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“There has been no greater privilege given to man than to be called to work for the Lord…” Raymond

“Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal; that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.” John 4:35-36

Raymond said the challenges were emotional; that Ruth had complications with surgery 8000 miles away, and that the pain of Stanley’s absence was sore. He admitted that of all the years of entering the African landscape, this was the first time he ever experienced culture shock. Early in March Raymond tended FCB needs, preached in several churches, painted and built shelving with David Rono. He spent many hours reading and in prayer to prepare himself spiritually for the hundreds of miles ahead.

It was Raymond’s blessing to enter each area and experience the fruit, as he found the members all fully engaged in the projects. It was a joy to witness the Holy Spirit move in hundreds of hearts for salvation. He said even along the roadside in travel people came to Christ, attributing it all to those at home holding the work up in much prayer.

Monday - December 22, 2003 - Midnight - From Stan Keeping the “GO! In the Gospel
Accomplishments for 2003 for Go! International
Raymond, Howard and I did a lot of talking today and evaluated this year and what GO! has accomplished and what we would like to accomplish in 2004. 2003 was a good start for GO!

Funds given through GO! were distributed for Christmas to the entire FCB family. In addition, a gift purchased 100 Bibles and 200 hymnals for the Ugandan border area EACA families as well as other parts of Kenya.

2003 - The Osajai Bible School, on the Kenya/Uganda border was reopened and funded by GO! to train evangelists and pastors and lay leaders for Uganda’s churches.

2003 - The second Ugandan church building, on its own land, is built and land for the congregation of the first church has been purchased. A further site in Uganda has been offered as a gift for the building of another church.

"We have not been totally successful in the year 2003. Our biggest failing was not finding servants of Christ to join us in Africa in order to expand the work. And we know our all-volunteer support team must be weary from the strain of their labors. No doubt there have been many other failings before God, but I can speak for the whole GO! team when I say we have done our best to please our Savior and be worthy of the trust of our loyal supporters. We know GO!s ministry has cost our supporters much in financial sacrifice, and has cost us some also in weary and broken bodies. But there is coming a day when Christ Himself shall evaluate our labors.
It will be worth it all when we see Jesus." Howard

Uganda Purpose – Raymond continues:
My main purpose for going to Kenya at this time was to visit our new area of ministry which will be in western Kenya and Uganda, 400 miles from Mwingi. IPC has made a lot of progress in the past few years, and now there is a small group of people in Uganda who want to join them. The young man leading the group is a student at the Osajai Bible School, nephew of the pastor at Mwingi Independent Presbyterian Church, and very interested in spreading the gospel in Uganda. They are currently meeting in small temporary facilities and are awaiting IPC registration in Uganda to buy property where we will help build our first Uganda Presbyterian Church.

I visited the government officials who were very positive about us coming to work with the IPC in Uganda.

Later we bicycled to the church to hold services on Saturday and Sunday, three in all, with many people from different denominations coming. God is sending us there to reach the people for Christ with the Bible. The dominant churches there…, neither church preaching the Gospel of Christ.

I saw giants in the land also. The country is very centralized …and the churches are apostate. Joshua came back in Biblical days and said that our God can overcome the Canaanite giants. I feel the same way… I can’t win the spiritual battle that I see ahead of us; it is the Lord’s battle and we will march at His command, and by His eternal Word…..
We Need Prayer For: Funds to buy a new vehicle….Health during the cold months and packing in the icy cold. Finishing all the government paperwork and permits needed….For God to work in the hearts of those to whom we will be ministering, that their hearts will be open to God’s Word….For the right house and equipment to get the work started….For new prayer and financial supporters. We feel we are finally starting the last chapter in our life’s ministry and it is with a feeling of humility and dependence on our Sovereign God that we look forward to the next few years. We need your prayers and financial help….

“I always get sick when I go there” - “Their animals are dying”
March 18, 1997 From Raymond
…..we’ve been blessed that we have rain and growing conditions. From the letter I just got from the Uganda border they are having famine, and all their animals are dying from disease and hunger. One of my past students is now a government official, the assistant Member of Parliament for his district; who wrote of the terrible conditions there. The worst since 1946.

My heart really aches for the poor people, in the mud houses and grass roofs, drinking the surface water that is filled with all kinds of parasites. I get sick every time I go there, yet that is where we are sent.

The folks from Mwingi are thrilled with the help.... Mwingi is 450 miles from Busia where they have famine now..
Is it okay to send the help to the starving in Busia? It will be a life saver to them. I’ll also send some Bibles from here, which takes about four months to get to Kenya, then one month to be delivered.

Each little thing we do will help…………only eternity will show how all these things are inter-related and will work out ok in the end…….from Raymond

We are having spring showers today, and a cold front is supposed to come in after that, so will have to cover the bulbs that have come up. I’m arduous about the plants outside, but they are so few and of no consequence. How much more we should be concerned for the eternal welfare of our fellow man.

It seems we make buffers between ourselves and the world’s suffering so we don’t have to feel responsible. That is the trouble with having traveled a lot. We know how others are faring, and yet we can do so little in life. That is one of the hard things about being a missionary – there are so many outlets for ministry and we feel a burden for all the suffering we see around us….

I remember being in Nairobi, it was raining, and I came upon a poor little 3 year-old in tattered, muddy clothes, weeping from his heart, crying for his mother. His mother had probably found a man for the night and just left her son to wander the streets, not having a home, just a cardboard or plastic hovel.

The sight broke my heart. We have been given so much, and yet what I saw can be multiplied 10,000 fold all over the world. How the heart of Jesus must weep for the down trodden helpless of the earth. Raymond

Eye and Heart on Uganda- Fall 1997

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 3:1

Dear Fellow co-workers, It is my joy to say that by the time you receive this letter I will be in East Africa pursuing the plans for our next term of ministry…………The flight plans are to leave the USA on November 2, come back on December 20th to buy the final supplies and a container, and get it packed and shipped to east

I feel that all our 34 years of ministry is only in preparation for the ministry that God has opened up before us now. We have left the previous two terms of work in the hands of the national churches. They have assumed all of the leadership and financial responsibilities

We don’t know when the Lord will come again, but we wish to finish all that we were sent to do in the time that is at hand. We invite you to get on the ground floor of the work and share in the eternal blessings of souls saved and saints strengthened. We feel that this is one of the best investments in prayer power and money in which a person can invest. T

he little that we invest now is going to grow into a great dividend……. There has been no greater privilege given to man than to be called to work for the Lord….We invite you to come along once more into a ministry of faith and share in the eternal blessings and rewards given to those who have faith to work for the Lord. The Ray Carlsons

The Teso Fields – Attempts to Hinder with Floods and Food Poisoning - January 1998

Dr Raymond Carlson returned from his trip to Kenya and Uganda, and the effort to evangelize and plant churches among the Tseo people began. Now it was a matter of awaiting the process of attaining work permits, and making all the preparations with hopes of being on the field by April.

During the trip Raymond missed some of the meetings at the Synod due to a case of food poisoning. Also excessive flooding hampered some of his traveling from Nairobi to Uganda. He didn’t have a car, so his journey was on bike taxi (bondo bondo) or public transportation (matatu).

“Great is my boldness of speech toward you…” I Corinthians 7:4

"Grace unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly; So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure;"

If the Lord is speaking to your heart to join the Carlsons in this most crucial and rewarding ministry, please visit this page.

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Raymond with Pastor Nicolas and his family

	"But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: And ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, And in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Act 1:8
Lamu's church members 1995	Lamu points to the village.