Wedding Bliss and Baptisms

Saturday morning started with a trip back to Buloba to visit Hawa for her bug killing day.  By the time we arrived all of her things had been removed from her home and the fumigation had taken place.  People in the village had described Hawa as stubborn and we soon had to deal with it.  When a fire was built with the intent of burning some of the worst infected items such as clothing, mattress, etc that might still carry eggs or the bugs themselves she told us no.  In her culture, the only time people burn their belongings is when they die – Hawa didn’t feel comfortable with that.  Pastor Robert had to bring in the village chairman to talk some sense into Hawa and let her know that we would be replacing items for her with new clean things.  She didn’t have much of an option and agreed as the fire was started.  With her things in the daylight now, we took a closer look at her wooden bed frame.  Disgusting is a nice word to describe it.  Mold and tons of bugs and bug eggs.  We told her grandson that he’d have to scrap it all off and be sure not to inhale anything.  Meanwhile, Hawa sat at a distance with her clothes and other belongings around her on the ground.  Unfortunately, while all the bugs on her furniture and in her house were now dead, the bugs on Hawa herself and in her clothes were still alive.  We broke the news to her that she’d have to take her clothes off put on new ones and we were going to burn them.  She reluctantly complied and when she stood up fresh blood was found on her mat from fresh bug bites living off of her. Oh my goodness.  We prayed with her, told her how to take care of herself and clean her body frequently.  By the end of our visit she was more open to our involvement as we presented her new bed sheets, new blanket, and a new mosquito net.  We also gave the Buloba Pastor money to buy her clothes and follow-up with her.  Stubborn or not, she’s now a sister in Christ and that’s what matters.

Leaving Hawa’s village we headed back to clean up, put on nice clothes and head to a special wedding.  Special because it is the wedding of our Uganda ministry Treasurer, Uganda Board Member, and an important part of our Fountain of Hope Ministries – Bosco Tabula.  I’ve known Bosco for eight years and was so excited to be able to attend his wedding.  When you’re wondering who keeps track of the money we send to Uganda it’s Bosco – he’s the business man of our ministry.  He’s also actively involved in the church ministry and heads up the youth program at the Bukeeka church.  In Uganda culture, the couples have an introduction ceremony that is actually more important and bigger than the wedding when the couples officially introduce each other to their parents.  The introduction ceremony had already happened but we were able to attend the church wedding and reception.  I soon found out that weddings are a big deal in Uganda and especially for the brides.  Bride and Groom magazine just celebrated its 10^th anniversary in Uganda and I flipped through its pages while watching Pastor Robert get his wedding haircut.  Amazingly, I read that a cheap wedding in Uganda is $3,000 and the midrange was about $8,000 with high end being anything you want.  Remember this is a country where many people make $100 to $300 a month.  Bosco’s wedding, and most Uganda weddings, follow a traditional American wedding agenda with the bride in a white gown, men in tuxedo’s, exchanging of vows, Pastor talk, rings, flower girls, maid of honor, best man, videographer, photographer, etc.  The reception is where the African style started to kick in.  Approximately 300 people sat outside in the church grounds while music played and dinner was catered for everyone.  The bridal party arrived and danced their way to their special seats.  Family members gave speeches of which the most comically comments concerned advice to the bride and groom such as “this is not the time to abstain” and “Joy (wife) is a beautiful flower, Bosco now is the time to pollinate the flower so we can have more small flowers!”  The crowd would yell African style in support.  Speeches were given and then came the time to cut the cake.  Wow, this was definitely not an American cake cutting as they put sparklers in the cake and shot off fireworks spraying the cake and those around it!  Overall, the music was awesome, everyone just danced wherever they were and the evening was wonderful.  Until, one of our team members realized that someone had stole her bag, camera, and money.  Once it became dark it was hard to control who came in and someone from outside the party must have snuck in and stolen the foreigner’s bag.  Lessons learned while in Africa.

