I
just returned to Uganda from a two-week trip to the US to visit family and
conduct some ministry business. What a
journey it was! I returned with one less
bag than I started with (thank you British Airways) and a few more pounds
packed on than I left with (thank you Jonathan Stark.) The visit with my
family, which I had not seen in almost two years, was such a blessing, and the
food…well that’s another blog story! I left the States longing to see my wife
and kiddos, but I also left feeling recharged and rejuvenated.
While
I was in the States I got to hear some amazing men of God speak. Pastor Will Lewis at Brazos Fellowship, Rev.
Elijah Stansell at Christ United Methodist and Pastor Tony McCollum at Seabrook
United Methodist. It was great to hear
these men speak and to hear a different perspective on God and how He is at
work. During my time in the States I was blessed to be able to share at 3
different speaking engagements how God is moving in Uganda and how He is using
Healing Faith as a tool for His Kingdom. However, as I always tell my children,
God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason…. So that you listen more than
you speak. I was so very blessed to be
able to listen to these men speak and lay it down for God.
While
at our home church of Brazos Fellowship, I was blessed to be at a First
Wednesday service in which baptisms were being conducted. It was amazing to see
the line of people who had decided to go public with their faith and make a
commitment to God. What I saw that evening brought tears to my eyes and gave me
goose bumps. I saw young children, the
future of the church, giving their lives to Christ. I saw college students and a mother and her
two daughters give their lives to the Lord together. The one that put a lump in my throat and
chills over my body was a sweet elderly couple.
This loving couple decided they were tired of waiting and at the age of
grandparents they gave their life to the Lord.
He was slowed with age and she could barely make it into the baptismal,
she had to be helped in by several members of the church. Right there on that Wednesday evening I
watched God move into the heart and lives of a couple that had been lost for so
many years before. After the husband came up out of the water a new man, he
reached for his wife who was waiting her turn and embraced her with a hug and a
kiss. It was a moment that I will never forget and a moment that brought tears
to the eyes of a whole congregation. It
just goes to show that it is never too late and God continues to work on
everyone’s heart that is willing to open it.
I
listened to Rev Elijah give a good report from a doctors appointment as he
began his sermon. He said the young doctor told him “I’m good to go.” He told
us he too had been on a journey, a journey of spiritual awakening. He told the
congregation that through his time with them at the revival “I’ve gotten some
content for my journey.” He spoke spiritual truth and asked the question “When
you are lying on your death bed will you be wishing you did more for Jesus or
are you secure in your place in His Kingdom?
Do you know that you know?”
Many
times the struggles we face here in Uganda begin to wear us down. We all have
struggles, these struggles just have different faces. For the last two years our struggles have
been the faces of the Ugandan people who are entrenched in poverty. So entrenched I wonder how the cycle will
ever end. Yet they always smile and welcome us and do not seem to dwell on
their circumstances. I have seen the
struggles of those suffering from illness, especially from malaria. I sometimes wonder how the Uganda people
could be dealt this fate. However, I
have come to realize that a quote from Rev Elijah Stansell nailed it. “Faith in a faithful God will determine my
fate.” It is this faith in a faithful God
that will determine our fate, not our circumstances. I heard him speak these
words at a Revival at Christ United Methodist Church. The dictionary defines a
revival as; a restoration, a new presentation. The church defines it as an
awakening. He brought a powerful message. Whether it is in a church in College
Station, Texas or the sugar cane fields of Uganda a revival is an awakening.
Well,
I am awakened by my journey. I am
awakened by this journey that God has placed our family on in Uganda. In the words on Rev Stansell, I’m good to go
and I have some content for my journey.
