Josh taught in Amuria all week. Luka and I went with him on Thursday. (The girls stayed home with Karen and had school.) I wasn't sure I wanted to go because it is always work with Luka but I was glad I went. There were about 80 church leaders that came to th
e teaching this week. They cheered when I arrived. I was very impressed with the people there. There are quite a few older, wiser men in the group that really impressed me. They all seemed very into Josh’s teaching and had great interaction. Josh did a great job teaching. He is so natural. It is a true gift. I know he really enjoys it too. I am very proud of him and excited to see how God will use this teaching and these leaders. It is my prayer that God will work in their lives so that it changes their families, then their churches, and even affects the communities they live in.One man in Amuria shared his story with us. William is an evangelist and felt called to go witness to the witch doctor in a near by village. When he entered the compound the witch doctor tried to kill him with a spear but God slammed him to the ground. The witch doctor ran so William witnessed to the sick people the witch doctor kept in huts. When William went home his head began to hurt and his eyes got red. He was blind for two years. William went to three hospitals seeking help. All the doctors said he had an injury in his eyes and couldn’t help. Finally William realized that this was spiritual and when he went to the witch doctor’s he never prayed for protection over his body. He prayed and prayed. One day there was a healing service at church so he went. The evangelist prayed for him and the pain and blindness on half of his head was healed. A few months later as he was praying he had a vision of a man in white telling him his problem was that he doubted. William prayed and things like bones and stones “came out” of his eye and he could see again. What a testimony. I am so thankful our God is stronger than any force of evil.
Last weekend Josh and I lead a marriage Bible study Josh put together. We have a great desire to see godly marriages here in Soroti so we invited four couple to come for two days for a Bible study. We wanted it to be a small group with the hopes of those people sharing the material with others when we were done. To be honest the whole thing turned out to be a frustrating experience. Friday morning I took the girls to some missionary friends for the day. I got back just before 9am when it was suppose to begin. Tabitha was there starting to cook lunch for everyone. Josh and I waited and waited…and waited…
Finally, at 10:30 the first couple arrived. Then we waited and waited…and waited again until 11:30 when two other couples came and we could start. By this time I was mad! How rude. Here I had gone to all the work of getting a place for my children to stay, paid for all the food so we could have a nice meal, Josh had worked hard at preparing the Bible study… only to have them waste my time. I prayed God would calm my spirit and change my attitude. Josh is such an example to me. He was full of patience and grace. The study went well thankfully. I was annoyed that they wanted to end early because they had other programs to get to. The couples discussed and said we needed to begin at 9am tomorrow because they had other things in the afternoon. I was hopeful.
While one couple showed up the next day on time. Then we waited…and waited. We were about to cancel when the second couple showed up at 10:30. The third couple never showed up. My attitude was, “Let’s just begin and get this over with.” Tabitha, who helps us, was so embarrassed that her people would do this to us after all we put into it. She felt so bad. After we completed the study I told them (a bit) how I felt. I told them that they need to tell the truth. If they can’t come or are too busy just tell us. When they come late they are wasting everyone’s time. I think they all knew but will it change anything? They all say the time keeping in this culture is not good – well then do something about it! All I can say about the Bible study is that it is in God’s hands. We were faithful in doing what we felt Him call us to, we prayed about it, and He will use it the way He wanted to. It is His work. Will we do it again? Yup, if God calls us to!
We took our workers – Tabitha, John, and Juventine – for lunch today to thank them for their work. They really are friends and we are thankful for them. Our kids love them and they love our kids. We just went for local food but it was good and they seemed to really like it. Tonight we have our Indian and Chinese friends for a bar-b-q and tomorrow we take our church leaders out for lunch. It will be busy but I feel like it is something I can do to encourage people and to be a witness.
The kids are doing well – everyone is healthy! Luka is able to do so much. He takes a toy in the bath tub and puts it through the handle (like basketball!) over and over again. He also plays with one of the girls letter toys. Every time you put a letter in he takes it out. He really is a good, content baby. I don’t even know when to feed him lately because he just plays or watches the girls happily. Did I tell you he eats cheerios? Our guard/gardener calls him St. Luke. The girls are getting very excited to go to MI. They are always asking how many days it is and ask to see grandma. One day when they were upset I found them both in our bed with a picture of grandma crying. Lydia is doing great in school. She reads a lot now, knows compound words, add double digits… Karen is great and they seem to have a lot of fun together. I don’t know if I wrote about it before, but a about a month ago Karen was gone so she gave Lydia homework for each day. I became teacher. We worked for about 2 or 3 hours a day Lydia on one side, Grace on the other, and Luka playing near by. I was reminded why I am not the teacher and made me so thankful for Karen. Lydia does great but she is such a wiggler and has trouble concentrating. I wasn’t able to get any of my stuff done. And by the end I was a crabby mom. Grace really enjoys going to school with Lydia and I can see she is actually learning too. Grace often hangs out with me though. She loves to keep me company.
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