Wow, I don't know how else to describe how I feel after traveling back here to Jinja from Aromo IDP camp in Northern Uganda. I feel like I am waking up from a dream. It was without a doubt the best seminar I have ever been a part of and I feel like I can't process everything that happened or even remember most of it, just that it was purely amazing and I am definitely going back. Getting there is kind of a nightmarish two days of travel, but it is worth every second. I honestly don't even know what to say about the week, other than WOW and praise God! I have been on a one week non-stop high and am now trying to recover for one day before I start teaching on the Bible school tomorrow, but I feel like I need a few more days to process the past week.
So how can I describe it? Well, let's just say it was the first seminar I have ever been a part of where the pastors wore me out with their hunger for the Word. We had over a hundred pastors and leaders from one of the largest IDP (Internally Displaced People) camps in the nation of over 70,000 people. People also came from very far away as well. In this camp, all those people are packed together in mud huts in an area about half of a square mile. There is barely room to walk between most of the huts they are so close to each other. Each day we started teaching at 8 in the morning and would finish right around 11 each night. We would take an hour break for lunch and for dinner. The rest of the time they were on the edge of their seats wanting to learn as much as they could. They NEVER got tired. I couldn't believe it. By the time we finished each night I would stumble to my bed and collapse and fall right asleep. Then I would wake up just after 7 and run to the classroom to set up and try to prepare for the day's training. On the final night of teaching, it was about 9:30 at night, we were finishing our dinner, and I couldn't keep my eyes open and so I told them, "You guys must be tired, I know I am, so it is alright if you want to finish here tonight and continue in the morning so you can rest after all this studying." They took a vote and every one of them raised their hand to say they would like to keep studying. I was in shock, I've never seen a hunger like this before. I prayed to God to give me strength and as soon as I opened my mouth to teach, I felt completely alive and finished out the night without the slightest sense of being tired (though I fell asleep the instant I hit my bed) What made it all the more amazing is that because the numbers were so large we had to use a temporary school house that was made entirely of sheet metal that transformed into a massive oven for most of the day because of the hot, equatorial sun.
Without a doubt it was the students that made this week so amazing. Each day they gave everything they had because they wanted to know God's Word better. Quite a few had already had gone to theological school, but had never learned how to study the Bible, just learned theology using the Bible as a text book. Each day I could see significant progress in the students and I have never left a seminar so confident in the students' ability to take the training and begin to use it immediately. I couldn't believe the feedback they were giving during the week. After beginning to understand how to "dig deeper" in the Bible, one of the pastors, who like almost every else in the camp is a farmer, said, "If we had been digging in our gardens the way we used to dig in the Bible, our crops would never grow!" Another pastor told me, "James we used to think that the Bible was very difficult to understand, but you are like a mother hen, teaching all the little chicks how to dig for the worms and other food below the surface." Often after eating lunch the students would rush back to the classroom without even resting. I would tell them, "sit, rest, let your brains recover." They would respond "we want to go study the next section to be ready for class! " This is the first seminar where I have been able to start a seminar at 8 in the morning. That has been impossible in the past, but even though we are deep in the village, they didn't want to miss a minute and many would already be in class when I arrived each morning studying on their own. By the third day of class they were already begging me to extend the seminar another week. By the end of the seminar I can't count the number of people who made sincere requests to make it an ongoing annual "Bible School." In fact they even wrote a letter of appreciation in which they speak to you, my supporters, it says, "We are sending back our congratulation through you to your sponsorship in USA. However, as we have listen and heard carefully about what you have taught us with, so please, could you kindly act as a link for training of the pastors in this region and send James back to us for annual training."
I could go on for thirty pages talking about the people, but here are a few quick highlight stories from the time:On the final day we did application of the book of Titus and I spoke on Titus 1:6, the need for a church leader to be able to lead their family. As we were in prayer on that verse, people were crying out to God in repentance and recommitting to be better fathers, husbands, wives, etc and right in the front one of the pastors was praying in English. He was weeping and crying out, "Lord thank you for bringing me to study your word, but I know that this is the reason you brought me here, to see my sin and to be a better husband and father, I repent of my selfishness, help me to lead my family…" I was on the verge of tears just listening to him pray. At the end of the seminar people were giving appreciation, and he stood up and said that he came to study the Bible, and is thankful for that, but he knows the real reason God brought him is for spiritual transformation, he was not expecting it, but God surprised him. To thank me, he had the whole seminar gather around me and pray for God's anointing and blessing on my ministry. I have never in my life been prayed for like that. As I sat there, I could tangibly feel the presence of God (as well as being covered in saliva, because of all the pastors surrounding me shouting out their prayers to God). It was an amazing time.
