Updated Plans, Praise, and Propaganda

Today we had planned to go to Nawaikoke, but the taxi drivers had shut down the main roads and were threatening to stone vehicles carrying passengers in protest of excessive traffic fines recently enacted by the government, so we decided to play it safe and stay home. Pastor Robert does not think the drivers can afford to strike a second day, so we are planning to travel to both Kafundakire and Nawaikoke tomorrow, perhaps splitting into two teams to minister at both places in a single day.

We spent our time packaging blessings of food staples and hygiene supplies to distribute as we have opportunity later in the week. We also had fun singing through two books of Christian worship music a donor had sent to Sarah. Pastor Robert brought over the one guitar shared by his congregation and Fountain of Hope School. It had one string missing and all the rest were heavily corroded, so after lunch I set about restringing it with strings Sarah had bought in Kampala. After tuning the guitar we rigged a shoestring to attach the strap and cut some picks out of an old credit card so that I could use it to accompany our singing. I had talked to a couple of student musicians at the sports tournament over the weekend, including the Congolese student who plays the guitar. They eagerly asked if we could find some musicians to come teach them to play “American style” worship songs and help them get an electric guitar, bass, and other instruments for their worship team.

We also spent some time today in the sitting room watching the news and reading a Ugandan newspaper. It was striking to me how much American news Africans get, in contrast to how little African news Americans get. Aljazeera was reporting on the tragic death of the 19 firefighters in Arizona, the drought in many American states, and the Snowden debacle, but I am sure no American media picked up the 30 people killed and 29 hospitalized in a fuel tanker collision and explosion here in Uganda.

Of course, President Obama’s visit to South Africa was also big news here, though Pastor Robert told me that many Christian pastors consider Obama to be the anti-Christ, having learned from American evangelicals that Obama-care will require all people to have the mark of the beast in the form of microchips inserted into their hands. Pastor Robert seems to find such paranoid propaganda somewhat amusing, but I find it terribly embarrassing. I wonder what part of “not bear false witness” some of my countrymen don’t understand.

Tonight we will relax and prepare for an early start tomorrow. Thanks for your prayers!

Kirk and the Sitting Roomers