Mark 16:15 says, “And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.”
The last Saturday of every month the students of Makobore High School are allowed to leave the campus and go into town for the afternoon. So this past Saturday Hillary, Meghan, Sarah Ann, Alex (our leader’s friend from Kampala) and I went into town with two of the students, Ronald and Daniel. We decided to walk along the road leading to the school with hopes of preaching the Gospel, something we call door to door ministry. I had never done this before and was definitely stepping out of my comfort zone to participate.
We prayed for women in shops and men in bars. Most of the people we talked to knew about Jesus Christ but were not saved and felt they weren’t ready to confess their sins to the Lord. In instances like those, all we can do is tell them about God’s amazing love and Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice, and pray for them.
Praying out loud is something that I have always struggled with and feared because I have always felt inadequate when I compare my prayers to those of others. I never realized until this trip that it doesn’t even matter what I’m praying. All that matters is that I pray. I know the Holy Spirit is inside of us all and I have felt it before but never while praying, until Saturday.
Each time I prayed on Saturday I felt the Lord and Holy Spirit slowly breaking down the wall of fear inside of me. But the wall was completely shattered at the end of the afternoon when I preached and prayed for a boda boda driver Dickson. When I approached him I first asked if he knew who Jesus Christ was and if he was saved. He told me he knew Jesus but was not saved and wasn’t ready to confess his sins and commit his life to the Lord. I opened my Bible and flipped to Ephesians 1:7-8 which says, “He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.”
I started telling him everything I knew about Jesus, how He was the perfect and final sacrifice for our sins; we have been forgiven and will have eternal life with Him. I tried my best to express to him the overwhelming power of God’s love and grace.
The hardest part about door to door ministry is the language barrier; you can never be sure if they understand all you are telling them. But Dickson asked me if I would bring him Bible verses daily when I passed him on the way to Makobore causing me to walk away from the conversation with confidence in the Lord that He had found a way to break down the language barrier between Dickson and I. The fact that he wanted more of The Word was so encouraging to me. To know that I may have planted a seed in this man, a seed of desire to know the Lord more makes me want to spread the Gospel even more. In Matthew 17:20 Jesus says all that’s needed is the faith of a mustard seed to move mountains.
Before leaving I asked Dickson if I could pray for him. I took his hand and honestly can’t even remember what I prayed. For the first time I felt the Holy Spirit completely overtake me, I wasn’t speaking, the Holy Spirit was speaking through me. As we continued our walk up the road I became overwhelmed with emotions because I knew the Holy Spirit had truly broken my fear of praying. A few weeks ago the verse Romans 8:26-27 was prayed over me and has become one of my favorites. It says “And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us, with groaning that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.”
This overwhelming presence of the Holy Spirit carried over into our ministry on Sunday when a few of us from the team walked to the village of Omukalere after church. I have never experienced such spiritual darkness and warfare as I did when I was at that village. There is extreme alcoholism and so many kids there who are orphans. But like I’ve learned here in Uganda, there are so many moments of pure joy even in the darkest environments. From the moment we got to the village to the moment we left a little girl named Dorcus never left me. Whether I was carrying her or holding her hand, she just wanted to feel loved. I can only hope that I was able to make her feel as loved as she made me feel. Whether I was praying for a sick woman or a drunken man, Dorcus was there and I felt her comfort and love. The comfort and love that can only be expressed through the Holy Spirit. Dorcus was a blessing from the Lord and I thank God she was placed in my path yesterday.