Today, Sunday, we traveled to Bukeeka to enjoy church in the original and first church that started the entire ministry.  I remember being here 8 years ago when the church met outside under a reed thatched roof behind the rented school building.  Back then about ten people came to the service and Sara Sityo, Pastor’s wife, was our choir.  How things change in eight years.  Because of the love the congregation has shown to the village, the impact of the school, and the love of everyone involved in GGI from sponsors to mission teams, the village of Bukeeka has become alive to Jesus.  As we parked at the new church building – they no longer have to worship in the school – I was blown away by the scene I walked into.  500+ people filled the large new building praising God loud as ever.  500+ people I couldn’t believe it.  I was also happy to see many Fountain of Hope students in attendance.  Our team member Miles gave a great Bible Study sermon while Martha, Ahnika, Hannah, and Eli took all the children under 10 years of age outside and did a children’s Bible Study.  An hour later we joined together and held the church service.  I gave a short talk encouraging them to love one another and continue to reach out to others in love while Pastor Ken gave the official sermon on Abraham and how God continues to work to perfect us in our faith.

After a fulfilling lunch across the street at Fountain of Hope School we all went down to the Nile River for a baptism ceremony.  Similar to previous years, over a hundred people came.  Three stations of two people each were stationed out in the river and people gave their name to the Pastor and where then escorted to a baptism station in the river.  After confessing Jesus as Savior they were dunked under water and then led back ashore.  About six people had to be carried back to shore when the spiritual experience suddenly became a physical one due to demon possession.  The first was carried out of the water screaming and jerking and taken to the pastors who were praying with each person.  Each of the six could not stand on their own and often fell shaking, or stiff, or totally limp on to the ground.  I joined the Pastors in praying in the name of Jesus and commanding the spirits to leave the person and praying the blood of Jesus over their bodies.  One woman started to convulse when I prayed the blood of Jesus over her and continued for 30 seconds until finally settling down.  Another seemed to be okay until I asked her to confess Jesus name and as soon as she did she complained of chest pain and that something was in her chest.  We prayed more and Pastor told her to come back to the church on Wednesday when we could meet with her one-on-one.  For most, the baptism was a final climax of their decision to follow Christ and afterwards we gave out new Bibles to everyone.

Everyone day is full of work, encouragement, fulfillment, and exhaustion. It’s great being here and letting my focus come back to the reality that we all live in a spiritual realm and that our physical worries shouldn’t be taken so seriously in light of the spiritual battle going on all around us.  I’m sure that a few months from now, I’ll be busy worrying about work, paying bills, keeping on schedule, etc but I hope I never forget that there’s a bigger agenda that I need to pay attention to – eternal life and what God is calling me to do here on earth.  For now I continue to press on giving my time and talents to Grace Giving International and the overseas ministries we support.  Come Lord Jesus.

John Kimsey

Photos: Bosco and Joy, Bukeeka Church, Miles baptizing new believers, Pastor Robert praying over demon possessed woman.

The Least of These

I have been to Africa nine times and have spent over 14 months on the continent.  I have seen poverty many times over.  To some degree I have become callous to it.  Another mud hut, another old widow, another person sleeping on a dirt floor, another person in need of medical help, another sad story to tell.  It starts to dull the senses – not because I don’t care but because it is a natural reaction to an overload of emotions.  Today though, the people I saw broke through the wall that has been built up around my heart and touched me again.  Touched me like the first time I witnessed poverty and felt the stabbing pain inside my soul – the pain that convicts you of not caring for others while living a life of luxury.  For those of you who have traveled to 3^rd world countries you know what I mean.

Today, we traveled back to Buloba where I had preached the night before.  Today though, we partnered with the local pastor, loaded up our van with beans, rice, sugar, corn flour, soap, and wash clothes, and visited the poor, widows, widowers, and those in need.  Buloba is a relatively new church in the ministry we support and this was my first time in the village even though I’ve driven by it a million times.  Buloba is a mix of lifestyles and beliefs.  They are known for having bars and drunks, have resident witch doctors, but also have a Catholic church, a 7^th Day Adventist church, and a Muslim mosque.  They are on the main road but have never developed any sort of economy besides farming to make a name for themselves.  Their residents tap into the electrical wires illegally and bury the wires underground through the village to steal electricity.  Like other villages, they send their children to the hand pump water wells after school to bring home water. 

