THIS WEEK IN SORTI

MONDAY
THE CONVOY MOVES TO THE NORTH WEST

I don’t know when we will be able to connect to the internet this week, so I am writing this just on spec that I will find a connection somewhere and get it sent. Monday morning was a rest morning and most of the team had the opportunity to sleep a bit longer. The Bishop was full of activity of course, getting across all the arrangements that had to be carried out to get all of our equipment to Soroti. That included the large stage that had been erected for the Crusade in Mbale. If you saw any of the photos of what went on on that stage you would realize what a large job this was. During the times when the worship team from Mbale would be leading the worship there could be as many as twenty people on the stage. Not only that be they would be in full up African dancing mode. So right after the last meeting on the Sunday night the crew went to work and pulled the whole thing apart and loaded it on the truck.

The Bishop Patrick and Christine’s home is about two kilometers from the main shopping area of Mbale and so most people walked up the street to do some shopping. Christine took the ladies in the team to some shops that she knew had good value things. A couple of the young guys bought heaps of stuff and so injected some good quality overseas dollars in the local economy.. Everyone who was game had the experience of riding home on the back of a “taxi bike.” These are bikes without gears where the rack behind the seat has been upholstered a bit to sit on. The women sit side-saddle and the men straight. Given the potholes and corrugations and the steep incline down to our house it makes for an exciting ride.

We were told that we would be traveling to Soroti after lunch. That happened to be after four o’clock by the time the church bus got back from its first trip. We were really chafing at the bit by that time. Our task was not only to get to Soroti, but we had an extra forty five minutes drive to the village where the Bishop had his village house. We ended up arriving at Soroti when it was nearly dark. The countryside is as flat here as you would know the Hay plains to be in Australia, but with much more vegetation. There are trees and there is long grass everywhere. We passed through a number of small villages on our way. There is almost no road anywhere that you don’t see people walking or riding bikes on the side. As usual the traffic takes up all the usable road space. There could be three vehicles passing or being passed at any one time given the fact that the road was free. When there could be a contest people are generally willing to give way depending on size.

We called in at the Crusade ground to see how things were going and the work on the stage was three parts completed. Then we set off for the village. The village where we are sleeping is only about thirty five kilometers from Soroti but the road is so bad that it is impossible to drive fast anywhere. No matter what time of the day or night there are always people riding bikes and walking along any part of the road. Given the fact that there is no moonlight at present all of us reckon the Africans have a super vision for seeing at night.

After coming to a small village that was dimly lit (but actually had network power) we passed along for another two or three kilometers and then Patrick dived off the road into what seemed nothing more than bush (high grass and trees) and we trekked along this track for a few more kilometers and came to a clearing where a brick house had been almost completed. We were amazed. There were some round huts next to the house but the house itself had windows and doors etc. There was no power and there was an outhouse with two pit toilets and a place for having a wash with a dipper and a basin. We were told to sit around while Patrick and Christine and some of the other village people here did unpacking and sorting. Then we were shown to the rooms where we had mattresses on the floor for sleeping. A definite luxury we were not expecting at all. Before long we were all getting into rice, cabbage and young goat meat that was as tender as any lamb I have eaten.

Without knowing what the surrounding area looked like and having made a whole lot of new friends we crashed into bed to get the energy bank full of what we would need for the first day of the program.



TUESDAY THE DAY OF VERY MIXED CIRCUMSTANCES

We were looking forward to the conference starting in the morning this morning but did not leave the village (I can never remember its name, but then I could call it anything at all and it wouldn’t make any difference would it.

