Our month in Uganda

So I realized that, although I’ve been blogging more than usual this month, I never actually talked about what we’ve been doing for ministry here in Uganda. I’m a wee bit late considering we’re leaving in four days, but better late than never!

Right now I’m sitting in my hotel room here in Lira, Uganda. We were told we would be in dorm-type living, and then it turns out we’re staying at the Alpha Resort Hotel… we couldn’t believe it! Granted this is Africa, so it does look more like a dorm room than anything else, but considering that we were expecting mud huts all month, this is heaven! And the fact that I’m sharing a room with only one other person is just ridiculous, I don’t know what to do with all this privacy.

This month we are working with something called Victory Outreach Ministries, and it is amazing! We sat down with our contact at the beginning and he described everything they do, which is extensive. They have like 10 different departments:

• Child Development Center– it’s a Compassion International project, so we got to work with the kids some and do office work between the kids and the sponsors. I was SO excited to get to work with Compassion!
• a wells project, building and repairing sanitary water wells in surrounding districts
• an agricultural project– teaching people about agriculture and providing land and plowing
• a radio program that reaches about 1.4 million people– I had absolutely no desire to be on it, but almost everyone else on the team has done a broadcast.
• HIV/AIDS program for people who are positive– they meet and provide counseling and fellowship once a week
• hospital/prison/elderly ministries

I don’t remember the rest of them, but those are the ones I was most excited about.

The main ministries we’ve been involved with have been the schools. We’ve spent a couple afternoons each week at Fountain Primary School and Agape Secondary schools. These have been great, because we just get to hang out with the kids and love on them a bit. The other day I told a little 6-year old girl I loved her, and a few minutes later I heard her tell her friend excitedly, “She said she loves me!” Totally made my day.

The rest of the time has been a big mix-up of different ministries. We visited the agricultural projects, visited some widows in a nearby village, preached at the lunch hour prayer sessions, shared on the radio, and shared at the different church campuses. We’ve met so many people, I wish I had pictures of them all to remember!

Every Friday we get to sit in on the meeting for people affected with HIV/AIDS– this is one of my favorite things we do. These women are just so joyful! No men ever show up because the stigma for them is so much worse than women– but these women and kids are just incredible. We’ve gotten to speak in front of the group several times, and the Lord has just put them on my heart. At the end of the last session a group of the women sang a couple songs for us and showed us some of their traditional dances– SO much fun! We’re supposed to dance with them again on Friday, and I can’t wait.

Instead of going to church this past Sunday, my team headed out to the local men’s prison to have church with them. I actually preached! When we were sitting in the front office, waiting to go in, the few men I could see through the windows were pretty intimidating. Big, burly men who (forgive my blunt honesty) kinda look like they belong there. So my stomach was churning a wee bit before we went in. But once we got into the assembly room, I was shocked at the faces staring back at me. Some of them couldn’t be more than 16, and they all just looked so sweet. Most of them looked like completely normal, nice guys we would be friends with! They all just sat there, perfectly focused on what I was saying, and just drinking it all in. There was such an overwhelming feeling of peace there, and we were not expecting that.  A lot of these guys were child soldiers who were forced into killing countless others, and my heart broke for them.  At the end, several of them came forward to accept Christ and ask for prayer. One of them, Boni, asked for prayer because he felt haunted by the people he was forced to kill. I couldn’t help but cry as we prayed over them, asking the Lord to free them from this awful guilt and shame. My message was about how this world is broken, and these young men are just some of the countless victims of that brokenness. I can’t wait to see them freed from their brokenness and restored as sons of the King!

All in all, this month has been truly amazing. It’s been wonderful to experience such a variety of ministries, and to get to meet so many people. I wish we could stay here longer and really get immersed in these
ministries! It’s been harder than I first expected because there is so
much– it’s hard to feel effective because we bounce from department to
department. But, it has been an honor and blessing to get to work with
them, even for a month. Anyone who feels called to East Africa needs to come and work with Victory Outreach Ministries! They have an incredible heart for reaching their community for the Lord, and I have loved getting to work with them.