There is no adequate way to express an experience like spending eight days in Uganda. It is oft said, ”A picture is worth a thousand words.” so thanks to my friend and co-laborer, Tyler Andrew, I will share several thousand words with you. This above photo is Tyler (white guy) with my Ugandan children (left to right) Lionnel, Peninah and Isaac. My favorite part of the trip was getting to spend time with my Ugandan family AND my US family together. The favorite of the favorite moments was getting to go “door to door” sharing Jesus with Peninah as my translator. Each of the three served us as translators and it was awesome to see them work out a faith we had only spoken about.
Our team consisted of (back row first, left to right) Tyler Andrew, Misti Shelton (Leader, Kampala Urban Team), Anthony Shelton (Leader, Kampala Urban Team), David Pack, [Danielle Dean] Robert Franklin, Ryan Franklin, Gary Franklin, Michelle Franklin, Emily Franklin, DeAndra Wagner, Alyssa Franklin. They were an excellent team!
The first site we visited on our mission was Kasokoso in Banda neighborhood Kampala. This “new development” is peopled mostly by individuals displaced from the decades of violence in the north of Uganda (see http://130.94.183.89/parker/sub01wsu.html or http://www.invisiblechildren.com/media/photos/detail.php?id=43528948 or http://friendsforpeaceinafrica.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=236&Itemid=43 for further information). The homes built here are constructed of bricks made of clay harvested on site and cured either by kiln firing (as pictured) or the longer “sun drying”. One of our friends in the United States donated the money to purchase the land and construct this building. Believe it or not, this church house cost just over $6,000USD!
The congregation meets in the semi-covered part of the this struture. The pastor has a vision for the whole facility, but until the congregation grows and they secure additional funding the all squeeze into the space they can afford.
Just outside the meeting place in Kasokoso we started a "balloon riot."
The worship choir at Kasokoso was very proud of their matching T-shirts. Such a thing is rare among the newer churches.
Worship at the Ugandan churches is an all-out affair. The services normally take more than two hours and it is not unusual for several people to speak. Ugandans are not tied to Western sensibilities of order and time, even when they talk about it as if they were.
At Kasokoso Ryan and DeAndra spoke to the congregation. They both did an outstaning job sharing their testimony to faith in Christ. The open and considerate personality of the Ugandan people makes sharing one’s belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior almost an effortless activity.
Life in Uganda is not effortless for all but the most wealthy. Nearly the entire population lives in some strata of poverty. In the United States we have strata of the “middle class” in Uganda there is strata of the very the rich and the strata of the very poor. “Middle class” is such a small percentage of the population so as to be statistically non-existent.
Worship is interactive...waving, jumping, marching, clapping, shouting, crying...
The church at Kasokoso is boardered by empty land on one side and an alley on the other. No one except for the missionaries have cars, so parking is not an issue.
