Mark Gillmore: Welcome to our Go Mission podcast.

I’m Mark Gilmore, and today I have with me Taylor Raines.

He’s a young man preparing for ministry, and this summer, God gave him an opportunity to take a Go Mission trip to the country of Uganda.

And I’m glad to have him with me here to share his story from this summer.

Now, Taylor, you and Africa go way back.

Can you tell us about that?

Guest: Yeah, absolutely.

My parents are Michael and Tina Raines, and they were both called to missions back in their younger years in high school and college.

And they actually went to Kenya, East Africa, back in 1998.

And they’ve been serving there full-time as missionaries, and they’ve been there since 1998.

We live in a town called Thika, Kenya, which is just north of the capital city of Nairobi.

So I was born in Nairobi, and I’ve lived in Kenya my whole life, and that’s where I grew up.

Mark Gillmore: Wow, that’s awesome.

What a privilege.

Born in Kenya.

Yeah, absolutely.

Now you were in Uganda, so you’re very familiar with Africa.

What are the impressions that you had going to the country of Uganda?

I was there just a couple months ago myself, and I really enjoyed the visit.

I just loved being in the country.

What did you like?

How was it different from Kenya?

What are your impressions?

Guest: It was definitely different from where I’m from in Kenya.

Kenya is obviously very big, and the area we’re in is in the capital city.

So it’s the most developed part of Kenya.

A lot of people have apartment buildings and satellite TV, refrigerators, that sort of thing.

So that’s what I grew up with in our area of Kenya.

I’ve traveled throughout Kenya and seen a lot more rural, what you might think of as African.

The part of Uganda that I was in called the West Nile region is about an eight hour drive from the capital of Uganda.

So it’s far in the northwestern part of Uganda.

And it’s exactly what you might picture when you think of Africa.

You know, everyone lives in mud huts and everyone, you know, goes down and gets water from a borehole or a river.

And that’s the water they use.

They don’t have running water, no electricity.

Definitely a much poorer region of Africa than really what I was used to in Kenya.

And a very beautiful area, rolling hills, very green, fertile.

The people there are extremely friendly.

You know, everyone just welcomes you into their house and wants to have a meal with you or let you come in and stay with them and talk with them.

Very laid back, especially compared to America.

Americans are very schedule-oriented, and Ugandans and Africans in general are very people-oriented.

So that was a big difference I noticed there in Uganda.

A very religious place.

Most of the Ugandans are either Catholic, Anglican, or Muslim in that region of Uganda.

So there’s a lot of religion, but very dark spiritually, even more than what I was used to in Kenya.

You could just sense that Satan had a real stronghold in these people’s lives, and there was definite resistance to the gospel.

So a very, very strong, dark place spiritually, but very beautiful, friendly people.

I really enjoyed it.

Mark Gillmore: Yeah, so comparing urban Africa, which you have kind of grown up to with, to rural Africa, which you were in, and you think of the degree in which people are welcoming and friendly,

Guest: do you find a difference?

Oh, definitely. um kenyans i would say where i’m from in kenya obviously if you travel in different places in kenya it’s going to be different uh but where i’m from in kenya and kind of the capital city area um they’re still more friendly and welcoming than i would say even here in the states but um even there in uganda there’s just a sense where they don’t really have anything else going on and so people are the most important things especially if you have a visitor you know you make time you can spend the whole afternoon with a visitor you’ve never met before, as opposed to

Mark Gillmore: just giving them 30 minutes at the door or whatever.

I enjoy that welcome so much.

And I walked some trails near where you were this summer and was able to engage someone and before long give the gospel.

And what a joy.

What a privilege.

Now, God gave you a remarkable open door, especially relating to young people, right nearby where you were staying.

Could you just tell us about that?

Guest: Yeah.

So I was working with the missionary, Phil Prettyman, and I know he’s helped out with some different Thee Generation things before he’s connected.

That’s right.

And so I was staying there with him and he works at a training center, which is, you know, several rooms and a kitchen, some dormitories that he uses to help train mostly men going into the ministry or people who are already in the ministry, pastors, just teaching people on what discipleship is and how to train other people.

And we decided to pilot a new program.

And this was the first time they tried it.

But there are two high schools that are very close to where the training center is there in Uganda.

And one school, Okufra Secondary School, has over a thousand students.

And all of the students are boarding students, meaning they stay at the school the entire period of time they’re in school.

They all live in the dormitories.

So Okufra Secondary School and then another nearby one, Nile High school had about 300 students and again, a boarding school.

And there’s so many young people in Uganda, the majority of the population is a younger population.

And so that’s really where the ripest harvest is.

So we piloted a new program called Students in Theological Training.

