I have been struggling since my team arrived at our ministry for the month; an all-boys boarding school in Rukungiri, Uganda. When I found out we would be preaching, leading morning devotions, and building relationships with the boys, my thoughts turned to anxiety. Children are more of my comfort zone. I know exactly how to work with them; you just have to smile at them and chase them around. They are easy to please for the most part. Not so much with teenagers. Considering most of them could easily outrun me, I figured that plan was out the window.
So, how exactly do you minister to a teenage Ugandan boy?
Usher. Duh.
This is Usher, in case you were wondering.
A R&B artist from America.
Usually during the boys afternoon free time I just roam around talking to different boys about their classes, but today I decided to join a group of boys who appeared to be practicing their dance moves. Now, I can dance very well, and by very well I mean not at all, but I love watching people dance, so I walked over.
They had music playing from a small phone, and they were listening to songs from the states; Usher, Ne-Yo, and even a little Justin Bieber. At first they all took turns showing off their dance moves, but then…they wanted me to dance. Yes, me, Caitlyn Rogers.
Definitely NOT.
But they wouldn’t relent. So they started asking me to “mime” a song, which simply means to lip sync the song while acting like you are preforming it. This I agreed to; my sister and I are always doing that in the kitchen at home, I can definitely do that.
I looked through the phone and decided to preform “No Air” by Jordin Sparks. I also recruited one of the boys to lip sync the part Chris Brown sings. Of course during my performance I decided to add a few dance moves into my routine…and it was a hit. So, obviously, I continued with a Ne-Yo song, and the boys threw in some Usher performances.
When we all finished playing around they started asking me questions about life and Christianity. Who would have thought the way to connect to high school boys in Uganda would be to lip sync and dance to Usher songs?
The Lord moves in crazy ways.
Praying the Lord will usher in more craziness,
Caitlyn