Pastor led us through the dirt paths to mud hut to brick house to mud hut visiting people that he had identified as needing help.  Most of them didn’t attend church which made our outreach more impactful as our purpose was supposed to help the church share the love of Jesus and not just help those within the church family.  Magdalene is a widow in her 80’s although most older people have no idea how old they really are.  When we arrived she was cooking beans over a small fire and roasting an ear of corn in the embers.  Her frail body lay hidden beneath her clothes and as she looked at us I realized that her left eye was either missing or had shrunk back into her skull and no longer functioned.  Her bare feet were leather hard from years of never wearing shoes.  She sat down on the ground with us and listened to the reason why we had come to visit her today – to share the love of Jesus with her and bless her with food.  She asked to accept Christ.  Miles led her in prayer as I photographed the event.

Our next stop was another widow trying to help raise 2 young grandchildren – although we could never clarify if they were her grandchildren.  From there we visited Rose who was sick with malaria.  She said the food would feed her and her children for 10 days as long as they only ate one item a day – ie not mix beans and rice together on the same day.  Another widow, another sick person, a mother asking us to pay her children’s school fees, another widow in her 80’s, and a cancer stricken women afraid of dying.

We then came to Hawa’s house.  She was probably close to 90 or in her 90’s.  We presented her the gifts we had brought and Pastor noticed that she had a “bed bug” crawling on her.  When he attempted to flick it off of her that’s when he noticed that there were more of them.  As he talked with her, we walked inside her house and inspected her bed.  It was disgusting.  Bugs were crawling all over her bed sheets and she sleep with them.  Pastor then found out that she had not accepted Christ because no one had taught her how.  He prayed with her and she accepted Jesus into her life.  We then made the decision to go to town and pay for a fumigating company to come out the next day and start the process of killing the bugs while we purchased new sheets and blankets.  To think that as I am writing this blog, Hawa is sleeping on that bed makes me shudder.

This is what being the church is, this is outreach, this is mission work, this is loving others, this is what being a Christian is all about.  Going door to door helping people where they are and loving them.  The people told us that the Muslims in the village never help them.  This isn’t exciting, we’re not building something, and we aren’t deep into theology, we’re simply helping people.  This is why I keep working with GGI and coming to Uganda.  That night we returned to Buloba for the evening crusade of music and preaching.  Pastor Ken from Spokane preached along with Ugandan pastors and as the darkness set in the final preaching prayed and called those to the stage for salvation and over 20 people gave their lives to Christ.  Our little church is going to be busy following up with so many new people.  Glory to God.

John Kimsey

Fountain of Hope, Crusades, and Blessings

The GGI Uganda team continues to work non-stop from sun-up to sun-down!  How tired we are!  Our Wednesday morning devotional was given by Hannah Blank, a 17 year old soon to be senior from Kennewick, WA.  She spoke on Colossians 3:16 - Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. She commented that coming to Africa has reminded her that her gratitude is so much more than just going through the motions and that she is mindful that she is an ambassador here with all she does being a reflection of Christ.

After devotions we traveled to Bukeeka – original staring place for the Uganda ministries – and visited Fountain of Hope School and the new Bukeeka Church.  The GGI team women had prepared a women’s ministry outreach program of bible study along with a clothing give-away and hygiene kits.  Our high school age team members, Eli from Spokane, Hannah from Kennewick, and Ahnika from South Africa did a great job re-enacting the story of Jesus talking to the Samaritan women by the well.  The women were thankful for the gifts and enjoyed a nice lunch afterwards of rice and meat.

