The Uganda Journey Continues

I asked the team to try to find some time today to write their own stories and impressions of this Journey of Compassion; some have been able to do so, but it is very difficult for many of the team to get away from their activities in the medical clinic.

Today is our final clinic. As always, the second week has flown by. Tomorrow the team gets a well deserved rest day. They are going for a boat cruise on Lake Victoria. On Friday, most everyone flies home. (Christina and I are the first ones out; we are flying to India for a week of ministry, then onto Manilla.) Right now the team is on its final hour of conducting a medical clinic at King’s Kid school and children’s home. Once again, they will see well over 500 people. One of the nurses prayed for a little boy with a pronounced hernia. As she prayed it completely disappeard. She also prayed for a woman with a broken leg. After prayer, the woman said that all the pain was gone, so she asked her to try standing. She not only stood, but she walked around completely pain free. Then she prayed for a boy who was very hearing impaired. After a short prayer, he declared that he could hear perfectly. His mother was so happy. These testimonies are from just one team member as we chatted for five minutes over lunch. I am looking forward to hearing from the others.

During this Journey of Compassion the team has worked so hard. After gathering each morning for worship and prayer, we all pile into a bus to head off for the next community. Then after treating patients, playing with the often hundreds of children, praying for EVERYONE, packing up all the meds, the team then gathers in the same community for an open-air meeting. Usually around 6pm the preaching starts (after local worship teams gathering a crowd through singing and dancing). Every night many come forward to invite Jesus into their lives. The team prays for all these new believers, then we invite the sick and those in pain to come forward. It is at this point that all the team prays for so many people--both for healing and for salvation (culturally, many are afraid to come forward, but after experiencing the power of Jesus, they want to ask Him into their lives. Every night, we connect a large group of people to the local pastor and his team so they can visit them within the next day. After this, it is back to the hotel for a shower (the red dirt that flies around here is quite amazing), then a late supper.

This has been a wonderful team. They are having a great time I know, but I am still surprises me their joy, their grace and their willingness to keep serving. A number of pastors have told me that this has been the single biggest impact upon the people in the villages. What a great team!

It looks like, in total, we may have seen 3,000 people before we are all done--certainly 2,500. This is collectively the most we have ever seen on a Journey. According to Heather, these people are perhaps the sickest ever (although, those in Palates-Manila are also extremely sick). We have had to send people to the hospital. Yesterday we prayed for God to do a miracle with a 19 year old young man who has suffered a progressive shutting down of almost all his major organs. Medicine can do no more for him; it is up to the Lord now. We have seen so many with terrible fevers--usually from typhoid (which is caused by unsafe drinking water and bad sanitation) and malaria (mosquito nets are the best preventative measure for this).

And so, I have been working with Robert Mponye to develop some project proposals. He introduced me to the governor; we discussed the power of the Bio-Sand Water FIlters. I am supposed to do a presentation to the district council tomorrow. We’ll see if it happens. Robert has determined to pay to send a key representative to Davao to be trained by Tim, Toit, and their team. He will begin to take this need to his church immediately and ask them to give in order to make this happen His man will then come back to Uganda and train up teams. Robert has already selected a location for a manufacturing facility. He and Tim talked for 45 minutes on Monday. Robert is very determined to make this work, not only to deal with the very bad water all over this region (and nation), but to create a business like Tim has that can provide good employment for workers, and to be a means of ministering to many households in the Mityana region.

As I look across the field from where I am writing this, I see and hear a couple of hundred children singing joyful songs of praise to the Lord. The children’s JOC team has ministered almost all day. Once again, they have demonstrated the love of Jesus in such tangible ways, hour after hour. They sing a song in Luganda, than in English. What a beautiful sound. Thank you Lord for this wonderful day. Now some kids are beating on an African drum with intricate and delightful rhythms. And the dentist, doctors and nurses are seeing the final patients for the day. Hundreds treated. Hundreds prayed for. Hundreds healed. What a day. I feel so thankful right now. We really can make a difference--and more immediately and bigger than we think. This is such a privilege. Right now if feel as though there is nothing else that I ever want to do. Lord, why do you let us into the center of Your love and joy like this? Now a little one is leading them with “Hallelujah” as the others all sing back in a beautiful antiphonal response.

There is more to write, but for now I think I will simply end this and go to join the children.