I don’t really know what I was expecting in Africa… but God has far exceeded any expectations I had…
Friday was my first full day of ministry in Tororo, Uganda with the team. We are working alongside Deliverance Church, faithfully responding in obedience to whatever ways they ask us to serve them. Our ministry on Friday: “We will go into the market and evangelize.”
To say the least, I was really uncertain of what ministry would look like and what “evangelize” actually meant here…
We divided into 4 different groups, and each group was blessed to have a member of the church as our translator.
My translator was Regina. Regina is 60 years old and loves the Lord more than anything. She spends her days serving the Lord in whatever way He asks… but mostly evangelism.
There is so much to tell about how God moved today, but I am just going to jump to two of my favorite moments.
Amil: He works in the market sharpening knives with a bicycle looking contraption. Regina quickly calls me forward to come and share the gospel with him. We start talking about God and life. I told him that I believed in Jesus and wanted to learn more about what He believed. He began to explain to me his own beliefs, but quickly switched in curiosity to find out more about mine. “Who is this Jesus you speak of? Please tell me everything.” I begin to share God’s story with Him starting from the beginning of creation, following the resurrection until now. With Regina translating, it was simply amazing to watch God work. He asked great questions and had an innate desire to know more about Jesus. Unfortunately, we had to leave for lunch, but he asked to meet again. We are meeting at church on Sunday to read the bible together. I asked him what time, and he said 7am. I knew that I wouldn’t be there then, but he responded, “Oh I will wait for you Allie and Jesus.” I look forward to Sunday….
The hair salon: Later in the afternoon after lunch, we headed back out to the market. We ended up at a hair salon where four women were in the process of getting their hair done, and others were busy socializing. We began chatting about life, and as Regina led the discussion, we quickly began asking the women about their own relationships with Jesus. Julia, one of my team members began to tell the story of Jesus, and as the conversation continued, one of the woman, Rose, seemed to be completely checked out. Her body language and facial expressions expressed that she was the least bit interested in what we were saying. SUDDENLY, something switched on. Regina spoke to her in Swahili for a little bit, looked at me, and said, “Okay, she is ready to pray for a relationship with Jesus.” I responded in disbelief, “Are you sure!?” The women laughed at my reaction, as always. We led her in prayer as she invited Jesus into her life. When I got up to leave, Regina quickly corrected me saying, “Allie, where you go!? We have 4 other sisters in here to hear the good news!” And so we continued… and all four beautiful women accepted Jesus into their hearts. One by one, they each got on their knees (without instruction) in the salon and cried out to Jesus…
The crazy part? There’s 7 other stories I could tell from just today…
The crazier part? It’s only day 1 of our ministry in Tororo, Uganda.
My student Julia leading one of our friends from the
salon in prayer tohave a relationship with Jesus!
