Sabbatical Day 15 (8 August)
Did you hear the
one about the Englishman the Scotsman and the Irishman? Met Tim from Birmingham
at breakfast, so having already met Scott we now have the makings of a joke.
(Any offers?)
Sat with him at
breakfast. He’s here on charity work. Kampala Children’s Centre which adopts
children. I’m not quite clear how it works, seems the organisation rather than
individuals do the adopting. We were both served omelettes without asking –
they do nice omelettes in Uganda, thin and light.
Today was a rest
day so in the morning I wrote the blog up to date and sorted out photographs.
Also did some light reading and listened to a podcast I’d put on my phone
before leaving home. Desert Island Discs with Mary Robinson, former President
of Ireland being interviewed. I’ve been working my way through some Audio CDs
of early Dr Who episodes from the 1960s that the family bought me some time
back. Anybody remember the Drahvins from 1965?
I’d wanted to
send one or two postcards, and decided to walk along the Kampala Road because I
thought I spotted a large Post Office on it coming through the other day.
I walked an hour
and passed just the one small Post Office which was closed. Its sole function
seems to be to house PO Boxes that owners can come and open with a key. In all
of Nansana (population 300,000) there appear to be no postcards, nowhere to buy
stamps, and nowhere to post them even if you had them.
I decided to
stop when I reached a large roundabout and took some photographs there,
including a man walking beside a channel of water carrying a heavy bundle of
something on his head and one of some birds in a tree creating a great racket. Really needs 'smellovision' to convey something of the stench at this spot.
On the way back
I called in a ‘supermarket’ – something the size of Guy’s shop in Greenisland
and bought a bottle of Mountain Dew (Sprite to you) and a large gravy ring.
That kept me going up the hill on the way back. Then into an Internet Café to
Skype home and check emails. Also looked at the News on the BBC site. Nairobi
Airport Arrivals Hall has burned down! Flights were diverted for a while to other
parts of Kenya, but it seems they are returning to normal. His is Thursday and
I fly in there on Sunday evening.
The evening meal
was 2 beef sausages and chips. I decided to risk a glass of passion fruit
juice. The Travel Health Guide warns about drinking juice unless from a carton
or bottle but I’m starting to get adventurous! Tasted as if it was watered down
a bit.
In the evening I
looked over the material for the talks tomorrow. Not sure what’s expected, ie
will those present be ‘Leaders’ or just members of Davidson’s Church. He did
tell me way back that I could re-use the material from the Hoima talks at this
point but hey, maybe there’s been a change of plan!
He’s a photo of
how I rigged up the showerhead – the wall fitting it’s meant to go on is on the
right.
And a couple
more from the room. Health and Safety look away now (although I think it’s
telephone rather than mains.)
As I have been
speaking about Biblical Leadership I asked Davidson a few days ago about how he
leads. He says he has a committee of 5 to assist and they take decisions
together. People serve on this committee for 3 years. Then new members are
appointed. Who appoints them? He does! He says 3-yearly terms mean he can
remove from the Committee anyone who is difficult.
Jim
Sabbatical Day 16 (9 August)
Took a while to
get over. It was very noisy last
night. Turned out it was the end of Ramadan and the Muslims were celebrating
Ede. There doesn’t seem to be much tension between Christians and Muslims. Many
of the Muslims are fairly nominal. There is a call to prayer that sounds out
from a couple of nearby mosques every morning but it doesn’t last more than a
minute or two.
Bitten during
the night for the first time. It’s on my right hand and seems fairly minor.
Woke at 7. Sky cloudy. It’s been raining but not too heavily.
Another
unrequested but nice omelette. Pushed the boat out and tried the fruit juice
and took cold milk on the cornflakes. Living dangerously!
I thought
Davidson was coming for me for 9.15 and was ready at that time but he turned up
after 10. A pastor whose church is across the road couldn’t get the engine of
the car to take me to Davidson’s church started so we had to take a Minibus Taxi
to the nearest point to the church on the main road and then walk the 10
minutes or so.
This was a
meeting for local pastors. I’d noticed how many different ‘brands’ of church
there are and asked Davidson why, when the Full Gospel group of churches hosted
the Conference in Hoima, his church wasn’t in the group. He told me that when
he first felt called to ministry he was a member of a Full Gospel church and
was encouraged to start a work of his own. They gave him full support, but
recommended that he not affiliate to their group. So the situation continues
with good relationship and support all round but no formal link. Although the
local pastors are independent they all get on well together and support each
other and there is an accountability to each other as well.
