Unto the Lord of All

Our day began with a devotional from Kylie about being in Christ, remembering our First Love. Today was the mid-way point of our trip (it’s going by too fast!) and the devotional was a great reminder to stay united to Him!

The women’s conference was a huge success! Over one hundred churches were represented, with women from Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania.  When we arrived, the church was full of women singing and worshiping. They were split up into four different groups and rotated through the classes that we had prepared for them.

Carolyn led a music class. The women had a ton of energy and threw themselves into the task of learning the worship songs and actions. Some of the music correlated with different pictures that can be found on the story cloths that we sent home with each of the churches. Sylvia, a Kenyan woman, helped Carolyn and was a huge blessing.

Debbie and Audrey taught the women about health and nutrition. The women were enthralled as they learned about what kind of foods provide proper nutrition for their families and will help in the growth and development of their children. This is information vital to their life that they can also share with the people of their community. Audrey and Debbie gave the women packets, which our long-distance team member Missy Grimes has worked incredibly hard to put together, containing food group charts for their areas and recipes.

Cynthia taught on the story cloth (a quilt-like fabric that has a bunch of pictures of Bible stories). The women learned how to use the pictures to tell bible stories. She went through the curriculum that goes along with it and told the women a few of the stories to show them how it all worked.

Karen taught the women how to use different things around their homes to teach bible lessons. It was fun and playful, and gave them practical tools to use to teach their children about God. Her lessons involved eggs, a beach ball, a handful of leaves, and a bandana or scrap of fabric.

At the end of the day we gave each church a bag filled with a story cloth, the curriculum, a nutrition handout, a beach ball, and a list of songs. Every woman that attended received a certificate of completion, which they were thrilled about. In the end, about 300 women left feeling better equipped and more encouraged.

Rachel, Laura, and Rudi went to 4 primary schools today. All of the schools were in the Akalabai area. Rudi preached a powerful message at the schools and Laura and Rachel gave testimonies. Our team was moved to discover how excited the kids were to see them and noted the moments in their speaking when the children settled in deep and paid close attention. The kids loved the fact that Laura was a teacher; she introduced herself by asking the children the same age as her students (P3 here) to raise their hands.

Garrett and Pat spent half a day on the trail and then went to a nearby prison. It was a smaller prison and our duo spoke to about 35 inmates. Pat gave her awesome testimony and Garrett preached a sermon. The Uganda pastors with them could not translate the language and so one of the prisoners served as a translator of the gospel from us visitors to his fellow inmates. They preached the gospel outdoors under a blue tarp-like roof and twelve of the men decided to accept Jesus as their Savior.

We had a skeleton crew in the village of Akalabai, going hut to hut for evangelism. Every encounter on the trail is a blessing and it is difficult to pick out ‘highlights’, but here are some of the stories we have been sharing with one another.

Walter had a great day and spoke to many people from different faith traditions (none, church of Uganda, Pentecostal, etc.). He was especially excited about an English-speaking believer that he was able to encourage.

Walter and his translator had to cut their time short because it was going to take an hour to walk back to the church. They scooped up some people on the road and ministered to them as they went, discussing the faults of works-based religion, a prevalent lie in this (and most every) culture.

Allison was excited to see one of the students that she met yesterday at the schools and be able to share the gospel with the little girl’s family. Below is a great picture of Allison on the trail.

Joey met a woman who was brewing beer when he arrived and, after hearing the gospel, wanted to accept Jesus. But she thought she needed to wait until later because she was brewing (considered very non-Christian here). It was a great chance to talk about how we do not need to be right before we come to God; we need to come to God so that we can be right.

Joey also talked with a Church of Uganda reverend who used to be a witch doctor.

Andrew encountered someone who had never heard anything about Jesus, ever. And Andrew got to introduce the story of the Lord to this person, who accepted Christ and came to the crusade in the afternoon.

Both school teams and prison teams made it back to Akalabai for the crusade, which was an incredible blessing because our skeleton crew of 5 was stretched pretty thin in the village.

At the crusade, Dr. Bartha gave an absolutely beautiful sermon about how Jesus does not care about appearance but about what is within. He used many Scripture examples to talk about the difference between love and law. It was amazing and something the people here really struggle with. Allison gave an awesome testimony about how her family helped bring her to a deeper relationship with God. Walter and Joey also gave testimonies.

We decided to bring some soccer balls to play with the kids before the crusade. Rachel got a crowd as soon as we pulled them out. She punted it away and a little boy raced to it, scooped it up and sprinted away down the road. We do not expect to see the ball again.

Tomorrow, the entire team heads to the village for the medical clinic and more time on the trail.

Thank you for your prayers and support,

The 2015 Uganda Mission Team