Monday, February 28, 2011

For Naziwa Harriet

As we gather together mourning our loss at the death of Naziwa Harriet we need to keep death in the proper perspective. For Christians that perspective is love not fear.

1Corithians 13:4-11 tell us that love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection come the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways be hind me. Now we see but a poor reflection in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then we shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

Because of God's love for us through Jesus Christ we have courage to see the future that is unseen and strength to face the most difficult painful troubles, like the death of Harriet. Prophecy reveals God's plan for us but when we fully receive God's love at death, we need prophecy no longer. We enter into His final plan. Our earthly knowledge becomes inadequate when we are in His presence. All our imperfections disappear and we now see and know all the truth of God that we could not grasp before.

As a child, like Harriet, we try to understand life through imperfect hearts and minds. But on becoming a man, Paul said the childish things are behind him. When do we become spiritual adults? Are we there yet? Do we see clearly? Not yet! We only see dimly like a dull mirror, in the half light of the fading world. Fading because of the sin that has taken so much of our lives.

But when we are made perfect, with our sin nature removed at death, then we will know and understand the pain and sorrows that we faced on Earth, God's eternal purpose and plan. For now we are still kids but Harriet is now a spiritual adult in the presence of Jesus Christ. She knows the very things we long for through faith.

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." We have faith that Jesus is the Savior of men, hope that the call to glory will one day be sounded for us, and love for each other that builds us up together in Christ.

1Corinthians 15:32 "If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what have I gained? If the dead in Christ are not raised, "Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die." If we go through this life with the only purpose of this life being to please ourselves then we should just get drunk and eat ourselves to death. But that doesn't work! The glutton can never get enough food nor the drunkard enough beer! So where do we find our hope? In the Love of Jesus Christ!

1Corinthians 15:54-55 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying is that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?" By knowing the love of God through Jesus Christ, Naziwa has not been stung or defeated by death. She has conquered death. That is how she could live such a joyful life even with all her health problems. She smiled through the most severe pain because she knew that death was not a sting but a hoped for release into the new light and knowledge of God.

If you have been stung by the death of our little sister, turn to Christ! There is no fear in Him! Only Faith, Hope and Love.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Of Mites and Men

The other day Bev was sitting on the sofa when she complained that she felt like she was being eaten alive. But we couldn't see any bugs so we sprayed some Doom (that's the East Africa version of Raid) and left it at that. Bev sat back down some few minutes later and the itching was much less but still there. Being your typical missionary couple we did what any right thinking missionary would, do we went to bed. Things always look better after a good night's rest.

Next morning before we could check the situation out more thouroughly JB came in and sat on the couch. Now you may not realize it by looking at him but JB can dance! I know because after about two minutes he was up on his feet doing all kinds of moves. Then we noticed he looked kinda fuzzy. And paler than usual. On closer inspection he was covered in mites. Not termites that you eat but mites that bite and eat you. Bev suspected (and was right as usual)that the cause was a bird's nest in the vent bricks above the couch. Turns out the attic was a mite full of the little critters and the over flow was coming down through the windows. Apparently mites are smaller than the spacing in our window screens. So after getting some mitey strong insecticide we hauled all the furniture out into the yard and prayed and sprayed for the end to the infestation. God is good and the problem is over. But the funny thing is we couldn't see the mites on Bev because of her light skin but JB's skin showed them quite well.

Personally I'm more afraid of getting red lung disease. This is a condition that affects taxi and lorry drivers, touts(the money takers on taxis), turnboys (the young men who ride in the lorries and tell the driver to "Turn just there."
Apparently there is a law here that says you can't say turn left at the corner. You must be as vague as possible and say, turn just there) and all other frequent upcountry drivers during dry season. It is like the blacklung of coal miners but is brought on by the red dust that is forever hanging like a pall of crimson death over the roads here. At times it is so thick that head on collisions happen. Or rear enders. The latter are caused by those trying to overtake the vehicle ahead so as to not breathe fresh dust. This desire for fresher air causes people to race up behind the offending vehicle and attempt to pass at the worst possible time and place. Blind curves, crests of a hill, bridges, sidewalks (actually that is a path next to the road) or anyplace you choose just as long as you don't have to stay behind that dust maker any longer!

I have been trying to get our clinic in Ogongera running and have been making many trips back and forth. My gray hair is now red and I am beginning to look sunburned from the dust that seems to be penetrating into my pores. Good news is we should have the clinic functioning on a limited basis with a Registered Nurse and a Nursing Assistant by mid March. Then we will add a lab tech and then see where God leads us. Please pray for the staffing at the clinic as this is the primary medical facility for about 8,000 people. We also have to put new ceilings in one of the buildings as the old ceilings have collapsed. Termites don't you know! Makes me hungry just thinking about it.

Monday, February 14, 2011

How do you rebuild?

It is a rebuilding period for us. Rebuilding the ministry in Jinja and the clinic in Ogongera.
The Jinja ministry is getting a new pastor. Moro Steven, who has been our prisons pastor for the last four years is going to take over the Sunday teaching duties when Jb and Grace depart for their new old home, Pajule, at the end of the month.

God has a way of getting things in place before we realise it and He is doing it in our ministry again. When Ryan left we never thought we could get a group to replace him but God has given us Otim, Aaron, Morris, Joseph, Anna, the harmony sisters Neema and Loyce, the harmony brother Patrick and it all just gets better. No, you can't replace Ryan, but God brings along a whole new wind to breathe back life into His church.

