Our God is an Awesome God

Until today, I found that finding a catchy title for the daily blog post has been somewhat easy.  Not today though.  As I said yesterday, we were all convinced that God was going to stretch us all in ways that we couldn’t imagine  and He delivered – plus some!  I am going to include a few additional pictures tonight as images can show far better what happened today, than my words ever could.

Let me start by saying that we are incredibly blessed to have Ken Harvey as our pastor.  I have had the honor of watching him respond to God’s challenges, not just by getting the work done, but fully submitting to the Holy Spirit to minister to the church in Kachungwa and beyond.  Today, Ken held a pastor’s conference.  It was supposed to start at 9:30 this morning, but that time came and went and there were only a few of the area pastors that had arrived. Then they started arriving on bicycle and on foot – 133 of the pastors from the surrounding area.  I was able to listen to part of the session and was impressed with Ken’s ability to guide, educate, encourage and enable the pastors.  He responded to questions we normally don’t hear.  For example, one pastor said that he “was struggling with people in his village who were uneducated, did not understand the word of God and were going to witch doctors for healing – what can we do about this?”  I know for a fact that this was not a question that Ken had anticipated (who could have?) – yet he spoke with power and authority.   Another thing that happened in the conference today, a girl of about 20 years of age came up to Ken and asked him to pray with her to be saved. 
Because of our pastor’s work today, the church in Uganda will be a different place.  Please continue to pray for him!  Below is a picture of the group of  pastors attending the conference and the next one is Ken praying.  One of the special moments of today for Ken.





While Ken was holding the pastor’s conference, the rest of us went out into the surrounding villages distributing mosquito nets and sharing the gospel with people who had not yet heard it.  All the people I visited where Christians, but among the others, 4 people were saved in the villages today.  We basically split up with each one of us paired with staff from the Kachungwa church (except Ashley – who we don’t let go anywhere by herself – she was teamed with Ralph).  When we all got back to the church after distributing the mosquito nets and sharing with the villagers, there were SO many stories. I couldn’t even begin to share them and hope to get to sleep tonight.  Bryan was awestruck, Ashley and Ralph were able to meet their sponsored children’s family and go into their homes – an experience they both say was amazing.  Isaac came back just busting with stories of how people had given him Jackfruit, a basket of eggs and a woman who was so excited to receive the mosquito net that she was literally dancing under the net and praising God for providing this to her.  Can you imagine seeing that when you were Isaac’s age? 

Let me share a couple of short experiences that I had.  I’ve been spending so much time on the blog that I don’t get to journal, so am trying to make sure I record some of my own personal experiences in addition to sharing  those of the other members of the team.  The first mud hut I stopped at, an elderly woman opened the door and sank to her knees.  My guides told me that she said she was honored to have us there to see her and that she was showing respect.  This woman was wearing basically rags and was dirty from head to toe.  She had  nothing inside of her hut.  She was not able to communicate very well, but we were able to get her the mosquito net along with instructions on how to use it and learn that she was a Christian.  This woman  literally has nothing.  But, she was so thankful that we had stopped to see her and delighted at receiving the net.  As we walked away, I had no idea how she was going to hang the net up or if she even had a bed.  As I was thinking about this, I looked up and realized that we were walking on trails through banana tree fields and there were the same little mud huts scattered throughout.  I was kind of numb when I realized that these were actually people’s homes and they lived here.  It sounds dense I know, but I never could have imagined.   A picture of one is below to give you an idea of what they look like:



We visited home after home, giving them mosquito nets and praying with the people who lived there,.  They were sweet, loving people who worked hard in the smothering heat to farm their land and survive.  I don’t think I saw anybody who  had shoes and the children had little or  no clothes to wear.  Below is a picture of a couple of children I saw sitting in the doorway to their home.  They had no toys besides a tree leaf to play with.  There is still something beautiful in the eyes of these children though.  I am utterly captivated by them.  While their conditions seem unbearable to me, they are truly the image of God.


Meanwhile, in a lighter moment, one of our other teams were practicing a local method of carrying bulky or heavy items (nice work Jaja – I mean Ralph).  God loves for His children to have fun doing His work and rejoice in Him!



Ashley seemed to catch right on, while Dalton was still struggling a bit.  While it was hard, God gave us an unusual joy to go about His work.  I can say that we are all experiencing God’s love and the power of His Holy Spirit in ways we never have before – and it is………right!



