Sunday July 09

Uganda Impact 06


Today started reasonably early. The guys had to take the PA gear up to the church before the 8:00am service and get it all sync’ed with the other gear they had. It works wonderfully. The people in the church said the sound had never been so good. Emmanuel wanted it turned up pretty loud and even though it was only running at about 30% of the capacity it filled the church building and beyond.

Jaemin preached in the early service. They have services here that basically run into each other without a break. The first service is a Bible teaching time and as soon as it was over the worship team from the church were pumping up with great worship.

At the same time as this was going on, Bishop Patrick and I were up at the local radio station doing a one hour program. It comprised the Bishop doing some fiery introduction, then me preaching for fifteen minutes and then people ringing in to have prayer request prayed for over the air. The phone was running hot, as was Patrick’s mobile with SMS. We had trouble keeping up with all the requests. We also used the program to enable the co-ordinators from the outlying regions to know where and when to be picked up to come to the conference.

They are expecting about 6,000 people to the conference and many of those are staying at the church compound and the church people are feeding them. They have had to cut off the numbers just because they couldn’t cope with the accommodation and food. People began arriving in trucks and on foot. Some of them came from as far away as Kenya. There were seven Kenyan pastors with their people at the evening service tonight.

The church was full for the 10:30 am service. There would probably have been around a thousand people gathered there. The guys from our team played some worship songs and people loved what they did and soon got involved. The local worship team consists of a choir and musicians (just a keyboard and bass before the drum kit that we brought was set up). These guys are all rhythm. The choir would pass off anywhere in Australia as dancers. The guys are every much as good as the girls and they add so much context and energy to the worship. But the people in general are like that and many many people are out there dancing away during the worship. We couldn’t understand most of the songs. They don’t have words on any screen and they don’t stop from the beginning to the end of the worship time. Worship usually goes for an hour or so and is totally wonderful even if we couldn’t sing the words. I’m determined to get some of those body moves happening and be able to dance like these guys do. They are just total rhythm from top to bottom.

I preached and, among other things gave an invitation to come to Christ and about a dozen people came to the front to receive prayer and ministry. The pastor who counseled them said that they were all from Mbale so that is good for follow up. One of the things I have had on my heart is to point people beyond revival. They have experienced revival here, but the nation has still been ravaged by terror and violence. The reason why we need more than revival is because God wants to create a nation where there will be safety and blessing for our children and grandchildren. There have been very few revivals that have seeded blessing for their grandchildren. So many people responded to this call that we had to create a prayer tunnel and while we sang some beautiful worship songs that we knew, the people came and were being touched by God as they made their way through the tunnel provided by out team. While that happened I stood at the front and began to pray for children, asking that they would not only inherit something, but carry something from heaven for their peers. It was a very powerful time.

We had lunch with the Elders of the church after the meeting. We went to one of the hotels in town and were served some great Ugandan food. Don’t ask me what it all was called. We had a great time getting to know these precious people. After lunch we went to pray at the school ground where the stage was being built for the crusade meetings. We just stood together and prayed that God would make this ground holy and that it would become a meeting place where the God of heaven would meet people at their point of need and pour out his grace and favour.

All of that took up the time almost until the afternoon service. Their evening meeting for the day begins at 4:00 pm. They do it this way because they very often don’t have regular power supply. Towns are rationalized for power and it goes off every second day in some places. This is a political thing and an export thing. Uganda generates power for other nations as well as an export commodity and the people in the regional areas have to do without so that export dollars can be earned for the nation. Most businesses have generators. In fact some of the girls on the team went to a market after church tonight to buy some dresses and the power went out so they had to finish choosing by torchlight.

The evening meeting was smaller than the morning but here were people who had arrived to stay at the church for the conference. I think I already said that there were six or seven Kenyan pastors there and some of their people. I preached again and talked about the glory of God in the ordinary but called for a final time of prayer to seek the blessing of the Lord on the conference and crusade meetings. We had an awesome time of prayer. It was so powerful. Everyone just humbled themselves before the Lord and were crying out and weeping for the lost people from the regions. Wonderful, wonderful stuff.

I was pretty whacked after all of this so I just sat in the car while the others did their shopping and the Okabes did some food shopping. When we came home I lay on the bed and had to be woken for the evening meal. I hope I can get onto the net and send this off. The pictures are from today’s experiences.

Please pray for my voice. I have had a cold almost since the say I left Sydney and my throat is not all that strong. And pray for the meetings that will be going on each day as you read this. Thank you for this special love and partnership. If you met the people we have been meeting you would understand that it is a partnership of very great value.