Meet Wilson.
He is the village’s “patriarch” and one of the most genuine men of God that I’ve ever met thus far. Wilson is our contact’s father-in-law and the man who connected Brian and Jan to Agnes. When we were constructing the mud house for Agnes [a widow in the community nearby our hostel] and Viola [her orphan granddaughter], Wilson pointed to the reed framing of the house slathered with mud and declared, “This is the Gospel! This is the Action Gospel.” Later during the ride home with Brian and Jan, the Aussie couple that we partnered with this month, Brian shared this quote, “Love has feet.” Both these quotes resonated with me. Here I was in Uganda getting my hands and feet dirty- literally [check out the video] with my definition of the Gospel being reframed. This project emphasized that the Gospel is going and demonstrating Christ’s love. After all, the church is Christ’s body. We are His hands and feet.
My last day building the home for Agnes and Viola was my favorite ministry day of the race. Brian and Josh had completed the roofing on the house, and Jessica, Jan, Bri, and I had completed a majority of the 1st layer of mud on the walls of the home [Shannon and the rest of Pneuma were doing community outreach in another town that day]. Don’t worry. The house will be completed. Brian has arranged for some locals to finish the remaining work and to place the 2nd layer of mud and dung once the 1st layer dries. Wilson and some onlookers from the community were present watching the muzungus [Eastern African term for foreigners] finish our workday. Then, Wilson gathered everyone inside the house to hold a brief dedication ceremony. He shared both in English and Ugandan why these Americans and Aussies have come to serve Agnes. He explained that we came because Jesus told us to love her. Wilson then proclaimed, “The Lord is doing a new thing.” I stood near Viola as she smiled brightly. She was simply radiant with joy. Wilson looked directly at Agnes and shared the Gospel with her in Ugandan. Agnes accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior right there. My eyes were brimming with tears, and I turned to Viola and whispered, “This is one of the greatest days of your life thus far. Your grandmother just accepted Christ.” Viola smiled in return as the Aussies and the Americans were moved by the effect of our labor. In this moment, memories from the past few days flooded my mind. All the struggles that we had throughout the process were worth it. During our work week, we had locals come and demand money for the work that they gave willingly, we had locals laugh at us and try to tell us in Ugandan how we “should” build the house [Brian is a well-experienced alternative housing architect in Austriala], and our vechile got stuck in the mud for 2 1/2 hours on our first day of work [we had to chop down trees to move onward]. I saw these physical challenges as an illustration of the spiritual battles that we face daily as believers. The enemy doesn’t want Agnes or anyone to accept Christ so he tries to discourage the church from moving to action. He wants to tell us that it is too overwhelming to address the needs around the world. I share this illustration with the church to encourage you to not give up. Let us rise up and accept the call to action. The Gospel is worth taking risks for and worth fighting for.
Wilson thanked Brian, Jan, and every member of Team Pneuma present. I told Wilson, “this is just the beginning of greater things. The Lord will use you in mighty ways in this community and in Uganda.”
Like Wilson said, God is doing a new thing all over the world. The LORD is working and ever present. Yes, the needs worldwide are extremely overwhelming. At this point, I am growing weary of seeing the injustice on this earth. In this season, I am learning how to depend on the Lord for strength because I definitely cannot complete the race without His strength. Within the past week, I have grown tired of my environment constantly changing and traveling. However, I know that the LORD has called me to this for this season, and my prayer remains to be constantly renewed with purpose and vision for month 10 in Tanzania, month 11 in India, and post World Race. I want to share with you a theme verse for me during the past 3 months. Isaiah 43:19 has appeared at critical times while I was in Cambodia (in Chasing Daylight, a book that I was reading), Kenya (on a random billboard), and in Uganda (through a dear friend in Birmingham who knew she needed to share this passage with me when she read it a few days ago).
Team Pneuma’s WR chapter in Uganda is closing tomorrow. We are leaving for Tanzania tomorrow. Month 10 is here!
Check out this video that my teammate Matt Williams put together about the mud house:
