Our last day in Uganda!
Today we went to the church service at Deliverance Church in Jinja, where TAIP started during the time when Sam Mugote was Pastor. Now the church is led by a wonderful, gentle man named Pastor Martin (!) On our arrival, he was in the midst of a Bible study with the youth of the churc on the theme of anger. Often with these services, events will begin early in the morning and continue all through the first part of the day, with different programmes flowing into each other in a very relaxed way.
When the service proper had begun in earnest, we had various greetings followed by wonderful, charismatic, soulful worshi led by choir and soloists, plus the talented Timothy Mugote on keyboard (someone else plays keyboard 'drums' on the bottom half of the instrument - crude but effective in lieu of a full band.) About 30 minutes of dancing, singing, clapping, and shouting led into a more intimate time in the Lord's presence - very moving and uplifting. We were invited to introduce ourselves and I shared a word which came to me in the worship - that the African church is the Lion - ferocious, strong, bold - but more than that, it is the Lion of Love - with a heart breaking for the community and the desire to go out and serve. We shared briefly about ourselves, and then sang 'You're Beautiful' by Phil Wickham, with me and Jack on guitars and Clara on trumpet. It was great - and the congregation were very kind and appreciative.
A lady doctor preached on the book of Ruth - her message was about being tough people in order to sail through tough times. The Sunday School kids hilariously auctioned off some maize to raise funds for the new church building (they currently meet in a school) and everyone was full of joy. I do like the way these African Pentecostal Christians do church!
After the service, it was back to the hotel for lunch and then a chilled afternoon before heading to TAIP's offices for a time of farewell. It was great to see Sam again, and he shared in depth about TAIP's vision, strategies, successes and challenges, and it was so helpful to see how all the work we had been seeing fitted together. Sam is a remarkable man - strong and gentle and Christlike in his compassion and determination.
Next we headed to the gardens where tea, coffee and treats had all been prepared, and many of the pastors we had met had come to see us off - such a delightful surprise! Pastor Paul (Kakira), Pastor John (Mafubira), Pastor Robert and his wife Joy (Bugembe), Pastor Frederick and his wife Brenda (Walukuba), Pastor Samuel (Faith Community Church, Jinja), and representatives from Grace School were all there, as well as the full TAIP team and the Mugote family. Fred's wife Florence, a lovely young woman, had also come to greet us. We shared the most lovely time of talking and sharing, and finished with prayers, group photographs and tearful hugs.
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| The St Thomas' Transform Team with all our new Ugandan friends, TAIP gardens, Jinja |
Sam spoke, affirming us and saying thato our team had encouraged the churches with our love and care and that the body of Christ was together in a new and powerful way because of our visit. This really helped us to see what we had contributed, because it seemed to us that our role had been very small, next to the magnitiude of the challenges the Ugandan people are facing.
Florence Mugote shared a word which she felt was for me - that I would be a revolutionary - like Martin Luther!! What a great and challenging word - I will treasure it, and pray over it.
We have grown so attached to all our new Ugandan friends, and everyone was very moved and full of love for one another. A beautiful moment with which to finish a life-changing experience.
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| Joyful hugs and tearful goodbyes |
Back at the hotel, owner Elizabth and the hotel staff blessed us with gifts of Ugandan tea and coffee - so kind! We promised to come back whenever we could.
I decided to give my travel guitar to Daniel - he almost fell off his chair with gratitude! I was worried he would feel patronised, but he was so overjoyed that it was certainly God's will for me to do this. He brought out from his room a battered old hymn book, and we sang some songs of praise to God under the stars. We promised to be friends when I got home to the UK - will we meet again? I don't know, but we are brothers in the Lord, and that bond will remain wherever we are.
An early start tomorrow - 4am departure for Entebbe.
What a fabulous, heart-breaking, joyful, overwhelming, touching, beautiful trip this has been. In the words of Daniel's favourite hymn:
"To God be the glory - great things he has done!"
AMEN.
With thanks to God, to everyone at TAIP, Tearfund, all the team (especially Sarah Neville who took these amazing photos!) See the full set of photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/82894987@N08/sets/
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