We can't replace JB but God doesn't want to replace him only move him. To try and fill JB's shoes would be tough. He wears a 71/2 and I wear a 13 so that doesn't work. But Steven has his own shoes and fills them quite comfortably. So God will use Steven in the way God intended and use JB in the place that was intended for him to be.

This past week I had another meeting at the clinic in Ogongora. This time the District Health Officer and the District Drug Inspector attended and gave us guidelines to get the clinic running again. Upon my return home the next day a very close brother in Christ calls from the States and wants to come with a team to do some work. Well I may not be a rocket scientist but I do know when God is working. So God is already making preparations to physically rebuild the clinic structure. And today I met with a registered nurse who wants to go and run the clinic. God is good!

How do you rebuild? Apparently you don't. You just trust God to do what He does best. And that would be completing the good work He has begun in Jinja, Ogongora, Pajule, you and me. If you are in the midst of a God project in your life, take heart. There is no one as faithful as Jesus.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

What year is this?

Now that we are firmly into February it is time once again to visit. Not friends but offices. Every year the paper chase gets going in February. Now some with a Western mindset would think that the best time to start a year is at the start of the year. That makes sense but it just doesn't work here. Schools are out in January so anyone with a government job is at home from early December to just after Groundhog's Day. Which just happens to be my older brother Rob's birthday. (Happy Birthday Rob!) But that is not important. It's also the day that those government workers start filtering back to the offices, so it is my day to start the hunt again for the elusive land lease.

The lease, like the animal mentioned above, will burrow to the bottom of any pile of papers it can find(the groundhog, not my brother Rob). Must be true since no living person in any office has seen my lease application. Not just since last year but ever! Even the gentleman who greeted me so warmly "Ah, my friend, how have you been? Has it been a year already?" When asked about the lease that I put in his hands last year says he has never seen it. I didn't believe him until I saw a pile of papers scurry out the door. Now I don't know what to think.

Walking away feeling discouraged but strangely upbeat at the idea of kicking back and waiting for Rob's birthday 2012, I bumped into a friend at the Resident District Commissioner's office. He is not the RDC but knows him well enough to throw his weight around, a little. Mr Nyanzi escorted me from office to office trying to track the lease. I had to laugh when the young lady in one office said,"Pastor, stop your friend, he is being harsh on me." This young woman had earlier made me stand in her office for over an hour as she leafed through the entry book looking for my filing date. I tried to help her but she got huffy and said that people were not allowed to touch the "BOOK". I watched in amazement as every time she came near my entry date she turned two pages not just one. Now my friend made her turn one page at a time and low and behold there it was. NO, not the lease but the entry date. Now with that and a simple fee of 2,500 shilings I can get a cup of coffee but the lease is still lost.

In one office they asked me if all my fees had been paid. I told them, yes, but only up to last time I saw the lease in 2010. Not to worry, they assured me. You are ahead. You don't pay for this year until next year and last year wasn't supposed to be paid until the end of this year. And because this is an election year nobody is paying until they know who the boss will be!

But I have been assured that the lease will be found by next week. Something to do with Equatorial Vermin Day. Or the president's brother's birthday whichever comes first.


Do not fear however. I have been assured that the lease will be found by Monday. That is bittersweet news as I would love to get our lease officially but then I wouldn't have any excuse to visit all my friends.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

God's Pain

The School of Ministry has started Old Testament Survey and naturally we start at the beginning. Today as we were exploring Genesis, I was surprised at the thought of God's pain. How does God feel pain? If you know everything that is to happen and that causes you pain would that pain lessen or deepen? If there is no effect of time on you do the things that cause pain ever get better?

I started thinking about this while looking at the sacrifice of Isaac. On their journey to Mt. Moriah Isaac asks Abraham, "The fire and the wood are here but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Abraham replied "God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son."

When God heard those words, what did He feel? Joy at Abraham's faith in Him? Love for Abraham knowing that He would provide a substitute for Isaac? All these are good but what does our Father feel when He knows there will be no substitute for Jesus His Son?

There must be great love for us there knowing that we put our faith in God, trusting the Lamb He sends as our sacrifice.

There must be great joy there knowing that we live and are saved by the substitute He provides.

But I can't imagine the pain God must have felt when He knew His only begotten Son would die for all the evil, sinful things I have done. The hurt must have been terrible, when Abraham said "God Himself will provide the Lamb."

Later when Abraham raised the knife to sacrifice Isaac and he is stopped by the angel of the Lord, what did God feel? Joy at Abe's obedience? Love for the man who was willingly going to give up the person he cherished most for the sake of knowing God? Or pain at knowing that there would be no last second substitute for His own Son?

For two thousand years what was God's pain every time He promised Israel a Messiah, a saviour for sinful man.

But that's not the whole story. Don't forget God's joy when He said, "This is my Son. In Him I am well pleased!"

What was His joy when Jesus finished His work by resurrecting from the dead and then ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of His Father?

If that joy could ever be equalled it must come from us! That is the enrivaled joy we should and must have in our Savior. That is the love we must have for Him who showed us what love truly is, while we were still sinners Christ died for us. That is the faith we must have in God through Jesus. That He would willing lay down His life for us.

Pain should be there when we sin but it will always be overcome by the joy of forgiveness.

I guess I can't imagine the joy of truly forgiving someone to the point that I can't even find a trace or mark of the offense. That is the joy of forgiveness that the Father knows.

May we know it too. Teach us Lord how to avoid the pain of sin and the embrace the joy of forgiving.