I finished my last report on Friday afternoon. That evening we had an outdoor meeting in Kitango. There were many healings and salvations. Kenneth addressed a group of young men who had come forward to receive Christ. It was great to see him speaking to these very sincere young men, sharing with them about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Once again, cataracts left, ears were opened, pain left. However, one healing stands out. I was brought to a girl about 12 years old who was obviously blind in one eye. Years earlier, she had been stabbed in that eye. I prayed for her twice but nothing appeared to happen. I then moved on to pray for others, but a couple of the team kept at it. By the time they had to go, this girl could count fingers, see colors and see people. If you could have seen her severely damaged eye, you would have been amazed.
On Saturday we had our first full day of ministry in Kalonga, the town that Impact Nations is working with to see community transformation come about. The team divided into two groups. Bernie headed up a team that worked all day on the widows’ land. Their first big job was to tear down the frame of a house that had not been properly built; the posts hadn’t gone far enough into the ground to support the weight of the mud when it was applied to the walls. They finished this by lunchtime, then in the afternoon they began to build a strong frame for the house. The biggest challenge was digging postholes two feet deep with very few tools. Much of the digging was actually done by hand. At the end of the day, all the principle posts were set firmly into the ground. A tired, happy and extremely dirty team came back to our Kalonga base.
Meanwhile, the other team was met at the school by about 250 parents. It had been announced that we would be distributing treated mosquito nets for the school children. After a few speeches, Margaret addressed the crowd, explaining very carefully the importance and correct use of the mosquito nets. This was followed by an orderly distribution by our team. In all, 250 nets were distributed. For hundreds of children, their likelihood of contracting malaria just went down by 90%. It was very exciting to see what was happening. Kenneth then spent the rest of the day seeing children, then parents. Each one received an anti-bacterial treatment that will greatly reduce the chance of them getting cavities. (You may want to go onto the Impact Nations Facebook page to see a great YouTube of singing and dancing breaking out in Kenneth’s dental clinic.)
After the net distribution, several of the team went out with the two Kalonga water filter teams. Some went to various homes in the town while others went to the widows’ land. In each case, they taught the families about the importance of clean water, installed the filters, and instructed them in filter maintenance and good hygiene practices.
A personal highlight, and a real gift to me from the Lord, was when my friend, James Harrington, showed up at the net distribution. James lives in New York State and heads up the Ugandan Water Project. We have partnered with James and his organization for the past two years. He and David Pearson (who heads up all our water projects) went to Haiti together and last year, went to the site of the Philippines typhoon where they got clean water to over 30,000 people. It was a delight to be able to spend the day with James. We went to six of our water tanks (which Ugandan Water Project had installed for us) to inspect them and talk with the local users. We also looked at two more possible sites for new tanks.
That evening we held an outdoor meeting in the center of town. A large, happy crowd showed up. After the Kalonga church team sang and played (they were really good), James got up with a guitar to sing a few songs. Imagine everyone’s surprise when he addressed them in Lugandan (the national language), then sang a series of terrific praise songs. The locals shouted out with delight. One group was overheard discussing whether James really was a “mazunga”, which means white person. By the time he finished, the crowd was so attentive and happy, that I only spoke for a very few minutes, inviting people to receive Jesus. People came forward from the area; at the same time, team members were leading people to Jesus out in front of the shops. It was another glorious time. A great day, and a great evening.
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