A New Journey Begins

Hey Everyone, It’s Kim! I know we haven’t had much time to write lately, but we have the morning off today, so I wanted to take a moment to update you on all that God is doing so far. We are now on Day 3 at the first village, which means that we’ve completed 2 days of clinics/gospel crusades, and since we don’t have clinics on the last day, we will join our partners for the final gospel crusade this evening before moving to the second village tomorrow. I wanted to give you a brief rundown of what we’ve been doing these last few days.

On Friday, we met up with the rest of our Christ Fellowship team (both the youth team, and those that flew in that morning), and after hanging out in the hotel lobby for a while, and loading all of our luggage in the back of a flatbed truck, we set off on our 2 hour drive to Mitiyana. We drove to the hotel where we are now staying, unloaded our things, and spent the evening getting settled, and going to bed early to get enough rest for the first day of clinics.

We woke up nice and early on Saturday (devotional at 6:15, breakfast at 6:30, leave for village at 7:00). That was the plan anyway! :) We have learned to be very “fluid” here in Uganda. We did not actually leave for the village until 8:00, but that allowed us some time for the worship team to meet and run through the songs since it had been a month since we last rehearsed together (with Floyd, Raegan and I coming early). Once we loaded the bus, we set off for our hour-long drive to the village. We always begin by going to the village farthest away, then make our way closer to the hotel with each new village. The ride is quite bumpy, but the scenery is truly amazing. This part of Uganda is much hillier than we’ve seen before, so the drive is like a roller-coaster. But when you are at the top of one of the hills, and you can look out across the valley, it truly is breathtaking!

When we arrived, our partners were working hard to put the stage together. This is no small task. While they were hard at work with that, we began setting up the vision and medical clinics. Tickets were passed out, equipment was set up, and we were ready to begin. The first day is always a bit slower than the second b/c it takes so long to get everything set up for the evening crusade. Many of our translators are busy helping with that, so we have a limited team working in the clinics early in the morning. However, by the afternoon, we are in full swing. So much so, that this year, we did not even stop for lunch until after 4:00, and the crusade did not begin until almost 6:00 (usually we eat around 3:00, and the crusade begins at 4:00). Needless to say, we had to condense some of our worship time so that the message could be preached before people had to walk home.  We ended up leaving the village and headed back to the hotel around 8:30, dinner was at 9:30, recap was at 10:00, and bed was quick to follow. We knew that morning would come quickly!

Sunday was another great day in the village. Since the other villages we’ve been to in past years are so far away, we were not able to send men to go preach at them. But one of the youth, Grayson, was able to preach at the village we are in right now. It was exciting to see God use him in such an amazing way. When he walked up to the front, he literally threw his IPad down on the ground and explained that although he had a message prepared, the Lord gave him something else to say in that moment. So he just opened up the Word and gave the gospel message. He spoke with great confidence and you could tell it was exactly what needed to be shared that day. After church we started up the clinics again and worked until about 4:00, when we ended for lunch. The crusade was able to begin much earlier the second day, so we spent a good 2+ hours worshiping. Whether it was Victory Living Word Church Mass Choir up front,  our worship team, a group called “Spoken Truth”, or all of us up there together (which is always my favorite time), we were worshiping and praising God. It truly is an amazing thing to join with our brothers and sisters from Victory in Worship. It has become one of my favorite, favorite things, and I always miss it when we return home. 

We have seen some wonderful things so far on this trip. Many people have had an opportunity to preach to a tent of people, and we’ve seen 30-40 people pray to accept Christ from each of those times. During the clinics, we are constantly shouting out “Perfect Salvation” which is our way of celebrating that someone has just chosen to accept Christ. We shout and clap, and have a great time rejoicing. Each time Rafe has preached, many have come forward to accept Christ. I’m not sure about the numbers, but for a place that has no churches established, and where most of the people have a muslim background, we are very encouraged to see how the Lord is moving in this place.

Please continue praying for us. Tonight is the last night in this first village. Then we will break down the stage after the crusade, and load it on the truck so that our partners can drive it to the next village where they will put it together tomorrow morning. It is not a task for the weak, so pray for endurance for the guys as they help with this, and pray for extra rest for us as it’s usually a later night for us. We will continue to update you as we can!

To Him be all the Glory!!!