Uganda and what I didn’t see coming

Recently I returned from a trip to Uganda with Compassion UK and Spring Harvest. As a Compassion supporter and a Spring Harvest speaker I thought I knew what to expect and pretty much what would happen on this trip….I was mistaken.

From the first minute I felt my heart opening up, my mind expanding and my emotions all over the place.

At times we were amazed at the organisation, the detail, the excellence as Compassion Uganda explained how they helped serve over 139K kids and help lift them and their families out of extreme need all in Jesus name and through the local church.

At other times we laughed, danced, blew bubbles, served food and cuddled kids…..

Then there were the moments when the reality of poverty and the brokenness of humanity hit us…hard…life isn’t fair, some things are not right and definitely not ok….

Yet there is hope, we saw it, we heard it, we felt it, we experienced it….

Here’s my attempt to share 4 reflections of my time in Uganda that I feel challenged to embrace in my own life and I want to call you to embrace also….

#1 – Never underestimate the power of the gospel

Jesus changes lives in ways nothing and no one else can do. Some of the graduates we met (people who had been sponsored children) testified to just that. Noreen said of her childhood, “when you don’t have food it’s hard to dream about the future.” Then she shared how Jesus had changed her story and given her hope and dreams for the future. She now serves on the staff of Compassion Uganda.

#2 – Never underestimate the power of the local church

I love the church! Yes I know she’s not perfect, yes I know she’s frustrating at times but when you see her as she should be she takes your breath away…..

Where else do the lonely find family, the broken find Hope and the marginalised find acceptance?

If you’re part of a local church, value it, be grateful for it and do all you can to make it what it should be…the powerful and beautiful body of Christ.

#3 – Never underestimate the power of partnership

Nobody can do it all alone, life wasn’t designed that way. The way Compassion, the sponsor and the local church all work together to help lift children and families out of extreme need is breathtakingly beautiful.

What might it look like in our communities if we believed and acted this way?

#4 – Never underestimate the power of 1 decision

Our final day was a day I will never forget. We met Richmond…he was a sponsored child whose father was murdered and who grew up in a slum along with his mum and siblings. Through the local church and Compassion he became a Jesus follower and his life changed. He is now a pastor, married with a daughter and helps train over 15K African pastors. He is building a well-being centre and Bible school for pastors and their spouses, raising up a generation of leaders with the same passion to change their world.

He said, “my life changed when I was sponsored….by a 15 year old girl….”

That one decision changed his life and subsequently the lives of so many others…

He also said this, “when some are released from poverty they run from it, I chose to run back towards it and help release others.”

After he spoke we couldn’t speak…we knelt, we worshipped, we wept, we prayed, we asked God to give us what he’d given Richmond…..a hunger, a passion and a fire….

If you are a Jesus follower….

God is moving right now across the earth, there’s a stirring….there’s something going on…a hunger for justice, a hunger for family, a hunger for change…..a hunger for God……

I pray that you sense it, hear it, feel it….and embrace it…..

‘We are not going to move this world by criticism of it or conformity to it, but by the combustion within it of lives ignited by the spirit of God’ – Vince Havner