Uganda

The Lord’s heart for His People

A week doesn’t seem like a lot of time for the Lord to create drastic and transformative change in a person’s heart, but that’s exactly what he did in the team during our stay in Uganda… 

We arrived in Uganda expectant of the type of ministry we were going to do but what we didn’t expect is how much it would impact us. We prepared ourselves to head off into the ghettos and to share the gospel with whoever was brought unto our path. One of our host’s disciples, Zaga, took us under his wing and accompanied us to a few ghettos every day. We got to engage with various different kinds of people as we practiced doing DBS (discovery bible study) with each one of the groups we visited. We heard the stories of prostitutes, ex-convicts, drug addicts, etc…and that’s when the Lord began to reveal His heart to us. 

It would be a lie to try and say that we as a group could go to Uganda for a week and expect to have a drastic impact or to see radical change within the lost people that we shared the gospel with. Our team had to realize quite quickly, in between a lot of disappointment, that perhaps our stay in Uganda was going to be more about what the Lord was teaching us instead of what we were trying to teach others in a few hours of interaction. At first, it seemed so easy to fall into a pit of discouragement if it seemed like the essence of the gospel wasn’t being received, or if it was being challenged, but what the Lord made us realize is that we were simply being given the opportunity to witness the work that He was already doing in Uganda through the local people he had appointed in the ghettos to disciple and journey with those that still do not know Him. We were forced to humble ourselves before the Lord by acknowledging that the spread of His word in the Ugandan ghettos wasn’t dependent on us. Not even a little bit. The Lord himself had already been revealing Himself and spreading His word. What a testament this is to the fact that we are privileged to even be used by the Lord for His purposes and we shouldn’t kid ourselves into thinking that the salvation of people is in our hands because it’s truly a work of the Spirit himself. 

You always hear that praying the prayer that says “Lord break my heart for what breaks yours” is a dangerous prayer, but we hadn’t truly believed it until our hearts really did break for the lost, broken, and impoverished people in Uganda. While being faced with their suffering we couldn’t help but become aware of our own privilege. In those instances, it was so easy to become overwhelmed by the darkness and the suffering of the people, that we even began to question our position to share the gospel because we couldn’t begin to understand the lives that these people had been confined to…

However, the Lord revealed His heart to us…and even as we were hurting for His people, there came a revelation of how important it is to live our lives according to the calling that Jesus has placed on each one of us…to just love.

Spiritually and emotionally we were being pressed, but we were also being physically challenged as a lot of us fell ill with upset stomachs, so ministry was increasingly difficult, but this allowed us to rely on the Lord even more during this time…

Overall we are grateful for the lessons that the Lord taught each of us during this time. Our hearts for missions has expanded, and our desire to see the Kingdom come increases every day.

Even in the pressing, we praise you, Jesus. 

Prayer Points:

• Pray for Wilson (our Host) his family and for endurance as he continues to dedicate his life to the discipleship movement in Uganda
• Pray for revival in the Ugandan ghettos