Friday, August 26, 2011

Mental Snapshots

When teams come to visit us here in Jinja we hold a nightly debriefing so team members can express what God is showing them or doing through them each day. My snapshots for the past two weeks include:

DAY 1: As the team arrived Bev stayed at the aiport waiting for Carol while the rest of us went to the guest house. I forgot which team members were to be in which rooms. So the two guys got the surprise of the day when entering their room there was only one double bed. The look on their faces was priceless since they were not old friends but had only met earlier that day. It was almost the shortest short term mission trip on record but God resolved the problem and everyone got a good night's sleep when two of the ladies graciously switched rooms with them.

Day 2: The smiles on the faces of the congregation as the welcomed the team during second service. The next Sunday was the joy on the faces of the team as they saw their "old friends" from the previous week. Love can grow among God's people so quickly that you would have thought the body here was where the team came from. Indeed there are no strangers in Christ!

Day 3: The pleasure and joy of the Ogongora worship team as they played music on their thumb pianos and the kids danced. The joy was fully matched by the team as they danced with the kids. Andrew flat wore himself out dancing. Some ask "Will there be dancing in heaven?" All I can say is "I hope so!"

Day 4: The relieved concern when we found the people of Ogongora making a "new road" around the mudhole that had swallowed up the bus and Land Cruiser the night before. Then it was the surprise of seeing 300 people already waiting for treatment. I was blessed to see our Ugandan team showing compassion as they kept the crowd, that swelled to about 1000 by noon, moving for treatment.

Day 5: The medical team saying good by to their translators. It was difficult after being in such close contact and depending on each other for 60 hours. Both Ugandan and American teams had grown to admire and love each other more than we would ever have guessed. But then that is God's very nature doing more for us and through us than is possible!

Day 6: Jacob Opio winning a chicken paying bible trivia. He was great!

Day 8: The fun of sharing the Gospel at prison when the enemy had sent a man to interrupt. Guys got saved and treated and healed.

Day 10: The perseverance of the saints as they faced their last day of ministry, outdoors on a hot windy day. They stayed until all the prisoners had seen a doctor and received medicine.

The snapshot I didn't get, was saying goodbye to the team. Another team from America came and I happily got to work with them but sadly did not get to properly say good bye.

So here it is, Steve, may God bring you back this way again to finish the work. Andrew, let God begin the work He wants to do in your life. Deb, thank you for your time ministering to Bev and I. Bailley, sorry you couldn't stay longer but the third time's the charm. Alicia, Thank you for the incredibly compassionate heart you have shown to all of Uganda. Rachel, Miss Sunshine, God bless you for showing me what it means to have joy in the Lord. Brittni, May you always be as yielding to the Lord as you were here. And Doctor Jenny, Your warmth and professionalism are only outstripped by your love for Jesus.

Thank you all and may God bless you!

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Mud and Motorcycles From Nowhere

Man, I am so glad God watches out for us. Our visiting medical team got stuck in the same mudhole in the same bus three time in three days. The second day was only a small inconvenience but the first one happened in the dark and by the time we got it out I had gotten the landcruiser stuck twice, torn two out of three engine belts, lost a belt tension pully and we all got covered in mud. But I learned a lot about how to unstick a stuck bus in Uganda.

First you gather nearly everyone in the village and have them all shout directions at one time. For this part to work properly it is best to have half of the village confuse the front for the back of the bus and the other half just be confused in general. Also not knowing right from left helps add to the fun. Another apparent requirement to unstick a stuck bus is to throw as many bushes as you can fit, under, in front and behind the drive wheels. It seemingly helps to have more obstacles to battle than just the mud. Then get you must get all parties to agree on the next step. That is: which direction are we pushing the bus? For added fun and more serious mud time, neglect this step. The sad part is that no matter how hard you try you cannot out push the half of the village that is always pushing the wrong direction. I've tried!

Now that you've done the most obvious things get everyone to calm down and pray. And voila! The bus as they say, "Sheee become unstuck!"