We had breakfast
– my second! Precious, Davidson’s wife, and another lady served it in the
church. Hard boiled eggs, groundnut (peanut spread) sandwiches, bananas and
tea. Precious offered me a plate of sandwiches ‘with their coats off’(ie no crusts)
and two ‘boiled eggs’ (in fact what we call poached eggs). I said no, I’ll have
the ones with their coats on and a hard- boiled egg (safer). I realised within
seconds that she had gone to the trouble of taking the coats of the bread off
and making the poached eggs just for me and would be disappointed.
The prayer and
praise time was shorter and I gave my talk. These were pastors hungry to be
taught from God’s word (as were the people in Hoima and it was so good to feed
hungry people on God’s word. I repeated the last talk in Hoima, the one on
Jesus as Shepherd, Farmer, Friend. As I’ve gone on I’ve learned not to read
whole chunks of Scripture but to break it down or even just read the
particularly relevant verses and summarise the rest.
At the end after
the summing up Davidson made the mistake of asking a superintendent pastor to
make some remarks. He spoke at length and encouraged the pastors to affiliate
their churches to some organisation. The price had gone up from 17,000/- to
45,000/- (just over £10) but it was worth it as, if you were going abroad, you
could get an accreditation which would be recognised at Ugandan Embassies. Some
of the attenders, as at Hoima, were female. I asked whether there are any
female pastors. There are, but there is a rule that they must be married so
that they have the support of a man, very important in African culture.
We were running
a bit late (nothing new!) as we were meant to be at the Smile International
building in Nansana for 1pm to meet the staff there. Change of plan! Well, we
couldn’t let the day go without one, could we? The person in charge at SI had
gone into town with some recent volunteer arrivals to change money at the bank
so wasn’t there, but would be there at 2. We hung about a bit at the church and
then drove there, passing Nansana’s Car Wash – yes, a river again. The building
is a house set among other houses on a hill that looks over Nansana. It’s
clearly a better area of town. The houses are more like the size of ours, and
each is set in its own grounds. However the road there off the main road is
like all the rest. Red earth with ridges and furrows and must be a nightmare
when wet. No way you could get around independently without a 4x4 or motocross bike. Whenever I’m out I congratulate myself one having brought red-brown
shoes and boots, exactly the same colour as the earth,, so they don’t look
dirty when in fact they’re covered in a film of the stuff.
While we were
there was a change of plan! The SI people were delayed doing other things and
didn’t know when they would be back. Davidson abandoned the thought of meeting
them and we were about to go when an African female member of staff produced
lunch: Rice and Irish in a sauce (if you are new to the blog ‘Irish’ = potato).
Quite tasty. We then headed towards Kampala where I spoke to some more pastors
in God’s Glory Church, Nakulabye, on the Nansana side of Kampala. The church
has recently been relocated from their building and are in temporary
accommodation, about the size of our garage. There were 20 or so people again
eager to be taught from God’s word. It was on a busy street and there was a
noisy game of something like backgammon going on outside, so although normally
in such a small space it wouldn’t be needed, there was a massive loudspeaker
that blasted my words out. I gave the 5th talk I had prepared on the
Leadership of Jesus with 4 key words : COME, FOLLOW, WAIT, GO based on a book
by Andrew Watson, ‘The fourfold Leadership of Jesus. Again it went down well.
People have been asking Davidson for copies of my talks so I assume they do
genuinely appreciate them, and they are not just being polite. We were both
given copies of Phillip Keller’s book ‘A Shepherd looks at Psalm 23’
From there back
to Nansana for 6.30pm. A quick stop in the Hotel to catch breath and then over
the main road to a new church (Friends of God Church) that has been started
just behind the shops that line the road. It’s so new there is no building,
just a plot of ground. They had a keyboard and some mics but no power. The most
incongruous thing was a massive clock that was placed where only the speakers
could see it. My task was to give a word of encouragement. I did so using Luke
9 and Matthew 16 and Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ and then his
rebuke by Jesus, reminding them that Peter was still a Christian. They will
like Peter have highs and lows but Christ will build his church. Began to speak
about 7.05 and by 7.20 was needing the help of a torch as darkness fell. Again
what I said was appreciated and there was the usual summing up by a couple of
people.
Time for dinner
in Hotel Ivory. Davidson joined me but did not eat as he was going home and his
wife would have something for him and if he didn’t eat it he would be in
trouble (some things are universal!).
