Like cold water to a weary soul

Sunday the 28th I went to church with Ian in one of the villages outside of Mbale. It was the first time I’d been to a village here. Much like AIDS orphans day I felt very at peace sitting in church with the Africans. Our church in Mbale is great, but it has a lot of Western influence. An African couple and a Kenyan man that is a student at MTI went with us. The Ugandan woman sat next to me and translated songs and various other things for me. That was nice to know what they were singing, even though I couldn’t sing with them. It is so beautiful to listen to people praise God in a foreign tongue (or several as is the case around here) and look out beyond a church building that is nothing more than a thatch roof and supporting logs to focus on God’s beautiful creation. One thing I must say about Uganda is that is a very beautiful land. I try to keep these things in mind and remain aware of God’s awesome presence when I get fidgety sitting on a wooden bench a couple of inches off the ground because the service is so long and half in a language I don’t know. This particular Sunday was a special day. We had a few boxes of bibles from the World Bible Translation Center to give out and a few churches had gathered at this church to receive new Bibles. It was such a humbling experience to be a part of. The people were so grateful for new Bibles. The preacher at that church really needed a new Bible; sections of his blew away as we were sitting in church. Many of the people either had no Bible or had one much like the preacher’s. They were so grateful. I have 3 Bibles that I brought with me… we all have many Bibles at home and they are so easy for us to get. Here, people in general don’t have that kind of access. It was humbling. One lady even did the excited yell thing that Africans do (I don’t know how to describe it for those of you who have no idea what I am talking about). I love to hear them do this. I said I was going to learn how to do it before I left Mozambique, but I didn’t. Though it won’t be the same at all as hearing an African, I still plan to learn how to do it. The day was not a typical service at all (I was told), but it was still so great to go out to a village and worship there. After church, they feed all the visitors (including the visiting preachers) a really nice meal that was actually quite good. It was a good morning. “Like cold water to a weary soul / is good news from a distant land.” Pr 25:25