Sometimes You Just Have To Be There

So unlike the rest of my team,which hung around Kampala for a day or two after AGM, I came straight back to Mbarara. I'd been trying and failing to meet with the chaplain of Bishop Stuart university for almost a month and planned to ambush him at a fellowship that he holds on Fridays starting at 11AM, and I would have had to get up awfully early Friday morning to make it all the way to Kakoba by 11 (and I'm not so good at getting up awfully early).

I got to the campus a few minutes past 11 on Friday and it didn't look like anyone was at the chapel. The Dean of Education happened to be walking by right where I was parking and he told me that he thought the reverend was around and that the fellowship started at noon. So I sat down in the guild restaurant, had a chapati, some samosas and a coke and read some of Nehemiah while I waited for noon to come around.

A couple minutes past noon (because nothing starts on time on this continent anyway) I headed over to the chapel. There wasn't really anyone there yet so I sat down and read some more. A girl walked up and introduced herself as the student ministry leader, informed me that the chaplain was gone for the day, and asked if I would speak. I was certainly disappointed about the chaplain having not been there, especially having made a point to come straight back from Jinja just to meet with him. I also didn't have anything prepared to speak about as I certainly hadn't expected to speak, but I figured between the Bible and the Holy Spirit I could come up with something so I agreed to do so.

During the praise and worship I was praying about what passage to speak on and God led me to Romans 5:8 (which happens to be a favorite of mine). So after the worship was over I got up and spoke about just how much God really loves us and how it is by grace alone, not by any effort of ours, that we're saved. To probably a hundred plus students.

Afterwards the guy who had been sitting by me, Fred, asked me if I'd come and have lunch with him. Despite having already eaten I of course said yes (to refuse would have been horribly rude). As is the case with most of the students at Bishop Stuart he lives off campus, and he and a group of guy friends meet together for meals at a house where they pay a lady to prepare meals for them. I was sitting there thinking, "man, this would make a great discipleship group." So afterwards, as we were walking back to his room, I told Fred about the discipleship methodology called Training for Trainers that the Board has been employing around the world. To sum it up as simply as possible, it's discipling others in a way that they can then turn around and disciple others in the same way, who can then disciple others, who can disciple others, and so on.

He was so excited about the idea that we spent the entire afternoon going around Kakoba meeting friends of his while he tried to sell them on the program. In fact we visited just about every hostel and dorm at which Bishop Stuart students stay. This was especially exciting as I've been praying about getting at least one group started at each of the hostels and dorms, and now God had dropped almost every contact I would need squarely in my lap in a single day. It seemed like God was pushing things back yet again, but instead He was working to blow open the doors to ministry. And all I had to do was be there.

Any coincidence that the best things that have happened in my ministry while I've been here have all happened when what I planned fell through? I think not. There's nothing greater than just sitting back and riding the wave of God's grace.

From (Near) The Source Of The Nile

The Banyankore team, taken from our Annual General Meeting (meeting of all the missionaries in Uganda) at the Nile Resort in Jinja. The water in the background would in fact be the Nile River. Unfortunately my digital camera did not return from Jinja (this picture is courtesy of the Wilks) as it is on it's way to the States for either repair or replacement (whichever Best Buy sees fit), so their won't likely be quite so many pictures for a couple of months. By the way for some reason this one looks a lot better in old school technicolor (I was playing around with color saturation and contrast in photo-editing software and that's what I ended up with) so that's how I'm putting it up.



Adults, L to R: Kari Noblett, Me, Dr. Larry Pepper, Sally Pepper, Barry Wilks, Scarlett Wilks

Kids, L to R (all Wilks): Emily, Sarah Anna, Jared

Images from the Bush

So today I went on a prayer hike (a little over 5 and a half hours is a bit more than just a prayer walk), something I'm hoping to be able to do with regularity as I'm trying to set aside the bulk of Mondays as a day of prayer and seeking and it's always for some reason easier for me to focus and think when walking. The route starts at home and it takes about an hour to get to Bishop Stuart University and the edge of town...from there on out it's all bush. This time I brought along the camera so you can see a few glimpses of Uganda.


A guy transporting charcoal by bike. This is the usual method of transport for goods coming from the village, be they charcoal, matooke, bundles of sticks, milk cans, whatever. Usually they'll ride the bikes downhill and push them uphill...between the weight and the fact that the bikes only have one gear, riding uphill would be awfully tough.


A small acacia tree. These thorn-covered trees are found all over this part of the country.


Matooke trees! These trees are everywhere that people live in this country. Matooke, or green bananas, is a dietary staple, served steamed and mashed and more or less flavorless (but quite filling). Usually eaten with some sort of sauce, like g-nut sauce (boiled ground peanuts)...either to give the matooke more flavor or to mask the flavor...take your pick.


For about the first 40 minutes of walking after Bishop Stuart there are several small clumps of buildings, never more than probably 6 or 7 in one place at the most, varying from mud with thatched roofs to brick or cement with iron sheets. And no electricity or running water for any. You'll see lots of people carrying jerry cans to the river to get water, and once you see pictures from the river you'll understand just how bad that is.


Eucalyptus trees are very common in Uganda yet are not native. According to Dr. Pepper they were brought in by the British because they grow very quickly and they needed some wood for drying tea leaves (the native trees, like the acacia, are pretty much all scrub). Was kinda hard to get a good shot because of lighting conditions with clouds coming in and eucalyptus trees not having much in the way of foliage. The road goes through a eucalyptus forest for quite some time.


