Thank you for your prayers and your support. I would love to have some of you with me on future trips. Our visits help our African brothers and sisters feel connected to the larger Church and it encourages them that you care. I am so grateful that he used us in Africa on this trip and that He ministered through us. I am equally grateful that I met Him in Africa. His face is easy to find there.


In Christ,


Archbishop Charles W. Jones


P.S. I would like to thank the four partners of Integrity Worldwide, Dr. Alan Hicks, Averee Hicks, Fr. Terry Grissom and Stephanie Grissom, for all the help they provided as well as being incredible vehicles for this trip to take place. God is using both the IDA and Integrity Worldwide to touch Africa and the world.

Wednesday, July 11

I spent the entire day with the diocesan clergy teaching and encouraging them and answering their questions.

The feeling of hope in this area is almost palpable and the blessing of God seems to rest on Bishop Tom’s compound. His people are doing an amazing work after so many years of hardship.


Entebbe, Uganda

Thursday, July 12

We returned to Entebbe and met with some leaders of Trinity Church, Kampala.


Friday, July 13

I spent most of the day in meetings with the elders of Trinity and had a council meeting with all the Ugandan bishops who came to Entebbe to meet.


Saturday, July 14

We left Entebbe for the long trip home.


I know my report is long, but I wanted you to see  the kind of work being done by the IDA now.

Morobo County, Sudan

Tuesday, July 10

We installed Bishop Tom Kokanyi under shelters set up to hold the event. Over a thousand people attended including many government officials from Juba. He had suffered for many years from Anglicans slandering him and the CEC. Our visit renewed his credibility and boosted his recognition in southern Sudan. It will affect his life permanently for his future in service in Sudan.

Sunday, July 8

In Kihiihi I consecrated Bishop Yusto Muhereza’s cathedral, a beautiful building that seats about 400 people. He built this without any money from the USA. After the service I spent time with the Regional District Commissioner and did move radio interviews.


Yei, Sudan

Monday, July 9

We traveled thru part of Queen Elizabeth National Park and caught a MAF flight to Yei, Sudan, with a brief stop in Arua, Uganda, to refuel. Landing in Yei we were struck by the empty bullet shells strewn all over the runway. Since independence in 1956, Sudan has known 40 years of civil war. Throughout these decades the Arab Muslim government in the north has tried to force the mainly black Christian south to embrace Islam. A shaky peace treaty was signed in 2005 and many Sudanese are just now returning home after many years of living as refugees in DR Congo and Uganda.


Our bishop, Tom Kokanyi, met us at the airport and drove us to Morobo County. As we turned off the main dirt road onto the little road to Morobo a large group of people greeted us waving branches and banners and singing praise songs. The crowds walked ahead of our vehicles singing and dancing as we were paraded through the village and back to Bishop Tom’s compound, a beautiful Christian village he is building. At the village was a ribbon cutting ceremony, Bible readings, speeches and singing. The village is setup to receive refugee families. It hosts a feeding center, church, college and seminary and nursery school. Corn fields surrounding the compound provide a source of income.

Friday, July 6

We held an installation service for Bishop Kabonabe. Before the service I spent time with the mayor of Beni and other officials. The service was a great celebration attended by Four to five hundred people. I spoke to our Congolese clergy and was interviewed by radio and television reporters. After the service Bishop Kabonabe hosted a feast where there was much dancing and singing and, as honored guests, we were served three goat heads!


Kihiihi, Uganda

Saturday, July 7

We left Beni and drove fourteen hours through jungles, over mountains, into deep valleys to Kihiihi in the extreme southwest of Uganda. The trip included several hours in the Queen Elizabeth National Park where we saw many of the animals indicative of Africa.

Bishop Hannington asked me to speak to his clergy. The building seated about 150 people, but about 250 came in—less than 75 were clergy—and more squeezed in as I spoke. I emphasized that the CEC could not offer them much in financial support but that we offered the opportunity to be a part of a church that welcomes the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit. I told them that in all the West there would never be enough money to truly transform Africa. Transformation would only come as the African church became truly salt and light. The church would be restored to extravagant salt and lights as she welcomed the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.


I wanted to give them an opportunity to be filled and to my delight the Holy Spirit fell and many priests, deacons and lay adults and children were filled with the Spirit and praised as the church was being truly salt and light. Unlike anything I had heard before, a roar arose that sounded like a thousand lions roaring in unison to God.


Our team prayed for hundreds of children and at the end of the day we held a crusade where God moved miraculously and many people were saved. Would that you all could have been there to witness what God did! Teams often shouted in celebration as they witnessed God’s miracles. At the end of the day we celebrated Eucharist together and tried to get some rest.


