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India 2025

Ministry Trip to India – February 2025

It had been three years since Barb and I last visited our friends and their social projects in the states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. During that time, my friend and contact in Tamil Nadu, Edwin Devadas, had experienced kidney failure and is now on dialysis twice each week. His son, Robin, has taken over the leadership of Joya Children’s Home, which is presently functioning as an English speaking elementary school for poor children in the surrounding area. My first stop was to see the Devadas family and the Fermont elementary school, located 40 miles west of Chennai. They were having a special event day with dances and sports. Since my last visit they have built a stage for various performance and events and a wall around the main staff and guest quarters.


My second stop was in Andhra Pradesh to visit Samuel Motupalli, his administrator Saila and the Little Lights Children’s Home. There are presently 500 children at Little Lights in the elementary school, high school and vocational school. Many of the older girls are in the nursing program at the vocational school which enables them to attain the level of degree nurse. Both in the school in Tamil Nadu and in Andhra Pradesh the children are happy and well-fed.


Robin had arranged church meetings for me in north India in Delhi and in Patiala, Punjab, so from Andhra Pradesh I flew to Delhi to meet Robin and his wife, Sunita. We went on an outing on Saturday February 8th to Taj Mahal and on Sunday I preached at the Fellowship of Believers Church in Delhi, where I had preached on a previous visit. The pastor, Suman Girdhar, has an amazing history. She had been a Hindu but became a follower of Jesus after becoming terminally sick with cancer. The doctors told her that she only had a day or two left to live. After she heard that news, she cried out to Jesus, was born again and immediately healed of cancer! Since then she has an amazing healing ministry with many scores of people being healed through her prayers. Before I left Delhi, I asked Suman to pray for me that I would receive the gift of healing. It didn’t take long to see the results of her prayer. Monday evening after arriving in Patiala, Punjab, I preached at a special evening meeting in the home of a retired army commander. After the sermon I prayed for several people with long-term health issues like pain in their stomachs, appendix, knees and feet. In every case where the healing could be tested, the pain was gone. In one case, a man showed me a photo on his cell phone of his paralyzed brother. I laid hands on the cell phone and prayed for his brother’s healing. Tuesday evening he came back and showed me a video on his phone of his brother turning in his bed. Previously he had not been able to do that. I also asked for testimonies from those who had been healed on Monday evening. Several came forward and told how their issues were now gone. On Wednesday the man with the paralyzed brother brought him to an afternoon meeting in a wheelchair. I prayed for him again and he was able to rotate his hands. All in all, it was quite an amazing time there in Patiala and a productive trip visiting the two social projects – Fermont School and Little Lights Children’s Home.

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Progress on Farm Project in Uganda

After my visit to Uganda in June and July, Emmanual Rucyaba, the leader of Life Ministries Christian Centre, made his annual trip to Germany and Britain. While in Germany, he met with one of my former Bible school students who has helped the farm project in various ways.

This time he had a wonderful surprise for Emmanuel. He had purchased a used tractor, which he will ship to Uganda as soon as the machine shed is completed.

A man in England had previously promised to buy a tractor for the farm. Since the tractor has now been purchased, he will donate funds for additional farm equipment. In addition, since my last visit, progress has been made on the machine shed and it should soon be completed and ready to house the tractor and other equipment. We are excited to see progress being made on the farm project and expect that in the future, the profits generated by increased milk production will be a significant support for various aspects of the ministry.

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Ministry in Uganda

June/July 2024

This summer Bob went to Uganda to minister with his long-time friend and ministry partner, Emmanuel Rucyaba in two locations. The first few days were spent in facilities at Kairos Hospital teaching a group of leaders and potential leaders. Although he is in good health, Emmanuel wants to prepare others to eventually carry on his work when he is physically no longer able to do so. The teaching subject was, “Aspects in the Development of a Leader“ and was received eagerly by these young men.

While at Kairos Hospital Bob took a tour to see what had changed since his last visit. The biggest improvement was the installation of solar panels (notice the roof). They greatly reduce the cost of energy and eliminate the need for the generator.

In the second week, Bob and Emmanuel went to the farm owned by Emmanuel’s ministry. There is a church building on the property and several other churches in Emmanuel’s network  in the surrounding region.

There we had a three day conference for pastors, elders and their spouses with 70-80 participants. There were also a few other church leaders who had been invited, who are not part of Emmanuel’s “Life Ministries Christian Centre“ church network.

At the end of the conference they requested Emmanuel to hold a similar but larger seminar next year, where additional church leaders could attend. All in all there was a very positive response to the teaching they received at the conference.

Bob teaches at the conference.
Mentoring seminar.

The farm has developed further since Bob’s last visit in 2023. The dairy herd has transitioned from African cows to cross-bred cows that produce more milk. For that reason the farm is now self-sustaining.

Emmanuel is in the process of developing a larger dairy project with farm equipment, milking machines etc. that will enable the farm to sustain a much bigger herd of cows. This will result in a surplus of income to support other aspects of the ministry.

