Steve Stewart's blog

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.

We are in the middle of Day Two of our medical clinic in Kitango. Yesterday was smaller; we treated about 165 people. This morning when we arrived, there were already nearly that many waiting. Kelly, our medical director informed me a few minutes ago that these are among the sickest people we have ever treated: serious diseases, infections, burns etc. One little toddler had a terrible burn on his arm that has not been treated since it happened about a week ago.

As I write this, I am waiting at the hotel in Mityana for the team to arrive. They are coming in from all over the world. We will spend two days here on orientation, preparing buckets for water filters and getting meds ready for the clinics. We are doing some things for the first time on this Journey. For one, instead of doing 6 medical clinics, we are only doing two.

I believe that we are in the beginning of a new season in the Western church and like all new seasons, it is marked by change. A new season always brings both an invitation and a challenge: the Holy Spirit invites us into new ways of walking out our faith––new expressions, new territory and new vision. Inevitably, this challenges us to step away from the familiar and comfortable.

Fatima is a young lady who has been treated in the dispensary for skin diseases and vaginal infection. We could not find any hope for her. Her body was not responding to the medicines for about a month. Perplexed we decided to visit her home, and we found out that she has been using the muddy water that runs by her little mud home. This canal is served to irrigate the rice field. Not having any access to safe water, she and her children have been using this water for everything: bathing, cooking and drinking.

With all the traveling I do these days with Impact Nations, I get asked a lot of questions about a lot of issues. However, there is one question that I am asked more often—by far—than any other. In fact, in the past two weeks, I have been asked it in England, New Jersey and Canada: “Why don’t we see the same kind of healing here (in England, the U.S., Canada) as you do in Africa and India?”

Here's a brief look at what's been happening on our latest Journey of Compassion to India. See the all the reports at Facebook.com. Want to experience it for yourself? Register for Uganda today by visiting www.ImpactNations.org

Jesus has invited us to a life of ‘more’. It is what we were created for­––to move in the eternal and all-embracing purposes of the Creator. Jesus called it abundant life. But what does ‘more’ look like and how must we pursue it?

David Olson in his 2008 work, The American Church in Crisis: Groundbreaking Research Based on a National Database of over 200,000 Churches, tells us that “contrary to the oft-quoted 40%, in fact only 16.2% of Americans regularly attend a church service.  Something has gone wrong. A study by Pastoral Care Inc shows that in just five years, 20 million North Americans left the church.  Something is clearly missing. A LifeWay poll revealed that 70% of 18-22 year olds have left the church.  Something is terribly wrong. What has happened?  Jesus proclaimed and lived a gospel that could not keep people away.  Everywhere he went the crowds flocked to him, so that he often struggled to find a few minutes of time alone with the Father.  Now 2000 years later, in a world where we can amplify the good news, deliver it across a vast range of mediums and dress it up with lights, music and smoke machines people are losing interest. Is the gospel no longer enough? Or have we changed the gospel?