Although our ministry was mostly teaching at the school in Uganda, once in a while our Pastor will have us do something different, such as visiting church members at their houses and encouraging them. Sometimes these “visiting days” are more interesting than others. Here’s a description of a visiting day we had two Fridays ago – it was definitely a most interesting one, and it opened my eyes to the various ways that God was working in each person’s life, even though they were from the same community.
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The first house we hit is Lutire’s house; it’s only a minute’s walk away from the church. Lutire is a sweet old man who hobbles out to greet us with the sweetest grin on his face; the first person he greets is Ben, who leads Wednesday Bible Study at his house. He beckons us inside in typical African fashion, although he has no idea we would come visit.
As we sit, he tells us his testimony, how he came to know Christ only two years ago, I marvel that this old man is already overflowing with the joy of Christ and hosting Bible Studies at his house. He testifies as to how he had no money to fix up his house and thought it was done for, but some youth unexpectedly came and helped him fix it up, and now it has concrete walls and a sturdy roof.
We ask him for prayer requests, and his only one is to grow deeper with the Lord. So we pray for him, and he joyfully waves us off as we depart for the next house.
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The second house we visit is James’s house. James is a middle-aged man, a new believer who came to Christ recently when his reverend father died. However, as he welcomes us into the house, we find out that his wife, Juliet, used to be a believer before he was, but is no longer attending church. Loving Taryn asks why she is no longer attending church. It is because she was hurt by a fellow member at the church, the very person who led her to Christ. We are able to encourage her that she should not blame God for something that someone else did, and that He is still waiting to have a relationship with her. After a long discussion, Juliet decides to return to God and promises to attend church the next Sunday. We are so thankful to God that we get to witness His child returning back to Him!
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Thirdly, we visit Elder James's house. Elder James is one of the leaders of the church, and he has 7 biological children as well as 4 nephew/nieces he has taken in to be his own. As we sit in his living room and one of his grandsons climbs all over him, to our surprise he asks us to pray for his sons and daughters, many of whom have not acknowledged Christ as their Saviour. He also asks for prayer for spiritual breakthrough. I am surprised that so many of Elder James's children have not received Christ, but it serves as a reminder that each person has to decide for themself the path they will follow. We pray for him and his wife Robina, and they wave us off with warm handshakes and smiles. I know the prayers we said will bear fruit in his family one day.
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We go home to rest a bit and eat lunch; later in the afternoon, we are told by Pastor Joseph that we will go to “burn witchcraft items”.
The idea of this might be incredulous to a typical North American, but we’ve discovered in Africa that witchcraft is no small business. In fact, in the school curriculum handbook on how to teach gym class, it is written that "no witchcraft is to be practiced during gym class"! There are many families that are still involved in this demonic practice, and in many African minds is really the epitome example of "sin" or "opposing God".
So, rather unfazed, we get in the van and Pastor drives us to a little road next to the church.
We arrive in front of a little roadside stand, where we meet Annette and follow her to her house. We discover that her husband, who practiced witchcraft, had recently died, and that Annette became a believer shortly after. She had been rejected by her family for her husband’s involvement with witchcraft, and she is left alone to take care of her five little children with only the income from her little stand, from with she sells a pathetic handful of vegetables.
We are able to encourage her with the story of Elisha and the widow's oil, (2 Kings 4), about how God miraculously provides for a widow, who is destitute after the death of her husband, by multiplying her jar of olive oil. We also encourage her that God will never forsake her, even if everyone else does.
We prayed for her and left that day not knowing what God would do for her. But we found out a few days later that we had enough sponsors in order to sponsor 3 of her children to school! We had no idea at that point that we would have so many sponsors reply that her children could be sponsored. So, praise God for another wonderful, powerful answer to prayer.
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These are not all the homes we visited that day. Sometimes our visits are quite ordinary, such as our visit to Lutire; sometimes, God just chooses that moment to blow us away, such as the case with Juliet. And sometimes, we have to pray that prayer of faith that doesn't seem like much, but is answered in the most wonderful way, as in the case with Annette. All this to say; don't underestimate the love shown by a simple house visit and the power of a prayer. Every place we visited was a story in the process of being written. You never know what God can work through a simple visiting day.
