Ingrid
here!
Hello
to all of you, we are grateful to you for checking in on our lives and what we
are doing. We cherish your prayers.
Please let us know how we can be praying for you as well. I want you to know that God does frequently
lay you individually on my heart and I do intercede for you.
The
month of December has flown by with so much happening that it is hard to
believe it all happened in one month. We
visited the village of Moroto and received deep confirmation in our hearts that
this is where our Lord desires for us to plant our tent stakes in Uganda. That was the first of the month and was in
our last blog. Then two days after returning from Moroto, we journeyed by car
to Jinga at the invitation of a Pastor to visit his church. Our travels getting there, which should take
1 hour on a good road, took 4 hours because of traffic jams and road
construction. We ended up following a
semi-two trailer truck up a dirt road at the advise of those directing
traffic. We wondered if we had made a
mistake when the truck got tangled in the electric wires crossing the dirt
road. I watched in horror as a young man
took a metal rod and climbed up the truck and pushed the wires off it. I was expecting him to get “fried” but he
didn’t and slowly the truck moved forward with this man pushing wires every few
hundred feet. Finally we made it past
all the wires and the truck started barreling down the road, one trailer would
sway to the left with the other one swaying to the right at the same time. We thought the truck would crash, but somehow
he didn’t and we made it past the jam and smoothly made it to Jinja.
5 lanes of traffic trying to go to Jinja on a two lane two way road, but all going the same direction....Notice the big truck in the picture on the left. It's the one we are following on this narrow dirt road.
God blessed us with time on Saturday with
Pastor Peter and his wife Prexides and their 3 children, as well as another
Pastor from the same church. We had such
good fellowship with them that we were late getting to the boat cruise on the
Nile we had reserved. We got to the
place at 5:08 p.m., however we were supposed to be there at 4:30 with the boat
leaving at 5pm. The guard at the gate
assured us we could still make it, so we whizzed in. We jumped out and hurried to the ticket
counter where the man called the boat and told us no problem. He took our money
and showed us where to walk down to the river.
As we walked we were astonished to see the boat backing up from the Nile
to the dock to pick us up. The crew and
passengers kindly greeted us and we were on our way. Problem was I hadn’t gone to the bathroom for
about 5 hours and badly needed to do so.
When I asked if there was a toilet, they pointed me to a little open air
compartment on the back of the boat, with a piece of wood around the toiletL. That was it, for everyone to see what you
were doing even if they couldn’t totally see you. WELL, for those of you who know me, I still
needed to do business and so I humbled myself and took care of it. Ah so many
ways to be stretched. It was a lovely
cruise and we were so grateful to our God for letting us have this experience.
Sunday
morning, I got up and washed my hair not thinking that solar power with battery
conversion could not take a blow dryer, so I got to go to church with wet
hair. What we didn’t know then, is that
in Uganda, if a woman shows up with wet hair, it means she has just been
intimate and has showered afterwards. So
what the congregation thought of me, I just try not to think about. We were warmly greeted by all and as we took
our seats, after meeting two more pastors, Lyle asked Pastor Peter which pastor
was preaching, and he replied that Lyle and I were. As Lyle shared that with me, I had the
scripture "be instant in season and out" go through my head. So Lyle and I both were intensely praying
through the worship for Jesus to lead us as we spoke. God continues to be so amazing to us as what
we spoke about individually dovetailed together in unity. He is so good!! We were so lovingly treated and the church
was so sad that God was calling us to Karamoja, as they would have loved to
have us in Jinja.
Us with Pastors of Walukuba Community Baptist Chruch
Our time at Matoke Inn came to an end that next weekend with a Christmas party on Saturday and us leaving on Sunday. I take comfort in the fact that Lyle and I were allowed to visit all the staff in their homes and so we know where to go to fellowship with them from here on out. It made saying good-bye a little easier although many tears flowed anyway. I will always treasure our time there and be grateful to God for so gently easing us into Ugandan life.
We
are presently in Nairobi staying at our friend Dr. Kelley’s home. We are so grateful for this place. Our time here has proven to be challenging as
we visit places with our friend, Imam, that are full of suffering first and
foremost, spiritually and also physically.
I feel so helpless just navigating through downtown Nairobi, and seeing
so many adults with grave disabilities on the streets, seemingly invisible to
the masses moving around them. I have
not experienced this in Kampala. Also the street kids are tough for me to pass
by. As we were waiting for Imam on one
street, two young boys, maybe 10-11 came up asking for money, and a security
guard shooed them away from us. I hurt
so much for them. As Lyle and I crossed
the street, they again appeared and said they were hungry. I asked them if they would come to a
restaurant to eat, and they were more than willing. As we walked in with them in front of us,
two-three men came at the boys to kick them out. I put my arms around their shoulders and
said, “They are with us.” The staff
reluctantly allowed us to sit down and they served them chicken, rice and
greens. When Imam came, we thought we
would just pay and leave, but one of the boys, Andrew said they would be chased
out if we left, even though we had paid for the food. So we sat while they savored each bite of
their meal. Please keep them in your
prayers, Andrew and Collins. We prayed
for them and shared with them that Jesus loves them and is glad they were
born; that He has a future for
them. I know this is true, but it felt
so hollow just walking away from them.
Trusting the power of prayer is becoming a greater desire for me, as it
is one of my only comforts these days for those who are suffering. Jesus continues to encourage me that He is active here as seen by the following tesitmony.
We have been privileged to meet and get to know a man who was an Imam
over 147 mosques in a muslim country, who met Jesus in a dream, where Jesus
used the Koran to show him that Islam was false. There is so much truth about Jesus in the
Koran, it even says that a Messiah would come and die for the sins of the
people. Jesus showed him that this was
what He did. This man resigned his
position and made his faith known to his former followers and after his former
superiors and family failed at bribing him into returning to his former position,
they held a funeral for him and pronounced him dead to them and then tried to
kill him. He fled leaving his wife and 4
children behind. His wife is moving on
and marrying another muslim, but his children want to join him in Kenya. His heart aches for them, please pray for him
and his children and his wife. I comfort
myself with the truth that God, who knows all things, knew this man’s path and
blessed him with these children, and will make a way for them to know Him and
have a life of peace inside even if their circumstances do not change. God does not promise us comfort in our
circumstances but in our souls. This
truth which was so present in the early church and the epistles has a greater
reality here for me than when I lived in the USA.
I
must say that in spite of all the agony in my heart for others, I looked over
at Lyle on Christmas Eve and said, “I am so glad we are where we are!” My heart continues to be stretched by our
Lord and He continues to narrow my walk with Him into an ever increasing freedom
of spirit, Oh I desire to cling to Him more and more for each hour of the day,
that my life would be the aroma of Christ to God my Father. That desire would be my prayer request to you for me
in the New Year. The words to the
following song aptly reflect this desire. I don’t
know who wrote it but we heard Ian White singing it.
ALL I KNOW
“Though I feel afraid of territory unknown, I know that I can say that
I do not stand alone; for Jesus You have promised Your Presence in my
heart. I cannot see the ending, but it
is here that I must start.
And all I know is You have called me and that I will follow is all I
can say. I will go where You will send
me and Your fire lights my way.
What lies across the waves may cause my heart to fear, will I survive a
day—must I leave what’s known and dear? A ship that’s in the harbor is still
not safe from harm; it was not made to be there, it was made for wind and
storm.”
Wishing each of you a New Year following the Light of Christ
Jesus, day by day, for His glory and your abundant life.
Love,
Ingrid and Lyle
