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
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