Humility and the Mzungu

The book I am reading right now is Humility: The Journey Toward Holiness by Andrew Murray (thanks, Jared). It's very convicting because I am discovering just how much I am not humble. And I'm realizing just how difficult it is to be humble, especially here. As mzungu, or white people, we are automatically looked at as wealthy and well-off, and all things considered, compared to the majority of Ugandans, we are. My prayer is that they would not see earthly wealth, but that they would see Christ! Please pray that for increasing humility so that Christ can shine through us. 

"True humility comes when before God we see ourselves as nothing, have put aside self, and let God be all. The soul that has done this, and can say, 'I have lost myself in finding you,' no longer compares itself with others. It has given up forever any thought of self in God's presence; it meets it's fellowmen as one who is nothing and seeks nothing for itself; who is a servant of God and for His sake is a servant to all." --Andrew Murray

RECAP OF THE WEEK:

Steven and I had the opportunity to go to Fort Portal on Wednesday with Anthony and two Ugandan pastors, Deo and John "the barber." It was quite the adventure! I took the back seat of the Land Cruiser Prado and tried to sleep most of the 4 hour drive to keep from getting carsick (I didn't get sick, by the way).  I was also listening to my iPod, and my headphones pretty much block out any surrounding sounds (that's important to the story). There was one moment where I was in that in-between area of almost asleep, but still just a little awake.  I thought we were speeding up really fast because I felt my body moving, but then I woke up a little more and realized that my body was moving toward the front of the vehicle, meaning that we were slowing down quickly and not speeding up. As my friends back home who have been to Uganda before know, there are speed bumps in the road that can be quite terrible. I'm not talking about little speed bumps you brake a little for, these things can be monstrous and can do some damage if you're not careful (my car wouldn't survive here).  Anyways, I could feel that we were slowing fairly quickly, so I grabbed the back of the seat to brace myself (meanwhile I'm still lying down on the seat and can't hear anything) and next thing I know I'm a good 8 to 10 inches off my seat and in the air. I'm pretty sure that had I been in a "safer position" it would have actually hurt, being that I definitely would have hit my head on the roof pretty hard. I actually think I was in the best position possible. It ended up being pretty funny, but needless to say, we watched for that speed bump on the way home...

In the back seat of the Yota

The trip home on Thursday was another adventure.  About halfway through the drive, the A/C went out in the Cruiser.  Then, probably less than 30 minutes later, something happened noticeably with the engine.  Turned out, the radiator blew.  Luckily, we were pulling up to a somewhat populated area at the time. Definitely a God thing. Anthony called the BMU and got someone to come meet us. We ended up staying there for about an hour before we decided to buy a jug of water to keep refilling the radiator and move on.  We were trying to get to the next town because there was a vacant mission house that the IMB owns (to leave the vehicle) and plus there was food.  We had to stop a couple times between towns, as the engine would get a little hot, and add some water till it cooled back down.  Once we finally got there, we ate and waited for Fred to arrive with another vehicle and to show us where this house was. We ended up having to stop again on the way to the house to add water.  This house was pretty cool. It had a large backyard with an incredible view of Lake Victoria. We were in the compound for a while as Fred removed the radiator from the Cruiser to take back to Kampala, so I took this opportunity to take many pictures. We left the cruiser at the mission house (I think it's actually still there) and finally made it back around 6, about 7-8 hours after we originally left. TIA... :P

The sad, broken-down Prado

Fred removing the cracked radiator

A tree swing and the view from the house we stopped at

Friday night we went with Anthony to one of the more established churches, Kampala Baptist Church (KBC or KBC Baptist Church according to Steven...haha) for something they have for university students called TGIF.  We got there after fighting through traffic for a while (absolute craziness; typical). We got out of the car and I made a comment about something going on next door, because I heard loud music and assumed that it was a club or something next to the church. To my surprise (and delight) the sound was coming from the church.  We got to meet about 15-20 students there, and the program for the night was a movie. We were expecting a Bible study or something, but it was cool because we just got to fellowship with and meet some new people.  We will be going to church at KBC in the morning so I am excited about that. I love how different the house churches are, but I am excited for something more contemporary. 

We went to the Shelton's this morning for a youth pastors tea so that we could meet with youth pastors from the Baptist churches in the city. We were mainly trying to meet with the ones who are in the more established churches to see how they have been able to effectively impact the youth in their communities. We ended up being there for a while, but I think that it was really good for us to meet them and to get a better idea of ways that we can reach the youth.  I'm really excited about working with the bigger churches to try and fill the gap between them and the house churches. Some of us are looking at doing a choir program with Bible studies and hopefully being able to do a Christmas program before we leave in December! I'm so excited about this (as you can imagine). Hannah plays the piano, Breanne plays the guitar, and I sing, so I'm confident that God can use us with this, and I'm excited and eager to see Him work out all the details. Steven is not so keen on music, but he's got other things he's looking to do, so that's good. 

Monkeys Breanne and I saw on our walk to the Shelton's

I'm excited about the days ahead and all the doors that God is opening. Continue to pray for us as we take advantage of the opportunities that we have to reach the youth of Kampala. I challenge you to look at the doors that God is opening for you and areas that have been opened to you to reach others for Christ!