To be honest, when I heard we would probably do lots of street evangelism in Africa, I was not terribly excited. I didn’t think I’d enjoy it at all, and I didn’t think I’d be capable because it’s not ‘my gifting.’ But Jesus does this thing in which He surprises me time and time again. And He’s pretty darn good at it. I won’t go as far as saying that it’s my favorite kind of ministry, but I will say that it’s not as nerve-wracking or difficult as I’d expected. It’s also not about how well I can articulate myself or follow a set of procedures. It’s more about being sensitive to the Spirit and partnering with God in what He’s doing. Thinking of it as a privilege to see how God is moving on a given day in a given area makes it much more fun and doable. It’s my job to be obedient, not to be perfectly eloquent or completely knowledgeable about the Bible. I’ve been tempted to measure success by how well somebody responds to the gospel or how well we can answer their questions about heaven and hell. But really, the Spirit moves however He wants, regardless of my help or lack thereof. Any chance to take part in His work is a humbling privilege. How prideful to think that God needs me to say or do something well for someone’s heart to soften towards the gospel!
What I love about the evangelism we’re doing here is that it is so focused on discipleship. We’re not just going door to door, knocking at every home or business. We’re not trying to talk to any person on the streets in town. While we’re friendly with everyone (though we women have to be smart about our interactions with men who have ulterior motives), our main purpose is to help our ministry contact find potential disciples who will then be disciplers for others within their communities. We’re supporting sustainability by equipping people to deliver the love of Jesus and the importance of solid community in a culturally relevant way. We look for ‘people of peace’ with hearts of fertile soil, pray and speak basic truths to them, and tell them to spread the good news to other Ugandans in their language (Luo). While it’s not natural for me to share Jesus after minimal relationship building, I am realizing my passion for discipleship. I love seeing that lived out, and I love that we’re taking part in multiplying the Kingdom! It’s great to have so much freedom to explore and invest in whomever God places on our hearts.
Our ministry contact this month is a long-term missionary named Jeff who has been living in Lira with his wife and four children for two years now. He passed on to us an evangelism tool called “Creation to Christ,” (“C to C”) which is a simple 12-step story of the gospel. It’s fairly easy to remember, especially for most of these Ugandans whose minds have been trained in school to memorize things in a very systematic manner. Most of the locals speak at least some English, but there is definitely a language barrier. Often, it’s difficult to pick up what they’re saying. Their colloquialisms are different, and they don’t share our vocabulary. So they’re not familiar with words that we don’t even think twice about when explaining the gospel or telling our life stories. We also have had to slow down a lot, as they’re not used to our accents and our fast speech. It’s definitely a learning experience for us as we stumble and practice communicating! Many of them do not even own Bibles, though they have accepted Jesus. Since we’ve been asked not to hand out Bibles lest they associate us with “free things and money from mzungus,” we are focusing efforts on discipling. It’s also cool to support Jeff’s mission simply with manpower; the 15 of us can reach in one day the people he would spend two weeks reaching!
Some highlights so far:
+A few of us prayed for a woman with malaria, and we saw her immediately healed!! The healing was even confirmed by visits to her house thereafter. I later did an unexpected Bible study with her younger sister, who believes in Jesus but needs help understanding His teachings.
+We met a woman around my age who came to Uganda by herself, started her own non-profit, and rediscovered her passion for songwriting here. A big name Ugandan music producer found her and even did a free music video for her! She came down with malaria last week, so we visited her and prayed healing over her. Not only that, but her roommate became really vulnerable with us, so we prayed for her ongoing battle of doubting God’s existence and His goodness. Holy Spirit knows what’s going on!
+Some of us are discipling a lovely young couple down the road. They invite us in, serve us sodas, and enjoy hearing stories about our lives and Jesus. They are believers but need encouragement and community. On our first visit there, an older man came by, who turned out to be this couple’s friend. This man had tuberculosis and was shunned by his community, so this couple was the only family that welcomed and befriended him. He was severely burned by the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army led by Kony) years ago, and he has suffered much in life. But he believes in the healing power of Jesus and so allowed us to pray over him. We haven’t seen him since, but we have faith that he is well!
+The couple’s neighbor is an incredible woman of faith. She is 22 or 23- basically my age- and has three kids. (I can barely imagine having one kid at my age…) The abusive father left them when she was two months pregnant. She sees the man leaving as a form of God’s mercy and is so full of joy and gratitude now. The Lord continues to provide school fees for her children. So far that has come from minimal pay she earns by digging in people’s gardens for groundnuts and beans.
+I told a friend about my struggles in hearing clearly from the Lord, and she completely related. As we were ministry buddies for the day, we prayed to ask God about where to go that day. He obviously knew we both needed confirmation, because we got the same vision about where to go!
