of Nigeria.
Cornerstone Churches Uganda
There is a lot going on with ‘Unreached4K’ and the 7 churches we support in Uganda; We have 3 in Bombo and 150 miles north-west we now have 4 in Pachwa. Two of those in Pachwa, near the DRC (Congo), are house churches at the present time because the Gospel is spreading and lives are being changed faster than we can keep up with…which is a good problem to have. Pastor Geoffrey, our ‘Unreached4K Uganda’ national director, is working tirelessly in Pachwa training ministers and leaders, leading Bible studies, conducting worship services in our ‘Unreached4K’ churches, leading evangelism outreaches, and visiting those who are sick or homebound. Once a month, he travels back to Bombo to visit the 3 churches to carry out minister meetings, hear reports from each church, and conduct minister/leader training…and as always, correct any problems they may be having.
Mission Trip to Uganda
On May 14, brother Tim Isaac (with the ‘Maari Foundation’) and myself headed to Uganda for a 10-day visit to follow up on the work being done through both ministries, fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ, baptize new believers, ordain new pastors, and teach and preach the word of God.
We arrived Friday night and started ministry the next morning traveling to Bombo, just north of the capital, where we presently have 3 churches and a skills training center; a school where villagers can learn tailoring (sewing), hair braiding, and barbering. We toured the training center, saw the repaired water well (which had to be dug 30’ deeper), and brother Tim and Pastor Geoffrey baptized several new believers at our Cornerstone Kibajjwe Church. We also visited Pastor Charles and our Church in Bembe where we sang and danced, shared testimonies, and had a fellowship meal.
On Sunday morning, we attended the worship service at our Ndejje church (New Life Baptist Church) where we met Pastor Isaac and our new assistant pastor and praise and worship leader, George. We spent several hours worshipping the Lord Jesus, sharing testimonies and sermons, and had a wonderful fellowship meal. After the meal, we had to say goodbye to Brother Tim as he and Joseph Diano (Left), national director of the Maari Foundation, headed to Jinja and Tororo in Eastern Uganda to check up on their ministry to make sure the families were doing well (the Maari Foundation has more than 30 children and single mothers that they care for). Pastor Geoffrey and myself traveled west to Pachwa, near the border of the DRC (Congo), to spend the rest of our time ministering to our 3 churches in the ‘Albertine Rift’ region (we now have 4 churches in that area), an area where there are NO gospel preaching churches at all. After 6-hours of driving, we arrived safely in Kagadi to rest up for a busy week of ministry. Monday and Tuesday were spent in Pachwa, our first church in Western Uganda, carrying out door to door evangelism with several teams going in all directions from the church, then having a fellowship meal, and Bible study and testimonies in the evenings.
On Wednesday, we headed to the village of Kyrongo, our newest house church (below) for more evangelism and an open-air crusade with over 100 villagers and church members attending. It was truly an amazing time of ministry and fellowship…even though we had heavy rains blowing our tents over near the end of the service.
Brother Tim and Joseph Diano returned from their time of ministry in Eastern Uganda on Thursday to join us as we would minister for the remainder of our trip in the village of Kyabasara, where our newest church building is being completed at this time (thanks to the VBS mission’s offering from Cornerstone Community Church in Louisville, KY). We spent each day evangelizing door to door sharing the Gospel of Jesus, then had a fellowship meal, and concluded with times of worship, communion, testimonies, and some great preaching and teaching from God’s word. On Saturday, we baptized more than 64 new church members followed by an intense Bible study and on Sunday we concluded our ministry with a great day of worship, ordaining 3 new pastors, and spent a time of fellowship with those we love. I am amazed as to how fast the churches are growing in this area, a 60-mile strip from Hoima to Kagadi, where there is no gospel presence at all. The Bisaka cult, officially known as the ‘Faith of Unity,’ has nearly 2.5 million members in Uganda, primarily where we are planting churches, who burn Bibles, destroy churches, and reject anything concerning the true gospel of Jesus Christ…but when they hear the real gospel message of hope in Christ alone, many of them will begin coming to our churches, give their lives to the Lord, and get baptized. The Lord is moving in mighty ways in Western Uganda and we are honored to be a small part of what He is doing to reach the unreached.
Mission Trip to Ukraine
On June 12 (we were supposed to fly out on June 11 but we had several delays) brother Joe Nail and myself headed to Vizhnitsa, Ukraine to help Pastor Paul Dudka with 2 week-long ‘Kiddo Camps.’ Sometimes ministry is not preaching and teaching in the churches and villages, it’s taking time to minister and love on more than 250 children, most of whom are fatherless at the present time because of the war. Because of our delayed flights, we ended up attending a house church in Siret, Romania where we stayed with a Christian family near the border of Ukraine. It was an amazing time of worship, quite different than worship in Africa I must say, but later that day we crossed the border to meet with Pastor Paul. The first camp was in the mountains of Shepit where 132 children needed to hear the gospel of Jesus. Nearly all of them are Eastern Orthodox and know basically nothing of God’s word or salvation. Each day we had large group time with fun and dancing, followed by breakfast, recreation time, craft time, Bible study, lunch, fun time, and then another large group time to conclude the day. Each camp lasted 5 days, followed by a time of fellowship with Paul and his family on Saturday and then enjoying worship at his church, ‘Revival Baptist Church,’ on Sunday. The next week was followed by the same program yet it was located at his church in Vizhnitsa. Though Joe and I are not children’s ministers or leaders, God gave us a voice and a desire to spread the gospel to anyone, anywhere, even with children. At the conclusion of each camp, we gave every young person a Samaritan’s Purse shoebox full of gifts and their own bible, what a blessing it was to see the smiles on their faces. Our prayer is that many will read their Bible, the Holy Spirit of God would speak to their hearts, and bring back a remembrance of the gospel message we shared with them.
Please partner with us in taking the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the unreached. To make a tax-deductible donation, please visit our website. You can also send a check payable to ‘Unreached4k’ to 4713 Railroad Ave., LOUISVILLE, KY 40258
A Ministry Partner of ‘Cornerstone Community Church,’ 10600 Lower River Road, Louisville, KY 40272
Unreached 4K, Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Please visit our website to learn more: Unreached4k.com