I took the
opportunity to ask about the Deliverance Session. He says he takes the
opportunity to practice Deliverance at these conferences and at the youth
meetings that are organised in the same area. Some of the people who had come
forward and just wanted prayer and it was being given in the usual enthusiastic
African way. (It made me reflect on a child who came to me – one of the pastors
explained that his mother wanted me to pray for him. He looked about 2 years
old and had some nasty looking lesions on his chest near his right shoulder.
His name was Nelson. (Everybody appears to have an African and a Western name).
I placed my hand on his head and shoulder and did pray for him but I expect his
mother was disappointed with how undramatic it was). Back to Davidson and
Deliverance. The woman I had noticed was
having a demon cast out. He parents had made a covenant for he when she was
born with a spirit of the old traditional religion and this was still affecting
her. He told me of the senior pastor present. His daughter had been given the
name of a spirit by her aunt who was a witchdoctor and he had delivered her
from that demonic spirit. This was some time ago and she was going on well.
It’s salutary to remember that spirit-worship is still going on in Africa and
some Christians are the first in their family to trust Jesus. I’m powerfully
reminded of Ephesians 6.12.
As regards his
prayer for healing, I asked him for that too. He explained that many Christians
have pain in a particular part of their body which, when they go to a hospital,
cannot be traced medically. These can be again due to the demonic, something
associated with the old traditional religions. When he prays and asks people to
touch that part of the body which is sore, he cries ‘be healed in the name of
Jesus’ knowing that he cannot heal but Jesus does, and that he may heal at
once, over time, or not at all. He does not declare that all are healed (I must
have mis-heard or misunderstood). There was not time on Wednesday, but normally
he would ask anyone who felt they had been healed to come forward so that they
could be identified and receive on-going pastoral care. Oh, and the man in the
clerical dress was Anglican after all.
The menu in the
Hotel Ivory is a little like that in Fawlty Towers in that most of the items on
it are not available. I had seen Rolex on the menu and was intrigued as to what
it might be, so I asked for Chapat and Rolex. (Chapat for those who are new is
like a crepe). It turns out that Rolex is an omelette rolled up, so chapat and
rolex is an omelette on a crepe rolled up like a Swiss Roll. Served with some
cole slaw it was very good.
Tim the
Englishman pointed out to me that there was a large party from Ireland in the
outdoor dining area. It was a group of teachers from various parts of Ireland
(including near Lisburn) doing 3 weeks of voluntary work in one of the schools
here. This is their last night. It’s good to see some many folk, the teachers,
Tim and Scott from the UK & Ireland trying to help those who are vulnerable
in Uganda.
Finishing
writing this at 9.45 pm. Still quite noisy outside. Maybe Ede is still going
on.
Jim
Sabbatical Day 17 (10 August)
I’m finding it
fairly easy to get off to sleep despite the noise. Don’t think it went on that
long. This morning there was more sunshine but some hazy cloud.
I keep realising
things I hadn’t noticed before. This time it’s that hardly anyone smokes
cigarettes. In all the time I think have seen 3 people smoking and one of them
was one of last night’s Irish teachers.
Today’s change
of plan was that there was no change of plan! Everything fairly well as
arranged.
Left in the same
car as usual at 8.15 to travel to the Equator in the direction of Masaka. Took
just under 2 hours. Usual photos on the equator itself.
Driver today is Joseph.
He is more cautious than the previous drivers, but this does not inspire
confidence. It means others keep cutting him up in the traffic. Some of the
hill sections on the road have a climbing lane. Joseph for some reason doesn’t
use it, but keeps in the ordinary lane. Because he is driving relatively slowly
we quite often got overtaken on both sides at once!
Despite the
chaotic nature of the traffic no one seems to lose their temper. If they get cut up by someone they just get on with it – no blaring of horns or rude
gestures. No road rage. No one gives any courtesy and no one expects it. Horns
are used to toot to warn pedestrians, cyclists and motor-cyclists that you’re
coming.
The banners were
out to greet the President who was on an official visit to the district. His
motorcade passed us going the other way as we came back. While the entire road
was tarred, they were improving and widening it along big stretches also, which
made the driving difficult. They don’t have lights or stop/go boards at the
roadworks. Someone (more often than not a woman) has a red or green flag which
they hold out as appropriate. We got mixed messages once as the man gestured
with the flag to wave us through, but the flag he gestured with was the red
one.