This one is the second waterfall on the journey (though I stopped at it first...neither one is right on the road). It's probably a 15-20 foot drop, even if it doesn't seem that big from the picture. Cool looking even if the water is brown and the place stinks (the pool below the waterfall is a big bahima watering hole, so large numbers of cattle are herded here to drink, and large numbers of cattle leave behind large amounts of manure).


Another shot of the waterfall with the scale at least somewhat more determinable. The pom-pom looking plants on the right are papyrus. As Chuck from the Chattanooga volunteer team was sure to remind us every time he saw them, that's what Moses' basket was made of :). Also the source of paper for ancient Egypt for ages and ages and ages.


I'm not sure what this is but it was growing on some of the rocks above the waterfall and I thought it looked kinda cool.


An Ankole cow, very common here and very important to the Banyankore. Believe it or not the horns on this one are medium-sized.


A bahima boy herding cattle. This particular herd was under the care of two boys, one probably about 14 and the other (this one) around 10 or 11. Which is uncommon: usually it's just one boy with a stick. The herders aren't always kids but it's not surprising to see kids herding cattle, either.


A herd of goats amongst the eucalyptus trees. This was kinda strange to me...it's not that I never see goats (because I see them every day no matter where I go, even in Kampala) but this is the first time I've seen an actual herd. Usually it's just a few along the road, sometimes tied by the neck or ankle and sometimes just loose.


Part of the other waterfall, taken on the way back home. There's another level to this one that drops off a lot more but there was a guy bathing just below it, and it's generally not a polite thing to take a camera around someone who's bathing naked, so I decided to get shots of that one another day.

Blessings from Discouragement

So on Sunday evenings I lead a Bible study at University Baptist Church in Mbarara. We've been studying through Hebrews 11, looking at the examples of great faith lived out and seeing how we can apply those principles to our lives today (because most likely none of the students are going to be building arks or sacrificing lambs so that their homes will be passed over and their firstborn saved). It's been kinda discouraging in recent weeks because, as the students have been at first getting ready for exams and then actually taking them, attendance has really been dwindling. In fact today, especially with the students having gone home for holiday, I was really thinking that no one would show up, and I'd be lying if I were to say that the thought didn't cross my mind that if I didn't go no one would show up anyway and no one would know any better.

Well of course I went anyway, and waited around for 20 minutes with no one having shown up. Of course this is Africa and people showing up a minimum of 30 minutes late is par for the course but that doesn't mean that Satan didn't have an avenue for further discouragement. Then a guy came up who I didn't know. His name is Nicholas.

He asked about the Bible study and I told him that we were supposed to have it but that he was the only one to come. I started asking him about himself and found out that he's a marketing graduate from Makere University in Kampala, the best school in the country. He didn't have a job but had been living in Mbarara for three months trying to find employment and doing occasional contract work. He had actually come to try and talk Larry into giving him a contract job doing some marketing work for the church.

I asked him where he prayed from (Ugandan English for what church one goes to) and he said that he had been going to All Saints (Church of Uganda...Anglican) but had been going to UBC for two weeks because he had shifted (moved) and UBC was closer to his new home. I asked him if he was saved and he said he was "in the process of getting saved." He didn't know what that meant, but it turned out to be true.

He said that he was a Christian and that that meant he had been confirmed, baptized, and then had accepted Jesus as his savior. He didn't know what that meant either but figured it had something to do with following His teachings.

I asked him if he minded me sharing what I believed it meant to be a Christian and he said yes. I started of course with the sinfulness of man, how good works cannot erase that guilt, how there's nothing we can do that's so good it could force God to let us into heaven despite our guilt. I told him how Jesus came and lived a sinless, perfect life and died for our sins. He was quite appalled that Jesus would be killed despite never having sinned.

I told him how confirmation was not in the Bible, and how baptism and following Jesus' teachings come AFTER salvation and are not part of becoming saved. I emphasized how God made it so incredibly easy for us to go to heaven: He did all the hard work, all we have to do is accept Christ and make Him Lord, and that even following Him as Lord God takes care of by granting the Holy Spirit. Of course at the same time I didn't want to mislead him so I told him that while obtaining salvation is as easy as can be life afterwards is anything but. But really, if you think about it, how much easier could God have made salvation: "Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead" (Romans 10:9). That's it!

After all that he said he would want to get saved but that it would take some time. He was worried that his parents would consider him no longer part of the family for having left his Anglican background to become born again, which would also mean that he would be cut off financially. I walked him through Matthew 6:25-33, with emphasis on verse 33: "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well." Then I talked to him about how believers are a family, which he liked very much. In fact he asked "Is the only way to get into this family to be saved?" I explained how it would be best to get saved himself and then talk to his family about what he had discovered so that they too could find salvation. What came to mind was a quote from orientation: "You have to believe that God wants everyone to be saved and act upon that belief" (in reference to 2 Peter 3:9). Eventually he asked exactly what he had to do to get saved and wanted to do it right then, so I prayed with him. Mukama asiimwe!

There I was dropping further and further into discouragement and God brought along a divine appointment and used me to lead one of his lost sheep back home. What greater blessing is there than that? And I can testify to the fact that it was He and not I, for the words coming out of my mouth were not my own. In fact, some of the things I was saying, after I would say them I would think, "Man, hadn't really thought about that in that exact light before but that's true and really good." What could that be but the Spirit?

Please pray for Nicholas, that he will be like the good soil, that he will hold the course no matter what the challenges, and for the situation with his family. Pray also as I meet with him for follow up, beginning this Tuesday at 3PM (6AM Central).