Our time at the school was enjoyable as always.  Looking back at the years of development, it’s amazing how the school has grown.  Today, there are five junior school buildings, two boarding buildings, one kitchen, two high school buildings, three toilets, a guard house, and a soccer field.  But the work isn’t done yet.  More buildings are needed and the toilets need to be moved as the school has now surrounded them and the smell isn’t pleasant.  The children are wonderful, receive a quality Christian education, and continue to be the highest scoring school in the district on national exams.   

At 5:00 PM we drove to the village Buloba where there was a crusade going.  Talk about loud music!  Africans love to turn up the volume and dance to music.  A wooden stage had been constructed and large sound system rented for the three evening event.  Music, preaching, more music, more preaching – you get the idea.  Tonight, our member Miles was a guest preacher along with others as hundreds of people lined the street – the crusade is basically in the center of this village.  Miles comments after the day that there is so much to do and the little that we can do seems to not amount to much but we still do what we can because it is right.  Amazingly, the simple fact that we are here brings hope to people who see us as validating the ministry. As the sunset we drove back to Pastor Robert’s house for our evening meal before falling into bed exhausted.

Thursday morning, today, started the routine all over again as we traveled to Wabiyinja – site of our second church plant – for an all church event featuring us!  Our GGI ladies again had planned a children’s outreach effort with bible stories as well as shoes and snacks for the children.  The men stayed in the dirty floor church and both Miles and Pastor Ken shared a message with the church members.  The women of Wabiyinja are amazing and most uplifting and outright fun to be around.  They yelled, cheered, sang, and gave us all hugs upon arrival.  After our time at the church we traveled throughout the village blessing widows and those in need with food, soap, wash clothes and aprons.  The living conditions again were hard on the team members.  Seeing women living in true mud huts sleeping on the floor was and is hard to accept.  Sarah, Pastor Robert’s wife, mentioned that she needs to come back with mattresses.  Amen to that.

Tonight we traveled back to Buloba for the second night of the crusade.  Again the music was loud as can be and the singers were energetic as the village people (no pun intended on the 70’s music group) gathered around the street and wooden stage.  Tonight was my night to preach and I had prepared my “African” sermon on the Power of God.  I must have done it right as many people complimented me on my energetic and African sermon – they didn’t know a mzungu (foreigner) could preach like an African!  Imagine southern tent revival with charismatic enthusiasm and you’ll get the idea.  Add to that everything I said was then enthusiastically translated as well.  Afterwards one man came up and prayed with me to accept Christ while an older man asked me to pray for his hurt foot.  Then it was back to music and dancing as we left the crusade at sundown. 

As I type this, we are watching the World Cup game Portugal versus Ghana and checking the USA versus Germany scores online – since we’re in Africa I guess they wanted to watch Ghana and not the USA.  Good news is that the USA advances onto the elimination round!  I’m exhausted again after another long but very fulfilling day of supporting a great ministry, sharing the gospel, blessing those in need, and seeing the amazing Fountain of Hope School.  Time for bed.

Blessings,

John Kimsey

Tuesday was a day of blessing, We began early packing the things we purchased yesterday in Jinja making it ready to give it away. We then traveled to Mpumudde to visit with Pastor Mike Sityo and the True Worship Center which is a very small rural church. The church is called a pole church constructed with poles stuck in the ground, dirt floor, mud walls and a thatched roof.  Following the believers meeting we traveled through the community and met Elvania. Elvania is about 80 years old and she lives in a 10’X20’ mud hut with her sister Hamilda and cousin James. We were able to bless them with food and good company and were delighted by Elvania’s spunk. She was so delighted with the gifts that she said she felt like dancing. John Kimsey invited her to the crusade in the evening and she did come and she did dance.

We also blessed Christina Nabuede, a 40-year old widow with two daughters who has been evicted from her home. She has nowhere to go and no employment but the church is supporting them and we were able to help also. Grace lives in a 10’X10’ mud hut with her three children and we blessed them as well and in addition to that I was able to pay tuition for Sandy her 12 year old son who has not been able to go to school because she cannot pay the tuition.

