Worship in Wabiyinja and Baptisms at Bukeeka

Today was a busy day! After breakfast we piled into Jawale’s taxi and bumped our way to True Worship Center in Wabiyinja. Before even getting out of the van we could hear the drums and the voices of the congregation singing praise songs inside the tin roofed pole structure. We were warmly greeted by about 50 adults and around 120 children inside the structure, especially as the team from last year and its congregation had funded rough wooden planks to side the building and protect the growing congregation from the weather.

Pastor Gabriel officially welcomed us and reported that congregation has been growing, both in members and in awareness of needy families in the impoverished community. In order to generate income and help provide food for the poor, the congregation has planted maize on their property and now dreams of obtaining a mill with which they can grind the corn to produce posho flour and a storage building to protect it.

 

While Pastor Ken preached to the adults on God’s grace revealed in His answer to Job out of the storm and in Jesus’ calming the storm, Martha, Becca and Charley went outside with all the children and taught them about Daniel and God’s ability to rescue us from death. The children especially enjoyed their first Easter egg hunt at the end of the lesson, in which each child was given an egg to keep as a toy with a piece of candy in it and a prayer book to take home as well.

After worship we were blessed to present Pastor Gabriel with his own brand new boda-boda motorcycle to solve his transportation difficulties.  The entire congregation burst into songs of praise to God when they saw the gift to their pastor and realized how it would help him in his ministry. The celebration continued as we enjoyed a delicious lunch of sweet potatoes, matoke, beans, rice, broth, peas, boiled bananas and sweet pineapple.

From the church we drove to Fountain of Hope School, where parents were visiting their children at the boarding school and enjoying lunch together. We waited and talked with the children while a large flatbed truck picked up people from Wabiyinja and several other villages for the afternoon’s baptisms.

The baptisms took place east of Bukeeka in the Nile River. I had the privilege of wading into the river and serving with Pastor Peter as one of three teams doing the baptisms following instruction by Pastor Robert.  It was a very moving experience as 69 people waded out to be baptized, accompanied by loud singing of praise songs by all those gathered on the bank. The power of baptism in the name of Christ was especially evident in the manifestation of demon possession in a young girl before her baptism and in two other women on the bank who went into convulsions and had to be exorcised.

Following the baptisms we headed back to prepare for the many outreach activities of the coming week, beginning tomorrow morning at 9:30 AM. Whew—time for bed! Except for Pastor Robert , who just got called out on an emergency. Please continue to pray for him and the ministry here, as the work is both deeply rewarding and desperately relentless! 

In Christ’s service, 

Kirk and the Gang