The rest of the conference went really well and we left there with many smiles on our faces the pastors kept asking again and again if we were coming back. We traveled back to Pastor Macho’s house for the last few days of our stay in Uganda.
Truly it is Africans who will change Africa.We finished our time in Uganda more determined to stand with all of the friends we had made and struggle with them in all that they were facing. The drive back to Kitale was uneventful but it felt odd in a way because we were a few men down as we had parted with Josh, Andy and Josh Langlois who were traveling on to the DRC.Kitale is a beautiful place and the whole team was really happy to be back at our base. We were coming to the end of our time in Kitale but we had one final place where we wanted to take ground for the Kingdom.
Kepsongui slum. We spent an evening in prayer seeking the Lord in what he wanted to do. It seemed very overwhelming but we felt we really needed to go. As far as we knew there was very few people doing anything about the situation in the slum. It was a place that was being avoided; even by the Christians. In prayer I got the i felt the Holy Spirit tell me to look at Nehemiah 2. The bit of scripture that he pointed out to me was the portion that talks about Nehemiah going out and inspecting the walls. So what I felt the Lord was saying through this was that the first step was to go and inspect slum. So we did. We had no idea what the Lord has in-store for us the next day.The next day we arrived at the slum after and hr walk. The slum is located on the old dump of Kitale. Typical of a lot of slums it was built on garbage with garbage. As we approached the slum we saw a group of kids playing in a field they all started shouting at us in unison “how are you! how are you! how are you!” That is how they always greeted us. Because we didn’t have any other plan we went down onto the field to play football with the kids. We had brought some small footballs with us so we brought them out and started to play with the kids. They couldn’t get enough of us and wanted to hold a hand on anything that we were waring. As we were there a man came out and started to talk with Adam. Adam called me over to talk to him. I had no idea how big the implications of what would take place over the next few hrs would be for me and for others.Sam was a teacher who had been a street boy who was found by Jesus. After Jesus found him, his life was turned upside down and he was able to go to school and finish form 4. He then started to volunteer as a teacher at the school where we found him. I sat down with him and Pastor Jon and we started to hear about what they were doing in the slum. The 150 kids that we had started to play with were on brake from school. They were kids that were getting looked after by Pastor Jon, Sam, Sarah and many other amazing volunteers. All of these guys simple had a burden for the kids and started to reach out to them. The literally feed these kids on prayer. None of them had anything but a burden to care for them. We couldn’t believe what we were hearing and what we were seeing. They couldn’t believe that we had come on our own with out an African. They told us how they had just been praying that God would send them friends, I think they were more shocked then we were how quickly God had answered their prayers. We all recognized that the Holy Spirit had directed it all. After that day we went back to work with Sam and the team as often as we could. We found ourselves falling in love with these kids most of them orphans. In that time I found I had such a deep love for Sam and Pastor Jon I have only meet a few guys in Africa like them.
