Meet Charles:
40 years old
Originally from the village of Bwenge,
Uganda
Passionate about church planting and discipleship
Founder of World
Reach Ministries
Welcome to Bwenge, his home village:
In May of this year, Pastor Charles’ estranged Uncle,
who had become deeply entangled in witchcraft, in a purely demonic moment, chose
to partake in a child-sacrifice…using a member of his very own family, Charles’ young nephew.
His Uncle is caught in town carrying the severed head
of his nephew, when the local villagers revolt against him.
Amidst the chaos, the Uncle is murdered and
two other innocent villagers are killed by misfires of police warning shots.
So, what was a fairly ‘normal’ community, is now
tainted with witchcraft, a child sacrifice, one murder, and two other people
dead… All on Charles’ mother’s land.
What’s happening now:
As the family’s resident
pastor, Charles had been asked to return to his village and dedicate the land, cleansing it of all the evil that had recently
been sown into it.
The ten of us World Racers had arrived in Seeta, Uganda
only a few days before, heard the story, and were asked to join him in this
visitation and dedication.
We didn’t know what to expect…a part of us a little
uneasy about heading into such a dark spiritual environment….another part of us
anxious to see the Lord redeem His land and His people.
Per African culture, we arrived a couple hours later
than scheduled, to the majority of the villagers waiting at Charles’ mother’s
house, cheering as we pulled up.
They sat us up front as their honored guests, then went
through numerous lengthy introductions and welcome speeches.
Charles explained the purpose and vision of the
service, we sang a few songs, then Char, one of our girls, preached a message
about God choosing to use ordinary people to do extraordinary things through
His power.
After the Word was sown, Charles gave the villagers an
opportunity to receive Jesus as their Savior and Lord….
Nearly all of the villagers eagerly accepted!
Charles turned to us in a moment of shock, almost
panic, saying “Oh my goodness! They all
want to be saved! What do we
do??!!!” hahaha
I love when God shows up in ways that leave us completely dumbfounded. 🙂
After that, he had us all spread throughout the crowd to minister to the people individually. We each had person after person
coming to us for prayer, parents pushing their children toward us one after another…after another…after another.
We all sang and praised even more, together as a new family.
Then they introduced the new Pastor that would be
pastoring the church they would be erecting that week and discussed their
dream of also bringing a school to that community.
The villagers were so hungry for more and more of God
that they could have sat there for days listening to the Word, learning more
about the heart of the One who had saved them.
As we left, they sent us off with plenty of corn,
jackfruit and avocados, asking repeatedly when we would be back.
We were all so humbled to see such a mighty move of
God.
Yet another reality check of an extremely ripe harvest!
I know many people so desperately want to see God work
miracles of healing, raising someone from the dead, etc.
I want to see those things too, don’t get me
wrong…
But I must say, for me, there’s no greater miracle than that of
a heart fully surrendered to the Lord and the beautifully transformed life that follows.
No greater miracle.
