I was always told that I would love Africa, and it did not disappoint.
What an amazing country! The people are absolutely beautiful. I fell in love with the people. Their smiles light up their countenances.
St. John’s Parish (our sponsoring church) identified Gulu, in the diocese of Northern Uganda, as a place to do some real mission. Now I still don’t rightly know how they ever found it…. It had to be the Lord. It takes 30 hours of flying in planes and sitting in airports, and then at least seven hours of roads so full of potholes you’re convinced the whole van is going to disappear into one.
The traveling is not for the faint of heart. In Kampala, there are 1.7 million people, and I am convinced there are also 1.7 million motorcycles. And they zoom around without any warning. In 2016, I went to Calcutta, India, where there are 4.5 million people. Well, the Ugandans went to the same driving school! After praying, you just hang on and laugh!
Northern Uganda has been through 20 years of civil war… but they are coming out of it. They have been through trauma… but they are rebounding. And they are rebounding because the gospel does not leave us stuck. It changes us.
There are fifty million people are in Uganda – one-half of them are under 16! Amazing. There are young people everywhere. And they love babies! In contrast - America is dying. We’re no longer replacing ourselves. Our birth rate is 1.6. Why don’t we have children anymore? I have heard too many times… we can’t afford it. Well I’m going to be very blunt. That’s a lie from the mouth of satan. “Children are a blessing from the Lord,” says God. Now I’m preaching….
To quote my buddy Lori, the gospel did not come easily to Uganda. In fact, they have a museum for the early martyrs depicting the horrible torture. It’s quite moving and really rather incredible that it’s part of the country’s history displayed in a museum. The U.S. is trying to whitewash ours....
History tells of one survivor of all the torture (which I cannot describe here), who was placed, along with others, on a fire. But their bodies did not burn! And while the torturers stood and watched in amazement… they suddenly heard a large choir of voices… It was so loud that it scared the army away. Heavenly angels came and ushered those martyrs into the gates of heaven. Their bodies did not burn. Their persecutors ran to a spring outside to try and wash off the blood. But you see, water can’t wash off that blood. One of the martyrs was just 14 years old. He would not deny Christ.
We stayed on the Bishop’s compound. Bishop Godfrey is a love and he loves to laugh! His wife, Mama Ida, is a spitfire. She's loving, kind – and tough. I knew right away, “Now there is a strong woman, so you better behave yourself, Joy.” Mama Ida was in the garden at sunrise. As I looked at her with wonder, our guide stated, “African women work hard”. Well, you can believe that's true.
It was told to Lori that during the civil war, Bishop Godfrey was the only person that survived from his village. God had plans for him. The man even laughed at all my jokes! It was such an honor to work with him.
This diocese is certainly what we would call “holistic.” But it’s holistic on steroids.
They have a theological college on a beautiful campus run by the coolest British couple ever, Sarah and Simon. On the sprawling campus is a huge farm where they are growing corn, coffee and cocoa because they want to be self-sustaining. The diocese also has a vocational school, packed full of those youth, and they're teaching them all sorts of amazing trades. There was also an orphanage called My Father’s House. I’m sorry orphanages are sad places to me, but the smiles on those kids' faces are sealed in my heart. They are loved and shown the love of God. There's a medical clinic that is very impressive run by a couple from New Zealand.
Here’s the deal: All of the ministries we visited are self-sustaining. They do not jump out and run with something until they have done the work to see that it is sustainable. “Gospel sustainability,” my friend calls it.
One mission ministry we visited was a sewing school for girls. The church identified a remote area in the diocese hours in the bush with very high domestic violence and very low economic opportunity. So they planted a school. Think about that. However much we may like to bash the church here, the church in Uganda is working.
The girls at that school are beautiful. But as I looked at them, I was sitting thinking, “Do they have dreams? What do they imagine for their future? Really, do they dream, do they have desires for their future? What do they aspire to? What are their hopes?” I’d like to think they still dream, even in the worst of circumstances. But honestly, I wasn't sure. They were born in poverty, raised in poverty. It was all they really knew. But one thing I knew – even in poverty, you want love. It's our God-given basic desire: the love of a parent; the love of a future spouse; the love of God.
I had to wrestle down some counseling with my husband on WhatsApp. He said, “You can't look at people as just their poverty. You have to see them as more than that.” So I’d have a little chat with myself before heading out each day and pray for the eyes of love.
