Church: Christ Miracle Center, formerly Namulanda Miracle
Center
Town: Namulanda, Uganda about 25km out of Kampala, near
shores of Lake Victoria
Pastor: Alex Kirega, Tony, Samuel, Peter, John, and 2 others
Congregation: approx 50, with possibly as many children
Building: approx 25’x15’
Supplies: pulpit, offering basket, 50 plastic lawn chairs, 2
lanterns, assorted mats for floor
Team Shiloh’s goal in all of this: come alongside and
support this church and these pastors in ministry, whatever that means.
Random stuff about our life/ministry these last ten days:
- The church has never hosted missionaries before.
- As “mzungu’s� (white people) we’re automatically given a
high place of honor. - Witchcraft is very common in this area.
- Here’s the story I was told about the meaning of
“Namulanda�. It referred to the group of women who lived in this village and
roughly translates to one or all of these: backbiters, gossipers,
rumor-spreaders, tattletale, snitch. When I asked what it meant, it took a committee
of three Ugandan men to attempt to share the definition. - I’ve never quite understood the definition of “spiritual
warfare� before coming to Uganda. Literally walk into it (is that an oxymoron?
Literally walking into spiritual warfare? I just woke up, give me some grace),
and you’ll understand it like never before. - So far, we’ve spent most days in ministry doing “door to
door� evangelism from 1000-1200. Hard for me at first, now it’s a privilege,
although a draining one, to share God’s heart with whomever we happen to meet
in the village. - Team Shiloh is also largely responsible for running the
church services. Preaching, testimonies, “special songs�, orchestrating the
offering and tithe-all of it.
- I had a chance to go to a nearby school/orphanage with Kyle,
while he played soccer with about 40 boys. During the two hours we were there,
I sat on the steps with a huge crowd of girls around me as they touched my
“mzungu� skin, played with my hair and drew pictures. Then we raced to the
soccer field and sat around to watch the guys finish their game. Ministry J
- There will supposedly be different ministries going on next
week. Possibly some visits to hospitals, prisons, orphanages, a youth
conference nearby… We learn things at the last minute and go for it. - Our transportation has been entertaining. I’ll try to add a
picture of our last break down, in probably the 8th car we’ve used
in the last 10 days. Yes, the entire team and driver fit in this car. It’s
totally normal…for World Racers, not Ugandans.
