The Key Ingredient for the Next Generation: Bibles Fuel Education in Uganda

The Foundational Truth of the Gospel Is for Children Too

The war along the border of South Sudan and Uganda has ceased to make headlines in the media. After more than a decade of fighting and many attempts at peace agreements, there are still lives being lost daily and chaos ensues. It’s no place for children to grow up, yet there are many children there who have known nothing else in life outside of war.

Seven years before the current Uganda-South Sudan conflict began, God was working in the heart of Yancy Carpenter, an unassuming guy whose life mirrors many of ours—he was busy pursuing the American dream, complete with a wonderful wife and a great job with fantastic benefits. A faithful Christian, he attended church each Sunday and regularly engaged with other believers. Life was predictable, comfortable, and peaceful. It was then, in 2006 in a young married Sunday school class, that God began to rock Yancy’s world using two South Sudanese believers who came to share about the persecution facing their local churches.

[When] they started talking about their life growing up in [now South] Sudan, God used it to pierce my heart. And I remember when one of them said, “Jesus has commanded me to go and make disciples of all nations, teaching all that he has commanded. And that means me. That’s why I’m here.” And later he went on to say that “Even though I have nothing, I want to be obedient to his commandment.” And sitting in that Sunday school class I said, “Oh, if that’s true for this guy from Sudan, it’s true for me.”

From there, God persisted in calling Yancy to engage in cross-cultural mission work, from short-term missions trips to sitting on the board of Four Corners, a US-based missions organization serving Uganda that would eventually ask him to leave the comfort and security of his American dream job to lead the ministry. God was calling Yancy to be part of something bigger than he could imagine on his own. God sees and knows the needs of the people in South Sudan and Uganda, and he seeks to meet those needs through his people. Yancy is one of those people, and he’s responding to that call in many ways, including the care of the souls of the next generation.

Through the Crossway Global Ministry Fund, Four Corners has been gifted with copies of the ESV Global Study Bible to provide to children and adults who have never before had a copy of their own Bible. These Bibles are supporting Four Corners as the organization seeks to right the ship of Ugandan education: “The typical Ugandan student is taught using rote memory techniques that fail to equip students to think for themselves and solve complicated problems. Our teachers are trained to equip students to see the world through a Christian worldview, teaching each student how to think instead of what to think.”¹ What better way to teach a child Christian worldview than to begin with the foundational truths of God’s Word?

Give the Gift of Biblical Resources

The Crossway Global Ministry Fund supports book and Bible distribution projects to aid pastors and believers in need of sound theological resources. Would you join us in equipping fellow Christians around the world? We hope to raise $200,000 by May 30 to support the Global Ministry Fund. Learn More.

A Vision for Gospel-Centered Preaching and Gospel-Centered Schools

When Four Corners began doing ministry in Uganda and South Sudan, they didn’t start with a school. They were primarily focused on providing support to children through their Child Development Program which invests in vulnerable children’s spiritual growth through sponsorships. But as they became more immersed in their ministry work, the Four Corners team realized they couldn’t ignore one glaring problem. “We discovered that the best student in our program was failing three out of their five courses. . . . [It] was just unacceptable that they were not receiving an education. So we began Living Stones Christian School. There are over 250 children there right now, and they are receiving a quality education with a biblical worldview.” The next generation in this war-torn region is being poured into in a way they never have been. As this school grew, a key factor for leadership meant the adults—and especially the men—would need to be equipped to teach a quality education through a biblical worldview.

The wars over the last several decades have crippled Uganda and South Sudan, impacting children and adults alike. This is the reason why they started training men for ministry work at the Pastor Training Center. Yancy explains, “The prosperity gospel is what is rampant there. And I think most people here see this gospel as evangelical, but it is works-based and does not save. The vision is to equip African pastors to articulate God’s Word and be able to shepherd a flock. We want to create an abiding network of gospel-centered, Bible-saturated, and African-led churches, which there is a lack of, . . . and entrusting these men to teach faithful men who will teach others also.”

What the Four Corners team came to realize is that through their Pastor Training Center, they were equipping men who could put their training to use as pastors in churches or leaders in other ministry contexts. While the center is primarily aimed at training men for their pastoral roles, there are some whom God would undoubtedly call to a different kind of ministry. So when the school needed a principal, Pastor Training Center graduate Godfrey Lubangakene was one of these students who felt God calling him to preach the gospel in a school context. “I had a calling to serve and to be a servant of God to preach the gospel. That is my heart and my passion. So when I got the opportunity, I came right away to start at the Pastor Training Center. I learned a lot, my preaching changed, everything about me changed and I think that’s just God’s design and God’s purpose. And now, that is why I am here teaching at this school as well.”² Godfrey was changed through learning a deeper understanding of God’s Word, and he wants to pass that along to the next generation. A key ingredient that he and the students needed to make this desire a reality were Bibles.

The Key Ingredient for Education Is God’s Word

This key ingredient is hard to come by in their war-torn home. No Amazon same-day delivery is promising to deliver Bibles to new students attending the school. And if there were to be Bibles in the students’ homes, it’s not likely that they would be permitted to bring them to school with them. By God’s grace, donors to Crossway’s Global Ministry Fund have had the opportunity to partner with Four Corners to provide both the Pastor Training Center and Living Stones Christian School with ESV Global Study Bibles. The impact, Godfrey explains, is nearly beyond description.

God is doing a lot in the community through these children because we teach them biblical truths. We teach them the biblical understanding of who God is—a skill that I learned from the Pastor Training Center. And now I’m able to help these children learn from the Bible, and they’ll be able to transform the community because they are the future of the church. So we really need to invest a lot in them because they will replace us in the future! And our ultimate goal here is to point people to Christ. It’s not about me but about Christ who has done it all for us.³

This truth explained by Godfrey, that it is “Christ who has done it all for us,” is an understanding that can only come from spending time in God’s Word and knowing the gospel. God is on the move. His Word is having an impact, even in war-torn places, and the Kingdom is growing. Circumstances may not change, but the gospel can and does bring light and hope to otherwise dark places.

This spring, Crossway has committed to providing Bibles such as the ESV Global Study Bible and theologically sound books to Four Corners and other like-minded ministries around the world. Would you consider giving to support our goal of raising $200,000 by May 30, 2025, to bring the good news of the gospel to brothers and sisters in need?

Pray that the Lord would send more laborers to the harvest. Pray especially for the Lord to provide two more missionary families and a pastor to engage in the work at Four Corners.

Pray for God to give the Acholi people (in Uganda) eyes to see and ears to hear the good news.