And what we did is we invited 40 students from both of those high schools.

So 40 total from both of the high schools.

And what we did was they were students who the teachers selected from their schools that they knew would already be serious, spiritually minded.

They were involved maybe in some sort of Bible program at their school.

So we had 40 students coming and they would walk from their school.

Some of them walked about 30 minutes every day.

After classes, they’d be in school from 6 a.m. up until 4 p.m. and they would come to the training center for Bible studies and Bible training for 5 p.m. to 6.

So they’d walk over, and what we did is there was three Ugandan young men about my age and then Brother Prettyman himself and then myself.

We would take turns teaching these students what the gospel was.

All of these students would claim to be saved.

Obviously, they were very religious Catholics or Anglicans.

Some of them were Pentecostals. so all of them would claim to be saved and they’d all go to church on Sunday but not one of them except for a few could actually explain what the gospel was.

None of them knew what faith was or repentance or salvation.

They use these terms every day in their schools because they’re religious but they had no clue how to get to heaven.

And so we would invite them for five days a week, Monday through Friday, they would come over and we would just take turns going through for an hour.

What is the gospel?

What is faith?

What is repentance?

Why won’t your good works get you to heaven?

Explaining that to them from the Bible.

And over the course of the month, the whole month of June, we had them come for four weeks.

And throughout that time, we saw about 27 of them get saved at different points throughout that time.

And that was just so exciting.

You’d preach about sin and the consequences of sin.

And you’d have three or four students come to you after the lesson just weeping, saying they get it.

They knew what they had to do.

They knew their good works couldn’t save them. and they had to depend on Jesus Christ for salvation.

So that was an incredible opportunity, and that young people are so tender.

The boarding schools where they go to are very, very dark places.

There’s just students sneaking out, getting alcohol, a lot of immorality, and just total lawlessness in those boarding schools.

The teachers really can’t control them.

And so there’s a lot of bad influences, but they’re still very tender.

They haven’t grown hard to any truth or set in their ways yet.

They’re very tender.

So it’s a wide open door, really.

Absolutely.

Honestly, anybody could go there and have a full-time ministry nonstop, having the same kind of ministry with young people all over that region of Uganda and boarding schools.

There was other schools.

We probably had about five other schools call us that month asking if we could do that same ministry in their school.

But we just didn’t have the workers or time.

Otherwise, we would love to.

Mark Gillmore: Yeah.

So just think about that, young people, that here is a region of Africa.

As I said in a podcast recently, Africa is just wide open.

Here’s one of the open doors.

And here this summer, Taylor got to be a part of that.

Did you get to go to any unreached areas or unreached villages?

Guest: Yes.

During the month of July, there was a young man I’d been working with.

He had been helping teach in that high school Bible study time, so I’d gotten to know him really well.

He was my age, and he came from— National Ugandan.

Yes, national Ugandan guy.

And he came from a region of that West Nile province, a district called Yume.

And it’s in the far northwest corner of Uganda.

It actually borders South Sudan.

And that region of Yombe is 95% or more Muslim.

Very, very strong Muslim background.

Traditions are very Muslim.

Very friendly people, but they’re very much set in their ways as far as Islam.

So of all the regions of Uganda, that is the most unreached region of Uganda.

And that whole region of Uganda is considered unreached.

But that district is the least reached of any of them.

Mark Gillmore: So what happened there?

Guest: you.

Yeah.

So I was able to take a weekend and we took a bus, rode on a bus for about six hours up into that district of Yombe, me and this young man.

And his family is from that region.

And he got saved when he was about 18 and he’s about 21 now.

And when he got saved at 18, his family kicked him out of the house.

They cut off any ties with him.

Some of his sisters kept up with him a little bit from a distance, but his mom and dad and his brothers completely ostracized him from his family.

And so when we went back, it was actually during a Muslim holiday called Eidie, which was a very, very big Muslim holiday.

It really is all around the world.

And we went back on the day of Eidie and he was actually able to get in contact with his family.

And we were able to go back and visit them that day, that Saturday.

And that was the first time he’d seen his mom or his dad in over four years.

And it was just an answer to prayer.

And they welcomed us.

They gave us some food.

It was a little bit awkward, a little strained, because there is definitely some odds still.

They didn’t accept him as a Christian, really, but he has been praying to be able to share the gospel with them, to open doors with his family.

And so God’s beginning to answer those prayers, I believe, and we were able to go back.

That Sunday, we went to just a local church there in the area.

It’s called First Baptist Church of Yume Bay, but it’s a very small church, and the pastor just invites the people to come into his backyard.

He’s got some teak trees there, and so the church just gathers under the trees there every Sunday and throughout the week for prayer and singing and Bible study, preaching.