Our first stop was the Crusade ground and we saw that preparations were going really well. Emmanual has been working tirelessly since we came. He has undertaken all of the sound and stage equipment and makes sure it happens. You wouldn’t want to know about some of the electrical connections that happen. Two bare wires hang in mid air and separation of active and earth is only by the grace of God or an experienced twist in the wire or both. The power to the main amplification system is something we don’t want to tell Anthony Price about (the great Canberra bloke who built the system we brought) because one of the huge risks that people take with amplification is that if the system is on and there is a power failure it can spike the speakers and cause expensive damage. Well, the generators sometimes fail and other things happen. But so far the system has been working wonderfully well. It is one of the very important factors of the success of the ministry not only because it pumps out the sound but because it is so portable. What happens is usually that it serves a task at the conference and then is unpacked and moved to the Crusade ground. It begins its work at the Crusade from about three in the afternoon and works until about “who knows when” at night when they go on dancing and celebrating. It has been doing this for about nine days now. There was one day off for good behaviour in the middle somewhere.

After a while at the central park area we were taken to the municipal offices to meet the Mayor of Soroti town. He and all his senior officials were there to welcome us. He is a comparatively young man for a Mayor and spoke very graciously and encouragingly to us. The Bishop spoke, I spoke and Jaemin introduced the rest of the team. Then the Clerk spoke and it was over. There has been a deal of opposition from some groups in Soroti to the meetings but it hasn’t come from the council. Some of it has come from some of the church leaders and as a result of some of them one of the judges in the town wrote a letter trying to ban the crusade. They also influenced some one in the police department and there was a bit of resistance from there. All of it has been overcome, to the praise of God.

The conference went really well. I have been very surprised that I have been able to get some of the measure of the people and God has given me a lot of liberty to speak and connect and even interact. All of that seems to be refreshing people. There is a reasonably strong culture of speaking and commanding on the part of leaders and listening and obeying on the part of people. We seem to have managed to crack through some of that. There has also been a strong influence here from the “faith” and “prosperity” side of the religious system. There is a lot of interaction on one level but it is not generally relational and I would agree with Jaemin there is an overall lack of grace. Please understand that I am not saying this is the overriding issue. But it is an issue and we are definitely here to represent some of that broader set of issues. Jaemin has been treating it in some of his teaching and I am also having a go. So far the response has been what I would think as being beyond my expectations. Our message is getting through I know that from the response we are getting and from what people are saying outside the sessions.

The Crusade began in normal mode this afternoon. The interesting thing was that I knew something was about to happen that I knew would create a disturbance. I can’t say I knew all of what would happen but I thought it was going to rain heavily and rather than telling the Bishop, and getting the preaching part happening sooner, all kinds of people had a go and the pre-program went on and on. I was getting really frustrated as this went on. I had hardly spoken for three minutes when the rain came heavy and hard. I actually continued to preach while people were scattering and all but the brave were somewhere else. I was so cranky with myself for not acting on the information better and because I felt the enemy was having a sideswipe at us and the program. It was even more pronounced because I have had a feeling that Soroti was the major purpose for us to be here. While I finished preaching and prayed a prayer that people could follow under the trees and the shop awnings and the service station the team were frenetically covering equipment in all directions. When I came down from the platform one of the pastors had a vehicle waiting for me to climb into out of the rain. I was soaked to the skin.

For the next forty five minutes or so we waited for the Bishop to return from wherever he had to go to. The bus was packed with worship team and Australians as was the vehicle we were in. Finally he came and we swam around to where some of the worship team were staying through the filled up potholes and water running everywhere. We got a few kilometers from Soroti and the rain had stopped. We got to the farm and the roads were dusty and dry. This was clearly an adversarial storm. I have seen a few of them in my time and this was the same as the others. I was really frustrated on the way home and at home. People were very encouraging to me personally but that wasn’t what I was interested in. I longed to get to a place of prayer and sort out what was going on.

Here was my conclusion: rain is a blessing to the people of Soroti, but the God of heaven doesn’t send rain just as the Word is about to be preached. God is sovereign and allows things to happen for his greater glory. Part of that greater glory is to stir the believers into greater and more focused commitment. This had been an attempt from the enemy to spoil what God was wanting to do. It was also a blessing to the people in the town (but not in the district where the farms are). God was wanting us to stir our hearts and our faith and to lift our game. I will talk with the team in the morning.
WEDNESDAY
AN AMAZING BREAKTHROUGH IN THE FIRST FULL CRUSADE MEETING

It was just wonderful to wake up and walk out to see this beautiful bushland of what they call Tasoland. It is the land of the Atasso (spelling may be off) speaking people of the lower north west of Uganda. Not as many people here speak English as in Mbale and the history of the area has clearly impacted the town and the people. As I said before, it is relatively flat but there are bumps here and there and gradually sloping higher ground. If you’ve ever been to The Rock down in the Riverina of New South Wales then Soroti is built right next to a much large rock. A bit like a much smaller version of Ularu in Oz.