All the petrol
stations are manned, you don’t serve yourself. Each pump has an attendant, the
majority probably female. A certain level of literacy is needed as they have to
hand-write a receipt. Petrol is just under 90p a litre. Diesel is cheaper.
Davidson’s 6
year old daughter Mulanji was in the car with us – a big car with driver and
passenger at the front, two behind that, and then another seat that can hold
three behind that. We had seatbelts and used them but Mulanji had no
restraints. She was very good in what was a long day, never whining or getting
on. She either quietly sang some hymns or songs or slept. One son she sang was
an amusing version of ’10 green bottles’. Whenever 1 bottle accidentally fell
the number of bottles INCREASED by 1. Thus we started with 1 green bottle, and
it fell and now there were 2. We ended up with 10.
From the equator
we travelled back to Kampala, passing the church Davidson grew up in and then
taking a look at Makarere University. We passed ‘Col. Muammar Gadaffi Road’ so
named because he financed the building of a big mosque.
Which reminds me that
on our way to the Equator we passed what was clearly a more Muslim area to
judge from the number of Mosques. The Mosques don’t have the same kind of
name-boards outside them with way-out names like the Christian churches do, in
fact they don’t have signs at all. It’s obvious from the architecture though
what they are. Spotted a minibus Taxi with a Muslim slogan on (most have
Christian Slogans) Alya Akbar.
So the second
stop was the Museum of Uganda. It tries to cover pre-history, local anthropology,
geology, more recent history including tribal dress and customs, and a bit on
transport, but is not up to the standard we would expect from a museum. There
were no lights on and it was hard to make most of the exhibits out in the
gloom. A member of staff did give me a guided tour which helped. Found the
first postcards I’ve seen in the whole of Uganda.
Next was the
Uganda Wildlife Education Centre, otherwise known as the Zoo. I paid for the
entrance fees and have the receipt: 3 adults, 1 kid, 1 foreigner. Foreigners
pay more. There was also a Car Park fee and you had to pay for each camera you
were going to use. Total came to 67,500/- (About £17).
I was not
looking forward to the Zoo but actually it was very good. The only keep
indigenous African species (no penguins sweating in the sun) an all but the
snakes are in good large enclosures, two of which cover several acres. The
animals all seemed in good condition. All these photos apart from the chimps are taken with a telephoto lens from some distance.
The Zoo is on
the shores of Lake Victoria – nice photo opp. I told Davidson to count his
children very carefully when I leave tomorrow as there might be one missing!
We arrived back
at Nanasana at 6.50, just time for a shower and a change of clothes before
being picked up at 7.40 for a farewell party in Davidson’s house. The meal was
rice, small chunks of beef (enough for 1 or at most 2 each), groundnut sauce,
avocado pear, sliced something (red cabbage?), sweet potato, matooke (stewed
banana which doesn’t taste like banana) and a bottle of ice-old water. Finished
the lot! Pastor Dennis is with me in the photo. The chairs on the right are from the church and are stored in the Pastor's house.
There was Davidson and his family, Pastor Dennis and his wife Ruth,
Pastor Stephen from the church I spoke in yesterday afternoon and young Joseph
who translated for me last Sunday and is about to start University having does
his A levels (yes they have them here and they still have O levels).
All the adults
made a speech thanking me. This was very touching. Certainly my ministry has
been appreciated. I think they have valued the teaching from Scripture as
that’s not always what they get or give and it has made many of them think
about the basis for what they are preaching week by week. They spoke of me
humbling myself to come to Africa and had clearly been hurt when others so
invited had declined to come. I certainly didn’t see it as humbling myself to
come, although it has in many ways been a humbling experience to see the zeal
and commitment of these people and the lack of resources they have. For me it’s
been an adventure and a wonderful experience that I will have to think and pray
about a lot to fully absorb. Much talk of me coming back and bringing Lynda so
that she can teach the women (the poor women this time round had to be taught
by me!). After my response to their words, Pastors Dennis and Davidson prayed
for me, and then I prayed for the Davidson family, and for the others present
and their various ministries.
Back at the hotel
for just after 9.45pm. Couldn’t get to an Internet Café all day and Lynda was
out when I rang just before 7 so her call just after I got in most welcome.
Sorting out come
photographs and then bed. Preaching at Davidson’s Church in the morning and
then off to the airport for Nairobi. Contacted Naomi Leremore by phone earlier
in the evening so everything set for that.
Jim
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