Getting out of the church buildings

One day we were taken to a place called Masaka about a four hour drive away.  This was a difficult day for me as I had an upset tummy and toilets were few and far between but I got through it by the grace of God! 

We had lunch at the pastor’s house then walked to the church for the seminar.  As we walked we passed a little hospital with a queue of silent people waiting to see a doctor.  Health care is not free in Uganda so many people can’t afford to see a doctor even for the most basic of illnesses. 

After the service we offered to pray for people and as usual there was a queue wanting to be prayed for.   During the service I felt that God wanted us to go back to the hospital to offer prayer to people – how can we preach about the power of Jesus to heal and walk past these people in so much need?   Lazarus came with us to translate.  I explained to the crowd that we are Christians who believe that Jesus has the power to heal and offered prayer in his name to anyone who wanted it.  They were a little reluctant at first but then one by one they lined up to be prayed for healing.  We didn’t ask them what was wrong and don’t know the outcome of our prayers but I felt we were faithful and obedient to what God laid on my heart and just leave the rest with him. 

The small gathering at Masaka...me feeling very peculiar!

Praying for people at the hospital.

The group silently watched us leave after we had prayed for them.

A little girl I saw on the street - I love this photo!

The next day we had another long journey, this time to the East of the country, heading to Jinja. 

Firstly we stopped at a village called Mbiko where we thought Mark was leading a seminar but when we arrived the only people there were two pastors which was a bit upsetting after travelling so far to be with them, both by plane and then by car.  However, we didn’t want to waste the journey and Mark felt led to go out into the village to the market and preach there as Wesley would have done! 

So off we trogged with Lazarus to interpret and Mark preached in the market.  Alice led some singing and several people approached us to ask us to pray for them – it struck me how different the experience would be in the UK if we did that but people are much more open to God in Africa – here people are very self-sufficient and self-reliant and many don’t see a need for God in their lives whereas these people can’t rely on free health care or on money to get them through problems and so they are more dependent and open to receive from God.  Again, we have SO much to learn from their faith and trust. 

Alice leading the singing in the market.

Mark preaching to the passers by.

We travelled on to Jinja to what was meant to be a lunch fellowship.  Again there were only a handful of people there (and no lunch!!) so Jocelyn and I took the parachute we had brought with us outside to use with the little gaggle of children who had started gathering. 

Whenever we stopped anywhere we found children appearing from nowhere to look at the ‘muzungu’ (white man) and try to touch us!  Alice went up and down the road gathering more children and soon we had a little excited crowd of children playing parachute games enthusiastically!  It must have been like the circus coming to town! 

This was in the middle of a weekday but remember that sadly many can’t afford to send their children to school so a lot of kids are around in the daytime.  It struck me how much people complain here about our education and health systems but we really don’t know how blessed we are.  If it was all taken from us we might appreciate just what a gift these things are and be more grateful and grumble less.  While playing with the parachute a mother walking past with her child asked me to pray for him as he was sick.  It was my privilege to do that and I was again amazed as this is not something that would happen in the UK.  

We had been joined by a friend of ours, Paul from Kenya who, bless his heart, had travelled for three hours on a bus, then a ‘boda boda’ (motorbike taxi) to meet us there so he could see us.  We were so honoured and humbled that he would come that far to see us for such a short time.  Especially as the church didn’t provide us any lunch – it was fine for us to be hungry for a while but he then had to travel all the way back to Kenya on an empty stomach and we could do nothing to help him.  He didn’t even seem to mind and we were so grateful – again people in Africa just have to get on with life even when there is hardship – they don’t have the luxury of having a pity party or whining about their lot. 

Mark preaching to our little gathering.

After the parachute games we sang some songs with the children and Mark preached a short message then we blew bubbles for the kids which caused more excitement and joy!  It was touching to see how something so simple as a pot of bubble mix could bring so much happiness.  One thing that made me sad was that one or two of the children were trying to get the bubble pot off me and saying ‘muzungo give me’ over and over.  What was sad was that they were so busy trying to get something they couldn’t have that they missed all the fun of the actual bubbles.  L I thought that was a good illustration of how we can be sometimes – missing out on the joy in front of our faces in the present moment because we are striving for something different or out of our reach.

Us with the leaders and our friend Paul from Kenya.