Here we are, SEND US OUT!

What a beautiful day.

 

 

 

Matthew 10:5-6 (ESV)

These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

 

 

 First of all I just wanted to say that I have been so blessed by the youth bible study that we have been having on Thursdays and on Sundays. It had been super rewarding and I have been so encouraged by the kids. They are such a great support to the team and just seeing them doing exactly what God has called them to do is just more than I could have ever asked for. Porsche (My permanent prayer partner) has been leading the group the last few weeks and encouraging the youth about how they are empowered by the Holy Spirit and that they have been given incredible power using only Jesus’ name. It is something that we all need to take time and give thought to. If we want to move mountains than we need to be putting our faith and that God will fulfill everything that he has given us the power to do. That seemed a little wordy but it made sense in my brain.

I should probably just back track for a minor second. This week we had three girls come this week. Lydia, Emily, and Alison. So if I talk about them at all you will understand who they are. I always love hearing about how they got here and how they are wanting to be involved in the ministry. Lydia is from Ohio and there are 8 kids (Emily also has 8 kids in her family and they have adopted). All three of the girls just graduated from high school so they are literally right where I was just one year ago. It is such a blessing (I was just told that I say that phrase way too often) I am really excited to see how God uses them and watch them get involved. I feel like I am getting to re live the same feelings I had when I got here for the first time.

On Saturday we got to go see where Gaspar (our Hungarian boy/ best friend/ step son) has been spending all of his time lately. He has been keeping his eye on this young girl, Mercy from Zirobwe. He thinks that she has great potential to be a professional futbol player. So he has been going back and forth from the stadium and has been finding new ways to get her into training. She has officially been put in the program and Gaspar has done everything he could to support all of the girls. He REALLY wanted us to go share devotions with them. Nothing was planned and it was really on a whim and we didn’t know where we were going. When we got there the girls greeted us. They are from all over Uganda so some of them don’t know English where as others didn’t know Luganda. It was so diverse. They invited us into their home. Two small brick built rooms and mattresses that covered the floor. We took our shoes of at the entrance and trudged through their small living space. Practically crawling into the second room we all sat around in a circle and introduced ourselves. Had a time of worship. Then prayed. Everyone in their own words prayed and it felt like the Holy Spirit really entered that place. It was HOT. And sweaty and stinky. There really is no such thing as deodorant here and it was hot so you can only imagine. At one point one of the girls wiped the sweat off of my face. Mercy was so excited to see me and it was almost like seeing a family member after being away for a while. I got to share about the story of Ruth and how it doesn’t matter what background you are from that God will use them and that no matter where they go in life whether they are an Olympic champion or a peasant farmer that the name of the Lord will be praised.  

Alright, back to this great day. So- we usually take the class out to the cattle shed. I always am so blessed out there because I feel like it is strange that we get to learn about God in a similar setting the Christ was born in. Sometimes I just catch a small glance at what it might have been like. After the youth worshipped with the adults we all surrounded the jack fruit tree and talked about how we wanted this service to look. Our sweet young musumba (pastor) Alex (also the boy that gave me the chicken) lead us in a prayer. We all lifted our hands to the sky and he began to pray in the local language of Luganda. When they pray they pour their hearts into every phrase and every word that they speak. After we prayed we broke into small groups of about 5 or 6 kiddos. Porsche and I already “Called” our favorite kids. We were hoping that we would get the chance to visit the witch doctor and pray with him/her. (That is going to come at a later time we were not able to get to it today) as we set of for Kawanda- the local town in the village. We stopped about half way at the water pump. Porsche and I wanted to give the youth an opportunity to go wherever the spirit had lead them. We formed a small circle in the middle of the road and began to pray in unison. Some people prayed in English and other in Luganda. As we were praying our voices got louder and louder. When the prayer ended Porsche asked them if they felt like God had put anyone on their hearts that we needed to go pray for, of course he had, off we went wandering down the bumpy, long, red dirt road. We came to a small home that seemed mildly unkept- several of us walked into the small mud hut as the rest of the team waited outside. It was very dark, the home belonged to an old man who could not see and who had a really hard time walking. There were many things on the floor of his home and it smelled of smoke. My HEART was filled and I was so ready to pray for the whole day. One of the youth said to our small group inside the home that we needed to seek Gods hand here and ask for his provision. I was trying to figure out which one of us was teaching who. We prayed for him for…I lost count of the seconds and minutes. We just prayed. I didn’t realize until after we left that house but the team that was waiting outside gathered together and prayed for the old man as well. After that we met a young girl at her home, she just watched us as we were walking by and decided that we needed to pray for her. We asked if we could enter the property and the girls mother asked that we NOT pray for her. One of the youth translated for us and then added that it didn’t matter because we needed to follow Gods calling so we just started praying for her. I don’t know what was wrong with her but what I could see was that she was missing her fingers on her right hand, her head was misshaped and almost looked like she had a burn on her head, and her sight was not very good. As the morning went on we came across several individuals asking for prayer and it was so beautiful and we shared scriptures encouraging one another as we walked. We even had an opportunity to speak to the gamblers of the town and invited them to come to bible study. They all called themselves Christians but the kids we were walking with said they have no fruit in their lives. On our way back to the church it began to sprinkle and we started playing some worship music on my phone. Alex then started sharing with the group that if this village of Nawabango is going to change it is going to be the youth that change it. It is going to be Christ through us. He told us that we need to be finding ways to further the kingdom right here in their home town. I am feeling so blessed and refreshed for this following week. Our church is real. I get to see His work right here right now.

I love Uganda.