Monday, June 25, 2012

The Pain and Joy of Prayer

This past week I was able to minister to others with a team from Believers World Outreach at two free clinics. I was challenged and blessed. My brother Jeremiah and I shared the gospel and prayed with all those standing in the queue waiting to be seen by the medical personnel. It was painful and joyful at the same time.

The pain comes with praying for others one by one. To see so many sick, hurting and needy people makes the task seem hopeless. Thoughts of "How can I help these people?" overwhelm you. You see your own inadequacies and can even begin to wonder if God is listening. Am I qualified spiritually to intercede for all these? The answer is "Yes" and "Yes".

"Yes" is the first answer that pops into your mind. God is listening!

The next answer is "Yes" as well. I don't know these folks so how can I seek God's will on their behalf? The solution is simple, find common ground. Begin to relate to them as people and not a ministry. Ask them what hurts, what doesn't feel right, what do they need. Where does their hope lie? As you begin to get answers you now find the strength to pray. These are people who need God's help. So you now approach the throne of grace with confidence. This is not a vague prayer but it is a plea for Loyce and her bad back. It is a plea to our loving God for Beatrice and her dislocated wrist.

The pain of feeling worthless is slowly replaced by joy. The more you talk with God the more you feel His presence. You pray more confidently knowing that God is listening and has chosen you to bring their needs to Him. And you get the peace in your heart that God has you right where He wants you doing just what He wants you to do!

The hospital prayer ministry is more of the same. How do you pray fur a 58 year old woman who was hit by a car losing her left arm, both legs and is in a coma with a drain tube in her skull being treated by her daughter who lost her son in the same accident? All you know is that this wounded family needs Jesus' help, so you pray! By now you are confident that God is listening. Every word, every breath draws you closer to Him who saves and heals. Now the pain is fully turned to joy. The doubts are gone and the Holy Spirit causes us to go beyond words and pray in Him. Not in tongues but in heart with a passion that far exceeds our best verbal prayers. The family receives comfort and so do you.

I have been humbled and blessed this week by praying for others. Take time to pray and you will be blessed too!

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Flat Tire Follies

I am so tired of flat tires!

A few weeks back Jo, Maddy, Asiimwe Grace and I went to the clinic in Ogongera to do some work. The day started well and we reached Mbale in good time. That 140 kilometer ride from Jinja is over some of the finest roadway in Uganda. However the next 105 kilometers to Soroti is over some of the worst roadway that this country has to offer.

As we were leaving Mbale on the bad road the truck began to feel a little squirrelly. Just then I moved over to let a vehicle pass and he pointed to my tires so we stopped. Both rears were almost completely flat. Fortunately the Lord allowed this to happen in front of the last service station for the next 25 kilometers so we limped in and began the process of repairing the punctures.

Two hours later with the spare in place and the two tire tubes patched we started again. Things went well for 50 kilometers until the spare, now on the right rear, went flat.

The rack for the spare on the truck is under the bed of the pickup and it has a chain hoist that lowers the spare to the ground when you need it. At least it is designed to work that way. In my yard it works that way but on the road, especially in the dirt and mud it does not! It likes to stick, get jammed and fail right when it is the most inconvenient time. It seems that is the nature of anything associated with a flat tire. Maximum annoyance with a minimum of reliability.

So now I am under the truck on my back trying to lift the tire up with one hand while using my shaky left hand to guide the chain. While doing this Grace is attempting to lower the chain with the handle. Too bad he can't remember which way to turn the handle, so he raises the spare back up getting my hand stuck between the bed and the tire. I carefully monitor my tone of voice and ask Grace to kindly turn it in the other direction. To an untrained bystander it may have sounded more like a growl or even a shout concerning the prospective lifespan of Grace at that particular moment depending on his next choice of action. To be exact I said, " If you value your life you'd better turn the handle the other way. NOW!" Grace does indeed have a strong value system when it comes to his longevity and down came the tire on my chest. The added pressure kept me from saying anything else that might have offended anyone. The hand stopped bleeding as the dirt encased and sealed up the wound. The rest of the tire change was a piece of cake.

We bought a new tube in Soroti and proceeded to do our work at the clinic.

Since then as you have read elsewhere we have had 8 more flat tires on various vehicles. But God is in control and teaching me to be more patient with others and not to put my expectations on them. I need to enjoy the ride He has me on. Even if the tires aren't round any more. I think Jesus wants me to know that where I'm going is important and so is when I get there. But not at the cost of forgetting where I am now and how I behave in the present in His presence.

Time to Wrap Some Things Up

I have found that I love to blog. It is fun to share with others the things going on in Bev's and my life. But many times I get so busy that I never get to finish the story. So today I'll try to wrap some things up.

How Long is Too Long To Wait?
Well we finally got the Landcruiser back from Patel's shop on April 12th. The good news was that he had one of his mechanics bring it back to Jinja so another bus adventure was not needed. The Prado runs well and it seems to be relatively sound. Since it's return we have had to buy a new tire since Bev had a blowout traveling with Jo and Maddy. The least expensive tire for that vehicle costs $285 but sometimes you just have to bite the bullet, in this case it would be a rubber bullet, and get the tire. Now the vehicle runs well but it doesn't look good. Here in Uganda village kids can't afford paper and pencils so in order to practice their penmanship they do what Fred would do (Fred Flintstone) and that is take a rock and scratch their name or message on the side of the car. The gray lettering of the primer makes a beautiful contrast with the black paint. Sort of like a reverse Etch-a-Sketch. Now if only I could pick up the car and shake it upside down to erase the messages! Oh well, maybe one of these kids will be famous some day and I can have an original Apollo or Patrick or Irene...

