The Journey into Uganda

“The giving of God that populates our past and the reliability of God that marks our future makes life in the present different.”

- Walter Brueggemann

We stand at the foot of the mountains-the Rwenzori Mountains to be exact. Our past journeys have been full of companions that have walked with us and us with them. We hear the echos of the faith of those that our journey has intersected. Echos that whisper ever so softly into our ears and hearts words of love. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind…love your neighbor as yourself.” Words of mercy and compassion. “What does God require of you: but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” Words of questing and adventure. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness…” And words of life. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

We stand at the base of the mountains and we know these voices will always be with us. The panoramic view before us is breathtaking and inspiring but also daunting and unknown. Do we step forward into a land and into a people whose culture we know very little about?

What we have experienced has deconstructed most everything we have learned in our western (American, modern, industrialized, church, etc.) culture. We have encountered a culture which does not have a moral foundation. BUT, they hold respect as a cultural must. They value peace/harmony above conflict. They value community above individuality. The last one (in my estimate) being the most important. Everything is done in and for the sake of the community, whether that be your immediate family or your tribe. Individuality is not valued. Coming from a culture which idolizes our individuality (even in our theology), this has been an eye opening experience. Let me give you an example. When we are sick in our western culture, what happens? Most likely we will stay home. We do not want anybody to visit us, we just want to be alone and let our bodies work through the illness. In the Ugandan culture (particularly the Batooro culture), when someone is sick, it is expected for people to drop by and visit. If a person does not then he/she is seen as not valuing the community or friendship. If the sick person refuses the visit then they are seen as not valuing the community or friendship. So when someone is sick, expect visitors to drop by and express their concern and love for you. Quite the opposite to what I am accustomed too.

Another example would be the concept of time. In our western culture, we value being on time to appointments and meetings. I can’t count the many conversations I have been a part of discussing how people do not value something because they do not seem to show up “on time”.

Time is money…

Time is precious…

Time is important…

We have our days scheduled (over scheduled most of the time). We get frustrated driving on I-5 because the traffic will make us late for whatever. (I know because I have done it many times.) Our lives revolve around time.

Here in Uganda, time is not valued. The event is valued over time. Two Sundays ago, “church” is supposed to start at 10 AM. We started at 11 AM because that is when most everyone showed up. So instead of ending at noon, we ended about 1:30 PM. Now to a westerner, how ANNOYING would this be? Extremely! But let us challenge the priority of time. Say we started the worship service at 10 AM like we were supposed to. We would have been worshipping with ourselves. What does that communicate? Time is more important than people. Is that really the message of Jesus? One might even ask some of the Ugandans where they were and why they were not “on time”. Their response may be that they were greeting someone on the road. Again, in a culture that values community, do you berate the Ugandan for not being committed or question their devotion to God because they are late? I think the Apostle Paul would say something along the lines of “BY NO MEANS!” The Ugandan was acting appropriately in the culture–he/she was valuing the community by greeting the person on the road.

But let us not deceive ourselves. Uganda is not a bastion of holiness. The evil in the culture is so real, you can almost reach your hand out and touch it. Witchcraft is rampant. Deceit is valued. Selfishness is cherished. Greed runs rampant. The list could go on.

Let me tell you a story. A few days back a Ugandan man was doing something (nobody knows quite sure what) on Lake Saaka. For those that have been here, that is the lake that almost completely surrounds Camp Saaka (where Faith Quest is held). He drowned. His body wasn’t found for 3 days. Here is where the story gets intriguing. Lake Saaka and the land where Camp Saaka is is said to be the place where the Bachwezi spirits are supposed to live. Tradition says that the people would sacrifice a life each year to please the spirits or the spirits would take a life. The death was perceived that the spirits took the life of this man (who is rumored to an excellent swimmer) for this year. As you can see, the deception of the Deceiver is strong. He has had a strangle hold on the culture for many centuries. This is a land that calls evil a trusted friend.

The view from the base of the mountains is breathtaking and inspiring but also daunting and unknown. We stand at the base looking up, not because of the terrain but because we know only God can lead us in the direction of the future–a future that may possibly mean new companions. Our present is different because of our past (including our limited experience in Uganda) and future. We view things differently. So we stand at the base, in the present, waiting…