Typically at 5:00 AM, we wake up to the sounds of tribal Jinja: the roosters, the exotic African birds and the Islamic call to prayer. We make coffee and watch the brilliant colors of the sunrise over the Nile river. It paints itself over the 100-year-old mango tree in the center of their yard. Drawn outside to the sounds of Africa, we walk down a small, winding rock path to the well-manicured prayer garden with coffee in hand. The early morning air is balmy and scented with the sweet aroma of white puffy geraniums. We settle down on our prayer bench to enjoy the presence of God for an hour. Never alone in this ancient culture, we begin to hear the soft parade of footsteps, crunching rocks under the feet of one of my students who appears from the early morning shadows to join us for quiet prayer and meditation. After prayer, I go for my morning run in the hills above majestic Lake Victoria while Cindy prepares our breakfast in the small kitchen overlooking a beautiful garden of bright tropical flowers.
It’s time for Cindy to go to the pregnancy clinic where she teaches young mothers how to care for, love and nurture their newborn babies. The clinic is 15 minutes away in downtown Jinja. Outside of our small apartment is our 1995 diesel Mitsubishi, Pajero SUV, courtesy of generous donors. In a billow of diesel haze, we proceed out the gate of the Uganda Baptist Seminary Compound manned by our dear friend Eleazar. The melodic musical noise of the Jinja morning begins to fade into a cacophony of sounds that are loud and proclamating. The locals are on the move. People travel on small motorcycles, called Bodas, three to four riders at on board at once, and in over-crowded vans, too heavily weighted and downright dangerous. Round-abouts are competitive in nature and patient to allow drivers to merge into the slow rhythmic flow of walking people, bicycles, bodas and large semi-trucks moshed together. We quickly realize we have just been sucked into this beautiful chaotic energy called “life in Africa”. Cindy grips her car handle tightly as we move along the way, warning me of every pedestrian, pothole and pretentious driver as he navigates the way to the downtown Jinja Pregnancy Clinic. When we arrive, Cindy is met by the director of the clinic, Caroline, a blonde 15-year veteran missionary from Ireland. Cindy spends half of her day loving and teaching young Ugandan mothers necessary life skills.
Two days ago, Mary Blake arrived with the two ultrasounds donated by our friends in America. Today Cindy used one of the ultrasounds at the clinic. It was used to see a woman’s baby and as we started to see the image of the child in her belly, she went into labor! Going into labor changed the plan immediately, so we put the young 15 year old girl in the car with her 35 year old grandmother… yes, you read that right. They drove around the corner to Jinja Main Hospital and got the girl into the delivery room. Four doctors followed us into a small, dingy delivery room and asked if they could use the ultrasound. An image of the miracle of life appeared on my cell phone and we saw that the baby was beginning to come out of her birthing canal. This was a crazy scene! Cindy, Mary, the scared young girl, her grandma, four medical staff and I all watched as the baby was birthed into the chaotic world of Jinja, Uganda. The doctors got so excited about this portable ultrasound that they called the administrator of the hospital, Dr. Edward, and he rushed us over to his office. He proceeded to call the radiologist department doctors who then asked if they could follow us to another part of the hospital to test this new device. We walked into a sparsely decorated room that housed an antiquated ultrasound and there lie a young girl complaining of abdominal pain. Again, we used the new ultrasound and found no problem with her major organs. The doctor asked to use the OBGYN application and as soon as the image of her abdomen came onto my cell phone, the doctor yelled out, “She’s pregnant!”. The doctors were so excited and started yelling so much so, that all the other patients waiting outside on the grass got a little nervous and wondered what was going on. It was amazing to show this frightened young 14 year old girl the heart beat video of her peanut-sized baby. At first, she smiled but then the reality of how her life had just changed set in. What an amazing moment to witness!
I head back to the seminary to start one of my seminary classes with my pastor students from 15 different nations in East Africa. The passion and love for Jesus that these men and women have is rivaled by none in the world. Most of them have been recently saved from Muslim and African Spiritual Tribal beliefs. Within a year or two, they accept the call of God to make disciples by starting churches under trees or in makeshift slated houses. Churches grow so fast in Africa that there is a shortage of leaders. These fortunate pastors get to come to an upper learning school, like Uganda Baptist Seminary. The others do their best to manage the multiple churches they have started with the limited Bible knowledge they have. The biggest reason we came to Africa was to empower new pastors and church leaders with easy-to-access, comprehensive and accurate Bible teachings with Dr. Bruce Wilkinson. His ministry is called Teach Every Nation. The ministry that funded these materials is called the Healing Rooms of Santa Maria Valley. That ministry has made college-level materials available to over 400 new pastors.
Every Tuesday, we go to a famous slum called Massese where the displaced people of Karamojong live in poverty, squalor and dark demonic depravity. The place is teaming with half-naked children, women who make an alcoholic drink from fermented millet and gambling shanties made of red dirt mud, as well as men crowded around card and dice games, gambling away the small amounts of money they have. The Karamojong are known for cattle herding and blood sacrifices made to African spirit gods in hopes of gaining power and material blessings. Due to drought and famine, the Ugandan government moved these people off of their tribal lands, 200 miles away from their homes, to a slum not far from where we are living. I go there to preach, pray and love on these people every week. Many of them have been saved and have started to attend local churches. Recently, they have seen people instantly healed of stomach ulcers, severe headaches, back pain and lameness. So many people are sick from the poor quality water they drink because they do not have money to buy the charcoal needed to boil the bad water. We pray for their healing, then give them money for the charcoal they need. The miracles we have seen are genuine and documented. Each weekend, we have been invited to preach in the city and village churches, sometimes two and three times per day. During those services, we have seen men repent of sexual immorality, women freed from depression, sick bodies healed and demons cast out of people who have sought deliverance unsuccessfully for years.
These are just a few of the activities taking place on this mission trip to Jinga. The miracles and testimonies of Bold Faith Journey continue.
“Trusting God’s promises; going not knowing.” – Hebrews 11:8
