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.
