Get comfortable, this could get long

I spoke at a second pastors conference on Saturday. I am amazed again this year at how these pastors come together. They are so happy to be able to share life and ministry together and once again I am encouraged by their example. This may not make sense to everyone who reads this, but I found it ironic that I was speaking to a group of pastors at a church who’s mission statement reads, “preparing people to go to heaven.” One of the benefits of the day was eating a true Ugandan dish for lunch. The hospitality here is admirable. I was escorted out of the church and to a table where 3 ladies stood. The first handed me a bar of soap that I applied to my dry hands. The next poured hot water over my hands and the third gave me a towel. I then proceeded through the homemade food line loading my plate with what I assumed to be food.

I woke up Sunday morning only to learn that my stomach was not pleased with my eating choices from the day before, so I spent the first 30 minutes of my day worshiping in solitude. The bathroom you know.

Thankfully, my experience with the false god was short lived, because I was to preach in a few short hours. By 8:30 I was back to normal (which by most standards is a bit abnormal). It was a wonderful 4 hour church service. Yes, 4.
One of the highlites of the service, besides my stellar preaching of course, was the presentation of the keyboard that Citywalk purchased for the church. It was an exciting and emotional thing for me. The worship team was so grateful…they plugged it in right away and used it for the rest of the service.

On Sunday afternoon, Ali began her photo school, “Uganda through their eyes,” with 5 children. Just as class began, rain began to fall. Hard. The room we were in was all concrete with a metal corrugated roof. It was so loud inside the room, we were forced to sit and wait until the rain stopped. About 5 minutes. Ali taught the class, she is so good in these settings, and the kids were set free to take pictures. We will meet again on Saturday for class number 2.
This is an idea we borrowed from “Kids with Cameras.” The idea is to teach children the basics of photography. Film photography. Ali is teaching about the cameras, film, composition, light and so on. The 5 kids each were given a camera, and they are to take the pictures that they want us to see…Uganda through their eyes. We will develop the film later in the week and bring it to the next class. We hope to use the story of each child and the pictures they take in a variety of ways in the near future.

Our Sunday ended at the property participating with the children in evening glory. All 300 children, give or take, gather together to sing and pray. A few boys provide the music on drums…all clap, all sing, all dance…it’s quite a scene. After the singing, they kneel to pray. They all pray at the same time, out loud. There is much to learn from their devotion and love for God.

Perez has a new love…my ipod. I sometimes wonder if we did not bring all our tech gadgets…phones, laptops, ipods, cameras, video cameras…if the kids would find us nearly as interesting. Anyway, Perez already knows more about my ipod than I do, of course that’s not saying much, and he’ll sit for hours listening and bouncing to the music.
While I’m on the subject of Perez, and going back to Sunday for a moment, we witnessed something quite heartbreaking.

Last year, our last day with Perez was a Sunday. He came to church and sat in the front row with us the entire service. 4 hours. I preached that Sunday. After the service we said our good byes and it was time for us to go to the airport. It was a challenging day. Perez was very sad to see us go. He sat in my lap whispering nkwagala nyo (I love you very much) over and over, and had to be pulled away from us as we left. Ali and I cried as we drove away.

Yesterday (Sunday), the experience was the same. We sat in church together. Perez on our laps. I preached. After church, we got in the vans to leave. And Perez was heartbroken. We believe Perez was reliving the experience from a year ago, and no one could convince him we were coming back. It was very emotional for Ali and me to see our little boy hurting. Imagine the joy when we returned. Keep praying that things in court work out…they just have to.

Speaking of court. Our lawyer continues to impress us. He noticed that there were inconsistencies in our names. For example, my birth certificate says Steven William Denney, but my employment verification says Steve Denney. Because this is something Ugandans do not do with their names, he thought it would be very confusing. So he wrote an affidavit for us to sign stating that all these different names were speaking of the same person. By the way, our lawyers name is Benon, please pray for him in these final days of preparation. He is a good man and we are very confident in him. We should here of a court date sometime this week…we’ll keep you posted.

Okay, one more thing about Perez. We learned today that how they have been disciplining him is telling him that if he does not behave, his dad and mom will not come. Apparently he shapes right up on hearing this. I wonder how long this technique will work. Today we were looking at pictures with Perez, many of the pictures had Ali, me and Perez in them. Each time a new picture came up, Perez would point and say, “daddy, mommy, Perezi,” and then giggle. As we drove away from the school this evening, Perez yelled out, “goodbye daddy, goodbye mommy.”

Enough about Perez for now (though I could go on), here’s a bit about a few other children that have touched us.

Jacqueline is so sweet. She found me today for the first time since we’ve been here and asked if I remembered her. Truth is, I did not, until she told me her name. Jacqueline, like many of the older kids, has many questions about our lives and America. But today was not so much about questions. Jacqueline came to me and said she had written Ali and me a letter. She pulled us both into a private room and had us read it. It was really beautiful…especially the part where she called me handsome. Much of the letter was filled with love and gratitude for us and it was a blessing to read it and pack it away for our Uganda scrapbook (that we still hope to get started on some day).

Remember Sunday’s evening glory? This is Donanter,

Jorge’s sponsor child, praying. It was quite powerful seeing this tiny girl on her knees, crying out to God. I hope this photo captures your heart and inspires you to prayer as well.

We saw Habibah for the first time today, she is sponsored by my parents. It was so great. She came with her mother and stayed for a short while. We were able to explain that my parents were her sponsor and that the bag of gifts were from them. We took several photos and they were on their way.

We also saw Christine for the first time today, she is a university student and sponsored by Ali’s parents. It was really great to see her. We sat together and talked for some time and then walked with her to her home. We met several of her siblings and were fortunate to also meet her father. Christine is the eldest of 9 children, and certainly the only in her family to attend University.

And we met Ochola Joseph for the first time today, Matthew’s sponsor child. He too came with his mother. She said, “please tell Matthew that Mamma Ochola is very thankful for him and loves him very much.” So now I told you. The balloons were a huge hit!

We’re not quite sure what the rest of the week has in store, but we know that as we continue to be a blessing, we know that we will be the one’s who are blessed. To many who are reading this, know that the children here love you so much…they say often that they live for their sponsors. The Pastors and social workers too are so grateful…not a day goes by that we not thanked numerous times for how we are helping and inviting others to help. So as I sign off tonight, know that any and every way you support this ministry, it is making a significant contribution to the lives of people who have nothing (material anyway). And thank you from me too.

God bless your heart as you continue today,
from Uganda with love, Goodnight