Carolyn, Danielle, Sarah and I are left at the first camp to do the church service.
Danielle and Sarah will do children’s ministry and Carolyn and I will do the main service.

We start the service by worshipping together.. The people in the camp want to bless us so they are singing in English, and many don’t even speak English. They speak Lumasaba and Ateso in the North ~ different from the Luganda in the South…. We make a request for them to praise and worsihp in their native tongue. It is absolutelty beautiful! Danielle sings Beautiful Jesus and it is such a blessing to the peple and the team to see her gift in operation. After Praise and worship, we split off…

After a warm welcome by Pastor Paul to Carolyn and me. And Carolyn starts speaking her heart on having joy. She shares from her experiences in life and how it was allowing the joy of the Lord in her heart that carried her through. She talked about true joy versus happiness based upon circumstances. When she turned it over to me… I picked up with Hebrews 12.. that it was for the Joy set before Him, that Jesus endured the cross. Shared about the One who is the giver of joy. Then went into teaching on the role of the Holy Spirit and staying filled with the joy.. Eph. 5:18 & 19.

As I was teaching, I had looked back at Pastor Paul and he had a great big smile on his face and was thanking the Lord. The Lord is so good, He responded by flooding the place with His Holy Spirit. Carolyn and I prayed for an extra measure of the Holy Spirit to be upon them individually. New languages were abounding and joy was breaking out. We then werwe led to pray for the sick and the the Lord healed them. Thank you Lord Jesus!

A celebration and praise session broke out that I believe the people were “floating” on the air as they danced. I don’t know how they do it, but they “hover” above the ground. We ended up dancing outside the Church around the building… It was so glorious and wonderful time of praising the Lord. In the middle of Africa, we’re marching around a church! Selah!!! After the praise and worship, Pastor Paul thanked God for having us come. He prayed over Carolyn and me and I know that his thanks were more than just words. One could feel that there was a deep sincerity behind his thanks to the Lord.

As we walked back to where we were going to meet our transport, he turned to me and started to speak, through the interpreter, Pastor Paul told me that in the morning, as he and the elders were reading the bible, he saw a verse about the Holy Spirit. He told the elders that he felt impressed that they should make a special request to the Lord to enlighten them to the role of the Holy Spirit, to send someone to teach about the infilling.

We know that we are answers to prayers, but to me, it is so humbling to know that the Lord used us to be an immediate answer to a prayer that was put up in the morning. Thank you Lord for entrusting us with this special message to deliver at the appointed time.

And to all my Faith Family.. Thank you for your constant prayers for us to hear with the ears of our Spirits and Obey what we are being prompted to do. They help keep us in tune with the spirit and put down the distractions.

Photos of the Church: Those on the inside:
Pastor Paul, Congregation, Musicians (the instrument is a harp)

Those on the outside: Children of non Christian families looking in through “windows” and doors, longing to be a part of the family…

Life in a refugee camp is one that I could not imagine. We see clips on news programs now and again, but until you visit a refugee camp it is just not real. Without any announcement, we approached the first camp, it looked as if there were thousands of little huts all “squished” together in a rather small area. Knowing that most villages are not this big, I knew it was a refugee camp.

I’ll do my best to describe the life in a camp…
Security for the camp: Camps with barbed wire around them are for the protection of the people who live in the camp. To keep out those bands of the LRA who drove them from their villages in first place. Security means that people can leave the camp during daylight to clear small patches of land and grow vegetables to supplement food that they are given by the UN’s World Food Program. They must be back before dark.

Making charcoal and selling it is a popular wasy to provide some form of income for the people. Our drive takes us down roads were bags of charcoal are sitting on the side of the road awaiting to be picked up. A bag of charcoal goes for about 7500 Ugandan shillings or $4. The government has recently banned the production of Charcoal as too much of the Rain Forest was being destroyed. There is good and bad to that…. taking away a means of income or an important part of balance for the eco-system.

In each of the camps, there are few health facilities in the camp and people die each week from malaria, cholera, dysentery or Aids-related illnesses. Medical care is just not there… God healing through prayer is always the best option.

