Merry Christmas!!!!!

I know it's been awhile since I've last posted. We now are trying some new ways for our family and friends to keep up with our journey to Uganda. Check out our new webpage at www.gatewayglobaloutreach.org/Bogan for all the latest news and links to many other sites. One of the links is our monthly newsletters that we send out. If you would like to receive this each month, please either contact Aaron(boganaw@muohio.edu) or I(danabogan@hotmail.com).

Christmas is fast approaching and I hope all of you have a Wonderful and Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!! Our family will take some much needed rest and slow the pace down a bit. We are looking forward to having some quality time with the children. We try so hard to focus on Christ during this time and for it not to be about the gifts and parties. However, I'm finding unique ways to share stories about Christ through these ways. Christ was our ultimate gift from God, and I hope you take the time to share with others during the holidays how He has/is impacting your life. I am so grateful that He saved a sinner such as me. He didn't have to, but Christ chose to come to earth as a baby and live as a human. Not only that, but in the end Jesus was crucified on the cross for all the corrupt things I have done and do. Lord I thank you for such a sacrifice as this and pray I never get over the glorious gift you gave me five years ago.

I want to thank God for all the family and friends who have been such a great support to our family. The Lord has been so good to us. Take some time during this season to reflect and focus on how blessed you are. Have a Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year!!!!

Lots Going On

Sorry, I haven't updated in awhile. So much has been going. We have been visiting churches, individuals, and groups sharing about Uganda and the vision God has given us. It has been a great time and we are praying that we are exciting others about missions. We hope not only do we excite them about what is going on in East Africa, but we are also exciting others to go, share, and disciple with those that they meet. Even though God has called us to Uganda, as a Christian, you are called to share with others where ever that may be.

I hope many of you reading this are receiving updates by our newsletters now. We are sending out monthly updates to better inform you what we are doing, where we are heading, and how much support we have raised thus far. If you are not receiving them and would like to, please contact us.

This weekend we will be meeting with Anthony and Misti Shelton. They are a missionary family serving at the Uganda Baptist Seminary who are on furlough until early next year. We are anxious to spend time with them, since we will be working along side of them in Africa. It will be great to learn more about life in Jinja, and what they suggest for being the most prepared to move there. They will be visiting Urbancrest from Thursday through Sunday. It should be a great time of fellowship and fun.

Please pray for our family as we continue on this path. We are working hard to network, share, and spend time with those that God puts in front of us. He has opened many doors up in Oxford to minister to university students and the community. Along with that we are trying to incorporate various ways to keep our support team informed and others excited to be a part of our team (emails, newsletters, webpage, prayer cards, etc.). We are also participating in a missions training course through our church every Wed. All this among Aaron teaching and me homeschooling makes for a busy home. However, God has blessed us beyond measure with the amount of time needed, health, and stamina to get all accomplished that needs to be done. I know many of your prayers are being answered. Please continue to pray for our family.

Our Time at FBC

Last week our family was blessed by participating in the missions celebration at First Baptist Church Waynesville. It was a great time getting to know the congregation there and meeting other missionaries. Thursday night we kicked off the celebration with getting to hear from a couple that works out of Xenia, OH with Athletes in Action. Friday night we were invited to share in a home of one of the memebers from FBC. Thank you Mike and Sherri for being so gracious to our family. We had a wonderful time! Saturday afternoon we had fun at Hidden Valley with the other missionaries and then lunch after at Der Dutchman. We spent that time hearing about the other missonaries' ministries and the awesome way God is using them. That evening we were back at the church to share more with the congregation and to take part in the ice cream social. Needless to say the children enjoyed that part of the conference immensley:) Sunday was spent with the missionaries sharing in Sunday Schools and church service. Thank you to the youth group for hosting and putting up with us. Mike and Naiomi who have a cowboy ministry in Arizona shared. Mike preached the message and they both sang together. Sunday evening we closed with Q&A and prayer time.

To the many who gathered around us and prayed for our family, we thank you all for your sincere prayers and support that you gave us. We pray that we inspired and encouraged you as much as you did us. Thank you Dennis and Juli for all your hard work in planning and organizing this celebration. I pray that the Lord blesses you with seeing a church that catches the vision the Lord has given you!! We encourage you and all of FBC Waynesville to continue to reach out to your Jerusalem, Judea, and the ends of the earth!!

Raising Support to Serve in Uganda

So we are now moving forward with actively raising support to get us to Uganda. We thank you all for praying us through to this point in the journey and ask that you continue to labor in prayer for us as we seek to establish a support base.

The campaign that we are starting we will call the 4/40 pursuit. What we need to be in Uganda is $4,000 per month and $40,000 initial deployment expenses. This will get us there, keep us there, and provide the necessary funds should we need to evacuate the country for any reason. Since we do not have a large organization supporting us (or taking a cut of our donations :-), this is imperative. We would be happy to share with anyone interested the specifics of this budget as we wish to be absolutely transparent concerning the financial side of things. The more eyes that take a look at something, the more likely we will catch things before they become nasty surprises.

We will be attending the missions celebration hosted by First Baptist Waynesville, Ohio this weekend. The dates for this celebration are from Thursday the 30^th until Sunday the 2^nd. Pray for the connections we might make here and that Christ's mission is moved forward as a result of our attendance. This is the first missions conference that this church has undertaken so pray for them as they sail into uncharted waters. We look forward to being used by God to encourage others to catch His vision for world missions!

We are happy to speak at any venue that we can fit in with our current schedules. Please, please, please, please share what God is doing with our family with others. We would love the opportunity to speak to your church or group to simply share the vision that God has given His people for the nations.