Throughout the last two week in Africa we found ourselves down in the slum many more times holding the beautiful but very dirty hands of amazing kids in Kepsongui. We call the part of the slum that we work in Little Lodwar because most of the people there are from Turkana. When we discovered this we were floored even further because we know we have been called to the people of Turkana. We held the kids, treated cuts and infections and then prayed for the kids who were sick. On final visit to the slum there were a number of kids that had fevers so we held them close and prayed for them and rebuked the fevers. Almost instantly the fevers left them. This happened to all three of the kids we prayed for. I won’t easily forget that day. God love was so evident in that place as we held kids in our arms and loved them. I spent about an hour holding a little girl who was around 3 but was about the size of a 1 and a half year old. It seems to me that God pours out his love in the most broken places. As I sat there holding this little girl on a field covered in human waste I knew that Gods Kingdom was coming in this place. His love is stronger then all of the brokenness in the world. In the most lost, in the most broken, in the darkest, in the loneliest, in the places that feel like hell that is where the church shines brightest and know one can ignore it.So we left that place with the faces of those kids forever printed on our heart and yet we know they are not alone. For even in that place our brother and sister’s our pouring out their lives as living sacrifices and satan and all of his demons can’t stand against the power of that. As we walked away from the slum there was no way to shake it, we went there to touch them but there hands reached out and touched us. We have been changed. How could we not be changed. The broken and the poor had touched our hands how could we forget them. Forever ruined. Perhaps we need more people to be ruined.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Uganda and the last days in Kitale (Part I)
I had mixed feelings as we prepared to leave for Uganda. The need in Uganda is huge and during our trip in our previous year it had all been a bit overwhelming. In the 30 years Uganda has struggled through may hardships. Those who have suffered the most have been women and children. My close friend Pastor Macho still vividly remembers having to run into the bush to escape gun fire because of all the the fighting. Along with recent wars HIV/AIDS has caused a huge amount of devastation in Uganda. It was first discovered in Uganda and since then thousands of kids have lost there parents, and have often been left to raise there younger brothers and sisters.The drive to the boarder was not very exciting. Typically as always we were crammed into a vehicle with no room at all. In Canada we would call it a 7 passenger van but in Africa it is a 14 passenger van. I tried to sleep on the road but failed. I wasn’t busting with energy because the night before I had only managed to get a few hrs of sleep.
Uganda requires us to purchase visa’s so we had to find “the place” to buy our visa’s. After we finished at the border we pressed on to Mbale where we would meet up with Pastor Macho and then head on to the place where we would be hosting the conference. Pastor Macho had a wonderful lunch prepared for us and after downing some awesome banana's and chapatis we headed to Sirouko. Again I tried to get some sleep but failed. We arrived in Sirouko to find that pastors were already waiting for us to start the conference. The original plan was to wait until the next day but they were so anxious for us to start teaching them we decided to start a day early. We were expecting around 60 pastors and leaders at the conference but it turned out to be a lot more. Our heart was to really try and build fellowship into the conference as a key aspect so we planned on feeding all the pastors as we feel sharing meals together is a brilliant way to build fellowship. In the end we had over 150 people for three days. We didn’t have the budget for so many people but we decided to stretch and feed as many as we could. There was a group of wonderful ladies who cooked for everyone. They cooked huge pots of rice and beans. It was more then a small miracle that everyone was feed. I couldn’t believe it but even on the last day there was enough food for everyone. There is always enough! Some of the pastors couldn’t afford accommodation so we also payed for 30 pastors to stay in town, we didn’t have a budget for that either but it seemed that the little we had was enough for everything. I am still not sure how it all worked out. Jesus you are awesome!
The first morning of the conference I still felt a bit rough I was only able to get a few hrs of sleep and was forced to be absolutely dependent on the Lord for his help. The whole week was an incredible testimony of God grace. He helped us in so many ways and the Holy Spirit moved in so many ways. Whenever we gave space He would be moving powerfully upon hearts in the room. As I write this I start to feel a lot of emotion come up as I realize how much the Holy Spirit helped us. We really couldn’t have done it with out him. He was faithful to minister to every heart and to use us to encourage as we taught about being an Acts church. We are desperate to be authentic christians who live and follow the commands of Jesus, who know what it is to be a church, to love and care for each other. We really started to see this happen as we fellowshiped with these pastors. One night as I sat and talking with a pastor I was filled with such a love for him as I spoke together with him and shared my heart for prayer with him. He listened to me with so much respect and love. I knew that the Holy Spirit was in all of it.On the second day of the conference I got to witness something special. Pastor Macho came to me at lunch time and asked me if I wanted to go into the hospitable with our team and pray for sick people that evening. I wanted to say no because we were getting run off our feet with the meetings and preparing for the next day but I told him yes anyways because that seemed like the right thing to do. By the time it came to leave to go to the Hospitable I was done. I knew I had nothing to give I couldn’t even pretend to have anything. In that moment I knew so clearly that if anything happened it was the Holy Spirit, it is always the Holy Spirt but at that time it has never been clearer how weak I was. The first room we were taken into was a room with two small kids with really high fevers they had malaria. I felt there heads and they were burning up. So we placed our hands on them and started to pray. I didn’t feel anything but desperation. At first when nothing happened I found myself begging the Holy Spirit to do something. I just kept checking and re-checking there heads to see if the fever was going down. After five mins something started to change I could tell that the fever was going down. I checked it a few more times and it was really obvious I was sure that the fever was leaving them. I got Andy to check as well and he confirmed it. On top of that the kids mom said she wanted to give her life to Jesus so we got to pray with her and she started a new life! How amazing is God love! By the time we left the fever had left both of the kids completely.