Only a few years ago, the last concerted fling of the LRA (terrorist group armed by the Islamic government of north Sudan operating from bases in Sudan) was launched to try and capture this town. Their previous tactic had been to overrun smaller towns and the people would just leave. The LRA would take their animals and herd them across the border and sell them for guns and ammunition and supplies. The ongoing bad feeling here is that the Ugandan government would not dispatch the armed forces to defend the town. So the people of the town decided to form up an army and defend themselves. The government did give them some old guns and ammunition. It was a bloody and protracted battle. Many people still fled the town. But the Christians here were as much a part of the defense as the armed but untrained young men who fought the battles. They would have prayer happening around the clock. Christians literally would pray until they couldn’t stay awake and then sleep till they got more energy to pray. The young men fought bravely and with a grim and gritty resolution. Eventually and for the first time in the twenty plus years of the terrorist war the Kony forces were beaten back. The town was saved but horribly scarred. They were scarred by the battles themselves and by their feeling of betrayal by the government.

In Soroti there are many displaced people’s camps here. People who fled their villages from the north western areas because of the terrorists live here but all the government supplies are mud huts to live in. The people have to find all their own food and they go out each day looking for either a way to earn money or some way of receiving food. There is something very deep and horrible about this that cannot help but impact anyone who has contact with it.

We had a team gathering before we left the village today. I spoke to the people about what I felt had been happening and how God was wanting us to sharpen up and get our faith works focused on the job we were here to do. Everyone including the Bishop felt the same way and we had a great time of prayer before we left. We had another prayer time in the conference. I spoke at the conference about the natural signs and what they mean and it was a very powerful time. We spent the last period of time in earnest prayer seeking the grace and power of God to come and draw people to Christ.

We had a meeting of the whole team at 4:30 before we went to the Crusade and once again it was a terrific time of “girding up” whatever needs to be girded up.

From the moment the Crusade ministry began you could feel the atmosphere of victory. I mean, there was a huge crowd, there was an amazing expectancy. When it came time to preach I found a whole lot of things coming from my mouth that I had neither prepared nor considered but they flowed and when the altar call was made stacks of people came to receive Christ. I stood in awe and just knew the grace from heaven that was there in response to the faith of people from Uganda and Australia together - the ones here and the ones at home. We prayed for many people and when it came time to leave for the village the bus took off and we were along the road a bit when there was a phone call to tell us that Matt was still at the Crusade ground. He had been praying for this young person and witnessed an amazing instant healing. So we totally forgave him for not making his way to the bus according to our established custom.

There was a powerful celebration after the meeting. Emmanuel took over and there was a full on Holy Spirit shindig. Dust was flying everywhere as we drove off for the second time. The power of God was so profound that when we called at the petrol station just across the road from the Crusade ground the bishop and I led the guy working there to Christ. He lifted his hands to God right there as the petrol was being poured into the bus. It was certainly a different atmosphere when we arrive home. People were stuffed (tired) but so very thankful to God. At the end of the day, Soroti got some needed rain (albeit at the wrong time) and God was glorified even in what has happened.


THURSDAY
MORE MIGHTY MIRACLES

We all felt more confident and excited as we left for Soroti town this morning. We have become much more vigilant and the wider team members and the believers from the churches in the town were also much more determined to serve the purposes of God than when we started. Soroti has not seen a Crusade like this one before. There are about 120 churches in the town, the largest being about the same size as Grace.

