What changed? - by Dave Howard

Many times throughout my experience in Uganda, I thought and talked about being "changed" or that this was a "life-changing" experience.  But what does that really mean?  What changed?  After almost 3 months since we returned from Uganda, I think I have finally been able to try and put it into words.  So, here is my attempt to described "What changed?" in and for me . . .

I need to start by going back about 15 years, just a short time after I became a Christian.  One night, I had a dream:

I was standing in a window looking out onto a street.  It was a dirt street, dusty and filled with many sick, hungry and needy people.  As I looked out onto the street, I saw a man going from one person to the next and helping them.  He was not just helping, but he was helping AND loving them.  He would give them food, wrap wounds or just hold the person.  As I watched this scene unfold, I was struck by a couple of things in my dream:  this man loved the people deeply and it was evident in the way he cared for them; second, I wanted to love people like this man did.  As I stood in the window and watched, I realized that this man was Jesus - it was very clear at that moment - and His love was what I wanted to love people with.  But, I couldn't move.  I was stuck, motionless, standing in the window - just watching.

To this day, I can remember this dream as if it were just last night.  I remember the deep desire to love like Jesus, and the sickening feeling that my feet were stuck in place and all I did was watch.

In going to Uganda, I got my feet unstuck!!!  I realized this in the moments like praying for the sick baby in front of the mud hut, taking food to the hungry in the slums of Kampala, sitting in the home of my sponsored daughter as she cried next to me that "I have no father, you are my father", praying with a mother with 4 children and virtually nothing except the clothes on her back . . . there are so many. 

God showed me true sacrificial giving by people who had nothing to give, deep faith from people who rely on God for their daily existence, the evidence of the hope that Jesus gives, the change that God brings in an alcoholic man accepting Christ & throwing away his bottle.  I saw the Holy Spirit move in the hearts of 153 students and felt His leadership in everything we did there.

I feel like I was able to love the sick, hungry and needy the way that Jesus calls me to.  I mean LOVE them, not just show up and do something to help them.  I experienced God's working to help His people in need (yes, me included).

Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.  He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”  (John 7:37-38)

This has always been one of my favorite verses - I've always tried to imagine those "rivers of living water" flowing out of my heart.  Well, I finally got to experience this and God has changed me as a result of loving with His love.  What an amazing, incredible, awesome, fantastic, life-changing experience!    

If you're following Ken's sermons, I would have to say that  I am becoming "weird" . . . but it's a place I've wanted to be for a long time now.
What changed?  I loved like I have always dreamed of loving - with the heart of Jesus.

Mukama Yebazibwe!!!   (Praise God)

Amina    (Amen)

Dave