There was a moment when I found myself completely awestruck.  We had come to a home and talked with the people there, provided them a mosquito net for their children and prayed with them – hand in hand in front of a mud hut in the middle of a banana field with people I had never met and we didn't even speak the same language, but we share the same Lord.  As we were turning to leave, one of the women who had a baby strapped to her back called to me and asked me to come back.  She unbundled the most beautiful baby girl from her back and held her up.  She told me that this precious little child was sick and needed special prayer.  So, here I am in the middle of a banana field in Uganda 9000 miles away from good old Canby, Oregon, with my hands holding the face of this child praying to God on her behalf.  Who am I to do this?  That the woman would ask and expect  confidently that God would answer her prayers and had sent me to pray for the baby was a moment that will remain permanently in my mind.  Only God could do this and I was humbled to think that He put me there.  I do have to admit that I feel completely unworthy to pray such an important prayer.  In spite of all of this, they were overjoyed to receive the gift of the mosquito net and were beaming with smiles at their gift from God.  In the picture below, the woman and child are the ones on the left, though you can only see the baby’s feet poking out.



The final image I wanted to share with you is the one below with Ralph praying – I can only imagine that he felt the same as I did.



Well, this was only half of the day.  After lunch, we loaded in the van and were headed to speak to a high school in Mubende.  We had absolutely no idea of what to expect, how many students were going to be there or anything.  Since Ken was going to be at the pastor’s conference all afternoon, I was going to be delivering a message to the students.  The only time I had to prepare was after my blog last night. I had put together a fine plan on what we were going to talk about, the order of the program, etc.  We were to have 1.5 hours with the students.

I should know better by now.  My plans just don’t work.  God had something totally different planned for the afternoon.  For starters, our time was cut almost in half.  In Uganda, religion is not banned from the school, in fact it is encouraged.  I was going to provide an overview of the history of the USA, form and branches of government, etc.  What God wanted was different than that – when will I learn?  What ended up  happening is that we were ushered into a room with 100-150 high school students and they were told that we were here to share the gospel with them.  Sooooo…our plans rapidly changed to God’s plan.  We did a quick introduction of ourselves and I told the students that we wanted to share some personal information about ourselves and that a couple of us wanted to share their personal testimonies.  We were already anticipating this, so Isaac, Ashley & Bryan all stood up in front of these young people and were amazing.  Isaac followed the Spirit’s guidance and slightly altered what he was going to say to be a full gospel presentation.  Ashley stood up in front and had them all smiling and cheering at what she had overcome.  Bryan probably got the loudest applause from the youth when he told them how God had granted their request for more children in a way that he could not have possibly imagined when all seemed  hopeless.

I talked with them for a while about them being the next leaders of Uganda, what leadership meant and how important God’s love is to an effective leader.  They then heard the plan of salvation and were given an opportunity to come forward if they wanted to accept Jesus as their Lord.  Isaac and Ralph were playing guitar and singing while we waited.  We could all tell that something was going to happen, but nobody was moving.  We made another offer for them to come forward, but nothing happened.  Dalton stepped in and made another plea and nothing happened.  Then we offered to pray for anybody with a special need.  For about 30 seconds it was still except for Isaac playing, then one brave young man, Peter, slowly walked forward to me and asked for prayer.  He wanted to renew his walk with Christ and was having temptations that he was struggling with.  As I prayed for Peter, others started coming forward.  Below is a picture of me praying with Peter:



I can honestly say, and all of us present agreed,  that we have never felt the presence of the Holy Spirit like we did in this small school room in Uganda.  Students streamed forward for prayer.  Again, I found myself awestruck by God’s grace and love for his children.  Standing in a run-down school room in Uganda praying for His children in need of prayer – and he had brought us there at that time for His purpose.  All we could do is pray.  We prayed for students concerned about their grades, those needing healing (legs, eyes, brain), those whose families are struggling and they don’t know where their next meal is going to come from let alone how they could afford to continue sending them to school without sponsors.  I could not begin to put into words what happened there, so will stop here.


Bryan praying for a student, while Ashley prays with another.


Ralph, CCC’s elder on this trip, praying for a student.

So, where is Isaac in all this?  He told me that while was playing his guitar, he wanted to get up and pray with the students, but God told him that He had brought him there to minister through music and that he was to continue playing – so he played.  Later, several of us related stories of praying and right in the middle of a prayer, the words and music that Isaac played were exactly what was needed and did indeed do the work that God asked him to do.




In front of the school with the students.

Let me just add one personal note – I am humbled to be traveling with this group of people.  Every one brings a gift and we are working in unity to love the people of Uganda as God has asked us.  I am so proud of both Ashley and Isaac for the spiritual maturity that they have shown, the joy and personality that they bring – everybody loves them and are instantly drawn to them.  The parents of these two young people should be proud of them and know that they are representing their families, the church and God in the best possible way.

It is very late in Uganda.  I have been awake for almost 24 hours now, and it is time to get some sleep.  We have another day similar to today ahead of us tomorrow.  We aren’t exactly sure what God has in store, but will find out.  Please continue to pray for the Church in Uganda, the children, the villagers we met, the students needing continued prayer and whatever God puts on your heart.  I apologize if this was a little long, but God is doing a lot here and I want to make sure that our family, church and anybody else watching see all the great things God is doing.

In the name of Jesus we pray and believe!

Dave