Today is a rest day, and after ministering six days straight, and ten days total here in Uganda with only one day out as a sick day, I am quite grateful for a day off. As I write, there is a massive storm raging – one crash of thunder in particular sounded like the lightening strike was almost on top of us.
As I have already shared, this week I have been ministering at a youth conference. The theme was End Times (not a favourite topic of mine, as there is so much garbage taught in relation to it) and I was just one of a number of speakers. That is always a challenge, as you don’t know what the others have said and whether they have cut across what you have been saying. So I have talked about things that are not “end times” but tied in loosely with the theme. On Monday I shared my testimony, on Tuesday I spoke from 2Peter 1:5-8, Wednesday and Thursday on prophecy, and yesterday I talked about growing in God, and shared some of my experiences. At the end I urged them to make a decision that, no matter what the Lord may ask of them, their answer will always be Yes. I invited those who were prepared to make that commitment to stand in their places and to pray after me, then I prayed a general prayer over them (time did not allow for me to pray for them individually.) The anointing that came over me as I prayed for them was so overwhelming that I was hardly able to remain standing, and I am sure that for at least some of them it would have been a life-changing moment.
On Thursday I was ministering in the morning – all the other days I was on in the afternoon – and we were able to stay and listen to the next speaker. To be honest, I was not at all impressed with his preaching – more “Praise the Lord”s and “Hallelujah”s than anything of substance. But at the end, five people came out for salvation and I had to repent of my judgement of him. It reminded me of a time, back in the 1980s, when I went to a Billy Graham meeting in Sydney. I remember being likewise unimpressed with him, and thinking “If I were not already a Christian, nothing in this message would convince me to become one.” I guess I just don’t “get” evangelists!
Meanwhile, I am becoming increasingly frustrated with the arrangements here. When I am doing a missions trip I like, if at all possible, to stay in the homes of our pastors. This gives me an opportunity to get to know them and their family, and to develop the relationship. This Apostolic Network is not meant to be just an organization, but to be a family where relationships are developed and nurtured. Normally, this works quite well. But here, even though I am staying in the pastor’s home, it feels like I am in a hotel. I’m pretty sure his family don’t like me, and possibly are resentful of my being here. Not that they are nasty or mean to me: they simply treat me like a guest at a hotel rather than like a visitor to their home. There is no conversation other than to tell me that meals are ready, and if I try to start a conversation they quickly brush it away and leave. I am served all my meals by myself, and if I go out into the lounge room and someone else is there, they immediately get up and leave. So I spend all my time in my room, because I don’t want to feel that I have chased them out of the lounge. Yes, I do spend a lot of time in the Word and prayer, which is necessary for the intense level of ministry that I am doing, but a bit of human interaction as well would be nice. Meanwhile, the pastor himself has been away all week, and has not communicated with me at all.
On a different issue, I have been trying to find out what I need to do to get my visas for Ghana and Liberia. Pastor Mac in Liberia is chasing the information for that one for me, but for the Ghana one it looks as if I am going to have to visit the Ghana Embassy here in Kampala. I will keep you posted on how that one pans out.