One awesome miracle God did was on the third day, one of the men came to class and couldn't see because of a terrible eye infection, so he just laid his head down to listen as we begun class. I felt God say to pray for him, so we all did, by the end of praying, he opened his eye and was able to read without a problem and continued to study for the rest of the week. He was actually the best student in the class. God is so good!
Another cool privilege was a couple days before I left for Aromo, someone sent me money to purchase some bicycles for pastors. They felt God was telling them to do that and told me to get them for whomever God leads me to. Well, when we got there I had my translator, Bosco, who I have known for over a year now, find out where the greatest need was. It turns out that the chairman of the pastors in the region had walked to the seminar because his bicycle was so old it could no longer be fixed and was praying for a bicycle. We were able to bless him, then also, the man who had lead Bosco to the Lord many years ago and was now a traveling preacher had recently sold his own bicycle in order get money to provide for his own children and so was without transportation. You can't imagine how cool it was to see these men receive an answer to their prayers from half way across the world. I wasn't going to present them with the bicycles while we were there, but Bosco insisted that everyone should see what a BIG God we serve who can answer prayers through strangers in another country. It was very cool and all of the glory went to God with everyone knowing neither Bosco or I had anything to do with the gifts. The same day as I was leaving the classroom I noticed that one of the men was barefoot. As we went to lunch I asked and learned that he could not even afford simple sandals which only cost 50 cents. The whole week I had been wearing my own sandals which had begun to hurt my feet because they were too big for me. So I went to look for him, but couldn't find him. I went back to my room to finish packing to leave and then he showed up at my door with a giant smile on his face, I was worried they would not fit him, but they could not have been more perfectly tailored for him. I again was amazed at how God works things out. He was so thankful he wouldn't stop hugging me and then he actually kissed me!
One of the coolest parts of the whole week was being able to spend time with Bosco. I met him last year in Arua. He is one of the school leaders on the YWAM base there and late one night he asked if I could come to his home and do a seminar in the IDP camp which no one has ever gone to before to do training. I told him I would love to do it, but that God would have to make the arrangements. Well, when I came to Africa this time I contacted him about taking the team there, but it didn't work out and we were frustrated. But at the end of our seminar in Ratchkoho about two months ago a few men came and begged me to come back and do a seminar in their own home area. I agreed to do it after the team had left without realizing that they were from the same camp as Bosco. I can't express how great it was to spend the week with Bosco in his home and spend each day teaching with him. God was answering your prayers that I have requested to build deeper friendships. Bosco even told me on the second to last day, "James, this week has been one of the best weeks of my entire life!"
I am sorry for such a long update; however I feel I haven't even begun to describe the week yet. Nonetheless, I need to get back to preparing the epistles of John to teach tomorrow on the Bible school here. I just wanted to let you know about the week and thank everyone for their prayers.
Oh, and one other praise report slash prayer request from two weeks ago. I had been waiting for everything to work out for the remainder of the seminars here and God has given me so much favor with the Anglican church here, which is by far the largest church in Uganda. In fact the bishop of the region I am in has arranged for me to have a 5 day seminar next week with the 22 priests in this diocese. I am completely humbled by this opportunity to have all the top leadership of the Anglican church in this area in a seminar for a week and now am pleading with you to pray for guidance and wisdom as I prepare for this seminar next week. I will have about 40 hours with them and am a little overwhelmed.
- also please continue to pray for health and safety. I only have a little more than three weeks to go and want to finish up strong.- please pray for this week as I will be not just teaching 1st, 2nd, & 3rd John on the Bible school but will also be doing three days of training with the school in how to run a seminar so they can pass on what they are learning to others.
Thank you so much,
Sincerely,
James
www.ToMakeHimKnown.comLabels: Uganda 2006
