Thank you, everyone, for your prayers and responses to my last blog. I never meant to instill fear or worry in anyone; the need for intercession was urgent, and you all responded amazingly!
I apologize for making you wait to know details, but here they are. The spiritual warfare we have faced here has been both heavy and hard to understand. We’re digging through Scripture and seeking to learn from our contacts here. That’s the great thing about living with locals in each of these countries: their understanding of what’s going on is deep. It’s not just a month mission; it’s their life.
The day after our last encounter with the girls at Central View… it was Squad Fun Day. That was enough of a mindset shift to give anyone whiplash. When we got together with all of the teams on Friday night, everyone was eager to know more about what we had been facing. We have talked it to death.
That is the most important thing I want you to know in all of this:
In Christ, we are victorious. ALWAYS.
The fact is, the “principalities of darkness” have a foothold here in Uganda that just doesn’t exist in the Western world. Demons are permitted to act and act out in ways that you just won’t ever see at home. The legacy of witchcraft and occult practice runs deep. We don’t claim to understand it, and we have relied on our friends here a lot to explain what is going on. And God is faithful: He has not left us without understanding! He has not left us confused or discouraged!
And in the midst of this battle, this heaviness, we got a break. We got an amazingly fun Saturday with The Q, our family. We got our butts handed to us by the White Nile… and photos to prove it! We were tossed in several times, and promptly rescued by laughing river guides in kayaks. Our guide apologized for letting us fall in by giving us suckers halfway through the afternoon. He entertained us with some weird stories from his days on the wild river. I’m proudly sporting a super-mzungu sunburn, a few small bruises, and a huge smile at the thought of that day. I loved every minute of it!
Our adventures weren’t over when we lumbered, exhausted, into the bus that evening.
The next day, we went to Pastor Frieda (Chandler’s contact this month) for a short seminar on demons and spiritual warfare. And wouldn’t you know it: we ended up in the face of another one that very night. The surprising thing was, it manifested in our friend Betty. This is the same sweet, passionate woman of God who had been lending us books about this very subject. We love her SO MUCH. And just like the previous times, we didn’t leave until it did. Betty found deliverance, and she’s more on fire for the Lord than ever.
Adrift welcomed us back to Jinja on Monday for… bungee jumping. We cheered each other on from the deck overlooking the Nile. Amy Duncan and I held each other for dear life, and jumped tandem. I can’t wait for you to see those videos once we upload them!
Only on the World Race:
Day 1: demon battle
Day 2: raft 83 km down the Nile
Day 3: demon battle
Day 4: bungee jump 145 feet above the Nile
Day 5: fly to India (well… soon. We take off Monday!)
…and that is my week.
-Katie