At each ministry we traveled to, they always wanted to know our story, our message, our family, our testimony. When it was my turn to share, my only thought that day was to say on that morning in that concrete building out in the middle of Africa (honestly, it was beautiful – baby goats running through the tall grass, a light rain falling), “God has sent me 12,000 kilometers because He has a message he wants me to give you. He has sent me today with this message: Jesus loves you. He sees you. His desire is for you. He will never forget you. Nothing can separate you from His love.” I said it with tears in my eyes, knowing without a shadow of a doubt that it is true.
We all want to be loved. To be known completely and still be loved. We had this in common. Economics doesn't change that, and y'all know it. We all know that wealth doesn’t take away our struggles. We all have our share of heartache, loneliness, sickness, discontent, lack of purpose. I’d say we have spiritual poverty here.
And then as you know we hosted a retreat for the women of the diocese and pastors' wives.
We had prayed as a group about the message that the Holy Spirit wanted us to speak on. It’s difficult. I did not want to ever discount the struggles they undergo with platitudes. I wanted to enter in. Jesus tells us many times in the gospels to embrace suffering. We had read much about the women of Uganda. They are tough, yes. But some of you may have seen the report that 95% of the women there have experienced some form of physical or sexual abuse. Folks, that leaves you feeling shame. Even though you were the one violated, you feel shame. The word shame started messing with me in a whole new way. We wanted to somehow, by the power of the Holy Spirit, speak truth and light into that shame.
So our theme was Radiance. The opposite of shame.
In the beginning, in the garden, we were made in the image of God. We were Radiant. But then Eve gave way to the temptation of the serpent and our Radiance was lost. Shame entered the garden. Adam and Eve were ashamed.
Shame is a word I just don’t like. 'Sin' and 'guilt,' okay yes. But 'shame'.... Think about it, the first thing after sin in the garden was shame. People today are still walking around with shame and it is leaving them defeated, depressed and keeping them – and us – from the fullness of life that God has for us.
After our teaching times, we had small group time. And during small group time, the stories came out…
One woman grew up in a Christian family, married a Christian man, and then had an autistic child. There were no resources at all for her. She was all alone in trying to manage. Her family did not help. Her husband said he felt called to move and work at another church. Fear set in on her. But she followed. And miraculously, there was a school for her son in the new village to go to. Some of you moms know this struggle, and I wanted you to be there to encourage her.
One woman was not allowed to marry the man she loved because he was Anglican and her family was Catholic. The family married her off to another man who abused her to the point of death. But while in the hospital, the Anglican priest that loved her came back to her, and they were allowed to marry.
Another woman was abducted from her village at a young age and abused. After she escaped, she was consumed with evil and anger. She let it out on everyone. And then when she was at the point of death, she stumbled into church. That church prayed for her deliverance for 3 days. Do you hear me, church? THREE DAYS!
And the stories kept coming… Do you hear though? God is not sleeping. He is still redeeming.
At one point in the day, because time there is just a suggestion, I asked one of the Ugandan woman leaders about the best time to break for tea, and she said, “You decide. African women do as they are told.” Whoa! I suppose I shouldn't get into that here and now...
My talk closed out the day with “Radiance Restored” from Hebrews 3:7-4:1. I’ll close with a re-cap…
Radiance restored requires belief. Take care brothers lest there be IN any of you an evil unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. (Hebrews 3:12)
What is an unbelieving heart? It's when we say things like:
“I don’t believe you.”
“That's not true.”
“That will never happen.”
“Prove it.”
“No way.”
“I can’t trust you.”
“You're lying…” Oh, yeah – that one gets me.
My sisters, this is a dangerous slippery slope for us in Christ. I am not just talking about believing in God as the Creator. I am talking about believing and trusting in God where he has you NOW. Right now. In Charleston or in Gulu.
Some of you may think, (I often do), that this particular “now” is not where I want to be. “I don’t want to be here:
… in this church”
… in this town”
… in this job”
… in this house”
… in this marriage, in this family” … You name it.
We presume to think that we know what's best. We are like Eve in the garden. “God, you are holding out on me. I have the better plan. I know what’s best for me.”
So here’s what unbelief really is. It’s pride. It's wanting our plan, not God's. Believing somehow that God's plan really isn't what we need.... Hebrews says that the outcome of unbelief is to not enter into God's rest. No rest. And no rest means there is no restoration. No radiance restored.
Those who go astray in their hearts…they shall not enter my rest. (see Hebrews 3:10-11)
Belief entails trusting that before the foundation of the world God planned for you to be here. Right here, right now, and He has purpose for your life. In that belief we find rest. In that belief, we find our radiance restored.
I saw radiance restored in the countenance of our sisters in Uganda. May we join them today by believing and trusting in God’s plan – whatever that may be – for our life. Praise the Lord!
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