Thursday, May 27th
After the emotionally draining day we had yesterday at Mercy Home, several of us had a rough night Wednesday and individually felt the presence of the enemy throughout the night. The enemy's presence here in Uganda is nothing like any of us have ever experienced and is so much clearer and thicker. We even had someone at home email us to tell us that they were woken up at 4:45am the night before with an overwhelming urge to pray for us - that was the exact time we were arriving at Mercy Home here in Uganda. We are so grateful for all of you praying for us - we have surely felt those prayers here.
Chelsea's morning devotional had three inspirational quotes that I want to share about the struggle between good and evil:
- Our invisible God is greater than the visible enemy.
- The cure for fear is faith.
- If you don't believe in the Devil's existence, just try resisting him for a while.
I think we were all glad that for the time being we were going back into the village of Bweya and not Mercy Home on Thursday. We had a day planned of walking the streets and ministering to the people there, handing out mosquito nets. We traveled to the outskirts of Bweya, along a narrow, winding, bumpy dirt road up the hill from where we were earlier in the week. This was a much different area of Bweya than we experienced on Tuesday. If Tuesday was the "ghetto", then today we visited the "Beverly Hills" of Bweya. There were nice, larger homes with grassy yards; houses were spread out more and people had larger plots of land. There were not as many people around this part of the village, likely because they were working and families could afford to send their children to school (we were there during the school hours). We were able to walk around and talk to the locals, introducing ourselves, asking them where they worshipped (some were Muslim) and giving them mosquito nets. Although we talked with several interesting people, we observed that (sometimes just like in America), the more material possessions the people had, the less receptive they were to talking with us. It's like the further we had gone into poverty on our first visit Tuesday, the more friendly and welcoming the people were.
We invited them to a worship celebration we were hosting in a field in a couple of hours (some land ekissa had looked at purchasing). After our walk, we settled in the sunny field; Bob started playing the guitar and we sang. School was letting out, so some school children stopped to join in the fun. We taught them how to sing Deep & Wide, This Little Light of Mine, and Jesus Loves Me. We then gave them salvation necklaces and did an impromptu VBS with the children under the shade of a tree, telling them the significance of the colors of each bead and the cross pendant. We gave them coloring sheets and crayons of the story of Joseph and played catch with them. We got out the parachute and all of the children got around it, whipping it around trying to keep the ball bouncing up in the air on the parachute.
After our time in Bweya, we went to Uganda's version of Wal-Mart - the Quality Supermarket. We went in and bought ice cream, cold soda, and a few souvenirs. Diana even found a bakery and bought the team some yummy pound cake and chocolate cupcakes for an afternoon snack!
We came back to the Gaba house where we're staying and had designated tonight as the night we were going to cook for all of our African facilitators, help, and friends. We cooked them Southern-style chicken pie, carrots, green beans, and a yellow cake with chocolate icing. I think Florence secretly enjoyed the break from being our personal cook, however she could hardly pull herself away from the kitchen! When anyone would get out a sharp knife, she would take it from them and say "that's too sharp - use this one"; she was still looking out for our safety - what a servant's heart she has! She brought her personal stove for us to use (the oven in the house was broken) on the back of a boda boda (motorcycle). Yes, she strapped the stove on the back and hauled it over from her house to ours!! It was a coal oven, so we really felt like we had gone back in time when cooking! We all wanted to break out into song and sing I'm Every Woman because we're pretty sure Florence fits the description in the lyrics! Our African friends sat around our dining room table and many of them commented that they hadn't been that full or satisfied in weeks. It was such a blessing for all of us to be able to serve those who had joyfully served us all week!
Tomorrow is sure to be an adventure - we're riding in a wooden boat across Lake Victoria and then hopping on the back of boda bodas (motorcycles) to ride through more of the African countryside to Bethany Children's Home, a best model, best practice community for orphans.
Please continue to pray for us as we are quickly beginning to wrap up our trip. It's flown by and I don't think any of us are ready to leave just yet. It's hard to believe we only have 2 more full days here. God has already shown each of us so many amazing things that we cannot wait to share with our friends and family back home. I think we all wish each of you could experience Uganda. Continue to pray for our safety and protection, as well as our family members back at home who are dealing with loss and difficulties. Pray for our African facilitators and friends and for all of the people we've talked to and ministered to this week. We know that no one is never too far into sin for redemption, so we pray for redemption for those who are misled.
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