Second Day In Uganda

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We were able to sleep in this morning and catch up on some emails and work (yes, I am still professor Gerry) during the day today. I called Julius Twongyeirwe to check in. I will be preaching in his church a week from Sunday. He was quite surprised to hear my voice. 

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P4130003This evening, I did my first teaching at Lugogo Baptist Church. It was youth service. They were very good. The drummer looked like he was about seven. He clearly was enjoying himself. We experienced that worship in Africa is a whole body thing. I found that I was wondering how it would go at Grace if people really did this. Just don’t know.

P4130005P4130008As I was answering questions Newton’s (who lead the service) children found a natural grandmother figure. They turned Sherry’s water bottle into a top, inventing whole new games with it. When I took their picture, the camera was the next object of delight. It was a great way to end the night.

Odd things that caught my attention: We were in a super market, akin to Safeway. As we stood in the checkout line, I suddenly heard what was on the store music: the Hillsong “I Surrender” song, followed by another from the same album. Not like America!

Every night there is a close by church that does LOUD services. For a half hour they chant Bible. Then they pray with the leader shouting at God and all the people joining in. Then the pastor screams at them for 45 minutes or so – which is happening as I write. Then they all join in as the service closes. Cannot figure out why loud and angry is more worshipful.

We  head to Masaka early tomorrow for teaching at the Hope Alive station there. We will visit some homes there and spend the night before coming back on Friday.

 

First Day in Uganda

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P4110005P411000811:00 May 11 means departure time, so we loaded our suitcases and carryon bags into Jerry Fast’s van and began the long trek. The 10 hour  Portland to Amsterdam leg. We love the A330 with two up seating so Sherry gets her aisle and I get my window to see the barrenness of the far north of Canada, Hudson’s Bay, Greenland and the arrival in Amsterdam, and we can still snuggle.

P4110018P4110016Amsterdam was a much quicker turn around than we expected with a full scan check in to the travel lounge but then if you look REALLY closely you might notice that the nose tire of our 747 is worn and needs to be replaced. Didn’t see it? Well no one else did at the time. But it delayed our departure by 90 minutes making our turn around  in Nairobi very iffy, which set off my travel paranoia, of course. Sherry is much better at trusting God than I, as you can see.

P4110030The flight over the Sahara was fascinating. I tried to take pictures, but alas none really showed the barren beauty. The lake behind the Aswan dam was amazing with irrigation coming out. Sherry and I both slept a bit and enjoyed full meals and snacks. Remember the days? You can see the fellow across the aisle who used his blanket to make a tent. He and the woman between us were athletes from one of the Gulf States going to Kenya to train track and field athletes there. Sadly, she was so soft spoken I could hardly hear her over the roar of the jet engines.

We did make the flight to Entebbe, but it was a great rush. Sherry had requested wheel chair assistance and the fellow earned his keep. We even went through diplomat queues only to be stopped by a locked door to the tarmac. A nice lady finally arrived and we rushed to the plane and completed our journey.

P4120033P4120035I had hoped to see Entebbe, but the midnight arrival made that impossible. The assistant made our journey through passport control very easy indeed and soon we were greeted by Catharine Coon with warm welcome and our drive to her home. Our beds in her “servant quarters” were most welcome.

P4120037P4120039Tuesday morning was a chance to join the Hope Alive Africa (www.hopealiveafrica.org) Break Away session. It is school holiday here so they have a time for the students to gather, sing and do creative lessons, a feature notably lacking in the rote memory oriented schools. After a time of singing praise to Jesus, the group was eager to learn and quickly got into Catharine’s “Math and Art” activity. Every classroom was filled, so Jesse, a short termer from Salem (can anyone say “small world”?) took her primary reading class outside for their lesson. The students are from poverty stricken homes and reading a real children’s book is an unknown pleasure.

P4120043I asked several for their stories. Ambrose (pictured) and his brother, Dennis, were two of them. Both were orphans who had lost their hope when Hope Alive found them. They both worked really hard in school. Dennis is now in program to study electrical engineering. Ambrose just finished his secondary school and the exams. He passed them
but is not sure his score will qualify him for a government scholarship. There is not as much money available now. I listened to his faith in Jesus, his deep hope to serve, and his wondering what he will do if he does not get a scholarship. Tuition is far out of his ability. . Results will not be announced until after we are gone. So he prays and I join him. Will you?

P4120044P4120046We stopped by the super market to pick up a few things before heading home. Who would expect a big display of chicken gizzards? And “monkey gland sauce??” Is it real or just a name? I decided not to try it.

Off To Uganda

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Sherry and I will leave for Uganda in a couple of hours and be there through most of the month of May. The weeks of anticipation, days of preparations, hours of packing and worrying about what we’ve forgotten are coming to an end.

We will be working primarily with Catharine Coon and Hope Alive Africa (www.hopealiveafrica.org/). Catharine became a close friend back when she was a student at Western. Since then we have partnered together in the growth of Hope Alive, serving the original US board. It has grown to serve over 500 students. HA! pays school fees and related expenses with the idea that keeping them in their fragile family systems while utilizing resources of churches to help them succeed in school. This is an investment in the orphans and in the  country.

Our KLM flight will go through Schipol Airport, my favorite international airport on the way to Nairobi and after a VERY long time to Entebbe.

Prayers much appreciated!

Finding the Will of God

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Finding the will of God is a most relevant issue — so I preached on it at Corban University for their year end chapel. I responded to the “traditional” searching for the “dot” of His perfect will and then outlined my 5 step process: Be Christlike, Search Scripture to rule out sinful, Live wisely to rule out stupid, Inquire of God: He may have an opinion, Do what will make you most deeply happy. The sermon recording is here, the outline here, and the Power Point here.