Just a very exciting, welcoming group.

They gave me a big meal after the service.

Just such a really special group of people.

One thing I noticed while traveling throughout Uganda is that there’s such a family bond with Christians.

No matter where you are, You may have never met a Christian before, but when you come into contact with them, you just feel like you’re with family.

So we were at that church that Sunday, and we were kind of touring that village that afternoon a little bit.

And we came across a house, and my friend who I was traveling with pointed it out to me, and he said, there’s a house right there, and he pointed it out, and he said there was a couple missionaries killed there in the early 2000s.

And he explained the story to me, and he told me their name were the Petz family.

And I had heard about them, but I didn’t really know much about them.

So I got a picture of the house.

I sent it to my family, who are from the town of McWanago, Wisconsin.

And, you know, I told my family about the missionary couple that were killed there by some Muslim radicals.

And they started writing back.

And it turns out that this Petz family actually lived and grew up in McQuanago, just a few mile away from my grandma’s house in McQuanago.

And my grandpa had actually bought a pickup truck from Mr.

Petz many, many years ago.

And so there was a family connection to him.

His children, the couple’s children actually lives not far from my house there in McQuanago.

So I’m hoping to get a chance to go and visit them.

But this couple, you know, dedicated their lives to go serve, share the gospel in this very, very hard, dark region of Uganda.

And they gave their lives for it.

But you can definitely see God is working.

He’s answering the prayers that they had to see Ugandans in that district of Yombe saved.

And the only Baptist church in that whole region is right there in the backyard of where those Christians were killed, actually.

And God is hoping, some of the missionaries are praying, asking God to open up the opportunity for a radio station to be opened in Yombe.

That would have 24-7 gospel outreach into that region of Yombe.

So God is doing some exciting things in Yombe, raising up some new believers in that region who are excited to see that region reached.

Mark Gillmore: That’s an incredible testimony when I think of that couple, that they just literally heard about the open door.

God touched their heart with missions. they were already established as adults living their lives not far from really where we are right now here in Wisconsin.

And they made that shift.

Recently I heard another similar story of God using an adult couple that became aware of the mission’s need, sold business, and went overseas, and God’s doing great things.

And I think of a podcast like this targeting young people.

Maybe there’s adults listening who could get a glimpse.

Listen, you’re not too late in life, too old in life to actually join the mission’s cause.

Oh, absolutely.

And this couple went.

They were martyred there by radicals, but yet the large majority of the Muslims did not affirm that choice.

Guest: Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, everyone knows about what happened there, and they’re uneasy talking about it because they feel bad, really.

They didn’t want that to happen. they might not have wanted the gospel to go forward but they were still just as friendly they would love to sit down and talk to me myself or other missionaries and so the door is so open and fear obviously didn’t hold back this couple they had a farm they had children already and they could have made any excuse in the world not to go but they went and God has used their testimony and everybody in that region knows about them and what happened their death wasn’t in vain

Mark Gillmore: There’s a church right where they died today.

That’s the power of God.

And it’s also a reminder that when something tragic happens, we should not allow fear to determine the future.

Faith should, realizing that death cannot be in vain.

We need to stay engaged in that region.

Thankfully, God has sent missionaries nearby, the works going forward, perhaps even a radio station, to just proclaim that victory.

That’s amazing that you were able to actually visit that very site and now even bring testimony back to the folks near you about how God’s continuing to work.

That’s definitely a God thing there.

That’s amazing.

Yeah, totally.

Well, as you just think about your own, what’s your plans for the future?

What’s God leading you to?

Guest: Having grown up in Kenya, I definitely feel like Kenya is my home.

I’m here in the States doing Bible college right now. but Kenya is definitely home for me and I just feel God laying on my heart to go back and continue to work.

There’s several missionaries that my family works with there in the Nairobi area and there’s millions of people in Nairobi who you know there’s not no good churches there but there are missionaries that are working in that region of Nairobi and God has really laid on my heart to go to parts of Kenya that don’t have any missionaries or any, you know, solid gospel outreach going out, people discipling other people.

And Kenya itself is about the size of Texas, a little bigger than Texas.

And so you imagine if all the, you know, all the churches were right in Dallas and nowhere else in Texas, there’d be millions of people who still weren’t here.

And so that’s my burden.

There’s millions of people all over Kenya who are still unreached.

And so that’s my burden is to go back and reach parts of Kenya that don’t have any gospel.

Mark Gillmore: And really the key to reaching Kenya is the Kenyans.

And yet, even as you saw this summer, when a man comes from overseas with this mission in his heart and soul, and there’s this partnership, it’s like it just inflames that mission.

