Romans 8:31 What,
then, shall we say in response to this?
If God is for us, who can be against us?
“The Good, the Bad,
and the Ugly” is a Clint Eastwood movie from many years ago and also a way
of describing our first six weeks in Uganda.
We have experienced many things in the past few weeks that have brought
sorrow, joy, and excitement into our life.
I think this is what Christianity is all about.
The Good: We are very
excited that we have begun our language training. Our instructor has a great personality and
speaks better English than we do. The
language course moves quickly and involves a lot of memorization. We are integrating what we learn while
joining the Bible studies in the village.
A team of six from Hillcrest of Hudsonville, MI came out and worked on putting in a playground at the school. We had so much fun working beside them and seeing the excited and happy faces of the children. It is the first playground ever in this area.
A team of six from Hillcrest of Hudsonville, MI came out and worked on putting in a playground at the school. We had so much fun working beside them and seeing the excited and happy faces of the children. It is the first playground ever in this area.
It brings joy to our hearts as we prepare and plan to get more involved with our own ministries. Janine is going to start cleaning out the village house in Naigobya so she can purchase the sewing machines she will use for training and to make room to teach beading to the women. We both will be doing Bible studies with the teachers starting mid September. I will be preaching in the village in a couple of days and I have been asked to visit a neighboring church, which means I will be asked to speak. Yeah!
The Bad: I speak of is in regards to the driving to and from
various places. When we travel from
Kaliro to Jinja we pass up to five police check points. Each time we pray we will not get pulled
over. I have been ticketed once and pulled
over five times. Pretty good odds! We get excited when Bible study goes well on
Thursday evenings, but dread traveling back to Kaliro in the dark. It is very hard to see. Driving on any road has its own
challenges. The only person that must
follow rules seems to be the foreigners.
We have to dodge boda boda drivers (motorcycle taxis), people, animals
(cows, chicken, goats…), mini van taxis, and all forms of truckers. When someone in the opposite lane feels the
urge to pass the vehicle in front of him, it is expected we pull over to the
side of the road for him to finish passing.
Last, but not least, The Ugly: I will only grumble about two things. I can’t explain the feeling we get when we
walk around in the city we are living, Kaliro.
It has a heavy Muslim influence. Very
few people are courteous to us when we speak to them or nod to acknowledge
them. We receive glares from the
majority of the people in passing, but we do stick out like a soar thumb being
the only white people.
The road to the village |
Our 1996 Prado "Mzugu Mobile" |
While doing ministry, we have to travel to the village of Naigobya. When the Afayo team first moved to Kaliro the travel time to the village was thirty minutes. Our last trip took sixty-five minutes. The cause of this delayed travel is the road conditions. There are three areas that are almost impassable. I have to admit that I fear the trip when I approach these points. At one point we are straddling two mounds over top a deep crevasse to get up a hill. And that is on a dry day. The clay roads on rainy days we can’t even describe. This would cause fear in the most avid four-wheeler.
All this to say we wouldn’t trade this ministry for anything!
I just finished reading a book
called “Seeking allah, Finding Jesus” Sorry, but I can’t spell allah with a
capital letter. The author, Qureshi,
finally accepts Jesus as his savior, but he then anguishes over the hurt and
turmoil he will cause his mother, father, and family because they are devout
Muslims. At one point he asked God why
He didn’t kill him after he made the commitment. Qureshi writes that God spoke to him in an
audible voice: “Because this is not about you!”
Janine and I do realize this
ministry is not about us and we will focus on the positives and not the
negative things that happen daily. Jesus did not promise life would be easier. Matt
10:34 Jesus said, ”Do not suppose
that I have come to bring peace to the earth.”
Matt 28:20 Jesus says, “ And
surley I am with you always to the very end of the age.” He is
with us every step of the way and we feel His presence daily.