Affluence Masks Spiritual Realities

We arrived at our home at about 5 PM today (Wednesday I think) after about 30 hours of travel through 8 time zones. Both Judy and I got 3 or 4 hours of sleep in route home, so we are looking forward to going to bed early tonight.

This will be a short post because of that, but we wanted to share our overarching response to the trip.  Without the affluence of America, the spiritual realities in Uganda are much more visible.  One one hand, everyone knows who the witch doctors are and many seek their “healing power.”  On the other hand, the joy of relationship with God through Jesus Christ is so rich and expressed openly and often.  We experienced extended worship in song throughout our entire time in Uganda, in formal and informal settings.  We are definitely going to miss that!

We will have much more to say in future posts about our time in Uganda, but we wanted to let you all know we are home in Minnesota.

Thanks for your prayer support.  It was much needed and appreciated.

Wow!

We have been in Uganda for almost a week! It has been an amazing week, but not much time or opportunity to post. Thank you for your prayers over these last days! We have felt the Lord carrying and providing for us each day!

As we have toured many areas and projects, we have been overwhelmed by many sights, smells and sounds, but most of all we have been overwhelmed by the multitude of ways that our awesome God is at work in this place! He has moved and continues to move in the hearts of many people to care for the physical, spiritual and emotional needs of the downtrodden.

Some highlights include:

Worshipping in song in the midst of the African Children’s Choir school children.

Hearing stories of God moving in supernatural ways to provide a sanctuary for children born with HIV who live in a community oppressed by witchdoctors. We got to tour the existing faculty and see local workers hired to build the next phase under EMI’s direction.

Using local methods and materials modified to provide for seismic strength and to increase longevity. Building people and buildings to God’s glory!

Seeing an Ugandan construction crew on an EMI job site worship in song and hear the word preached during their weekly jobsite chapel.

Hearing the vision and seeing the first fruit of beautiful young men and women at the Amazama campus. As well as experiencing the Lord’s peace that is upon the people and place.

We are so thankful to the Lord for the opportunity to be here! Last night we started part two of our trip. We finished our time with EMI and are now visiting the ministry of Loving one by one. Please pray for us as we pray and process all that we have seen and heard about EMI. Please pray that the Lord will continue to give us eyes to see and ears to hear what is needed in these next days!