Uganda YWAM Project (III of V)
Part III of V
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| Overlooking the YWAM site, with a small inlet of Lake Victoria off in the distance. |
Days 7-8 9th
– 10th September
This morning, YWAM
had an all campus worship and prayer time that we joined in with. It was good
to be a part of something with their ministry. One of the Ugandan leaders spoke
about putting on the armor of God. It was a good message and reminder that evil
does still very much exist in this world.
Our team is making
good progress on the work ahead of our presentation Wednesday afternoon. We had
intended to present Thursday evening, but it worked better for the ministry to
do it Wednesday, so Thursday will be a bonus day where we can work on finishing
as much of the work as possible.
This has been a
good trip for me as I’ve particularly enjoyed being in the company of
Christians from such a variety of backgrounds. Our team consists of people from
England (3), Scotland (2), Northern Ireland (1), Hong Kong (2), China (1), and
the USA (5). It’s the most diverse team I’ve had and the biggest team I’ve had,
so it’s been a very different dynamic. The team has gelled together very well –
I couldn’t imagine a team from so many different countries getting along any
better than this one has.
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| Walking the site with Emma, one of the members of the YWAM Hopeland base leadership team. |
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| Volunteer Geologist/Geotechnical Engineer Ray, testing one of three soil test pits. No, this is not at a nearby cemetery. |
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| The engineers, who in this instance doubled as the soil pit excavation crew. |
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| Gettin' 'er done...wait, are my eyes closed? |
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| The work room |
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| Nobody leaves this room until the project is ready to present. |
One thing I
learned about the recent history of Uganda was interesting, though not
necessarily directly connected to this project (though certainly there are
people on this campus who were affected). But regarding Joseph Kony and the
Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), I didn’t realize how prayer had an impact on
ending the crisis in Uganda that ravaged the North of the country in the late
1990’s and early 2000’s.
Apparently, after
years of terror reigning in the north, with the LRA kidnapping children by the
dozens and turning them into either sex slaves or soldiers, a group of
Christians had had enough. Fear had gripped the people for years, with many IDP
(Internally Displaced People) camps created virtually overnight as people from
the rural areas flooded to the larger towns for safety (the LRA largely preyed
on rural villages). The LRA was very much into witchcraft and a false version
of the bible, with Joseph Kony treated as a deity amongst his followers. Many
shrines had been setup in various places throughout the jungle, and people were
deathly afraid of these places.
So, this small
group of Christians went up to the north and began visiting each shrine site to
first destroy it and then pray over the place. The local people were amazed at
this since they were very fearful to go anywhere near the shrines. But after
awhile, word got out, and word has it that Joseph Kony returned to these sites
and found that his ‘power’ had gone. Soon after, he announced that he had to
leave Uganda because his power had been stripped there!
What the exact
details are of this story is hard to say, but the group that went there to pray
did so with a boldness and willingness to confront evil that some may have
thought foolish at the time. But their confidence in God and lack of fear of
anything else was an enormous encouragement to the people in the area who had
been gripped with fear. With the animism of the past and being within the highly
spiritual context of life in rural Africa, such boldness in the face of dark spiritual
powers spoke louder than any preaching or evangelism could have to the power of
the true God and his son Jesus.
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| Gathering data / fiddling with my favourite pen. |
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| Jean and I, in uniform, checking the water sample results. |
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| The engineers on the EMI team (i.e. the smart ones, plus me) |
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| We took a break one morning to climb the nearby hill to get a bird's eye view of the site. Uganda is such a beautiful place. |
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| We got treated to a massive thunderstorm, complete with hail, torrential rain and thunder. |
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| Selfie, with the site and lake in the background |
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