Uganda pt. 3 Faith Quest

We left Fort Portal on Tuesday. We spent that morning packing and getting things around to load on the Lorie (truck). The gang arrived at Camp Saaka in the afternoon and we began to pitch the tents. We had an exercise in manhood. Here is the situation. 3 new tents that have never been assembled before. 3 men that have never worked together assembling tents. The contents of one tent were dumped onto the ground and directions were sewed onto the outer bag. What do you do? If you chose the option go straight to the contents on the ground–welcome to manhood. About an hour later all tents were assembled and we were sitting in some chairs enjoying being at Camp Saaka. Behind the relaxed atmosphere was the reason we came to Uganda in the first place. Faith Quest Uganda was starting tomorrow. Some saw the New Year with singing, I was exhausted so I slept the New Year in.

Tomorrow arrived and we began to make the final preparations for Faith Quest. The theme was Aluta Continua (the battle/struggle continues). Our passage was out of Ephesians 6–the armor of God. Teens from all over Uganda began to arrive (Mbarara, Kampala, Jinga). Fort Portal, Kyenjojo, Rwebisengo were already there. Welcome to Fort Saaka. You are now joining the army of the Lord. Are you willing to give up everything for the sake of your King? So began boot camp. People were divided up into squads and boot camp commenced. Shouts of Aluta Continua echoed over the water, obstacle courses were run and claimed a few injuries. One guy even tried to decapitate himself (sorry Johno).

I have to be honest with you. I did not know what to expect here. You think teens are teens wherever they are in the world but you never know until you experience it. I was thankful that I did not have the opening session. As darkness began to set in, worship began in the amphitheater. Welcome to Uganda worship! It was an amazing experience. The teens were singing and dancing, with songs in Ratooro, Swahili, English and a few other languages (I don’t remember them all). It was an amazing experience. It reminded me of that future event when all nations will come together and worship the King of kings. I did not understand most of what was sung that night but my soul was using it’s own language to worship with all those present. Here are a few pics.

I had the privilege of speaking 3 times. About two hours before my first time to speak my mind and soul began to be unsettled. I sat alone at the amphitheater and just began to pray the Jesus prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God have mercy on me a sinner. All I knew to do was to repeat that prayer and repent of my sins. So I began to list my sins before the Lord and lay them at the cross asking for forgiveness. 2 hours of this happened. I was beginning to panic because my soul was still not settled and there was this little voice that kept telling me I didn’t have anything to say. The teens began to sing, my group prayed over me and still no peace in my soul. I still repeated the Jesus prayer throughout the songs of worship and then on the song before I was about to speak—silence. Peace descended on me and hushed everything and every voice. I can’t explain it. Try to imagine the noisiest place you have ever been in and then all of a sudden there is total silence and peace. I thanked God for the peace, stepped toward the microphone and spoke. You want to know what I spoke on that night–”Strength in numbers.”

We all took our turns speaking and leading activities. There are many more stories to be told. One evening we went into the village next to the camp and worshiped around a bonfire. I can’t even begin to have the words for that experience. All I can say is AWESOME and NUTS!

We had purity classes taught by Jeff and Cheryl Cash. We had conversations about God’s view of power and how to use it. We had prayer warriors praying for each request of the teenagers. We had dramas, paintings and tribal dances. A cow was slaughtered to eat. Flour bombs were thrown at each other. Glow lights were thrown at Greg dressed in a fireman’s suit. That was an experience because they had never seen glow lights.

The last night of Faith Quest was bitter sweet. I was so tired and ready for a shower (a real shower), but I was enjoying what God was doing at Faith Quest. The last worship ended and I was sad to see it go. I was ready to go into the early hours of the morning. But some of the groups had to get an early start the next morning. A group of us conversed some at the tents and then I called it a night and crawled into my sleeping bag.

The next morning we said goodbye to Mbarara and Rwebisengo, Jinga and Kampala. We packed our bags and loaded our luggage. Jeff let me drive the hilux back to Fort Portal. Thanks Jeff. We unloaded some of the equipment at the Cash’s house. Relaxed some during the afternoon in the shade. And finally around 5 PM checked into our hotel and took a shower.

A wonderful 5 days of worship, bible study and prayer. Thank you Cheryl for all your work praying for the teens. What a great privilege it was to serve with Jeff, Cheryl, Andrew, Aimee Jo and the rest of the gang!

Uganda pt. 2

So, we woke up and went to worship with the Fort Portal Church of Christ. This was going to be the first time I had worshiped in an African church. Derrick led singing. David led the Lord’s Supper meditation. Jeff preached. Normally Jeff preaches for about an hour, but that day he only preached for about 30 minutes. He said he was being kind to the Americans who are not accustomed to preaching that long. The singing was nice. A few of the songs were in English and the rest were in Ratoro, Swahili and a few other languages. I struggled trying to hear the words so I could learn the songs. It took two weeks before I could even begin to hear the language somewhat clearly. I think that was some of my culture shock. It didn’t matter how hard I tried to learn the words and hear them, I just couldn’t. They had a prayer for the children of the church. It happened every Sunday we were there. I thought it was one of the most powerful moments in the worship service. Jeff led one Sunday, David led another, and Cheryl led the last Sunday. Cheryl’s prayer for the children of the church was amazing.