The Trip of a Lifetime

We had a blessed time in Israel and if the Lord allows us to go back sometime we would be blessed even more. We traveled to Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee, visited the site of the Sermon on the Mount, Capernaum, the Jordan River where Jesus was baptized, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the Western Wall, Mount of Olives. All this with 74 of our newest friends. These people made us feel right at home. Sometimes as a missionary you never fit in since you are not from where you are serving and no longer part of where you were from. But on this trip everybody was a fish out of water. Dave and Cindy, Mike and Hilda, Dave and Sue, Frank and Vicki, Greg and Delores, Bobby and Judy, John and Georgia, Skip and Lenya everyone made us feel a part of the body of Christ in a way that we hadn't felt in a while.

After the tour left, Bev and I had two days to explore, so we rented a four door roller skate, and headed to Masada, the Dead Sea and Qumran. This car was so small that my feet on the control peddles also served as the front bumper. It ran well but we did have some problems.

You can't rent a car on the Sabbath so we had to rent it Thursday to have it for Saturday and Sunday (Pentecost is a special Sabbath). The man at Hertz assured me that there was a jack and lug wrench under the spare donut tire. There wasn't!

Saturday we had a flat at Qumran but all Hertz offices are closed on the Sabbath so they were of no help. Bev finally found a young Israeli who borrowed tools and helped us change the tire. He didn't speak English but we got it done. The day trip was fun, exciting and annoying all in one but we loved it! We also got to explore Jerusalem on our own which made the Bible really come alive.

Sunday we drove to Tel Aviv, got lost a few more times but made it to our flight on time. A very blessed and exciting trip. Thank you Lord! And thanks to all His servants.

That should bring us up to date!

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

What Do You Say?

Saturday our day friend and longest attending church member, Lilian(she started attending our church under Pastor Jay in 1997) lost her husband David.

Mourning here is a very visible practice and when we had brought David's body to his house in Loco literally hundreds of people gathered to weep and wail for David. We cleared out the house so the body could be viewed and then I left as the women began there wailing. This continued all night and started again when we put the body into the casket early Sunday morning. It grew to a crescendo as we loaded the body of the late and the family into the truck. Then I drove Lilian and her kids and David's two cousin brothers, his niece and his body 320 kilometers to David's family home in Kaberamaido. The trip was uneventful but because of the poor condition of the road it took us 7 1/2 hours to get there. It was a quiet ride but not too bad as the wailing stopped as soon as we left Loco.

For the entire trip the 20 something niece never made a sound but as soon as we arrived at the family home she started to shriek and scream for her uncle. It was so sudden that it scared the daylights out of me. Then the thirty or so family members started in!

I left to find a better route for the three bus loads of people who would come the next day from Jinja. I made it back to Soroti just after dark after finding a better route.

When I went out to the truck in the morning I had a flat tire! Last trip to Soroti I had three. So I hoped it would not get multiplied and the day grow worse. But it did! Bev called me with the sad news that Katherine, David and Lilian's oldest daughter, two day old infant had died on the trip home from Fort Portal. So now double tragedy.

I waited in town for Bev and the three buses to arrive. They got there at 12:15 and Bev climbed into the truck with me to show them the route. After about 5k I noticed the buses were falling back. Bev said they would catch up. Then we got the call, bus #2 had broken down. We went back loaded people on the two buses and put ten people in our pickup. Now we commenced again. Things went well until we got to the "shortcut" I had found. Apparently the road looks different at midday than it does in the evening. I took the wrong road! After 17 k where the fork was supposed to be and it wasn't I asked where Kaberamaido was. The old man said take this road to the left and you can't miss it. and we didn't. Now the burial was difficult but to not get us back to Jinja too late the family shortened the service and we left at 5:30. We took Lilian's kids with us and Katherine remained with her mom. Then the struggle to get home began.

We stopped for fuel in Soroti and the rear tire looked low on pressure. We inflated it but needed to get on the road as lightning started crashing down around us. We had a large tarp so we covered the guys in the back and took off. 20 kilometers later the tire went flat. Thankfully it had stopped raining but we still had to change the tire. Sending the buses on we changed the tire in record time. We hoped that the tires would last until Mbale town. Three did but one didn't!

So here we are, flat tire no spare, next to a small trading center that has no services. Fortunately we had caught up to the buses when the passengers stopped to relieve themselves.

We sent Martin and Steven on the buses with the two flat tires to Mbale 15k ahead. By now it was 10:00pm. Seven men and my wife stuck under the full moon in the middle of nowhere. Four of the men decided to nap by the side of the road, laid out the tarp, crawled in and promptly went to sleep, looking like four dead accident victims to anyone passing by. Martin returned with one tire at 1:30am but Steven's motorcycle hire broke down on the way back with the other tire. Guess what the break down was? Yep, flat tire!

We got Martin's tire on the truck, found Steven on the way, loaded up his tire and the motorcycle driver AND his motorcycle, and went to Mbale. Dumped the motorcycle and driver then prayed we could get to Jinja in one piece. We did! The last bit of adventure was when security police stopped us to see what was under the tarp. Imagine his surprise as he reaches for the tarp and five heads pop up! Praise the Lord that the police officer didn't shoot anyone and praise the Lord we got home by 5:00am.