Recap - Day 10 - Church

The original plan was for our team to be able to attend two different churches, one each Sunday we were to be in Uganda.  However, due to our 'unfortunate' layover in London, our half of the team was only able to enjoy one weekend in Africa.  We attended the church of the bishop that was helpful in organizing the pastors conference earlier in the week.  Our three pastors were scheduled to preach in the morning service so when you add that in with the expectation of a 3 hour worship service, we knew we were in for a longer church experience than normal!

The best way to avoid a long church service is to be late - at least an hour will do!  And then have the 3 preachers each teach just one point of a three point sermon in a true American 35 minute time limit...and viola! 

Due to the fact that we were about an hour late, when we walked in, it was obvious - made even more so obvious by the fact that we there were 22 mzungus!  But it didn't faze the locals!  The 'choir' of 10 continued singing and dancing on the stage and the rest of the congregation kept singing as they took in the sight of all of us filing in to our seats.  As I put my backpack down on the dirt floor, an older woman came over to me with a piece of cardboard and motioned for me to put it on the ground and put my backpack on top of it.  Such a very sweet gesture from a very sweet lady. 

Some of us mzungus were actively participating in the singing and dancing portion of the service - well, at least singing during the songs that were sung in English...when it came to the songs in Luganda, I just danced!  And by dancing, I mean that I was mirroring the actions of the choir on stage...and yes, I'm a white girl with no rhythm...anything to bring a smile to the faces of people.

As soon as the worship service was over, Pastor Dwight had our team come up on the platform and we paired up and prayed for anyone that wanted prayer.  Many of the adults did not speak much English so we had interpreters that would let us know what specific requests each person had.  Alei and I were paired up together and we prayed for women and children ranging in age from 3 all the way up to the 70s and for requests from doing well on school work, for wisdom (many children requested this), health issues (HIV/malaria), one boy was asking for help in quitting wetting the bed, and then at the end a little girl was brought up because her family believed her to be demon possessed.  WOW - what a range.  It was amazing how bold these people were in asking strangers to pray for them...and how expectant they were for God to answer their prayers. 



When all that had wanted prayer had been prayed over, our team went out in the yard to take pictures with the bishop.  It turned out to be a time to take ALL kinds of pictures!  Courtney bent down to take a photo with a couple of kids and before it was all said and done she was SURROUNDED!  The kids just love being in photos and around mzungus!  

Here are all of the lovely 'girls' on our team - my definition of girls is under 20! :)

Girls, I may get your ages wrong, but I'm trying!  From left to right:

Savannah (15), Emma (17), Taylor (14), Alei ( 17), Lexie (18), Sarah (18), and Brianna (16)

It is very awesome to have such a group of YOUNG people with such a heart for not only the orphan, but for the world as a whole to know the love of God.  They renew my hope in the next generation.

As we were outside, a lady walked up to me and said, "do you mind leaving your phone number or your email address?  Florence would like to keep in contact with you".  I had NO idea which woman Florence was, but I'm not opposed to a pen pal so I gave her my email address. Moments later, Florence came up to me and hugged me...it was the older woman that had earlier brought me a piece of cardboard and had been one that forced her way into the line for me to pray over her after the service was over.  (As I have been looking at other blogs since being home, I have discovered that Mama Florence is actually a midwife in her village and delivers several babies a month in a building behind her home!)

Here is a photo with Lexie and Mama Florence - she's a rock star...well, at least in my opinion she's pretty amazing!

After all of our photo sessions, we went back into the church and ate lunch that the ladies from the village had prepared for us...rice, potatoes, beans, yams, some sort of meat (luckily I didn't get watched while filling my plate so I didn't have to take everything!), and some fruit.  We'll just say that there wasn't just a general prayer over our meals...we each were praying the entire time we ate that we wouldn't get sick from anything...and God heard and answered our prayers that day!

And here ends the story portion of our day - stop reading here if you don't want to be preached at... 

This is a little reality check and portion of the program where I just want to ask a few questions...to you and to me.  Please realize that I have a VERY comfortable life in America, I attend a 'mega' church with lots of bells and whistles, and I have practiced America's version of Christianity with the best of them for a majority of my life. 

WOULD YOU (and I)...be willing to go to a church that posts service times that are 3 1/2 hours long and twice on Sunday - and 2 hours each night throughout the week?  Would that cramp your style?

WOULD YOU (and I)...be willing to sit on an uneven, wooden bench with no padding for those 3 hours?  Would I go to a church with a dirt/mud floor depending on whether it had rained or not?  Would Jesus show up in a place like that?

WOULD YOU (and I)...be willing to go to church in a building that had holes in the walls, wasn't brick, didn't have windows or air conditioning?

WOULD YOU (and I)...be willing to give up sides of our homes or market stalls in order to 'finish' the church building? 

WOULD YOU (and I)...go to a church where the sound system is run by a generator every week because there is no electricity?  Where the music is played on a keyboard synthesizer and not a full orchestra?  Where the praise team is not made up of the best singers or the most beautiful members of the congregation?  Where the words aren't projected on a screen...and there were no hymnals?

WOULD YOU (and I)...be willing to give up ALL of the comforts we know to live in a country where your civil rights are not guraranteed, where electricity is sometimes available and sometimes not, where death occurs to family members every day, where a majority of the population is fighting a life-threatening illness?

WOULD YOU (and I)...be willing to live in a house that is smaller than most of our kitchens, that are less stable than our yard sheds, without carpet, without locks on your doors and windows, without flat screen tvs and DVR?   What if you couldn't even afford that and you slept under a tree in the dirt every night?



WOULD YOU (and I)...be willing to rely on public transportation and not own a car, truck, SUV...much less 2 or 3? 

WOULD YOU (and I)...open our eyes to the world around us - not just in Uganda, Africa - and see how much we are missing the mark? 

Is living a good life in America a sin?  I don't think so.  But if we aren't willing to sacrifice in order that others may have the opportunity to know the HOPE we have in Christ, that is the sin. 

The thing I constantly saw in Uganda were teeth.  Yes, that sounds like a very strange statement, but it's true.  Those people can SMILE with the best of 'em. They don't have "stuff", but they don't care.  They have FAITH that healing will come, they have HOPE that tomorrow will be a better day, and those people LOVE like I've never seen before.  Yes, this is a generalization based on the small number of people that we came into contact with for our 2 week stay.   Is there darkness in Uganda?  Yes.  Is there also the Light of Jesus?  Yes..we just need more messengers to spread the news - what are YOU (and I) willing to do? 



WHAT WILL YOU DO?!?!!