Uganda Journey 2015-1st Report

As we drove out of Kalonga with two buses of excited (and in some cases, nervous) team members and translators I was very aware that we were about to break new ground. On this, our first day of ministry, we were heading to a village where we had never been before. Upon entering Kibyamirizi (try saying that fast three times!), we were treated with a lot of very surprised faces. We were told that we were the first whites--mazungu--that the village had seen in a long, long time. Frankly, the medical clinic was rather hard. We felt like we were praying against a wall; the crowd was inattentive to our instructions and the prayer team found it hard going. The one exception was the children. Perhaps 200 kids had come to the clinic area and our children's ministry had a wonderful time with them. For hours the team played games, sang songs and told stories. When invited, almost all of the children wanted to receive Jesus. Dee, our kids director, was so taken aback that she shared the gospel again, sure that they hadn't understood. But they had. All over the playground children bowed their heads and prayed with great sincerity. Meanwhile, the rest of the team kept slogging in the clinic through the hard spiritual ground. As the clinic was winding down, Dee and the team led the children in a "Jericho March" around the clinic. Seven times they marched around, singing, clapping, and dancing. And guess what? Even though inside the clinic we did not know what was going on outside, from that point on, the atmosphere began to change. And it kept changing. As we walked toward the village center we were greeted by friendly, happy people. I was surprised to see 300-400 people gathered for the celebration. After lots of singing and dancing, I stepped up to preach. Just a minute or two before starting, I sensed the Lord tell me to speak openly about witchcraft and curses in the village. Obviously, this was not the most culturally sensitive thing I could talk about, especially on our first evening there. As I described how the enemy had stolen from them, heads nodded in agreement all over the place. When it was time for people to come to Christ, about 250-300 responded. There was no room to pray for them so our team went out on the street and the crowd followed them. We prayed for hundreds. By the time we finished it was dark. A very happy and thankful team drove the hour back to our hotel. The next day we were back, this time with mosquito nets and water filters. During the lunch break, the local pastor spoke to our team. In 1991, there had been a prophecy in his church that one day a team of white people would come and God would use them to bring about great change in the village. Over the years he had forgotten about the prophecy, but while I was preaching the night before, the Lord told the pastor that we were the people that had been promised. We all sat there feeling rather stunned. God is so amazing. Once again I was reminded that we only see a small fraction of what He is up to. As we went out to the homes and businesses in the village to pray for people and to simply connect, Kibyamirizi was a different place. Everywhere we were warmly received. And wherever we went Jesus healed.