WEDNESDAY MUCH MORE IMPACT EVERWHERE

I’m probably going to get confused somewhere about now. The days are full and demanding, but at the same time exhilarating. These are great people to be in the midst of and we so much enjoy what we are doing. But it is like a long distance runner enjoys the challenge but has to find a stride somewhere in the middle that will keep the pace up without running out of steam. We have all put a lot into what we have been doing. The (mostly) younger guys from the team continue to work hard in the schools and at the crusade meetings. People always appreciate what they do and more an more teenagers have been making commitments to Christ.

Yesterday was the first day it didn’t rain at all from the beginning of the crusade. The sun was shining and there were more people. The responses have continued at about the same rate. One of the things that interests me is the fact that the altar call definitely needs to be extended from what we might think is appropriate. If I stopped the call when I would probably do so in Australia, only half the people would be there. It’s not just a matter of manipulation, and it may be cultural, I don’t know. It is certainly worthwhile. I am not one of those people who has any issue about long altar calls. I got saved through a long altar call and my salvation is pretty genuine. It’s a work of the Spirit and while it remains a work of the Spirit we just need to allow the Spirit to work. That’s what I say. I am learning to see what is needed and fall into line.

We spent a long time praying for sick people at the end of the meeting last night. African people are like aboriginal people as far as looking for prayer is concerned. We prayed for hundreds of people.

When it was over and we arrive back at the house (around 9:00 pm) the power was out. I think I may have mentioned how the power works. It is rationalized around the country and at any one time half the towns may be without power. So it was the turn for Mbale to be without power for a good long stint. Bishop Patrick decided that we would all go out for evening meal. It was a wonderful idea as far as Christine was concerned, but as for most of the rest of us it was a bit torturous. I for one was dead tired. And I mean dead. I had no voice, I couldn’t even whisper, so I sat there in the restaurant talking to no one. The whole thing took about two hours. It was a restaurant that served European food and it was very good of the Bishop to take us there. Many of the guys had steaks that looked terrific and it was relatively cheap. A full steak dish was only about $A10.00. I could only muster enough energy for an omelet. With the power out I wasn’t able to get near the web and so this report is coming late. This will be good practice for us of course because next week we will be staying in a village west of Soroti where there is no power.
While we were at the restaurant the girl serving the table quietly put some candles on the tables without saying anything and then about half an hour later the lights went out while they refueled their generator. Then they came back on. By the way, the restaurant was called “Oasis of Life” and they played Hillsong worship and Terry Macalmon worship tapes as background music.
This morning when I went to see if there was any way of ironing my shirt, Christine got a young boy to fire up a coke iron. I don’t know if you would ever have seen one, but coke was put into the body of the iron and it was left out on the step so that the wind could fire up the coke. When it was all hot and burning well, they closed up the iron and before a few minutes had elapsed I had a nice ironed shirt.

I will send this without pictures simply because I want to keep it happening. I so appreciate your interest and prayer support. My voice, as I explained above is still only a happening event when I am preaching. I said to the Bishop that if they had taped any of the session (which they don’t here because few people have players) and sent the tapes home no one would recognize my voice. I sound like one or two footballers who have been tackled by a stiff arm across the throat too many times.

In conversation this morning I was remonstrating (in a whisper of course; very hard to remonstrate well when you can only whisper) that Paul had asked three times to have his thorn removed. I said I had been asking three days and thought it should be gone by now. Then someone corrected me by saying that as far as we know, Paul never lost whatever it was that bothered him. He just experienced more grace. At that point I began to think of all the reasons why this could not be a thorn in the flesh. I wouldn’t like to spend the rest of my life operating like this. I would be needing to preach a sermon to have an intimate conversation with Nola. I don’t think she would find that very pleasing.

No I’m going to pray that God will heal me. It is definitely the result of the cold. I have preached as much as this before without a bother, so it is just one of those annoying things that God has allowed to happen so that purposes would be accomplished that I wasn’t planning for.