Bridgeway Christian Church

I want to thank all of you for supporting me on my missions trip to Uganda this past summer.  I was able to complete my honey do’s in time (but now the list is longer than before!), and Jenny made it through amazingly without me.  She ended up feeling empowered when I got back that she was able to survive as well as she did. Praise the Lord for that and thank you for your prayers.  
 
Uganda was quite the experience and God was certainly moving in a big way.  One of my fears, physically speaking, was jet-lag.  I traveled to Europe when I was younger and was wiped for a week.  The travel was a breeze thanks to an impressive in-flight entertainment system and Tylenol PM.   When we landed in Uganda I was ready to go; I basically was able to hit the ground running. We scheduled two days at Pastor Steve’s home in Kampala to adjust to the time change.  I was feeling great, so I spent my time getting to know some of Pastor Steve’s family (he has 12 kids living in the house, so there are a lot of people to meet).  I played chess with one of the sons, then taught him how to play guitar, and read/prepared for my upcoming sermons. It was a wonderful relaxing time.
 
The next day we walked to the local market to purchase construction supplies and then loaded up the truck and headed out to Toggo, a small village 2 hours drive north of the city.  We immediately headed out to meet the locals.  We strolled up the long dusty dirt road and greeted everyone we saw.  We brought along candy to hand out to the children and took some pictures.  They loved seeing themselves in the camera.  I was amazed at the condition of the children.  Many had lice in their hair, their bellies were bloated from the worms, and their feet were in terrible condition because of jiggers.  To be honest I took me a few days to get beyond the surface stuff (culture shock) to start seeing people as God’s children.  It was almost like I had fuzzy glasses on, but God faithfully cleared things up.
 
The first ministry we did was the school construction project.  We actually picked right up where Jenny’s team last year left off.  It was fun to imagine Jenny digging the trench were the foundation now stood.  The bulk of the work was brick laying, and a little bit of trench digging.  Although there were a crew of workers working the 10 days we were in Toggo, we joined them for a day.  We worked our tails off and the workers were amazed and thankful for our participation. We quickly realized, however, that our involvement was slowing them down! It was amazing to see the school go up right before our eyes.
 
The second ministry we did was to put on a children’s program at the church that Jenny’s team built last year.  Children started appearing out of the bushes from every direction.  It amazed me to think how far they might have traveled. Many of these children were orphans, almost all I would say were impoverished, some had AIDs, but all had joy!  It was so much fun teaching them some simple worship songs in English and singing and dancing together.  We taught them bible stories and played games, did crafts.  At the end of the two day program they all got new clothes and sandals.  More than twenty children gave their lives to the Lord during our time with them.  There were some powerful moments.
 
After a few days in Toggo, I and a few others were struggling to see what God’s purpose of the trip was for us exactly.  We had a lot to do, but I was still operating with my fuzzy glasses on.  Our team ended up having a great sharing and prayer time that evening, and the next day God had our answer.  During the children’s program two members of our team stumbled upon two children,  a brother and sister,  sitting along the side of the road.  They invited the children to join in the game of tag that we were organizing at the field nearby.  They came along.  When we got to the field we noticed none of the other children would go near them.  We quickly learned that these children were outcasts in the community.  Their dad was a feared witch and their mother was dead.  Their dad had sacrificed them to the demons in exchange for power.  The community ended up running the father out of town because of his terrible behavior, and he left the children to fend for themselves.  Afraid of the demons and the father, the community has avoided contact with them and withheld help in any way.  Our best guess is that both children are less than 10 years old.  We found them filthy (even to local standards), malnourished, and socially lacking.  We stopped everything and talked with the children through an interpreter.  James prayed with each one of them and told them about Jesus.  They accepted him on the spot.  We then took them back to the village and bathed them and gave them new clothes and sandals.  As James and I bathed the boy I pained me to imagine the last time, if ever, he was cared for in this way.  Do they know even have a concept of what love is?  At that moment I found God’s purpose for the trip.  These children were given new names, Sarah and Enoch.  Pastor Steve and his family took them in and fed them and gave them a place to stay at their house.  Ultimately, Pastor Steve took to children to live with him in Kampala, miles away from the horrors they experienced in Toggo.  He is currently pursuing adoption of the children and has a big meeting with the local government  on Wednesday.  Sarah is severely delayed, and since our trip has been diagnosed with Epilepsy and has severe brain damage on the left side of her brain.  Enoch has been enrolled in school and seems to be relatively normal.
 
The first Sunday we were there, we split up into two groups to attend different churches.  I went with Pastor Fred to his church.  On the way, we stopped in at a campus church at a local teachers college.  It was held in a standard size classroom packed full of students singing their hearts out to the Lord.  The sound was piercing and the rhythm was consuming.  I loved it.  James and I each preached.  I was so nervous.  We were comforted by the thought of an interpreter cleaning up what we were trying to say, until we realized that they all spoke English!  Great, and I had to go first.  I spoke on Nehemiah and worked in my own testimony into it.  When I was done, I was amazed at how God acted as my interpreter and cleaned up my material for me.  It was my first time doing anything like that and I was blown away with how well it went.  Then we got out of there at went to Pastor Fred’s church to do it all over again.  Thankfully James went first this time and was able to fill our allotted time without me having to do speak again.  Once a day is good enough for a first-time, I don’t know how James did it besides being naturally gifted at it.
 
The third ministry we did was an adult seminar.  This was three full days of worship and preaching.  I had to preach twice, so I re-did my Nehemiah message and my second was one that I stole from Louie Gigglio and then massaged it to make it more applicable to the Ugandans.  I would call it my “God Loves You” message.  It went pretty well too.  Four or five adults gave their lives over to Christ though the seminars which made it all worth it.  
 
The fourth ministry we did was visiting a Christian school and deliver supplies that we brought with us in totes.  We packed the totes full of school supplies before we left the US. We taught them a few worship songs and then acted out David and Goliath. I was Goliath and I pulled a kid from the crowd and put him on my shoulders.  It was a ton of fun.  The school greatly appreciated the supplies that we delivered.
 
The last Sunday we spent in Uganda was back in the city of Kampala at Pastor Steve’s church.  He and his wife dressed us in some traditional Ugandan royal outfits.  The guys wore a long dress looking things, and the girls had these exquisite dresses.  We showed up and church had already been going on for hours. I got to speak again, so I did my “God Loves You” message a second time.  It seemed to go over well.  Three gentlemen came forward to give their lives to Christ after my sermon and Pastor Steve had me lead them in prayer.  I was thrilled and terrified at the same time.  I was paranoid about saying something unbiblical or incorrect.  We then did worship and broke out in a big congo line dancing around the church.  I think we should try this at Bridgeway!
 
All in all I was blown away with the way God works.  I became solely dependent upon him, and loved asking God to use me and know that every day I would see his hand at work in tangible ways each and every day.