Uganda requires us to purchase visa’s so we had to find “the place” to buy our visa’s. After we finished at the border we pressed on to Mbale where we would meet up with Pastor Macho and then head on to the place where we would be hosting the conference. Pastor Macho had a wonderful lunch prepared for us and after downing some awesome banana's and chapatis we headed to Sirouko. Again I tried to get some sleep but failed. We arrived in Sirouko to find that pastors were already waiting for us to start the conference. The original plan was to wait until the next day but they were so anxious for us to start teaching them we decided to start a day early. We were expecting around 60 pastors and leaders at the conference but it turned out to be a lot more. Our heart was to really try and build fellowship into the conference as a key aspect so we planned on feeding all the pastors as we feel sharing meals together is a brilliant way to build fellowship. In the end we had over 150 people for three days. We didn’t have the budget for so many people but we decided to stretch and feed as many as we could. There was a group of wonderful ladies who cooked for everyone. They cooked huge pots of rice and beans. It was more then a small miracle that everyone was feed. I couldn’t believe it but even on the last day there was enough food for everyone. There is always enough! Some of the pastors couldn’t afford accommodation so we also payed for 30 pastors to stay in town, we didn’t have a budget for that either but it seemed that the little we had was enough for everything. I am still not sure how it all worked out. Jesus you are awesome!
The first morning of the conference I still felt a bit rough I was only able to get a few hrs of sleep and was forced to be absolutely dependent on the Lord for his help. The whole week was an incredible testimony of God grace. He helped us in so many ways and the Holy Spirit moved in so many ways. Whenever we gave space He would be moving powerfully upon hearts in the room. As I write this I start to feel a lot of emotion come up as I realize how much the Holy Spirit helped us. We really couldn’t have done it with out him. He was faithful to minister to every heart and to use us to encourage as we taught about being an Acts church. We are desperate to be authentic christians who live and follow the commands of Jesus, who know what it is to be a church, to love and care for each other. We really started to see this happen as we fellowshiped with these pastors. One night as I sat and talking with a pastor I was filled with such a love for him as I spoke together with him and shared my heart for prayer with him. He listened to me with so much respect and love. I knew that the Holy Spirit was in all of it.On the second day of the conference I got to witness something special. Pastor Macho came to me at lunch time and asked me if I wanted to go into the hospitable with our team and pray for sick people that evening. I wanted to say no because we were getting run off our feet with the meetings and preparing for the next day but I told him yes anyways because that seemed like the right thing to do. By the time it came to leave to go to the Hospitable I was done. I knew I had nothing to give I couldn’t even pretend to have anything. In that moment I knew so clearly that if anything happened it was the Holy Spirit, it is always the Holy Spirt but at that time it has never been clearer how weak I was. The first room we were taken into was a room with two small kids with really high fevers they had malaria. I felt there heads and they were burning up. So we placed our hands on them and started to pray. I didn’t feel anything but desperation. At first when nothing happened I found myself begging the Holy Spirit to do something. I just kept checking and re-checking there heads to see if the fever was going down. After five mins something started to change I could tell that the fever was going down. I checked it a few more times and it was really obvious I was sure that the fever was leaving them. I got Andy to check as well and he confirmed it. On top of that the kids mom said she wanted to give her life to Jesus so we got to pray with her and she started a new life! How amazing is God love! By the time we left the fever had left both of the kids completely.
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