Uganda Week 1

The adventure began on the 18^th of November, and honestly, I was terrified. I knew the months ahead would push me out of my comfort zone and that I was not done growing yet. After a few layovers, lots of movies, and some face masks in Hong Kong, our team made it to Uganda. We had a few hours at the airport while we waited for our final team member, Alexis, to arrive. During that time, we got to know our first contacts from Holy Spirit Fire Church, and just like that outreach started. I got to talk to some of the guys on the team and share my testimony, while getting my first sunburn of many.

Once Alexis arrived, we loaded up and headed from Entebbe to Mbarara. It was a long car ride, most of which I slept through. I did wake up for our first Ugandan dinner on the way, which was delicious and also the first of many meals of beans and rice. After about six hours of driving, we arrived at our hotel and were welcomed by an energetic and joyful receptionist named Jackie. She showed us to our rooms and we all passed out.

Thanks to slight jetlag and loud Muslim prayer calls waking me up, I had no need for an alarm and had early morning quiet times all week. The first lesson God had for me was from Romans 12:9, “Let love be genuine.” I took this up as one of my many goals for outreach, whether in planned ministry times, team time, or off time, I wanted to love from a place of genuine love not at all forced or superficial.

Our typical morning started with bananas, boiled eggs, bread, and drinking chocolate or African tea. After breakfast, we had team time, which is a time of worship, prayer, and team bonding.

On our first full day, we jumped right into ministry. We went to a lunchtime church service where we encountered believers full of so much passion. We performed our skit in front of an audience for the first time, and then one of my teammates preached and one explained the skit. Then for lunch, we got introduced to another food that would be a staple of our trip, chapatti, which is a unique type of flatbread. We later returned to the church for the night service, which started with worship and our team’s amazing dancing skills. We got pulled up on stage to dance in front of the whole church. While I probably should have felt embarrassed, I was too busy singing, laughing, and falling in love with Uganda.

The second day we had hospital ministry. On the way over, we stopped to pick up soap, diapers, and laundry detergent to hand out to the patients. We got to the hospital and were showed around by the head nurse. We were lead through rooms of pregnant women and women who had just given birth. Some were on hospital beds while many other mothers had to lay on the floors wherever there was room. We walked around to the women handing out the supplies and praying for them. I was paired up with a translator named Mary. She was really good at pushing me out of my comfort zone and making up a lot of Faith jokes. Next, we moved outside where the women who had recently given birth were, as a result of a lack of room in the building. Even in the midst of the craziness, I felt so much joy and hope for all the mothers and babies as I prayed for them.

We finished off our day with school ministry, which usually consisted of us doing a skit, someone explaining it while giving a short message, and worship. This school specifically I remember having such beautiful and joyful worship and dancing.

The next day we went to a market to evangelize. Sina and I were with a translator and we walked round to the stands praying with the store owners and telling them the gospel. Three women were saved and many were healed. One woman had back pain and after we prayed for her she had the biggest smile on her face and was touching her toes and showing people around her how it was healed. We went to one more location to evangelize and then headed to a school. Unfortunately, most of the students at this school did not seem to be paying attention and even laughed during our skit when Jesus was being crucified. I think it helped me understand how God must have felt when he was mocked and rejected over something he was so passionate about. But despite all the distractions,

there was one boy in the front who was so focused throughout the whole time, and it reminded me that God came for the individual. Even if that kid was the only kid in the whole room, it would have been worth it.

The next day we had prison ministry. Half of my team, including myself, went to the women’s wing. The service started with worship and so many of these women were down on their knees crying and I felt so blessed to get to kneel beside them and worship God with them. After prison ministry, we had street preaching. This may have been the first time I have truly preached the gospel to a group of people and I was terrified. But once I started, the Holy Spirit gave me the words, and I was yelling the gospel at the top of my lungs to anyone who would listen. Then we headed to another, bigger prison. During our skit, one of the leaders pulled up one of the prisoners to join in and they all loved it. About twenty men got saved during our time there and we got to go and pray for each of them individually. Our final stop for the day was for more school ministry. I had the privilege to explain the skit and share a short sermon with them, and I discovered so much passion for speaking and found myself yelling Hallelujah just like the locals.

The next day was Sunday, which meant preaching at churches all morning. I got to preach a full sermon for the first time. I practiced over and over and would wake up in the middle of the night thinking through my sermon. When we arrived at the church I was so nervous, but during worship God gently reminded me that it is not about me. I was able to preach with peace and assurance that God was there with me and he was working in people’s hearts. After the service, we headed to another church where one of my teammates preached. Then we headed back to our hotel, and after a very full week, got an afternoon off, which most of us spent sleeping. I woke up sixteen hours later on Monday morning, when we packed up and drove to our next location.