If you are interested in being a financial partner with us, I’ve given details on how to do this below. I assure you that you are investing in a venture with the best return on investment you can imagine.

How you can help financially:

Pray!!!! After having done that, consider how you might partner with us financially as we seek to impact Africa for Jesus. A pledge of any amount monthly is our primary need at this point. If 100 people give only $40 per month, we have met our monthly expenses. The math is simple and no amount is too small. Every $132 pledged monthly buys us a day on the field providing high level conservative theological education to African pastors and teachers. These pastors and teachers (UBS students and graduates) are currently impacting an estimated 170,000 African children. The multiplication from this work is staggering. The fruit from this endeavor will be shared by all who are connected to it through praying, giving, and going (see Philippians 4:14-20). However, none of us can be a part until the funding goals are met. If God leads you to be a monthly partner with us, simply contact me and I'll record your pledge and you can start giving right away (see below).

If monthly support is not feasible for you at this time, a one time donation toward our initial deployment expenses is another way to help. We will be purchasing and shipping a 20' container with all of our household goods in it from here to Uganda. We will also need to purchase 6 plane tickets. There is the expense of purchasing a vehicle in Uganda. Ugandan work visas must be purchased. All of these (and more) things are needed before we can go. We welcome general donations or donations toward specific parts of the mission.

Any and all donations are tax deductable and all of your donations will go directly toward supporting this mission (we have no admin overhead). There are two ways to give:

By check:

Make your check out to Gateway Global Outreach; annotate on the comment line BOGAN Uganda

Mail it to:

BOGAN c/o Gateway Global

PO Box 591

West Chester, OH 45071

Electronically:

We have coordinated with our home church (Urbancrest Baptist Church) to receive electronic (credit card) donations. Note that there is a 3% service charge levied by the credit card company that is taken from all donations tendered in this manner. Go to http://www.urbancrest.info/Donations. Enter the amount of monthly or one time donation in the "Other" field. Enter BOGAN Uganda in the box below that and select the one time or repeated option as appropriate. Click "Donate Now" and you'll be directed to the PayJunction site to make your secure donation.

The Decision Is.........

We are going to serve in Uganda at Uganda Baptist Seminary. Aaron made it home safely, and since then we have been praying, talking, and working through options. God has made it abundantly clear that we are to serve in Jinja, Uganda. We are so excited to have a direction!!! Thank you to those of you who have prayed for us and supported us through encouraging words and hugs.

So what are we going to be part of when living there, you may ask? Well, Aaron will be teaching at a seminary that educates pastors from all over sub-sahara Africa. He will begin by teaching a few courses the first year, along with us learning the language and culture. The faculty there was quite excited to know that he had taken Hebrew and would be willing to teach that course:) I will be busy acclimating the family to a new culture and homeschooling the children. There may be opportunities to assist the nurse practitioner, Evelyn, at the seminary to help do nursing care for the students. Also I'm hoping there will be time to volunteer at the local orphanages with our children. Our whole family is excited about the many opportunities and possibilities in Jinja. There is a tremendous amount of support in place from other missionaries that have lived in this area for several years. That helps quite a bit when you have a family and this is the first time living in another country. God has blessed us tremendously by placing us in an area with that kind of support and a place where our home church visits yearly. I could have not asked for anything more:)

The next phase is to concentrate on raising up a support team that will help get us there. Right now we are planning on trying to be in Uganda by June 2011. Please pray for churches and individuals to partner with us in Uganda. We are so excited to see how God is going to work through us. Our prayer is to remain obedient and rely solely on Him. If you feel led to pray and/or financially support us please contact us at boganaw@muohio.edu. We will get you on our distribution list for updates and further information on how you can become partners with us.

Aaron Will Be Home Soon

Aaron will be flying home on Wed. August 18th. Please pray for safe travel and that jet lag will not be much of an issue. We have alot to discuss and pray over in the next few days. Aaron has immensely enjoyed his time in South Africa and Uganda. In just a short period of time he has experienced so much. Please continue to pray for discernment and that we have a clear direction from the Lord where we are to serve.

The children and I had a wonderful trip to the Smokey Mountains. We saw a few bears, trekked to the top of Clingman's Dome, managed to keep all the kids alive tubing on the rapids, and tried our hand at gem mining. It would have been nice to have Dad with us, but all in all it was a great vacation.

We thank all who have prayed and supported us through these past few months. It has been greatly appreciated.

How You Can Pray

The time is almost upon us for Aaron to be leaving for South Africa and then on to Uganda. He will be leaving on August 6th and will return home on August 18th. Please pray for his health, safety, and discernment from God if one of these places is where God would want us to serve. Aaron will be arriving in Johannesburg, SA on the 7th. He will then be traveling again by car on the 8th to a Bible school that is about five hours from Johannesburg. Needless to say all that traveling makes a person very tired. He then will travel back to Johannesburg on the 10th and fly to Uganada on the 11th. Aaron will be in Uganda for seven days. On the 13th he will be meeting with the Board of Directors from the seminary to be interviewed. Please pray that they will have an opportunity to truely see who we are as a family, and how God has so blessed Aaron with the gift of teaching and preaching. It is most important that this be a good fit for all involved on both sides.

While Aaron is in Africa, I've decided to take the children on a short trip to the Smokey Mountains. This will be the first time all the children have visited, that they can remember. Please pray for safe travels and for health. Nicholas just had nine teeth surgically removed a few days ago. We are praying that no complications arise from this and it won't hinder us from going. We will be leaving on Aug. 9th and returning on the 14th.

We once again want to thank all of you who are lifting us up in prayer continually. The prayers are definitly felt. If you are not receiving regular updates from Aaron and would like to be on our distribution list, email Aaron at boganaw@muohio.edu to be added.