walking to find a taxi van
I’ve been in Uganda now for about a month now. I have grown close to our contact and his family and Ambassadors of Life Church. The people who attend this church really exemplify the body of Christ. Always they are looking out for you and helping you in any way they can from preparing us food to eat and doing our laundry for us. Some don’t even have homes and sleep on the ground. Daily they have to make tough choices about how to spend what little they do have. But were they are poor in material things they are rich in spiritual things. Never have I met such a group of people who are hungry for more of the word. People who go out daily to preach the good news and who give what little they have away to those in greater need. People who worship the Lord through their trials and hardships and pray in tongues and have the Lord reveal truth to them.
Our contacts
One of these people is named *Faith. Faith has a son who is about 2 and this little boy has stolen my heart. Our first few days here he was terrified of us. Why? Our skin color apparently is terrifying to many children. Haha. All it took to convince him that we were not terrifying monsters was a few fist bumps. Yesterday as we made our trek up to the church he came running towards us and jumped into my arms squealing with delight. I love this little boy and his contagious laughter. He reminds me in many ways of the little boy who stole my heart in the Philippines.
Faith's son and I
While being here we have learned to go with the flow. We never really know what is going on, but we go with it. Yesterday was no exception. We sat down in front of the church and began to sing songs of worship and praise which led into a time of prayer. After that our pastor called upon one of us to give a word. Angie stepped up after having something prepared to preach at the service tonight. Then after her pastor called for someone else to give a word. Now you should know how much I don’t like speaking in front of people I don’t know well. Okay I knew some of the people at the church pretty well like Faith, but more people just kept coming in. You should know too that I was supposed to preach on Sunday, but due to the weather and a treacherous mud hole of a road we did not go to the church. Monday came and my teammates wanted me to preach, but some stomach issues put an end to that, which led me to believe that the Lord did not want me to speak and I was A-okay with that. However, the Lord wanted me to speak last night. So when our pastor asked for someone else to speak I reluctantly agreed. You might know what I mean when I say I absolutely did not want to speak but the Lord and the Spirit were saying oh yes you are and before you know it you are talking. I took out my journal where I had written what I was going to preach on Sunday and talked about how the life of Jesus did not impress people it impacted them and how his death is still impacting people today. I ended it with saying something like God may call some people to go out and spread the good news across nations. He may call people to perform miracles, but the one thing he calls everyone to do is to live an impacted life. To let the way you live draw people in so that you can love them the way that God loves us and let God impact their lives through that love. If you can not do anything else in your life do that. Live and love.
The rest of my teammates all gave a word and we moved into more prayer. People were touched by the words we had spoken. I should say the words that God spoke through us. They thanked us and began to disperse. Faith came up to me and asked if I had a minute. I said of course I did, after all her son was snuggled up in my lap cozy in my wrap. Faith told me about a dream she had a few days before we came. In her dream she said there was a girl who stood in front of the church passing out food to people who lined up. Faith and her son were at the back of the line when the Lord told her to go to the front to receive food. She said in her dream she couldn’t see the face of the girl but she described her as a tall white girl wearing the same shirt I was wearing at that very moment. It was my Camp Geneva staff shirt from last summer. Then Faith told me that she was sitting at the back of the church and when I started speaking the Lord told her to go sit in the front row because she was going to receive her food. Excuse me WHAT?! How crazy awesome is that?!? Food in her dream was a representative of food for the spirit. God is good. All the time. He continues to blow my mind in the ways that he works. What Faith told me right then was super encouraging but then she prayed that God would anoint my life and my words to feed people.
Faith's son and I on the night I spoke
I told you the people at Ambassadors of Life are truly the body of Christ. They will be in my prayers as we continue onto our 10th month. Pray for them that God will continue to bless them in abundance. Especially Faith and her son.
