STEVE: Today I sit where it all began, at the Sienna Beach Hotel in Entebbe on the north shore of Lake Victoria.  It’s sunny and eighty degrees with a moderate breeze out the southwest gently rustling the palm trees.  The lake water laps the shore and Pam is wandering down on the beach attempting to sneak up on some unknown variety of exotic bird. This is the hotel where we stayed to recover from jetlag two weeks ago, after our 16 hours flights from Newark to Istanbul, on to Kigali, Rwanda and then finally to Entebbe, Uganda, and where we are now resting after our 10-hour road trip yesterday.

But I’m in a significantly different place, personally, than I was a mere 14 days ago. Then, I was boiling hot under the African sun.  Now, after two weeks of teaching in 96+ degree heat and spending nights sleeping under a mosquito net in often unairconditioned rooms, I’m strangely cold and need to go down to my room and change into long pants. When we got here, things felt unfamiliar and strange- strange sights, smells, people & food.  But now, things feel more… familiar. Children in tattered clothes playing with sticks and rocks by the side of the road and women dressed in vivid African colors carrying water, firewood, or sacks of rice on their heads no longer seem unique or out of place.  Markets teaming with people and merchants haggling in front of enormous piles of pineapples, watermelon, breadfruit, and cabbages seem less chaotic and confusing.  And I no longer turn my head at families walking  everywhere on dirt roads, digging together in the fields, and washing clothes or doing other manual labor, that we in the west have long since relegated to machines.

Our hotel looks different to me too.  When I arrived, I saw a well-kept but somewhat worn facility in a gorgeous location.  Comfortable and clean, but middle of the road, with a friendly staff, simple rooms but a great value at $60/ night including breakfast.  Now, compared to village life, it looks positively luxurious.  Our room is larger than the village huts that accommodate families of eight. Our floors are tiled, not uneven concrete or the more commonly found well-swept compacted red clay. Our water hasn’t been carried in a mile from a communal well. There are well manicured lawns rather than goats, chicken and geese foraging through the dirt and vines around the church property.  Food is cooked and served from a kitchen, rather than outdoor over a charcoal stove. Our room has TV (3 channels, but who’s complaining!), a mini-split air conditioner and reliable internet.  I’m sure there were some, but in Nebbi and Pakwach, I never saw a TV or computer in a private home and almost no one had smart phones. There haven’t been daily power failures here either!

But there are other things that are conspicuously missing.  I miss the big smiles and burst of laughter from the pastors and their wives, and the good-natured teasing about how hot we were.  I miss the joyful call and response singing of African worship songs to the beat of animal skin drums.  I miss breakfasts of hot tea, sweet potatoes, boiled green bananas and hard-boiled eggs that the pastors were eager to share, even though we had eaten at the hotel. I miss the greetings of “Praise the Lord” and “Hallelujah” and how the entire church spontaneously breaks into audible prayer at the end of times of worship- a glorious cacophony of intercession. I miss the earnest and honest questions and deep theological reflection that happened during the time of Q&A and in-between sessions. And I already miss the daily discoveries I made about the hardships of village life and the indomitable spirit of faith and perseverance that Ugandans have.

I feel like I’m already in danger of forgetting.  That the comforts that I take for granted will quickly dull my sense of gratitude and feed my sense of entitlement. I fear that my Christianity is as soft as my lifestyle.  These dear saints require more faith in a week than I need to exercise in a year, or a lifetime.  Daily struggles have made them spiritually strong, vital, and resilient. I don’t want to forget.

Maybe that’s why after the Israelites experienced great trials wandering in the wilderness, Moses repeatedly warned them as they entered the Promise Land, “Remember!”  “Don’t forget!”  “Tell your children and your grandchildren about the miracles you witnessed.”  And this is why I’m typing this blog and Pam is journaling.  We don’t want to forget, and we want you to know about these people half a world away who find God’s sustaining grace to be more than enough for every trial and live their faith with joy and simplicity in spite of having very little of this world’s goods.  I want to remember and be changed.

PAM: How do you summarize the marriage conferences in Nebbi & Pakwach in just a few paragraphs?

Moments of Joy!

• Spontaneous laughter as we played games and gave simple gifts to each couple.
• Seeing the husbands connect the dots as Steve illustrated Jesus’ teaching on servanthood with a nail (for sacrifice) and towel (washing feet).
• Watching the faces of the precious pastors’ wives light up with shy smiles as they looked in their little gift mirrors.  Pam led them in saying, “I am worthy of love because Jesus died for me!”  “I am beautiful to God when I reverence the Lord (Prov. 31:30).” “I am beautiful to God when I willingly come under my husband’s God given leadership (Eph. 5:21).”
• Seeing grins & nods as Pam used simple illustrations from the culture- rowing a fishing boat to illustrate working together in marriage and building a grass thatch roof to illustrate building up, not tearing down.
• Steve, Wendell & Pastor George jumping into a small pool on Tuesday to cool down after a brutally hot day.
• The thunderstorm on Monday & Wednesday afternoon that cooled things down into the 80’s for just a short time.
• Having the air conditioner finally kick on at 3 AM after being off most of the night 😊
• Drinking from a cold-water bottle that our host pastor somehow managed to find and bring us.

Moments of Hard

• Teaching (and sitting) under a hot tin roof in temperatures that were worse than our hottest days in July.
• Listening to the wives share about the many times they didn’t have any food to cook for their children.
• Using an outhouse “squatty potty” (although, it was cleaner than we originally thought and NOT an open latrine!)
• Watching young wives nurse all day to keep their two-year-old quiet during the sessions.
• Talking about biology & family planning in a large group setting
• Driving past hundreds of kilometers of poverty and trying to fathom life in these rural villages…seeing so much need and not knowing where to begin.
• Wanting to communicate with the women on a heart level but being limited to basic greetings unless I had a translator with me.
• Hours of driving in the heat & dust with open windows as we made the 10-hour van ride to NW Uganda and back.

Moments of Hope

• Seeing light in the couple’s eyes as they began to have hope for their marriages.
• Learning about Pastor George & Effrance Byabagambi’s orphanage and Christian school in their village. Pastor George was our cultural guide and translator.
• Receiving thanks from the bishop of the Full Gospel churches because “these lessons are just what we needed to hear from God”.
• Experiencing God answer prayer after prayer, including: 1) lost & found luggage, 2) Quick healing for Wendell from a pretty serious stomach bug, 3) Protection from malaria, Covid and a plethora of other physical ailments, 4) God “blowing away” the anticipated several days of extreme heat wave (113-degree weather) that was predicted while we were here, but keep getting postponed. It’s now predicted for next week. And 5) Safe travels for the week for well over 500 miles that included passing through multiple police check points, urban Kampala at rush hour, and vast stretches of rural Uganda on some very challenging roads.

Keep us in your prayers as we return.  We fly against the trade winds on the return flight for a total of 18+   in the air and a six-hour layover in Istanbul.  Your love and support have truly sustained us.

THANK YOU, LORD!!