Now having perfected the procedure try it again in the daylight in the same hole. Not only will all the rules change but you'll also be able to see just how stuck you are and just how covered in mud you personally have become. Then you know that only God is gonna get you out. This causes a more earnest prayer from the heart. Then God does indeed get you unstuck. Just remember God has a purpose for mudholes. Many times it is to drive us to are muddy knees to seek his help.

The third day while the bus was getting stuck I was fixing the broken engine belts. Having put in the new ones I was going back to the mud (don't even think about telling me about a washed sow returning to the mud) when God showed me His great hand of protection.

As I approached a spot where traffic officers always sit I made sure I was traveling under 80 kph. A van was coming the opposite way. Suddenly a motorcycle hidden behind the van swerved into my lane to overtake the van. All I could do was swerve hard left. I heard a sickening thud but just as I veered left there on the side of the road were two women and a child on a bicycle. I swerved hard right knowing they would be dead in a millisecond. But this time no thud. Somehow God protected them and me. I pulled over and ran to the motorcycle knowing they must be seriously dead. I waved for the traffic policeman to come. But miraculously the driver was fine, the two year old was only scraped on the side of his head, and the mom had some painful road rash on one arm. God had protected us from serious harm.

Then the legal process started but God was in this too. The taxi had stopped and the driver and conductor told the motorcycle rider that he was lying when he told the traffic officer I hit him. The officer was also the Officer in Charge for Traffic of Soroti District. Who saw the whole thing. I was free to go unstick the stuck bus and eventually with God's help we did.

Thank you Jesus! For saving us and protecting us always!




Sunday, August 7, 2011

Drip, drip, drip and more drip

The last time I wrote it was about the long dark African night. It was one of a series of nights I had with malaria that I could not get rid of. After two months of slowly getting sicker my body was giving up. Every other night was high fever, chills, sweats. backache, bodyache, headache.

Due too the meds I take for P.D. (parking zones disease) and the the disease itself, I can have some really crazy dreams and strange nights but those nights with malaria, I thought the morning would never come. Eventually I did get Steven to take me to the hospital at Rippon Clinic. After a blood sample showed malaria I was escorted to the private suite at the back of the clinic. It is a private suite since it has its own toilet that only I, the nurses, the doctors and the few dozen people I was too weak to fight off could use. There I lay for two days on quinine drip.
But I did have it better than Bev who slept on the floor for two nights. She did have a mattress from home though. And sheets. I don't think I would have made it without her. No more drip, drip, drip...

So what did I learn from the experience? Apparently nothing for as soon as I could get back to work I did.

I have become a work freak. I cannot sit still. If there is no class to teach I write a sermon. If there is no sermon to prepare I counsel. If there is no one to counsel I fix things. In Africa there is always something to fix. So there is always work. This week two water heaters failed. So I have to fix them. But parts aren't available so I have to make parts. It can wear you down and lay you out. And put you back on drip, drip, drip and more drip.

But God has His way to teach us. At the monthly missionary fellowship the host, Dan, shared about the way we missionaries overwork. We lead but never follow. But if we don't follow then who are we leading people to? It convicted me that I am getting people to follow me but not teaching them to follow Jesus Christ. I need to get back on drip. But I need more than drip I need streams of drip. Rivers of living water flowing from the Spirit into me and then to others. But I have a problem. Maybe you have it to. I seem to think that just because I have drunk the living water and I never thirst that I don't need to drink anymore. That condition can lead to dehydration. The Spirit causes water to well up within me but I also need to partake. I can get so full of streams of water flowing to others that I never stop to let it keep me satisfied. I am not a theologian so don't take this analogy too far but if the man who drives the water tanker doesn't fill the radiator of the truck sometime, the engine will overheat and the tanker dies and no one gets the water.

Lord help me to be refreshed and filled. Not drip by drip by more drip but by streams and rivers of the water of life, YOU!