The One With The Nile

Another weekend has come and gone and I had the opportunity to join the rest of the IMME students on a journey to Jinja- the Source of the Nile. We had the privilege of staying at a nice resort on Lake Victoria near the beginning of the Nile. We even got to take a boat from the resort to the Nile. In the picture, you can see the ripples/bubbles of water, this is said to be the exact spot where the Nile begins.

Friday evening, some local missionaries came and talked with us about their ministry. They do a prison ministry with both of the local prisons (in the pic), which I could see across the lake from the resort. They also have other ministries but, they are not what their main reasons for coming to Uganda. I learned so much about the ministry and even some of the way prison and court systems here work. I must say, it is all very corrupt. Basically, whoever has more money to pay someone off, wins. Example: A man is married to 2 wives (polygamy is still commonly practiced) and the husband dies of malaria. One wife accuses the other wife and her eldest son of killing him. They are both sent to prison and to be executed. The accuser wanted all his land and knew these 2 people would be in her way of inheriting everything. So she paid off the judge and just like that. The mother and son are both sent to jail for life. Sadly, this is a true story and the mother and son are still in prisons across the lake from one another. There are many innocent people in jail and many guilty not today. However, these missionaries have an amazing ministry and have really made an impact here. The prisons used to be really dangerous...they had 20 guards at a time and after 11 yrs of ministry, they are down to 2 because of the faith in Jesus Christ the prisoners are finding!! Praise Him! They told many stories but sadly I do not have the time nor the patience to sit here and type them.

After the missionaries left, the 16 of us got out the guitar and sat by the pool praising the Lord for hours. As worship was being sung, a team of missionaries on The World Race (they go to 11 countries in 11 months) came up to us and began talking with us! It was an amazing time of worship and hearing about God working in their lives.

I understand why everyone stares when a Muzungu walks by, I stare when a white person I don't know walks by. It seems so strange. We always seem to say hi to one another too, it's quite funny.

Saturday was an interesting day. We went to meet some other missionaries in Jinja and learned about their work in the country. One of the missionaries took us on a "tour" of Jinja. It was not the typical kind of tour one would go of a city. It was better, I learned about Jinja in a way you wouldn't know otherwise. It was a tour of God and culture. There were a total of 5 stops:

1) Stop #1: the Nile river. We looked over the river and talked about its' vastness and the use of it during Bible times. He read scripture and left us to contemplate it.
2) An area of town that was the Ugandan Hollywood in the 50's. Indians came here with money and began strong businesses, they were making a great living. A previous ruler of Uganda was racist and decided they could not live in his country. They were killed or kicked out and their homes were abandoned and are very run down now. When the Indians left, the economy suffered severely and it is still not back to what it was. The picture is of a house that was left behind and raided, now there are 20 Ugandan families living in it. The entire area looked like this. It was kind if eery. The millions of bats flying around in the daytime added to that. He read a verse for us to contemplate on for a while before we went to the next stop.

3)The next stop took us to a fishing village on the Nile. It was a slum. It was dirt poor and right next door, literealy, was a yacht club where people keep boats that cost more than these people will ever make. To enter the yacht club, you drive right down the path through these peoples homes. The village has the work of the devil amoung them. Almost every woman and child is abused. The village is in chaos at the moment. The missionaries are trying to slowly start working in there but the presence of evil is over-powering at the moment. Pray. Soon they will come to know Jesus. If you can see in the picture with all the kids, there are 2 choking one another. This is a pit of sand that the kids don't just play around in. They were actually fighting. They were very rough with one another. Many kids were crying.













4) We went to an area where they make objects out of metal. It was really cool. The guy who took us on the tour knows these guys pretty well. The locals tried to buy all the women and 1 man tried to sell me an auto car that he put together. Yeah right. Like I am gonna wanna buy a car some dude randomly made.

5) The Jinja hospital. This was a hard place. He had us each go into a different ward and pray over patients. This is nothing like a hospital in America. It's a room with beds crammed closely together. Basically, if you know what a war hospital looks like in the movies then you can imagine this one. There are no machines for the patients and it smells awful. They have to have someone bring them food if they want to eat b/c the hospital won't. If you want to see a doctor alomst immediately than you have to bribe the doctor, there are only 4 for the main hospital of the town. The missionary had a friend in there recntly who waited 26 days before seeing a doctor. There were many patients in there who I could cure with the money in my pocket. When I first entered the ward, I talked with the nurses to make sure it was ok (there were 2 nurses for 50-60 patients). They were thrilled and asked me to pray over them first. I was honored. Because of time, I only had enough of it to walk down one wing and pray over it. As I was leaving the nurses where worried about me not going down the other wing, so I said screw time, I am praying for these people. So I did, people were intrigued and I had the privilege to talk with families. It was hard leaving. I could have spent all day there.

We had free time once we got back to the hotel, many people swam and took HOT SHOWERS! We all went out to dinner and had a debate/opinion/reflection time about the day. Dinner was amazing-- I had garlic bread and pizza!!! After 2 meals a day for 2 weeks eating rice, matooka (smashed, cooked non-sweet bannanas), goat fat, and beans. Of course, my intestines did not enjoy it the next day. Oh, how fast bodies adapt.

The following Sunday, we were able to visit a Baptist church. The 3 hours of fellowship flew by and was amazing! One lady shared her testimony, quite spectacular as well. And 3 people accepted the Lord Jesus Christ into their hearts!!! We also had a time to talk with the pastors and staff after the service to learn more about their ministry in the town and surrounding villages. It was quite amazing!!

The Church of Uganda is depending less and less on foreign aid. They are starting to take over. I pray they continue on with this strength and no leaders with a corrupted heart get in there.

We came home and 5 of us climbed monkey hill which is partially on campus. There were monkeys everywhere!! I will hopefully post pictures of them soon. Monday morning 5 of us climbed it again to watch the sun rise, but it ended up raining and was cloudy. Eventhough we didn't get to see the sun come up, God allowed us to see a sweet lightning storm and have a blast with one another.

I have to get going now. Hopefully I write more later this week. I am gonna post some more random pictures from the weekend later too.

Peace.