A Village Church

We began our first Sunday in Uganda visiting a church in a village about an hour outside of Kampala called "Christ Restoration Church". Going to a church in the village is always an awesome experience! So much different than any church in America.

If you look closely you can see a butterfly flying by at just the right moment!

Our pre-welcome. Soon after we were surrounded.

I am with a team of 8 (from the US and The Netherlands). Our team leaders Dwight and Emma Saunders started International Voice of the Orphan and The Gem Foundation. Dwight preached an amazing message today for the church and we also did a prayer time afterwords. You could really tell the congregation were getting a lot out of the message and were so hungry for God. We had them come up for prayer at the end if they had any requests. We had so many come up to us and ask for prayer for things like provision for jobs and land, wisdom in school, a way to support their families and for sicknesses. We gladly prayed for each of their needs and asked God to bless them in mighty ways. It's so eye opening to realize how hard their lives must be as we heard some of their stories. They were very encouraged by our prayers and thanked us many times. We heard later that one man actually received Christ during the prayer time! We were all encouraged by that and decided that made the day! It wasn't us that made the impact on them, it was God working through us that changed this man's life forever! All glory goes to Him! We are so thankful to have been a part of that!

Dancing, of course, and a lot of it!

And I want to thank all my supporters as well. If you hadn't have prayed for me or donated to make this trip possible this may not have happened! Because of you there will be at least one more in Heaven! How amazing is that?

Since this congregation had been so generous to our team leader Emma in the past (giving her highly praised gifts, such as a pig) and had welcomed us all so well we wanted to give back to them. So we brought gifts for the pastor and his wife and gifts for all the children. We handed out toothbrushes and lollipops to all the kids at the end. It's the simplest things that they are so thankful for! Their faces were beaming!

What an amazing day in Uganda!