DISTRUST, HOPELESNESS and DISPAIR are evident as you go into the camps. Many groups had come through and made so many promises, but many of the promises have been unfulfilled….. BUT GLORY TO GOD… We bring the TRUTH where they can be made PERFECT and ENTIRE, WANTING NOTHING!!!!!

Sorry no speed humps… but check out the village picture.. on the left there is a sign that Ignasis and I laughed about. Speed hump warning, but no speed hump!

Traffic Jam in Kampala, Village photo.. walking is main transportation, Roads less travelled???? If you say so…

As I’m writing this, I can’t help but think, WHY DID I NOT TAKE A PHOTO???? More on that later.

We started our trek from Lugazi (noted in red on map) and headed up to Gulu located in the northern part of Uganda. We were told that it is approx 4 to 5 hours away… Well, not exactly. We started off early enough and made it from Lugazi to Kampala in good time 2 hours not bad…… Now the fun starts…

Once we hit Kampala, we encounter a traffic Jam. It must have been the beginning of Road construction season. What should have took at a max 1 hour to make it to the other side of the city took 2.5 hours. One lane roads, detours way way way around the city to get to the north part. They are building a major freeway in anticipation of the 2010 World Cup Football (Soccer) tournament that will be held in Uganda. It will take you right up to the stadium! Until then, you have to drive around the city!

Once we got on the ONLY paved or sealed gravel road that heads North, we were a cruzing. It was as if we made up time as we drove 80 kmph… (I think that’s about 55 miles per hour!) We did that for just a few minutes then we encountered something we are all fimiliar with… POT HOLES… Our driver Ignasis has eagle eyes, he could see them coming for miles! The bus moved to the right, then to the left then to the right… Slowed down to go “through” the ones that could swallow the bus. But we made it. After a few hours of this, we stopped at a little roadside cafe to use the toilets (not bathrooms.. that’s asking for a shower) and eat a late lunch.

Lunch on the move is delightful.. Hard Boiled Eggs, a Chapti’s (all familiar Roti’s), peanut butter smeared on anything you can smear it on… And Orange Fanta or Coke… They also have a very lovely Ginger soda Stoney’s. Which I like, but if you are not use to ginger, it makes you cough when you take the last sip! After a short break off we went…..

After about 20 minutes of smooth sailing, it was more road construction. Now that does not sound so exciting, except, this was the most interesting road construction tactic I’ve ever seen. Some of the roads were rebuilt to make the rides smooth and the gravel was put down and was loose. A layer of ashphalt does not go over the top, rather a “seal coat” (similar to what we seal MN driveways with) is put down. BUT that takes a while and it is only one side at a time. So they figure let’s lay the gravel down say for all but the last 20 miles to Gulu and let’s put speed humps every 8 meters (approx every 25-30 feet). AND let’s make these speed humps BIG so that a truck, bus, car literlally needs to drive over them at 1 mph. No kidding. I honestly don’t know how Ignasis managed it. He’d just get up to 20 kmph to shift gears up, and then slow down. Front tires over first, back tires over. And behind the axel if it was too fast, well it was a thrill ride. This is where I should have taken a photo. This went on for miles and miles.

Ignasis and I started to laugh as we encountered one after another after another. It was “never ending”. That was the last 7 hours of our drive. What should have taken 4-5 hours took 14 hours. Riding in the bus was extremely long, but none the less, we got there! And it WAS WORTH IT!

We went to Ssezebwa falls to walk and pray in the park. Witchcraft is still widely practiced in Uganda and some of the practices are so hard to comprehend. Sacrificing children is not uncommon and it has to stop. Pastor Bill has stated that it is only when the Christians start to pray and take authority over the spirits, does something happen. The officials were afraid of the witchdoctors so the Christians needed to be the one to lead the way. Lead them to Christ then teach them the Authority of the Believer.

As we did our “hike” through the jungle, the guide who is a Christian, shared with us about the history and events that take place in the park after dark. We came across shrines and altars as well as garmets that are used in the rituals of the witchdoctors. Still all hard to believe, even more when you see it. Photos below….

After Ssezebwa falls, we head back to Seya to pray on the ground where the Lord is building the bibe school and church.

Alters and shrines…. removing the darkness by prayer and bringing the Light!