A Lot of Things

Another good day of school was dampened at the end by several bad things. One of our students, Isaac Wandera, from Busia, learned this afternoon that his brother has died. Please be praying for Isaac and his family. Isaac will be leaving the Academy yet today to join his family at this time of grief.

In addition, several of our students are becoming ill. They are very crowded where they are staying and sickness could potentially move from person to person very quickly. Please pray also for those students that are sick to be made well, and for the others to not get ill in the first place.

One of the things that has struck us about Uganda is the greeting that we here over and over. Christians often greet each other with a 'praise God.' At home when someone gives my a 'praise the Lord,' I think that they are phony. There is none of that here, however. When I hear a 'Praise God,' I know that the praiser is completely sincere.

There is a gift shop at the Humble School. Many items in the gift shop are made here in Uganda. There are shirts and dresses, stools, jewelry, baskets and bowls. It is very interesting to see this sort of thing. The proceeds from the store go toward supporting the school.

One of the Bishop's plans for the future, as he shared with us on Sunday, is to start a children's choir based out of Humble School. This choir would travel to the US to raise support and awareness of the School and the United Methodist Church in Uganda.

Here are two stories for today:

Solomon
Solomon is a young pastor from the Gulu district of Uganda. He lives in a tent with his mother and ministers in a refugee camp for children. There is a resistance movement in the north of Uganda, the Gulu area, led by the Lord's Resistance Army. One child became fascinated by a water faucet. Running water is rare in those areas of Uganda, but it is not unheard of. This boy was mesmerized by the running water and no one knew why. Finally, Solomon asked what was so interesting about the running water. The boy responded that it reminded him of how the blood used to flow in his village during the war.

Isaac
In class today there was a discussion about clean and unclean foods. The students were told about the Levitical requirements and then they reviewed the Acts 10 passage in which Peter was given the freedom to eat any animals. There was then a long discussion about pork and Jewish people and Muslims. Finally, Isaac spoke up and told us that we should never eat pork because Jesus cast demons into pigs. He believed that if you ate pork, you would get the demons that were in the pig.

There are many tragic stories of hurt and loss here. There are just as many stories about superstition. Please pray for us as we try to minister here. Pray for our students that they will be able to learn and become more effective in their own ministries.