Marriage Jobs

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I am speaking on marriage at Door of Hope today. The Power Point is here. The basis of marriage is in imaging the Trinity as Genesis 1:26-28 makes clear. As we unpack 1:28, 2:18 and 2:23-25, we discover four “greats” for marriage: great family, great mission, great friendship, and great passion. I noted that for our culture good sex is a pleasurable recreational activity between consenting adults. But biblically it is a whole person connection between a husband and a wife to express, confirm and deepen marital intimacy. So biblically there is no sex outside marriage — only porneia. As we move into the New Testament, exploring Ephesians 5 and 1 Peter 3 reveals four roles for women: submit, respect, beautiful spirit of purity, reverence, gentle and quiet, and not give into fear. The four roles for men are love by giving yourself, love by nurturing and cherishing, understand, and honor. Submission does not mean do what you are told and smile, but — following the example of Jesus in Mark 14:32-26 — give your feelings, give your desires and give your trust.

Spiritual Warfare Resources

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I am speaking on Spiritual Warfare today at Living Hope Church, Vancouver, and there are MANY questions that arise. So I am putting a few good resources up for people to look at. The materials are here.

My articles include “Demon Principles”, “Three Models of Spiritual Warfare”, “Rogue Deliverance”, and “Warfare Bibliography,” as well as a list of passages that might be helpful for children.  There is an inductive study for those who want to examine the key Scriptures. There are also three articles by Sam Storms, Pastor at Bridgeway Church in Oklahoma City and a set of notes from a psychiatrist to help with thinking through demons and mental illness.

I would welcome interaction. You can append public comments or email me at [email protected]

Proclaiming Justice at Cru

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I spoke at the Cru conference in Ft. Collins on July 20 on the topic of Proclaiming Justice. It was an amazing experience for me to share with people who were powerfully committed to going with Jesus into the hardest places – beginning with the Campuses of the world.

The notes from the meeting are here, and the power point I used is here. A very helpful chart is here. I will be glad to send you any of these or converse about other resources. My email address is [email protected]

 

Equal Marriage should be even more equal

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I am intrigued — but not at all surprised — to see Slate seriously supporting polygyny. At least I hope they are not going to be sexist and limit it only to polygamy. The article is here

Ironically, in a backward way I am sorta kinda supportive — IF it is marriage which is to publicly proclaimed life long faithful covenant partnership. I do have to say the status of women in polygamy (which is far more common than polyandry) in the world does not give me much expectation that it will be good for women or children. But the rising number of children in single parent homes or shifting partner homes is a very damaging place for children. The research is not ambiguous.

This is from the report of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia and the Institute for American Values in New York City:

According to numerous studies, children born or raised outside of marriage are more likely to suffer from a range of emotional and social problems – including drug use, depression, attempted suicide and dropping out of high school – compared to children in intact, married families, as summarized in past reports such as “Why Marriage Matters” from the same team. While debates over same-sex marriage have filled the headlines, the rapid hollowing out of marriage in Middle America – more than half of births among women under 30 now occur outside of marriage – has received scant attention from national leaders, the report notes.

Their full report here

I do suspect that equal marriage expanded will be quite different than marriage. I suspect that it will devolve into a temporary living arrangement with one person working and the rest getting health benefits.

Poor children.

Why Does Religion Survive?

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Today’s NY Times opinion piece, The Moral Animal, asks the question of the survival of religion: Why does religion survive — thrive in fact — when it is persistently attacked and ridiculed by naturalism and has been predicted to disappear since the Enlightenment? In a neo-Darwinian world, what makes religion so fit? Rabbi Sacks suggests it because community has higher survivability than individuals. Altruism is fitter than egoism and therefore survives. He notes there is now neurological evidence that we are hard wired for empathy. He argues that religion survives because it binds individuals into groups.

He cites Robert Putnam whose Bowling Alone showed the rising individualism was destroying our ability to form community. More recently his American Grace has chronicled the fact that religious communities still exist. His research showed that frequent church- or synagogue-goers were more likely to give money to charity, do volunteer work, help the homeless, donate blood, help a neighbor with housework, spend time with someone who was feeling depressed, offer a seat to a stranger or help someone find a job. Religiosity as measured by church or synagogue attendance is, he found, a better predictor of altruism than education, age, income, gender or race.

But that doesn’t explain why religion survives. It only shows that it results in altruistic community. Community may be a necessary thing, Darwinistically speaking, but religion isn’t.

It seems to me that religion survives because of what Psalm 19 says:

    The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

     Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.

     There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.

     Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.

There is an innate sense of divinity, of justice, beauty, and of community put there by the Living Loving Lord of Advent. It morphs into many different religions which have more or less of the truth. The Word became flesh to reveal the Father (John 1:14, 18), die for our sins and rise to bring newness of life, was exalted above the hostile powers and poured out the Spirit on His Church. We who repent and accept His message and join Him by faith receive forgiveness, new life, join His new community and its mission to bring true shalom to this world.

So at Christmas time, I confidently predict that the worship of the Lord of Creation, the Lord of Advent, the Lord of the community of the Spirit will continue to be worshiped. That worship will be most authentic when it follows the words of our Savior: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. and Love your neighbor as yourself.

This was demonstrated dramatically in Kristina Shevchenko, the 15 year old who was shot at Clackamas Town Center. She “irrationally” forgave the man who shot her and two others. You had to listen carefully to find the reason: she and her Ukrainian immigrant family are strong Christians.

So you will continue to see churches proclaiming Jesus as Lord and doing irrational works of service in our communities . . . and loving, wrestling with, and laughing with atheists who can’t join our worship [yet]