John meets Obama

I’ve mentioned in some previous posts the relationship we’ve built with the Jehovah’s Witness family – especially the grandma – Costida.  We’ve been having some discussions about Jesus and the Holy Spirit with her and another family member, James, but two weeks ago we were going to to stop in for just a few minutes to say hello and talk with her about life – letting her know that we care about her beyond just our discussion visits.  When we visited, however, she was in no mood to chat and seemed really agitated that we came to talk without a discussion about God planned.  Our group of four was trying to think of something to talk about and I was praying that God would bring something to mind to say, but I was just drawing blanks.  I left feeling really discouraged and almost abandoned by God – why would he bring us to this woman and let us have a few good talks only to bring about this interaction in which we couldn’t think of anything and left with this woman angrily complaining that we didn’t have a discussion planned?  I was thinking more about that interaction during the day and shared some of my discouragement with the team that night.  We prayed as a team that I would know more clearly that God is hearing and answering my/our prayers and that we aren’t working here just in our own strength – that He is with us.  The next morning as a team we wrote encouraging notes to be passed out randomly to team members.  As I was writing mine I started reading Psalm 61-66 and ended up really being encouraged myself as I was writing the note.  Those psalms are full of reminders that God is our refuge, strength, fortress, and that He surely hears our prayers and complaints and answers us with awesome deeds of righteousness.  Anyway, I just felt like God led me to those passages and I found real encouragement there.  

An even cooler experience happened just before we left for Kenya, when we were doing hut to hut ministry.  We were on our way to re-visit some people we had met before and were walking past a bar at 10 am when a man came running out to talk with us.  His name was Jaspher and he told us he wanted someone to show him how to change his life and break his addictions to alcohol.  He had some knowledge of Christ already, spoke really good English, and was ready to receive Christ unlike anyone I have ever seen.  We just gave him a brief rundown of the gospel, told him how Christ has changed our lives and about the power of Christ to change his life as well.  He was listening intently, and just asked all the questions he needed to to understand, finally asking what he needed to do to “enter the kingdom of God.”  We prayed with him and after a bit more talking he explained he wanted a Bible so he could preach more to his friends and asked us to meet with him again and visit his home so we could speak with his wife as well.  It was just an amazing reminder that the work we are doing is God’s work not just our own.  We sometimes have this idea that the only way someone will come to salvation is through an amazing convincing debate or dramatic presentation or intellectual discussion.  But what I was reminded of on that day is that the true gospel carries power on its own and that sometimes God has just prepared people’s hearts already and all we have to do is fill in the blanks.  The interaction was so special also because all of the things you might normally be cynical about were absent – the man was at a bar, but he wasn’t like the other drunks we run into – he wanted more than to just talk to the white women or to ask for money.  (P.S. there was also a 4 year old there named Obama because he was born shortly after Obama was elected – now I can say I have a picture with Obama).

I also read to Mark 4:26-29 recently and have found a lot of confidence and peace from its message.  The passage speaks about a farmer who casts seed onto the ground and then the seed grows regardless of what the farmer does to care for it, even though he doesn’t understand what really is making the seed grow, and finally the farmer just has to harvest it when it’s ready.  The passage just reminds me that when I’m witnessing to people here and sharing the gospel I’m just scattering seed and God is the one who makes that seed grow – it’s his work and he’ll see it through when he wants to.  In the same way there are some people here who are already prepared to be “harvested” even though I didn’t really have anything to do with preparing their hearts in the first place.  It’s just a good place to be resting in confidence in God and not feeling the pressure that it’s all up to me to determine someone’s eternity.  A friend also shared a really encouraging verse with me last week – Jer. 17:7-8 – the verses say that we are blessed when our trust and confidence is in the Lord and that as we set our trust in him we are strong and productive in our work for him, regardless of circumstances.

As we’ve gone back to the area where we met Jaspher, I’ve seen even more evidence of God’s presence amidst us as we work.  We met with Jaspher’s wife and shared the gospel with her and saw her accept it, met a woman named Janet who was an alcoholic and tried to commit suicide in the past and was thinking about it again and as we shared with her she grasped God’s hope and salvation, and I met a young man named Tony who had some background with Christianity, but didn’t understand that salvation comes just through faith in Christ or what that really looks like – it was a joy to just share with and teach him and see him accept Christ with an eager heart to learn more about how to live following God.  It’s just been mind blowing to see the way God is preparing people for us to come meet and I’m seeing that my work here is not just in my own strength.

In all of this I’ve been really built up – God has met me in my weaknesses, my discouragements have become encouragements and I’m really thankful to God for what he’s doing in my life and in the lives of the people here – praise the Lord.

Prayer requests:

-For me to be more of an encourager to teammates – eyes to see their struggles, words to build them up in weaknesses, and an awareness of my tone/sarcasm that could discourage

-Thank and praise God for the work He has been doing here and ask for him to continue to bring more people to salvation and to clearly show his power in our work each day

-For the people that have become Christians to find a good community to be built up by and that they would grow in understanding of God’s love and grace and how they should live.  We are also trying to figure out the details of getting Bibles for them; please  pray that this would be accomplished quickly.

May God give you extra grace and peace.  Thanks for reading.  Many friendly Ugandans here “greet you” haha.

john