Uganda: Update #6

A team of our brothers and sisters in Christ - men, women and children from West Texas - are in the east Africa nation of Uganda for Christian mission. Here is a report from Midland's 2008 Uganda Mission Team.
-----

Uganda Update 6

Our fourth day on the trail was a busy one. The majority of the team went to the church site at Nalubembe. The medical clinic started today. Dr. Patrick and his staff, with help from our team, stayed busy all day and continued through the crusade. Other team members walked the trails and again had a fruitful day of spreading the Gospel. Al and Sam visited the prisons and Robert, Karen, Robin and Elizabeth visited schools.

A most pleasant and unusual experience happened today on the trail for Ralph Green. He and his interpreter came across a small village and was informed they had a small ceremonial chair/stool and would like for him to use it to deliver his message. His interpreter later explained that each village had such a chair/stool. Ralph thought it a great treat to get to preach from the village ceremonial chair. He would just get to the end of sharing the gospel when another group of people would approach and want to hear what he was talking about. This kept happening over and over. As Ralph sat atop the ceremonial chair in a village in Africa many people came to the Lord.

Randy Willis met a man named Fredrich on the trail today and led him to the Lord. Fredrick was so excited about his conversion that he led Randy and his translator (Keepha) the rest of the day on the trail. He introduced them to people in his village and sat while listening to Randy tell the story of Jesus. Later he came to the crusade, found Randy and spent the evening worshiping with him. At the end of the day Randy introduced Fredrich to Robert, the new pastor at Nalubembe. They began talking and Fredrich committed to coming to the new church with Pastor Robert.

Lisa Zachry encountered a very well educated, English speaking man on the trail today. After she shared with the family, the man had many questions which Lisa answered. His entire family accepted Christ and he told Lisa he had been “crying out” for a Bible so that he could learn of the Good News. She gave him a Bible and he was so moved and excited that his reply was “I begin a new life today”.

Al and Sam went to a small prison near Mbale. It was the same prison Al visited last year. It was a low security prison and family and children of the prisoners flowed in and out during the day. The prisoners spoke a different dialect than the interpreter so one of the prisoners translated. What a sight – Al preached in “Texan” the interpreter translated into English and the prisoner translated into Lugandan.

Robert and Karen Winkler and Robin and Elizabeth Darr went to the schools in Kapchorwa, which is a beautiful village up in the mountains. As you may recall, the team has been studying Andrew Murray’s book Humility for their devotionals. As Cynthia led our devotion, she drew our attention to the lesson in the book that when humility has become the very spirit of our life, it will manifest itself in all our actions towards others. As the group was riding in the van to Kapchorwa, a Kenyan man, Michael, who was accompanying them, told them that he was new to Uganda—he’d been there 9 months—and that he loved Uganda because the people were so humble. He went on to say that humility wasn’t something that you could just do. It had to come from within, from inside. Michael said the same thing the devotional had said this morning. At the second school, Robin struck up a conversation with the gardener who was “organizing the hedge.” When she told him that we had come from America to tell people in Uganda about Jesus, he replied that they were all believers. He went on to give Robin a lesson on humility, quoting Mark. At that same school, the girl who was asked to lead the prayer began by saying, “let us humble ourselves before God.” Then she proceeded to pray. The team is thankful that God is not only using them, but instructing them, especially in humility, as Murray categorizes humility as the “mark of Christ.”

The school team visited three schools today – one primary school and two secondary schools. The primary school had approximately 500 students, ages 5 to 15 years old and the secondary schools had between 300 – 500 students each. Karen, Robin and Elizabeth gave their testimonies and Robert preached. At the primary school the children, dressed in their red-checked uniforms, sat on the ground and were transfixed by Elizabeth. To evangelize with Elizabeth was a delight. She captured the attention of all the students and they hung on every word, clapping when she stated that she was saved. Robin joined her in teaching a simple lesson on being thankful; using a balloon and a hex nut (Elizabeth learned the lesson in her Sunday School in Midland). Robin also taught the children sign language for “I Love You”. Robert gave his sermon and Pastor Godfrey made the alter call. Many children were saved and we rejoiced with them as they came forward. It was the same reaction at the other two schools, Elizabeth was the highlight, the children laughed at our “Texas” accent, and young adults came forward to answer the call of salvation. As we left the final secondary school, some of the children from the primary school we had visited earlier were there to send us off – signing “I Love You” as we drove away.

Today was the beginning of the medical outreach and it was quite a busy day. Page Price, Susan Strange, Cynthia Howard, Vicki Miller, Debbie Spinks, Hannah Schorr, Kathy Schorr, Link and Missy Grimes and Jeff Darr were the medical team that helped Dr. Patrick’s team. We treated over 675 people starting early and going right through the crusade. Having the new building greatly improved the efficiency of the whole program. The Mosquito nets were the hit of the day. Jeff Darr had to become the “Mosquito Net Nazi” as he had to work crowd control while he was passing them out. It was heartwarming to know that we were treating so many people, but the amount of malnutrition and starvation in this area was heartbreaking. We have never planted a church in an area so impoverished. We dealt with so much sickness and suffering in the clinic, but were assured by Dr. Patrick that most would respond quickly to the medication, as their bodies are not accustomed to it. We thank God for Dr. Patrick and his whole team for their compassion and patience. It was an honor to work along side them. We are thankful to have Missy Grimes, who is a nurse along with us, but we pray for doctors to feel the call to join us in the future.

The crusade got another brief intermission with a nice rain shower again tonight. This area has been dry this year so we rejoice in the rain for them. It doesn’t stop the praise for long (actually the children continue to sing and dance in the rain the whole time!) Hannah Schorr and Vicki Miller gave their testimonies and Jim Alsup gave the sermon. Jim’s message was powerful and rated a lot of spontaneous applause. After Jim was finished we loaded up the vans to head for town while Dr. Patrick’s team was still dispensing the last of the medications to a crowd of grateful Ugandans. We’ve been blessed with another day of feeling humble in the presence of what God is doing here. We are so thankful to be a part of it.

P.S. Please pray for the health of our team members, as a few are feeling a little under the weather.
-----

Please, keep them all in your hearts and on your minds, in your thoughts and in your prayers.

Want to know more about Uganda? You can visit the Uganda entry in 'The World Factbook' maintained by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. You can also visit the official Uganda tourism website maintained by the Uganda Tourist Board. And Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church of Houston, Texas, has a webpage devoted to Mbale Presbyterian Church of Uganda.