The kids were dismissed to Bible class and Jeff preached. They are working their way through the book of Matthew. The closing prayer was said and we had chai tea and talked with many of the Ugandans.

We left and drove over the Mountains over the Moon Resort and had lunch. Remember I said lunch and dinner are different in Uganda. Lunch lasted about 3 hours. I quickly learned that Americans can be very loud. We laughed a lot. My eyes began to be opened to just how loud we are. One of my concerns going over to Uganda was that I didn’t come across as the arrogant American. But I realized even being loud, we were coming across as arrogant Americans. That realization began to change me.

We went to the church property and Jeff shared with the history of the church in Fort Portal. He told how God had worked to help them buy the property. Jeff shared with us some of the journey God had taken him and Cheryl on for the last 12 years. It is pretty amazing to see how God has worked in Uganda and in the lives of Jeff and Cheryl. We talked about what the Ugandans need. They do not need money, possessions or anything else. They need Jesus. Our whole time there we never saw one case of extreme poverty. Ugandans can grow food year round. That wasn’t the Africa that I see in pictures and news reports. This conversation began a change in how I viewed Ugandans.

The rest of the day we rested from all of our travel. Monday is Jeff’s day off, so we slept in and took a day to prepare for Faith Quest which would start on Wednesday.

Uganda pt. 1

I have been back from Uganda for almost a week now. Jet lag is still affecting me. I go to bed early and get up WAY to early. It was a great trip! There were many great experiences to be talked about and shared. So I will try to communicate my experiences and what is going on my mind right now. I think the best way to do this is to explain everything we did first and then go into the theological conversations I am having with myself.

We flew out of America on Dec. 27, 2007. We had an afternoon flight that would take us to Amsterdam and then get on a connecting flight to Entebbe, Uganda. We arrive at Entebbe around 10 PM on Dec. 28th. We walked off the plane down the stairs and onto the tarmac. It was humid and probably in the upper 60s. We walked to the visa line to pay for a visa ($50). One of the first differences I noticed was the presence of the armed guards. People carrying AK47s. Welcome to Uganda. We paid for our visas and proceeded to pick up our luggage. 12 of 13 pieces of luggage made the trip with us. The other piece of luggage (to this very day) is still trying to be found. We were blessed because in years past only one piece of luggage made the journey. I stood in line to take care of the “lost” piece of luggage. (That piece of luggage had a sound mixing board in it.) It took about 30 minutes to file the papers and get an official apology and a 25 Euros discount on the next flight. The group had already met Jeff Cash and Andrew Martin outside of the airport. I left the airport and found the group. We loaded our luggage in the vehicles and proceeded to check in at our hotel for the night.

We checked in and dropped off our luggage in our rooms and then went to dinner around 11:30 PM. Meals in Uganda work differently than in the States. The restaurant doesn’t try to get you in and out as quick as possible to get the next people in. We ordered and probably waited 45 minutes to an hour before our food arrived. During the waiting, we laughed, we heard more stories from Jeff and listened to Derrick and Patrick (two Ugandans).

We crawled in bed around 1:30 AM. I woke up around 7 AM to the sound of birds, goats, and cattle. I got up and grabbed my bible and journal and went to the front of the hotel property to read and journal. The group joined me later on and we had breakfast together and began to have orientation with Jeff, Andrew, Derrick and Patrick. We talked about money not being the answer for Ugandans, the concept of friendship in Uganda.

We checked out of the hotel and traveled to Kampala to exchange money and eat before we left for Fort Portal. Exchange rate was 1,685 shillings per $1. Needless to say you walked out with a wad of shillings in your pocket. Lunch was at Sam’s Restaurant. I had wildebeest, spring buck and topi. It was pretty good. Driving in Uganda is an experience. You probably either love it or hate it. It was an adventure for me. To view it as an adventure is the way I chose to make any sense of it (and maybe that was my problem I was trying to make sense of it). Imagine a 2 or 4 lane road that doubles as a 4 or 8 lane road. Throw in some motorcycle taxis, many people walking and standing in the road, transport buses and you have a recipe for Ugandan road conditions. To the average observer chaos and lots of it. An adventure none the less!

We left Kampala and began the journey over to Fort Portal. The other vehicle left a few hours before we did. About a third of the way to Fort Portal we came upon the other vehicle (Hilux) on the side of the road. We stopped and found out the bearings were done. 3 1/2 hours later the Hilux was in working condition and we continued our journey to Fort Portal. We missed dinner (Thank you Cheryl for making it.). We rolled into Fort Portal around 10 PM. We were all pretty tired so we ate and Jeff drove us to hotel we were staying at.

When six tired travelers arrived at the hotel we were greeted with music from a wedding that was going on. 11:30 PM. Tired! and Music was blaring over the speakers. The music played till about 2:30 AM. Welcome to Uganda. Day 1 in Uganda has risen and set. Tomorrow worship with the Fort Portal Church of Christ. . .