In one way the days follow similar patterns for us. Patrick went to the local markets in the village yesterday before we left for town and bought wonderful fruit: oranges, mangos and the sweetest pineapple you could ever want to eat. I have been eating mainly fruit and a little rice and very small amounts of meat. Its not that the food has not been well prepared. I had a long talk with Christine one day and she said how careful she has been. The challenge of having white people stay was something she took very seriously because she said she has known pastors who have invited white people to come and they get very sick. We haven’t eaten a single piece of food that has been grilled. Everything has been boiled or stewed or however else it happens. We have had hard boiled eggs offered every morning. The milk has also been the safety version. They do have cows they milk at their home in Mbale, but Christine buys powdered milk and puts it with boiled water. We are so grateful for this very special gift of her love. She is an absolute treasure. She was an orphan by the age of seventeen and has had a very hard time, but is a woman of great wisdom and incredible faith.

The conference sessions go from 9:30 to 2:00 each day. Jaemin preaches in the first session and then the team often goes off to a school or to one of the camps. We put some of the money we had left to buy some food for the people in the camp we went to yesterday. It was about $A60 or USh 100,000 and it bought enough maize and rice to give every family a good portion each. It is sobering to think that it will only be a bit of food for a day or so. One of the things that always blows me away is the capacity these people have to be happy in the most dreadful circumstances.

I taught on the incarnation today. I know it isn’t what they are used to hearing from western preachers and therefore from Ugandan preachers. There is one lady pastor in Kampala who has a church of about 5,000 and has just bought a Hummer. There are only three in the country and they cost the absolute earth. She is a prosperity gospel preacher who married a man who had divorced his first wife in order to be free to marry the preacher. Of course it is all over the papers here and doesn’t bring honour to God. But because the nation is poor and because some people have been poor but are now comparatively well off, there is this huge dream of becoming prosperous and that prosperity is the sign of God’s approval. The Biblical issue is that God always does want to bless the poor but he doesn’t make everyone rich either. Also status is very important here. I have been offended by the way I have seen some government officials treating people and the way they talk with them. It is the old thing. When you get a bit of power you throw it around and “laud it over” whoever is down the pecking order. Well I ran right into all of that and spoke about the five things that belonged to Jesus’ glory as the incarnate son of God. I am looking forward to the question time tomorrow to see if any of it has hit home.

The Crusade was one of the most powerful times we have had since coming to Uganda. There were so many people in the garden park and they stayed glued to the program for the one and a half hours of worship and music that precedes the preaching. There is some amazing talent here. One outstanding one is a girl who has been healed of HIV and sings fantastic songs. I am bringing a CD of hers home with me to play on the radio station. But there is another group called “Mike and Joe” and they do the greatest rap kind of stuff you would hear anywhere (of course I am a world authority on good and bad rap). I am hoping to get something from them as well. The boys are from Mbale and the girl is from Soroti and sings in both Itesso (the language of the people from the Soroti region) and English.

After I preached tonight and gave the opportunity for people to receive Christ, people just flocked to the front. It was possibly the greatest number we have seen on any night. It was an amazing God thing that was overwhelming. Considering that the crowds here have been smaller than Mbale (6,000 or so to 3,000 here) it is simply wonderful. After they were counseled and all their details were written down we spent the rest of the time praying for sick people. So many people come for prayer. It is both depressing to see the need but exciting to be able to pray. The members of the Australian team and the pastors from the town get to lay hands on every person who comes and we could be there praying all night if we were up to it.

When that part is over Emmanual gets going and leads this great (and very loud) time of celebration. It is always still going strong when we get in the bus to come home to the village.

Patrick is an Itesso man and he was telling me today that the Itesso have always been the left out tribal group in Uganda. They have generally been looked down upon by others and have been excluded from any high office ever. He says he doesn’t really know why this is so, but he has a great desire to see God raise up an influence for the gospel through this people. That’s the core reason why he is here doing these meetings in Soroti and I know that is the primary reason we are here. The Itesso are not proud or independent people, but are hard working, faithful and loyal. May the Lord to a great work and raise up an army of spirit filled servants who could carry a pride-less mantle to the whole nation and be the catalyst for unity across the tribes that would see the nation become not just the pearl of Africa but carry their beautiful faith around the world.


