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I’m home…..I’m tired….I’m sick…..and I miss Africa already.
Here are some brief thoughts about my travels. For a more complete read about what God did in Uganda click on the link to the right.
We left Oklahoma City Monday Nov 5th @ 2:45 pm and arrived at the mission house in Uganda around 10pm Wednesday Nov 8th. The trip was grueling. I had never been out of the country with the exception of a Mexico border town. The idea of traveling thousands of miles to a distant land was both terrifying and exciting. I knew God had some huge things for me to see. I just didn’t know what I was in for.
Everyday was different in everyway except for one constant. Worship. They do nothing each day until they worship. They don’t eat or work until they worship God. Worship lasted each day from 8am till around 9:30 or 10:00am. If we worshipped that long in America we would make a b-line to the nearest comment box and write a stern note to the church administration. In Africa I was was swept away by God during these times. Jesus was alive and well in a way that I had never experienced in the states. That’s a huge comment for me considering I’m a worship leader.
After worship we had tea and biscuts, they are very british there……weird. When we were done eating it was time to work. Everyday was different. Most days to the IDP camps for crusades, evangelism, preaching in churches or trauma counceling. Other days to hospital, the jail or to the children’s home.
It’s hard to find words to describe what I experienced in Uganda. Israel said a very profound thing the night before we left as we were all sharing through laughter and tears. He said he didn’t want to say too much for fear of losing what’s inside of him. He found words for what I’m feeling. I feel like if I talk to much about it in short little blurbs that it will loose it’s power and be compartmentalized in to some insignificant summer camp experience. My hope is in journaling it out that I can remember the sheer power of God through these memories.
Before I left people would ask me what I think I’ll experience or find in Africa. I would tell them 2 things. I would find the scariest place imaginable……and that I would find Jesus. I was wrong on the first count. It was the most loving and intense place I’ve ever been. I did, however, find Jesus alive and well and moving in spirit and power there. In Shane Claiborne’s book, go to must reads, he wrote that he found Jesus in Calcuta. He had grown up Christian but didn’t really see God move or see the love of Jesus evident until he went to India. I feel much the same way. I have never felt Christ move or wash over me as alive as he did in Uganda. In the states we don’t have to believe God for that much. If we’re hungry we go to the store, if we’re sick we go to the doctor. If we can’t provide for ourselves the government fills the gap. I know it’s a not a perfect system but you’ll agree that for the most part it’s true. Where we were, if God didn’t provide…you didn’t eat. You weren’t healed, you didn’t have what you needed. Faith and the spirit of God work in Uganda because it has too or you don’t survive. Here we think it’s tough if we can’t afford to eat out as much as we’d like.
It made me celebrate the move of Christ in me. I feel like there is a sleeping giant in me that is Jesus’s move and I’m just beginning to wake it up. I was put in situations there spiritually that stretched me beyond my own strength and where I stopped Jesus kept going. I have never felt like Jesus used my ridiculous life as much as he did there. I’m grateful for that.
We made life long friends there with the Favor of God ministry people. I’ve never met so many people that were so immediately different yet so willing to connect. I have prayed for them everyday I’ve been back and will continue to do so. I’m grateful for their friendship….they are family.
That’s the short version! ha! …….and it only scratches the surface. This week I will add my journal of each day as they unfolded and hopefully show you what really happened and how God was glorified beyond measure.
peace
