'High Fashion' and 'Full of Joy'

High Fashion

I asked Alice if we could purchase some African style dresses so she took us to a tailor to choose some fabric and to be measured for a traditional Ugandan dress – one worn by Ugandan women for special occasions only.  The cost of these hand made dresses is about £30 and Alice said that is a good price, but prohibitively expensive for many people – if a woman has one, it is just one and she keeps it and wears it for all occasions.  I laughed because I asked where they get the fabrics and she said they were imported from China!   After our visit to the tailor, Mark bought a ready made African shirt for about £5. 

Looking at some Ugandan fashion designs.

Negotiating a price with the tailor.

Choosing fabrics.
 

The tailor's baby asleep on the floor!

The tailor had measured us on Saturday morning and by Saturday evening our dresses were ready to be collected.  On Sunday morning, Alice came and helped Jocelyn and I dress for church as it was really difficult to put on by yourself – there was a large piece of fabric underneath made into a  petticoat and to help hold out the fabric of the dress. It was all very hot especially when walking along in the hot sunshine! 

As we walked along the street to church (feeling a bit silly as we’re not used to it) everyone was coming out to greet us, clapping, cheering and tooting us.  An elderly lady came out to the street and shook our hands and thanked us for dressing in Ugandan outfits.  It seemed that we were honouring them by wearing them and it was very humbling. 

 

On our final day, Alice once again helped us get into our Ugandan outfits for the final service and the other ladies had also worn their special dresses to mark the occasion.

 

 

 

 

Full of Joy

For anyone who has ever been to Africa you will know that the worship is infectious, joyful and exuberant.  When everyone starts singing and dancing there is no chance of standing still!   One of the pastors said that there are two types of joy, inner joy and face joy.  Sometimes people in the UK need to tell their faces about their inner joy!!   One of the most moving things for me in African worship is when the women ululate – if you look it up on google it’s like a call of pure joy from the throat used in celebrations in Africa and the Middle East and when I hear it I am always moved to tears – it just does something to me!  

Children performing a dance.

You just can't stand still in African worship!

 

Mark enjoyed having a go on the drums!

 

Whenever we are in places where there is material deprivation, we are always astounded by the absolute contentment and joy amongst people who materially, have very little.  In the West we seem to constantly be pursuing happiness, comfort and wealth which may bring people ‘face joy’ but certainly doesn’t bring inner or lasting joy and contentment.  Again, we have SO much to learn from our brothers and sisters in Africa and other places around the world. 

On Sunday afternoon the church organised a children’s afternoon and invited children’s groups from other churches in the town and surrounding areas.  Each group came and performed a song and dance for us.  After this, Jocelyn did a children’s story and I taught the children some of our songs – ‘Great Big God’ (always a favourite!), ‘Great Great Brill Brill’ and then ‘We want to see Jesus lifted high’. 

Children praying for each other.

I got the children into groups to pray for each other.

Joyful singing!

'And he holds us in his hand!'

An explosion of joy!

Having a sleep during the long service!

It was like an explosion of joy that broke out in the place with everyone, adults included, all dancing and having fun.  It was SO exuberant!  I felt so full of joy I could have cried and it felt like a glimpse of heaven.  It is a moment I will never forget, seeing all the happy joyful faces just rejoicing together in God’s presence. 

Taking running water for granted

When we turn on a tap in our homes we take it for granted that water will come out and that when we want a shower or bath we will have plenty of hot water.  This is not the case in many parts of the world including rural Uganda.  In our hotel we were blessed to have running cold water (as we did when we lived in Guyana) but on the morning of our anniversary we woke up to no water at all and had to have a wash with face wipes!

Very few homes there have running water to the house.  Some people collect water in containers when it rains.  Some go to bore holes in the villages and in the early morning and evening we saw trails of children walking to the bore holes carrying yellow water containers to collect water for their families before or after school or struggling to push bikes laden with several water containers.  Some, if they have no bore hole, have to find wells or rivers.   

The day we arrived in Wobulenzi the heavens opened and it rained heavily and solidly for several hours.  Lazarus said it was a sign of God’s blessing as it had been dry for a long time prior to that.  It also rained the day we visited the village of Sempa and the people there were also very grateful.  We complain about rain here in the UK but out in Uganda water means life.  Without the rains the crops fail and the people go hungry.  Also, the water sources become dry and empty and the lack of water can cause illness and disease to spread.  We had an amazing answer to prayer when we visited Masaka.  They asked us to pray for their land as they had had no rain for over three months and with the relentless hot sunshine the crops were not growing and people’s water supplies were running low.  We all prayed over the land and asked God to bless it and their crops and to send rain.  We heard the next day that the rain had started the very next morning at 5am and had rained non stop until the evening!  We were so thankful and amazed and everyone joyfully gave thanks to God for his goodness.   

Torrential rain on our arrival.

 
In the village of Sempa we discovered that there is no running water and not even a bore hole for water and Lazarus told us that the people have to climb up a hill to a well to collect water.  We asked if we could walk with him to the well so that we could get an idea of how far it was.  We climbed the hill in hot sunshine and from my phone counting steps found that it was a 1 ½ km climb to the well.  When we saw the well we couldn’t believe that it was the only source of water for 6000 people – it was a small hole with water coming from underground and it was quite shallow and muddy so very difficult to get any clean water from it. 

Beginning the climb up to the water hole.

Passing los of banana trees!

We met a young girl coming down the hill carrying a small amount of water.

The village was like going back in time.

Climbing onwards and upwards.

A coffee tree!

 

Shockingly THIS is the water source for a village of 6000 people.

 

 

 

Walking back down the hill to the village - about a mile away - it was a long slog for us and we weren't carrying heavy water containers.

It is unbelievable that in this century there are still so many people in the world without access to clean water and we pondered this as we clambered back down the hill, imagining what it would be like walking down carrying water containers we were reminded once again about how easy we have life in the UK. 

Lazarus wants to build a bore hole for the village to get clean water from deep underground and we learned it will cost about £5000 to do that and we have a written quote for it.  I am sure that with help we can assist with that over the coming year.   The Methodist charity ‘All We Can’ have as their harvest appeal the theme of ‘Making a splash’ and are seeking to raise money for bore holes in Uganda so if this challenges you please contact them and make a donation or order some Harvest resources for your church or school.  http://www.allwecan.org.uk/service-materials/harvest

 

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.