Today was our second day visiting the Jingo community near Kambuzi Village and here are some of the highlights that stood out to me.
We started off the morning joining the Amazing Grace Church service, which you could hear the drums from way down the road. Service started with singing and dancing with songs in both English and Luganda. And then several introductions before we started the service.
One of our team leaders (Mark) was the preacher this morning, with a couple of translators helping out. The sermon was about salvation and what it really meant. At the end was an invitation to the congregation if anyone would like to accept Jesus as their Lord. I do not know exactly how many came up to receive Christ, but it was more than a few, as well as several people who wanted to rededicate theirs lives to Him. This is really the reason we are here, to share the love of Jesus with everyone and show them how to live in the light!
The latter half of the afternoon was eventful as well, but in a completely different way. Several of our team took the kids out to play on the new soccer field (which is on the land that Live in Light purchased for the new borehole well). A couple of callouts that I would like to share:
My daughters are soccer players and are here with me. One of them got out onto the field in her long skirt and was playing pretty hard, and as I am standing with some of the boys along the outside of the field, when they looked over there and see her running down the other boys and taking the ball while in a skirt, they pointed and laughed, but not at her. You could tell they were impressed and ran onto the field for the challenge.
Another thing I thought was really cool was watching the younger ones sit in a circle in the shade as an 8 year-old from our group taught them how to play duck-duck-goose (mostly). They didn’t quite get all the rules and would be ‘cheating’ by our standards, but to be honest, they were having a blast! But also, as he is playing with them, he started calling them other animal names, and they got a big kick out of that, as well. I know the next time I play, it will have chicks and moose in it, too.
After several hours, I swapped from the sun into the shade of a busy tent helping with the eye clinic. It made my heart happy to see people smile when they could all of a sudden read the Bible. I loved our interpreters who were able to not just translate when we needed them to, but they were willing to jump in and do anything else that was needed, like searching for right pair of glasses to pointing at the letters on the boards.
After it was over, I had the opportunity to talk with one of the interpreters about his faith. For those reading this, take a moment to pray for him (you can just say “Wade’s friend"). He is surrounded by people at times who make the wrong decisions, and he stands to be a light for them. He is very intelligent! But what he is really looking for right now is direction from God on what he needs to do. He is worried that he may go through life and in the end only made little ripples and he is hoping to make waves. I believe he has that potential and my prayer for him is for the Holy Ghost to speak to him and show him what wonderful fruit comes from seeds sown, even if it takes time.
We did attempt to show the Jesus Film (in Luganda) to them, but we had some technical difficulties half way through. We will try to finish it tomorrow (our last day there). Perhaps that is God’s way of providing a ‘cliff hanger’ for them (LOL).
Some other interesting things I noted that I wanted to share:
The people here in Uganda seem to be more open about their faith in many ways. In the U.S., I’ve never seen company names like “God With Us Plaza”, “St. Theresa’s school of driving”, “God’s will Tower”, “God’s Love Beauty Centre”, & “God’s Mercy Supermarkets”! You saw big bold letters on some of the taxis that say “God is Good!”.
Yesterday, our bus driver, Edgar, pulled us over to help a taxi van that had blown a tire. One of the guys in the taxi got out to walk around and one of our members started up a conversation with him. I can’t remember the exact words that were said, but at one point his eyes get real big, smiles, and he points into the bus and says “You have been reborn?!” And we affirm it, at which several more of his buddies got out of the taxi to come over. To be honest, I am not sure they came over because we were Christian and having a little Christian worship right there on the side walk and bus, or if it was because our skin tone was slightly lighter than theirs (which seemed to intrigue them). And they also seem to absolutely love it when we attempt our best at saying a few words in Luganda to them.
There is so much more I could say, but looking at the clock, we’ll have to be up in a few hours to start the next day. Please remember to pray for my friend and for God’s grace, love, and mercy on the people we meet!