UGANDA: 11 Challenges, 11 Victories, and 11 People We Met
11 Challenges
1. DOOR TO DOOR MINISTRY – Africans have a very different idea of evangelism. Flat out knocking on someone’s door and asking “Are you born again?” is acceptable. In America that would be out of the question, so that was a difficult transition at first.
2. CHRISTMAS – Unfortunately on Christmas Day my team was having a difficult time with one another… it was a bummer that it happened on the holiday, but don’t worry this ends up being under my “victories” as well!
3. BATHROOMS – Our bathrooms. are. CREEPY! 7 stalls with squatty potties… no doors and the toilets don’t flush, which doesn’t matter because most of the time we don’t have water anyways. I look forward to night fall when I can use mother nature as a bathroom.
4. SLEEP – Sleep can be hard to come by at night due to a super noisy bed, loud praying for hours right outside of my window, mosquito net falling down on me constantly, and especially having to go to bed fairly dirty each night.
5. KIDS – They are EVERYWHERE! I do love kids, but they can overwhelm me easily. Also, this is a culture that welcomes physical touch so personal space doesn’t mean much here, which is also difficult for me.
6. “MUZUNGU!” – Here we are called Muzungus which is a term used for white people. It’s impossible to walk down the road without all eyes on you or without multiple people coming up to you just because of your color.
7. CARB OVERLOAD – The food is definitely good, but a ton of carbs. There could be 3 different items on your plate but all carbs.
8. TEAM – Like I mentioned before, our team had a struggle towards the end of the month. Individually we were fine, but coming together as 7 different people was hard.
9. INTERNET – Internet can be a distraction for sure, but when it is needed to continue fundraising it gets tricky when it’s not available. We had to walk 45 minutes to town to get electricity and internet.
10. SPIRITUAL WARFARE – The spiritual warfare was present all month in multiple ways. It made sleeping difficult, which caused for a lack of energy later in the day. There were also walls built up because of it with many people.
11. WATER and ELECTRICITY – These things are also hard to come by. Water comes from a well which is solar powered so if it’s not sunny there’s no water. We also had no electricity in our building.
11 Victories!
1. CHURCH SERVICE – I’m not one to be interested in worshiping for hours, but the 3-4 hour long service here is definitely entertaining and I love it!
2. CHILLY! – It got chilly here a few times!!! I even needed a sweater! Oh how nice that was after sweating like crazy for 3 months in Asia!
3. FREEDOM IN MINISTRY – We didn’t have a schedule from our hosts so we had to create our own ministry. This was actually a lot of fun and I felt super accomplished in what we did.
4. SALVATION – A few people we met gave their lives to Christ. One day when I did door to door ministry with a man from the church, I had to preach to many people including a muslim. I had NO IDEA what to say… I know NOTHING about muslims, but God showed up and the man ended up giving his life to Jesus.
5. RELATIONSHIPS – We built relationships with many people this month. (See below)
6. NO DISTRACTIONS – On the flip side of having no internet or electricity, this limits distractions. It was easy to want to pour into people or spend time with God on down time.
7. HEALING – We prayed for healing for many people. When we visited those people a few days later they said that they never slept so good after we prayed for them etc. Also, a lady that was unable to talk was able to speak louder than before praying to proclaim what God had done for her!
8. TEAM – Our team had issues going on towards the end of the month, but we were able to pull them to the surface and get to the heart of it.
9. HURT CHILD – This is small and not exactly a happy situation, but when a small boy fell head first onto a concrete floor and busted his head, I was able to comfort him. I don’t think that they always get much of this so it was great to show the Father’s love to him.
10. GOD’S VOICE – There were some nights when everyone went to bed that I would sit out in the field and talk to God. His voice is becoming stronger and stronger to me and I’m able to recognize it clearer than before.
11. SICKNESS – The past three months I got sick at least once… but not this month!!! And thank God for that because it would not be an easy place to be sick.
11 People
1. Favor – This lovely lady cooked 3 meals a day for us, helped us with anything we needed, and is a child of God! She has an amazing story – she left her abusive husband and slept in a church for years with her 3 kids until our contact, Pastor Joshua gave her a place to stay and a job on the compound we stayed at. She’s a very strong women but so sweet at the same time!
2. Sherina – Favor’s daughter who is 17. She speaks perfect english so it was very easy to communicate with her. She’s such a lady at a young age! I loved talking to her and even just being around her… she brought a calm spirit wherever she was.
3. John – When we first met John, he wouldn’t even look us in the eyes and it took him a long time to answer us when we asked him a question. He accepted Jesus as his savior still though. Every time we went back to visit him he was so full of the spirit more and more and became very comfortable with himself in just a few weeks! It was so awesome to see!
4. David – This is my little buddy. He’s only 16 and I met him at the very beginning of the month. He’s such a sweetheart. He’s from Rwanda but goes to school in Uganda and plays football (soccer). His dad passed when he was younger but his mom did a good job of raising such a sweet man!
5. David – This David is friends with the other David. We also met him at the beginning of the month and then he came to spend Christmas with us! He’s also an extremely sweet man. His dad left when he was young and just never came back. They still aren’t sure what happened to him so his mom is raising 8 other kids as well. His story is incredible. BJ got the chance to really pour into him and build a strong friendship with him.
6. Pastor Sande – Now this guy is interesting. Just listen to him pray for a few minutes and it’s awesome! Satan must be scared of this guy. He speaks with power and authority, and everything he speaks of is awesome!
7. Adrienne – From Wales, this man is living on the compound for the next 10 years! He’s doing an agricultural project to help those in the community. His project will help individuals, but not by a handout – by working hard themselves for a better life.
8. Joseph – This 20 year old man invited us into his store one day when it was raining so we could have shelter. We ended up talking with him for a while and meeting up with him many times before leaving the compound. He’s an amazing singer and has dreams to come to the US. I can’t wait until he does!
9. Sisters up the Street (Their names are difficult) – We were doing door to door ministry one day and came across two elderly sisters who were in need of prayer. We prayed for their health and they claimed to have seen a difference! The one lady is 88 and we ended up introducing her to Nick (who is a 22 year old). Apparently they are now a couple 🙂
10. Pastor Joel – I just really like this guy. Love at first sight with that outfit for sure. Then he preached and I’m not really sure what he said – but it must have been good. People went crazy and I was just taken back by awe.
11. Grandma – This lady is awesome. I was digging a hole one day and she came, took the tool out of my hand and started digging herself. This grandma is strong.
