Sunday @ church

Sunday 8th
This morning we were off to church at Pastor George's church. Pastor George is the one who lives here at YWAM and whose eyes lit up when I was introduced to him as Pastor Ron. He was excited to have us in his church, the first Australian team to visit. The bus arrived nearly 30 minutes late to pick us up, but it was OK as we were following Pastor George, so I guess it couldn't start until he arrived. On the way the bus driver had to borrow some money so that he could buy fuel, as he did not have enough to get us to the church. At about 10.45 am we arrived at the church for a 10.00 am service. There were only a few people in the church, and they were praying loudly, probably for the previous 45 minutes. Pastor George was quick to grab my bible, notebook and glasses and proceeded straight to the stage where there was a couple of chairs for us. The rest of the team found seats at the front, although John and Bert were a little further back, until Pastor George interupted the service and called them up to special seats at the front! In what was called the 'first service', after some worship that was so full of energy and praise, I was introduced and given the opportunity to introduce the rest of the team. I began by sharing about the horrible fires at home, and we all joined in prayer for the people at home, and those who have suffered loss in the fires. As soon as we mentioned that Sam was a part of the worship team at home, he was given a guitar and told to tune it up and lead in a song. The whole team joined him as we sung "Our God is an Awesome God". A couple of the guys came up and gave brief testimonies. After much encouragement and many 'welcomes', the 'second service' began immediately. By this time the congregation had swelled to fill all of the seats in the church. Once again there was some brilliant worship, and much of it was in english, allowing us to join in. A group of children came and performed several dances that Pastor George explained to me were about being saved by God. There was a brief time for testimony, an offering, and then the most over the top introduction of the visiting pastor that you could imagine. Preaching was both an honour and very hard work, having to stop after each phrase while it was translated. It makes flow difficult, and humour impossible, but we managed to get there. I worried a couple of times when Pastor George took about 50 words to translate the 5 words I had spoken, but I am sure he was just adding bits to fire up an extra "amen" or "hallelujah". When we finished he did a bit of a wrap up, then called for people who wanted to be prayed for. Before they could come, he started into a testimony of a lady in the church who had had difficulty conceiving a child, had been beaten by her muslim husband, who had eventually suffered 2 miscarriages, and who finally had given birth to a healthy girl. Having shared that he called for other 'barren' women to come forward for prayer, and decided that I would be praying for them. There were others who also came out with various illnesses, and so we prayed for them. We were humbled when Pastor George called for a 'love offering' to be given for us. He explained that whilst it might seem strange Ugandans giving to Mzungu, he saw it as a good thing to do, so we were blessed as a number of people came and put money in the basket. Finally after 3 hours, we were finished. It really is a wonderful experience to share with people on the other side of the world in praising our one true God who unites us together, no matter whether we are white or brown (or red, as the sun caught me a little yesterday)