Bob is standing on the foundation of the farm’s future machine shed.
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A Visit to Germany

The Lidfors drop in on some old friends!

For thirty eight years, Germany was Bread of Life’s primary base of operations for ministry. During that time we were involved in church planting and running an evening Bible school in the region around Nuremburg and Firth in addition to our missions work in developing countries. Our final ministry project in Germany was to start and lead a house church, which we did for five years from 2015 – 2020 until Bob and Barbara Lidfors moved back to Minnesota.

Ministry travel plans were put on hold during the time when COVID was preventing travel. However, in 2023 Bob and Barbara resumed their ministry travel as they went to India in January and Bob went to Uganda in March.

More recently, they returned to Germany in October for a visit to their house church. It was very encouraging to see how the group had grown into two house churches. It was especially gratifying to see how the people care for one another outside of the weekly meetings through communication and prayer for needs of the individuals. Since this was a special time of having Bob and Barbara with them, the two groups had joint meetings on two weekends plus an outing on the first weekend. Bob and Barbara maintain contact with the house churches through periodic Zoom calls and emails.

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Uganda 2023: Week 2

Seeta and Kampala

Bob’s Report:

After returning from the north, the rest of my trip was spent in Seeta, where Kairos Hospital is located, and Kampala, where Life Ministries has an out-patient health center and a private Christian elementary and high school.

At Kairos Hospital I was encouraged to see that a nurses’ residence has been completed at the back of the six acre property. This is a great blessing to the nurses – allowing them to live close to their work and save time and money on transportation.

Kairos health center in Kampala is doing very well with many local residents taking advantage of their services, such as vaccinations for babies, which are offered every Tuesday.

The Kairos elementary and high schools are not only giving children a good education but are also an outreach to the community. There are several children from Muslim families who attend the school and have received Christ.

This year I have made ministry trips to both India and Uganda, so the next ones will probably not be until next year. I am glad that I can continue these trips after having moved back to Minnesota and plan to do so as long as possible.

Thank you so much for your prayer support and interest in the ministry of Bread of Life.

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Uganda 2023: Week 1

Ministry in northern Uganda

Bob’s report:

The first week was spent in the north at two locations where there are Life Ministries churches – Bweyale and Kambini. At both locations we held general meetings as well as special sessions for the pastors. I am especially glad to minister in northern Uganda because they have suffered greatly in the past due to a war caused by rebels. Many villages were destroyed and unmentionable atrocities committed by the rebels which resulted in a mass migration of people to central and southern Uganda. Now that the war has been over for several years, many have returned to their homes but often with deep emotional wounds. By coming to minister the gospel to them I can at least show them that there are believers who have not forgotten them and their suffering.

When I ministered to the pastors in Bweyale I was drawn to a young pastor named Martin, who has a very gentle spirit. He interpreted for me during some of the sessions and towards the end of my time there I interviewed him. His story deeply moved me as he told me about his upbringing. Both his parents had been killed by the rebels during the war so Martin went to live with his uncle who was a pastor. The Lord must have done a deep work of healing in Martin’s heart, because when you talk with him you would never imagine the trauma that he must have experienced when his parents were killed. Martin began his ministry at age sixteen and now does a lot of traveling throughout Uganda to teach the Bible to believers in addition to pastoring a church in Bweyale.

While staying in a guest house in Bweyale I had some conversations about the Lord with a young man at their reception desk, named Jeffrey. One morning I gave him a tract and when I returned in the evening I asked him if he had read it. He said that he “couldn’t find anything wrong with it” so I asked him if he would like to pray and give his life to Jesus. He said yes, so I had the joy of leading him in a prayer. I told him how important it is to read the Bible and offered to buy him one, which he was grateful for. If the Lord brings him to mind, please pray for Jeffrey – that he will read the Bible, go to the church close to the guest house and grow to be a committed disciple of Jesus. 

The photo below was taken at a session for the pastors in Kambini. Both in Kambini and in Bweyale I was impressed and encouraged to see that pastors in both locations are glad to work together for special projects like evangelistic outreaches, whether they are part of Life Ministries or not. Several of the pastors in both locations attended our meetings, although they are not in the Life Ministries network. 

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Uganda: 2023

In November of last year I had planned on attending the 30 year celebration of Life Ministries Christian Centre – the ministry that my friend, Emmanuel Rucyaba, founded and leads. Unfortunately, there was an outbreak of Ebola at that time with the possibility that the government would declare a country-wide lockdown. Just a few days before my flight, Emmanuel advised me not to make the trip because I might get stuck in Uganda. It was disappointing to miss the celebration, but Emmanuel and I decided to postpone my visit for a few months until there would be no more danger of an Ebola epidemic. So on March 16th I fly to Uganda for two weeks of ministry with Emmanuel. 

Bob

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New Content

Thanks for dropping by to visit our new site. If you’re new to the ministry of Bread of Life, you’ll want to visit frequently for awhile as we add new content. Furthermore, we hope to post regular status reports from the team. The Lord is doing exciting things and we want you to be a part of the work! Blessings!