Let love
explode and bring the dead to life
A love so bold
to see a revolution somehow
Let love explode and
bring the dead to life
A love so bold to
bring a revolution somehow
Now I’m lost in your
freedom
Oh this world I’ll overcome
My God is not dead,
He’s surely alive
And He’s living on
the inside, roaring like a lion
Let hope arise and
make the darkness hide
My faith is dead, I
need a resurrection somehow
Let heaven roar,
and fire fall,
Come shake the
ground,
With the sound, of revival
“Like a
Lion”- David Crowder Band
month 9 of the World Race, which has brought us to Uganda. For months now
we’ve known God had huge plans for us being here, having changed our initial
route from South Africa to East Africa. My team and I are in partnership with a
small church in Namulanda, which is just outside of Kampala, the capital city
of Uganda. We have been here for about two and a half weeks now, with just one
more to go. We couldn’t be more blessed this month. Our living conditions are
fit for royalty compared to what I expected of the race, and our contact is
refreshingly amazing. With all that said, this month still hasn’t necessarily been
easy.
View of Lake Victoria from our home
Pastor Alex, our
contact, has told us from day one that we have a message inside of us to bring
the church, and that he is expecting a revival while we are here. Although he
is totally allowing us to seek God and let the Spirit lead us in what this
looks like, there is some set ministry. We preach each Wednesday and Sunday,
and of course bring some “specials” to worship. I have also found
myself being the “evangelist missionary” I never wanted to be. In the
past, I have purposefully not answered my door if these people were on the other
side of it. We began the month going into the surrounding community daily, with
church members as translators, to spread the Gospel door-to-door. Even though
they are polite about it, people usually don’t want to talk to us because they
have heard it all before. Quite frankly I can’t really blame them because
it can be very awkward at times. I have found that while Ugandans are nice, they sure aren’t following us around and asking us into their homes for tea as
we have found in past months. Catholicism, Protestant, Islam, witchcraft and
“born-again” are the common belief systems present in the area. Upon
greeting a person, we are told to either ask questions in leading them to
salvation, or if “born-again” to give a word of encouragement. Let me
be blunt and say, this is not how my team and I work, or used to work that is.
We love people. We love relationships with people . . . that is what we
do. There is no time for that in our three-hour daily slot though.
However, God is
teaching me about different kinds of love this month . . . He has called me to
a deeper love for Him, to a completely new love for my team, to love people I
don’t want to love, and to love people so much that I plead for their souls. I
don’t want to love my translators when they make me do/say things I don’t want
to. I don’t want to love how we do things everyday. In the past, I would have
never been able to grasp the ability to deeply love a stranger. What God has
shown me though is, “Why would we not show people the love we have
received?” This is so true, because I am aware that I am not so easy to
love all the time myself. So, I choose to love when I don’t feel like it, and God
is making it easier by filling me with love I have never felt before. Needless
to say, things are picking up and I have a brand new attitude this month.
We are excited about
what the remainder of this month holds, and are enjoying our time here more and more
each day. Pray we would clearly hear from the Lord what this church needs and
in what ways we can empower them. Pray that leaders would step up in the church
and take action. Also, pray against spiritual warfare in this area, as we have
already been targets of it. We are on the frontline as we are doing
evangelism, so of course we would be attacked first hand.
I am excited to share
specific stories with you of what happens within the next week! In the
meantime, check out this song of which the lyrics above are from. It is truly
powerful and I see it as our theme for the month.