FRIDAY - THE GREATEST MEETING SO FAR

Today was an amazing day of breakthrough and progress. There were a few casualties though. A number of the team members started getting the flu. I think it might happen because of the dust. Apparently when it has been dry the dust that is almost constantly in the air carries diseases. Oddly enough we have had beautiful rain this week as well, in the mornings it has been raining and the people are thinking this is a sign of the blessing of God because they have not had rain for a long time. By the afternoon it has cleared and the Crusades have all been in beautiful weather since the first evening when it bucketed down.

Jaemin was the worst hit. Amy was also pretty crook. When we got to town today the Patrick and Christine and I took Amy to the hotel just near where we are holding the conference meetings. We booked Amy a room to lie down in for the morning and she really appreciated that and was the better for it. By lunch time she picked up and when the team went to the Displaced Persons Camps today she felt up to going there with them.

Jaemin decided he would preach anyway and did a great job at it too. He had a difficult interpreter but we are learning to make better and simpler phrases when there is a breakdown in the interpreting process. At the start of the proceedings this morning I went looking for an internet café to try and download some blog material and check the emails. I found one, but they had no facility for me to plug my laptop in and so there was no opportunity to update the blog page. I will try another method tomorrow.

The second part of the conference was a great breakthrough time. There has been some little difficulty between some of the members of the pastors fellowship here in Soroti and the program we are doing and especially about Patrick starting a church. This had been complicated by the fact that the guy here who was supposed to coordinate things didn’t know how to handle the situation and simply backed away from it. This only led to more misunderstandings. While there have been quite a number of the pastors attending the conference each day, the main guys had stayed away. Well, today they showed up and there was a wonderful process of understanding and blessing and unity. The Bishop took the situation in hand and spoke very well and with great wisdom. He talked about unity and why he had come to the town and what he was hoping for. He was very honouring of the leaders of the pastors network and they were very positive toward what was happening. I finally got to speak and was able to reinforce the unity and purpose theme in my own way. I found out from one of the pastors that there are not more than 10,000 believers in Soroti. That’s a bigger percentage than Canberra but still not big. The pastors all agreed that the task was to work together to win the lost.

After lunch the team went off to the camp and I stayed at the Hotel to pray and prepare. I couldn’t have anticipated what was going to happen. The meeting today was the biggest since we have been in Uganda. There were more people in the garden park than even the largest day in Mbale. There were around seven thousand people there. This is in a town of seventy thousand residents. That would be like having 30,000 at a meeting in Canberra. God brought a tenth of the whole town to the Crusade. The response was the largest we have had since coming. Between two hundred and two hundred and fifty people received Christ and recorded their decision. I preached a very simple message on the prodigal son and it was overwhelming to see the people flocking forward to “come home.” After the people went to the side to have cards filled in and the follow up process put in place, we prayed for many sick and troubled people. Ugandans love to be prayed for and what we do is to have the team and the pastors from here stand in front of the platform and when the Bishop has finished praying we go through the crowd laying our hands on everyone. It’s a bit of an art because they are crowded together. You have to be careful where you put your feet because many of them have no shoes, especially the small ones. When you get out to the edge of the crowd coming for prayer you have to be careful in the dark because the mothers who come with their small children lay them on mats on the ground. In the darkness it can be hard to see a small dark body lying down. I think when God made white people he might have did some kind of upgrade on black people because they definitely seem to be able to see better in the dark. When we drive home along the bush road there are people walking and riding bikes. And these roads are full of deep corrugations and huge potholes. The moon doesn’t come out until early in the morning at the moment so it is very dark.

The last phase of the Crusade continued with the whole garden park area throbbing with the sound and movement of Christian worship and praise in the way only the Afticans can do it.

Tonight is our last night in the village. In the morning we will be packing up and bringing all our gear with us so that we can return to Mbale after the Crusade meeting. We are anticipating the largest crown of all tomorrow evening.