The Turners work with church leaders of rural Uganda who struggle with poverty, disease, hunger and war, making Bible training available to pastors in rural areas.
A few of the ministry’s challenges are: traveling throughout the country on poor roads to train local pastors, instilling a new hunger in pastors who have lost their appetite for God’s Word, and finding others to help train rural pastors.
Pray for revival for those leaders who know yet struggle with the truth, that they would have a hunger for God’s Word and would remain faithful in the midst of trying circumstances.
About us:
Following Darrie Turner’s proposal to Debbie high in a Puerto Rican rainforest, the couple offered their marriage for God to use wherever he chose.
Just five months after their marriage in 1974, God led them to New Zealand to work with Orama Christian Fellowship. Darrie administered and taught in the Bible school there, and both Darrie and Debbie counseled the troubled people who sought help through Orama’s “seeker” program.
During the 12 years they served in New Zealand, God blessed them with four children. In 1986, sensing God was leading them in a new direction, they returned to the States. While pastoring a small church for a year, Darrie felt a growing burden to train pastors in a developing nation. Five years of study, two degrees, and another child later, they were appointed by WorldVenture to teach and mentor pastors in Uganda.
They departed to Uganda in 1996, and after studying Swahili for six months, moved to Kasese in southwestern Uganda. There Darrie helped establish an English track at Kiburara Bible College and train a national interim director. Debbie homeschooled three children, offered hospitality to pastors and friends, hosted a Bible club for the Ugandan school children, and taught the wives at the Bible college for one year. She hopes to do more training of women next term.
The more Darrie traveled throughout Uganda, training leaders in informal local Bible schools, the more he realized how crucial it was to make basic Bible training available to the many pastors who were unable to leave home to attend formal schools. He looks forward to helping form a ministry team that will make the training of rural Ugandan pastors its major thrust. This team will borrow, design, and implement training methods that can be carried on by the national church.