Jorum lives alone in a 7’X10’ mud hut and sleeps on the dirt floor. He is a farmer with no land, he works the ground growing food for his aunt. We blessed him and received his deep gratitude. Elkana Wadeo just wanted food and medicine for the jiggers in his feet. Jiggers are worms that burrow deep into the flesh and live off from the blood of the host. They have to be removed first, the residence fumigated and medicine administered. This we were able to arrange for the ministry of Pastor Mike.

There is so much poverty here that it seems as though what little we do is simply a drop in a vast sea. It is the gratitude expressed by the people because of our visit that seems to impress the people more deeply than the food stuff and other gifts. They see our visit as an answer to prayer, confirmation of His love and understanding that He truly does care for them. We have been given the seats of honor, provided the best of their food and loved beyond anything we deserve.

In this place it seems that most are afflicted with one thing or another and all are in want and many are being saved. You may ask, “How can we know if they are sincere?” This point I will grant you is valid but how can we know? We must do the evangelism work and trust God to provide the increase.  For now we are doing what the Lord has asked us to do – love one another and share the goods news of Christ.  Now it’s time to sleep before going out again tomorrow.

Miles

6/23/14

Being the least experienced world travelers on this particular endeavor, it seems odd that we would be writing one of the first entries on the blog for this mission.  Nevertheless, we will try to give the wonderful nation of Uganda justice.   

Today we had the opportunity to go into Jinja and wander through the market.  Along with general looking around and browsing through goods, we (Ahnika, Hannah, Martha, and Sarah) bought cloth to have traditional African dresses made for our friend, Bosco’s, wedding.  While we were doing the fun shopping, Robert, Ken, Eli, Miles, and John all went to go buy rice, beans, sugar, corn flour, and soap for our bush village outreach efforts. 

After shopping and a brief stop at Sarah and Robert’s house, we traversed the bumpy roads up to Fountain of Hope School. On the way, we made a stop at True Worship Church, a 3 minute walk from the school. That’s when we had our first interaction with the beautiful children of Uganda; the students had just gotten out of school and greeted us in the road. We shook lots of hands and asked ‘how are you’ multiple times, only to find the answer was always destined to be ‘I am fine! How are you?’ We then walked down to the school and were introduced to the people in leadership. We also had the opportunity to speak to one of the high school teachers, Elisha, who had many interesting stories to share with us.

From the school, we made our way down even bumpier roads (which was previously thought not possible) to Mpumudde [Em-poo-mu-day], meaning ‘resting place’. There, we were supposed to host an event in which we would play loud music to attract the locals in the village, so that we could discuss Christianity and the love of Jesus with them. Unfortunately the generator running the speakers was not cooperating, so instead, we spent time with the many children there. We sang, danced, clapped hands (turns out Eli must be really good at clapping, because they were laughing at/with him quite a bit) and even showed them the joys of photography. After we were finished at Mpumudde, we proceeded back to Robert and Sarah’s for dinner and relaxation.

Overall, we had an amazing first impression of the bush villages and what our time will be like here, and are looking forward to the next few weeks. God’s creation and his people are truly remarkable in every aspect and we thank Him for this opportunity.

Much love to you all and God bless,

Hannah and Ahni

GGI Team Arrives in Uganda

The warm humid air greets the team as we arrive safely for the 2014 GGI Uganda Mission Trip.  We've settled into our first day, enjoyed a nice breakfast and are heading into Jinja to complete the shopping we need for our outreach efforts.  Beans, rice, and other necessities will be purchased, the bank visited to exchange money, and perhaps a few souvenirs purchased.  This afternoon we'll head out to a village to help with one of our church's crusade efforts, visit families in the bush and maybe stop by Fountain of Hope School. Just wanted to let everyone know the team is doing good, morning devotions have blessed our day, and the U.S. soccer team is doing well in Brazil!  Blessings to all and we'll post more later.