Today is Friday, July 7, 2017. It is 11:30 in the morning – our day off. As I write this blog, I am sitting in on the cement floor, in the middle of our living room, trying to stay as far away from the walls as I can. Why? Keep reading and you’ll find out.
It’s month 10. We are in Uganda, just outside the city of Arua. We are living in the guest house on a mission hospital base. We walk along little paths to get to the churches we speak at, to the hospital we make rounds at, and we cross the street to a village where we do door-to-door evangelism.
This month has been really challenging. The enemy keeps attacking me and my team. I believe that it’s because he doesn’t like what we are here to do and the impact God has made in this community using our team (both us six Mzungus –white people- and the many locals who have given three weeks of their lives to be on mission with us during our time here).
I’m going to share with you some of the struggles we have faced, but keep reading because I promise to share the good as well! (And there is a lot of that).
When we first arrived here, our entire team was really excited! We have an entire house for our team. We each get our own bed (which is a rarity on the race), and many people on the team have their own room (pretty much an unimaginable on the race). We have a western toilet that we were told we could flush toilet paper in (the second or third month this has been a reality for me), we have an honorary team member from Kampala who has joined us for the month, and there are two sweet women who have volunteered their time to come and cook for us and help with laundry so that we are able to focus on ministry. And, we are on this incredible base, living in the woods, with monkeys who come to our windows.
It all seemed like a dream.
The first few days of ministry went really well. We attended a few church services on Sunday, and then on Monday we began doing some door-to-door evangelism. Even on the first day of evangelism, a man in the village decided to accept Jesus as his Lord and Saviour! The next day is when things started to be challenging. A member of our team came down with a really, really bad headache. That day the rest of us went back out to do some more Evangelism, and four more people decided to follow Jesus! (Including the wife of the man who had accepted Jesus the day before). Incredible things were happening. God was working.
The team member who had the headache then became really sick. The next day I came down with the headache, and ended up getting really sick the next day. Both of us were bed ridden for about a week. We were on a couple of antibiotics and each had to be on an IV at different times. Eventually we still weren’t feeling better and then gave us some deworming meds. That seemed to really improve my health. I am doing much better – only still struggling with a little weakness and dizziness on occasion. My other team member is doing much better, but is still not fully recovered.
During this time while we were both sick, the bathroom that we had been using stopped working. I guess the pipes got backed up and the toilet stopped flushing properly and sewage began coming up the drain in the shower. In other words, that bathroom became off limits. There is another bathroom in the house that our hosts got fixed up a bit so that we were able to start using that one.
Anyways, we were all finally getting back to a point where we could all go to ministry. Yesterday we all went to a school and put on a skit, gave a little talk, and sang some songs. It was great! We came back to the house and had a bible study time together as a team (again, not just our WR team, but our whole missions team including many locals). It was a great time of learning and talking and digging deeper into the word. After that is when the snake arrived. We saw it outside the house at first, climbing from a tree onto the roof where it could climb in to the house. At that point, we weren’t too worried about it.
Later, right before we were supposed to leave for our afternoon ministry at the hospital, one of my teammates noticed a ton of monkeys outside the window. She tried to get their attention because it was the most monkeys she had ever seen at one time, but they wouldn’t pay any attention to her. That’s when she noticed the snake that was half way in the house and half way outside, trying to get away from the monkeys. Long story short, we all started freaking out and one of the locals began trying to kill it. He wasn’t able to get it and it crawled up into our roof. We were told that it was a very dangerous and poisonous snake. They called over a bunch of locals, including some security guards who came with a bow and arrows. However, we had to leave for ministry.
As you can imagine, it was hard to get our heads in the right place for ministry. All we could think about was this very long and dangerous snake in our house. We were just praying that they would find it and kill it while we were gone.
They weren’t able to find it. We got back to the house and they hadn’t found it or killed it. The security guards had left.
Later they started trying to find it again. They had some sort of spray that they were spraying up to the roof to move it out (apparently it really doesn’t like the smell of the spray). They got it to the point where it was sticking its head outside, so they tried to hit it and it went back into the roof. Again, most people left. Later on we asked if they could try spraying again, and they did but to no avail.
It became dark and it was time to head to bed. None of us were too excited to be sleeping in the same house as a poisonous snake, but our host said that the snake wouldn’t be able to get into any of our rooms. We prayed, then headed to bed.
Two of our team members share a room on the opposite side of the house as the rest of us. As they were getting ready for bed, they clearly heard the snake sliding along on top of the ceiling in their room (and right outside their room there is a hole in the ceiling). So, they were told they had to move to the other side of the house. We all put extra bug nets around our beds, stuffed socks in the holes in our ceilings, and went to bed. This was last night. I did not sleep well. We slept with the lights on, and I woke up many times and frantically scanned the room.
It’s the next day now. We are all alive and well. However, the snake has not yet been killed and was last heard on the side of the house with the bathroom that we were using (because the other one stopped working). There is a hole in the ceiling of that bathroom, so now that one is pretty much off limits as well. In case you haven’t already been able to tell, I’m having a really hard time with this. I don’t know what the next step is. What I do know is that the enemy doesn’t like what God is doing here and so he is trying to get in the way.
Since we have arrived in this place, many people have come to know Jesus! There have been women who have received Bibles. People have begun to learn more about discipleship and we are hoping to continue to encourage believers to disciple one another. Great things are happening.
Please pray that nothing gets in the way of what God is doing here. Please be praying that this snake reveals itself and that we are able to kill it. In the meantime, please pray that those of us living here will be filled with peace and able to get rest without worrying (something I am really struggling with). Please be praying for our safety.
I believe that God can redeem this situation. I love this ministry and I love this place. The enemy has really known how to distract me this month. I’m asking you to join with me in praying that God gets in the way of the enemy, and that we are able to finish this month out strong.
