A week into Uganda and I can already tell this is going to be a very interesting month. We are staying in a town called Mukono on the grounds of a beautiful compound. My teammates and I have our own separate living quarters and feel so blessed after spending quite a few months practically sleeping on top of one another. We have room for our things and a nice garden area where we can sit outside. Our Mommas (women from the church) cook us delicious food and I’m pretty sure their goal is to plump us up. For ministry this month, we are working with two pastors from Eagle’s Mountain Church. We will be visiting schools, preaching, and doing door to door ministry.
Our ministry contact, John, is a short older man who is doing a great job of making sure we are protected and well. He and his wife, Sarah, had us over to their house on Sunday night for dinner and cake to celebrate two of my teammates birthdays. They cooked up quite a feast and we all felt like it was a celebration to remember.
Last night, my teammates and I watched a movie called, Furious Love. I had seen it once before, but today felt as though we were walking onto the set of the movie. Our scheduled program for the day was to go to a college and give an assembly. As per usual on the race, there was a change to the program…we were not to be going to a college, but instead to a secondary school. The pastor told us before leaving, that many students at this school were attacked by demons. I’m pretty sure we all said, “What??” and he again nonchalantly repeated what he had said. We weren’t exactly sure what he meant by that…and we talked about the possibility of them being mentally challenged. So we just kind of shrugged our shoulders and headed towards the school.
Once we arrived, we waited in a classroom for the pastor to round up the students. While waiting, a woman named Betty started discussing a book she had recently read on spiritual warfare. The book she claimed was arguing the importance of love when praying for others. As she was talking I was thinking… “Hmm…this sounds an awful lot like what the movie was talking about last night.” Little did we know what was awaiting for us down the road. A girl came to get us and we followed her to what I thought would be another area where the students would be gathered for our program. Instead, we walked upon four girls possessed by demons. I know. Sounds crazy right? Sounds like I may have officially gone off the deep end, but I assure you that these girls were not pretending by any means. These girls ranged in age from 12 to 14. I’m pretty sure that isn’t the age you want to go flailing around like a mad person in front of all your peers.
My initial reaction was fear, and my instincts told me to run, but my team and I gathered around the different girls and started praying for them. It was a scene like nothing I had ever witnessed or experienced before. The first girl I helped pray for, Grace, fell to the ground and initially wouldn’t make eye contact with us. She kept shaking her head back and forth and was shaking uncontrollably. Finally, she opened her eyes and sat up. She responded by looking at us and we began speaking to her about the love of Jesus. Almost immediately afterwards, another girl fell to the ground and began rolling around, and screaming. We went to her and began praying against the demons. She had her eyes closed and any mention of the word Jesus caused her to breathe heavily and shake uncontrollably. We prayed and sang over her and then read the Word aloud. At the exact moment my teammate Katie began reading, she sat up and you could tell the demons were gone. Irene’s demeanor completely changed and she also accepted Jesus.
Once things calmed down, we gathered around and sang songs and prayed. We then, as a team, walked around the building where the girls sleep and prayed over their rooms and the places they spend their time. As we were walking around we saw ashes in different piles on the ground where there had been sacrifices made the night before. We found out many of the people in charge practice witchcraft and force the girls to do the same. It was upsetting to hear, but helped give us a better idea as to why so many of them were possessed.
My world and faith are being challenged in huge ways right now. This is not what I grew up learning about in Sunday school. I am praying daily that I would not be influenced by anything but God and the scriptures. I came away today questioning, “Why is this something I have never witnessed before? Why are things I have grown up reading about in the Bible just now coming alive to me?” I don’t have the answers to these questions right now, but that is okay.
I just finished reading a book called, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, by Mark Batterson. In it he explains something that I feel is very applicable to my life right now…
“Half of learning is learning. The other half of learning is unlearning. It is harder to get old thoughts out of your mind than it is to get new thoughts into your mind…Half of spiritual growth is learning what we don’t know. The other half is unlearning what we do know. And it is the failure to unlearn irrational fears and misconceptions that keeps us from becoming who God wants us to be.”
As a team, we have also seen people healed from illnesses.
The verses at the end of Mark 16 15-18 states:
He said to them:
Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.
It seems that we ignore the part about the signs accompanying those who believe. I can understand why. It sounds crazy. I’ve heard it explained that these things were only intended for the apostles during that time. Where did this explanation come from? Why can we choose parts of the Bible to believe and others to ignore?
I also find it funny that the college I attended used as their motto, “Freely you have received, freely give.” Great concept, but it is taken out of context. This verse is found in Matthew 10 verse 8 where it states…
Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.
Then that is followed with, “Freely you have received, freely give.”
Hmm…never once did I hear this verse told in its entirety. It is easy taken out of context to make it fit what you want it to mean. Convenient omission? Not sure, but I am really starting to wonder why it has taken me so long to see these scriptures come alive.
These are just a few of the things I am working through and struggling to understand. I am in no way questioning my faith and belief in Jesus Christ. I am more wrestling with the ideas I grew up learning about, and how they align or do not align with what I am experiencing in my life currently.
