Sad news

I got word today that a dear friend, Pastor Paul, died of AIDS. I first met Paul when Rebekah and I were teaching ladies in Soweto, an area of Kampala full of refugees from the war in Northern Uganda. On this particular afternoon our translator was unable to come and we weren't sure what we were going to do. As we talked a man came and joined us. He told us he'd be happy to translate for us. Because many of the women in the group spoke Acholi and many spoke Luganda, we often had two translators. Paul did the Acholi for us for several months.
It turns out Paul was from the North and had, like so many others, come to Kampala looking for work/money. The thing that set him apart though was the fact that he wanted to get plugged into what God was doing in Kampala and take the gospel back to his people, the Acholi tribe. After spending several months ministering with us in the house church network, even starting a new fellowship in another area of Soweto, Paul raised money to go to Gulu and start up a house church there. He was the first missionary out of the network.
Paul had been suffering from AIDS for quite some time and had been very sick in the last few months. He leaves behind a wife and several children. Please pray that God will provide for them. Paul was a mighty man of God. He will be missed terribly.