“The Visitors Who Are No Longer Visitors”
There have been a number of moments in the month I've spent in Rukungiri where I just have to stop and soak in the fact that this is my life. Things like listening to the boys sing in Runyankole and knowing that the God they worship is the same here and in America. Or walking to and from ministry holding hands with sweet schoolchildren and telling them that Jesus loves them. Or turning the Geography class you're not equipped to teach into preaching the Gospel for 40 minutes.
Things like these have become such a part of my everyday life here that sometimes I miss just how radical they are. And then there are whole days where one thing after another blows my mind and I realize how visibly the Lord is at work and how good He has been in bringing me here.
Saturday, which is normally our day off from ministry, Ashlin, Erik and I headed to school to watch a debate between classes. In typical African fashion, we showed up to find the debate cancelled and rescheduled for the following week. Where I might once have been frustrated or inconvenienced by a change in plans, I now saw the sovereignty of God and my complete lack of control. The cancelled debate was as one of the best things that has happened thus far in my ministry to these boys.
We ended up spending the whole day with a group of the oldest guys like Lawrence, Noah, Nixon, Lucky, Ronald and Emma and I left with renewed faith in and clarity about God's purpose for sending us to Makobore High School.
We spent the morning in a small office connected to one of the classrooms, talking about everything from corrupt Ugandan politics to mountain gorillas and football. The boys went out of their way to serve us tea and chapati, and the pride they took in hosting us as their "guests" was one of the sweetest things I've ever witnessed from a bunch of high schoolers.
After tea, we went to play volleyball and then joined all the guys for lunch in the dining hall. If you had seen our table or overheard our constant laughter, you would have assumed we were the oldest of friends, when three short weeks ago we were complete strangers. When we first arrived at Makobore, we were constantly referred to as "visitors". That afternoon over beans and matoke, I realized I no longer felt like a visitor in this place, but a friend.
Before we started ministry, I doubted what the heck I could ever have in common with a bunch of teenaged Ugandan boys.
Though I'm still not sure I have an answer to that question, I've realized that these guys have quickly become some of my favorite people and I genuinely enjoy their presence. Their joy is contagious, and though I'm here to teach them, I'm realizing I'm actually the one with so much to learn.
That realization was made abundantly clear on Saturday afternoon when we joined their Bible study. The boys gather for fellowship twice a week, but as a team we've only joined them on Wednesday nights. This was the first time I had seen the guys sacrifice their free time on the weekend to spend praising God and reading His word. They don't take for granted their ability to freely worship, and rain or shine, late or on time, that is what they do.
As we prepared to start, we were joined by one of the torrential downpours that have become a normal occurrence now that we're in one of Uganda's many rainy seasons. As we stood there in the classroom-turned-chapel, shouting and clapping and drumming to drown out the sound of rain pounding on the leaking tin roof over our heads, we were united as the body of Christ despite so many differences. Not only are we no longer visitors, we're brothers and sisters with the students here. It didn't matter if we were leading them with a guitar and English worship songs or if they were leading us in a conga line around the room. There was freedom and joy in worshipping the God of all creation in whatever language we knew, and His presence among us was tangible. I looked around the room and saw each student worshipping in his own way and was overwhelmed by the image of these boys hungry for God instead of simply going through the motions as they've been told.
I could sense that the glory of the Lord is about to open up and rain down on Makobore and all of Rukungiri in such a powerful way and I was reminded that God is at work in this place and that He knew what He was doing when He brought us here.
He knew what He was doing when the debate was scheduled for Saturday and then cancelled. It got us to a school on a day we normally would have stayed home, and more importantly a day when the boys had plenty of free time to spend with us.
He knew what He was doing when He called us to this place to be with these boys that none of us thought we would ever have anything in common with. It's taught me that the love of God is universal and transcends all cultural, age or language barriers.
And that's the motivation to continue pursuing relationships with every person He puts in my path and to willingly walk through every door He opens on this journey.
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