Saturday, July 30

Again, all day medical and spiritual ministry in Bizunga. Bishop Hannington took me to speak at the celebration of the completion of the Book of Acts translated into the Lubwisi, the native language of Bishop Hannington’s Babwisi tribe. He and his son, Robert, serve on the translation committee and Robert teaches his people to read and write. This was a very big day for the Babwisi and I was honored to be a part of the event. Local missionaries and visitors from Europe joined in the celebration.


Sunday, August 1

We worshiped in Bizunga. What an incredible event! Hundreds of people worshiped. It was both deafening and life changing. I was prepared to give a pastoral sermon that morning, but the Lord stopped me as I was waiting to preach. The night before, while praying for our trip and the people of the Bundibugyo district, the Lord gave me a vision and a word. I saw fire on the mountains that began to roll down and move east until it covered all of Uganda. I believe the Lord was saying that when revival hits Uganda, it will begin here in the extreme rural western area instead of more populated places like Kampala, Uganda’s capital. The word Bundibugyo means “End of the Road”, but God was saying His purposes for Bundibugyo were the opposite. I spoke this prophetic word and called for the people to cry out to God for the fire of the Holy Spirit no matter how long it takes. With much fear and trembling I said that God would confirm His word with prophetic signs in the natural, the first being an earthquake in the near future. (I have moved in the prophetic for many years and have at times given audacious words, but it always scares me.)


We enjoyed homemade pizza with a group of American missionaries in the area. It was fun to eat real pizza in Africa! We left for our hotel after dark (it is usually unwise to travel after dark in rural Africa) and as we bounced along the potholed road, the people in our van began shouting “fire in the mountain!” A huge fire burned on a distant mountain ahead of us. The mountain was so high and the fire so large that all the area could not miss it. We were all pumped and I was thrilled and grateful (and, I must admit, relieved). Bishop Hannington told us the next day that clergy all over his diocese spent the night in their church’s praying for the fire of the Holy Spirit to come to their mountains.


The team left July 5 from Uganda and I left July 14 and they had their earthquake in the Bundibugyo district in August. Bishop Hannington reports a continual crying out for and a passionate expectation among the people of a significant move of God.


Monday, July 2

Our medical supplies arrived so we returned to Bizunga. The medical and prayer teams ministered to countless people. Some of our ladies ministered to a number of the women who had gathered. They brought the grace of blessings and inner healing to the precious women who have suffered so much.


Bishop Hannington cares for a large group of orphans. The team met with the children and handed out gifts that their sponsors had sent for them. At the end of the day we checkout the goats given as part of the “Kids for Kids” program. As these goats are cared for by these orphans, they multiply and provide the children a source of income as they grow up. This is a great work that helps the Africans become self-sustaining. Our team treated the goats with de-worming medicines brought to help secure their health for the future.


Mid-day Bishop Hannington took me to speak at two public high schools about 30-40 minutes away from Bizunga. The first school had a little over 600 students and we met under a grove of trees. I shared and presented the Gospel and many high school students gave their lives to Christ. The second school had 173 students and about 100 received Christ I was (and still am) floored at how many young people responded to the Good News. Going to Africa is hard and it is costly but how do you put a price on this? This alone made the trip worth it for me.


Tuesday, July 3

We traveled to village opposite Bizunga. Maybe a thousand people received medical care and prayer. As on previous days God gave a stunning anointing and many people were healed. To hear the stories of our team members who witnessed miracles is life changing.


Fort Portal, Uganda

Wednesday, July 4

The medical and prayer team leaves for home and Fr Scott Howard travels from Kampala to join Fr Don Richards, Fr Tuck Bowen and me for the second part of my visit to east Africa. Rains prevented MAF flights from transporting us, so we chartered vehicles to get the team back to Entebbe and Fr Scott took public transportation from Kampala.


Beni, D. R. Congo

Thursday, July 5

A joyous Alabama Reunion as Fr Scott joins us for breakfast in Fort Portal. On the second part of the trip three Alabama priests, Bishop Hannington and four other Ugandans headed toward the border and then on to Beni, Congo. Nine of us plus our luggage packed into an 8 passenger van!


The Congo is vast country with rich economic resources, but, like many other African countries, it has experienced many years of civil war. Around three million people died1 as the army fought various rebel groups. Because of its size and the inability to regulate corruption and robbery, it is very unsafe in most of the country. We were held up at the border in customs for over four hours as officials tried to get extort money from us. Bishop Hannington finally contacted an official in Beni who threaten one of the customs agents at the border until he released us. We probably paid more than we should have, but we had no choice. The result of our delay was that over half of our trip to Beni was in the dark. During our trip we were stopped at six roadblocks by soldiers with machine guns trying to get money from us. In the end all of them respected us as clergy.