Beautiful faces

These pictures bless my heart beyond words. You all have heard me talk about my friends from Uganda, Danny and Claudia Hood. They recently were appointed as career missionaries with the IMB. They will be serving in Kenya now instead of Uganda. Here is the article that accompanies the pictures:

A native of Augusta, Danny Hood attended Norman College and Mississippi College before earning degrees at New Orleans Seminary and Luther Rice Seminary. He served as pastor at Fellowship Baptist Church in Rome and First Baptist Kennesaw in the 70s before going to two churches in Florida for separate stints.

For the last three years he and his wife have served in Kampala, Uganda as church planters through the Master’s program at the IMB, which is designed for people 55 and older. With everything else, he’s packing 42 years of ministry for the trip.

For Hood, now 60, age “has nothing to do with serving overseas anymore.”

“My wife and I have always had a heart for missions,” he states, “even as teens when I had gone to foreign missions week at Ridgecrest. Through the years God led us to different churches before taking us overseas. We felt like it was time for us to go minister where there was little access to the gospel.”

Hood admits challenges are waiting. Learning a new language wasn’t easy for someone his age. The dominant Muslim culture also posed difficulties. Still, he’s adamant about the call given to him and others.

“In Uganda, there’s a 71-year-old man from Macon serving with no other missionary close to him,” he asserts. “It doesn’t matter about your age, profession, or education. There’s an opportunity to serve Christ.”

Claudia Hood often walked the streets of Kampala alone, training leaders to establish women’s Bible study groups and eventually lead a church planting movement.

“I had opportunities to begin ministries among women infected with HIV,” she remembers, “seeking to help them make a living with their crafts and learning about needed medical attention. We were active each Sunday with several house churches and usually had baptism once a month in Lake Victoria.

“In Kenya we will focus more on leadership development among missionaries. However, we have also asked to have one or two days a week to be among nationals. There is a huge slum area near Nairobi and we’ll be involved in taking that gospel there.”

The Hoods’ call doesn’t come without sacrifices. At the commissioning service both clung to their first grandchild, Timothy Isaac Hood, 13 months old. In December they’ll be spreading the gospel in Kenyan slums and training missionaries as their first granddaughter is being born at St. Mary’s Hospital in Richmond, Va.