And you encourage the national, your own gifting comes together, and there’s still a powerful role for that kind of partnership.

Guest: Right, exactly.

Yeah.

You know, if you don’t take the gospel to those people, they’re not going to obviously have it.

And even if they do have the gospel, the goal of the missionary is to get there and to encourage those people to then go and be missionaries themselves to their own people.

And, you know, they understand the culture even better than myself who even grew up in Kenya.

They understand the languages better than myself.

And they can be far more effective.

And there’s only one of me.

But if I can somehow impact some more Kenyans or more Ugandans, whoever the case may be, then my influence just multiplies.

And we see that in the Bible itself.

Mark Gillmore: And what an encouragement it is to be part of that story.

It’s just awesome.

I was there with Phil, and we had gathering around us some awesome national preachers, men of God.

And just to think as Phil has established that training center, brings these men together, encourages them, just the level of spiritual excitement, of strategic advance that comes out of that.

Now, just speaking to your peers, some of them are listening right here.

What would you say, what message would you share out of your heart to young people listening today?

Guest: Well, my heart and my whole life has been wrapped around Africa, Kenya specifically, but I’ve traveled to Uganda and Tanzania.

So my heart is really burdened for East Africa, but Africa as a whole.

And when you think of Africa, I know I’ve heard this as I’ve traveled around to different churches with my families or whatever, you hear, oh, well, my church already supports a missionary in Africa, or, you know, I know a missionary in that country of Africa.

And so they think there’s no need, you know, to go there.

And Africa is such a huge, vast place.

I was just looking at a map and somebody had taken the entire United States, all 48 states, put them in Africa.

So you could fit the U.S. in Africa, you could fit all of Western Europe and Eastern Europe in Africa, as well as as well as India and Japan.

So you could fit all of those continents inside of Africa and still have room to spare.

So Africa is huge.

It’s hard to fathom how big it is.

And it’s just my personal belief that Africa right now, you know, we think of the harvest.

I think Africa is the most ripe fruit right now.

You can go almost anywhere in Africa and be accepted, be allowed in as a missionary.

The people there are just so open and there’s so many opportunities for the gospel.

I think it’s the most open continent to be able to go to and just share the gospel.

And I think the biggest thing that holds us back is fear of the unknown.

You know, you don’t know what Africa is like until you go there, until you actually live there.

So I think fear really holds back a lot of people.

But I would just encourage anybody who’s listening, don’t ask God if it’s his will to send you to Africa or to send you to the mission field. ask God to send you to the mission field and just ask him to do that.

And if he shuts the door, he’ll shut the door and he’ll use you somewhere else.

But my prayer really is that just hundreds and even thousands of young people would just surrender to missions in Africa and say, I’m going and if God doesn’t want me there, he can show me that he doesn’t want me there.

But my goal is to go there until he shows me that it’s otherwise.

And Africa is just so ripe.

As I mentioned before, you could have a dozen missionaries go just to Uganda and do this high school ministry and just have a full-time ministry for the rest of your life with young people.

And you could do that.

Pick a country in Africa, and you could go there and do

Mark Gillmore: that.

Just any other kind of ministry as well.

I know that is true.

So pray, surrender, but go visit.

Go look at Africa with your own eyes.

Walk on it with your own feet.

Sometimes it feels like this distant, mysterious, strange land of wonder from pioneer mission days of days gone past.

Now, Africa is present day.

It’s in your life.

It’s in your world.

Go visit it.

And it could change your life, especially as a young person.

Don’t just put your plans that has to do with family and marriage and all this and business.

Wait, wait, put missions in your plans.

Go visit a country or two or three.

Spend some time in Africa.

As a young person, single, you can still do that.

Oh, yeah.

Guest: Even if you never, you know, end up living there full time for the rest of your life.

We’re all called to missions.

And, you know, we can say, well, I’ll just give my money to missions and that’ll be my missions part.

But with the ability that we have in our day to be able to travel anywhere in the world within a few days, I think even short-term missions trips on a regular basis, especially to Africa, it will change your perspective.

It will give you such a burden for Africa.

Even if you never end up living there, it will change your life.

It will change your perspective on the eternal.

Mark Gillmore: That’s true.

You can buy.

I just bought tickets for Africa for $900.

Some of you young people earn $900 in a week.

You literally could go to Africa for what you earn in a week.

And you could save some money twice that, three times that to cover your costs, to pay the missionary so that you don’t just ride on his dollar.

But you could go and it could change your life.

Wow, that’s awesome.

Praise God, Taylor.

You were on the Go Mission this summer in a very special way.

So remember, the only way to stay at peace in a world of turmoil and uncertainty is to stay on mission with Jesus in his Go Mission.