Ciara & the TCU Crew

 Friday,
June 22, 2012
 How  are we supposed to answer these... 
So we're off to Jinja, the source of the Nile River today. But here are some of our
favorite questions about America that we have heard since we have been here...
Does America have dirt? Who is moses's father in law? What kind of fruit did
Adam and Eve eat in the garden? (perfect.. That's exactly the question we were
expecting during purity talks...) What are those big shoes you wear in the snow
(skis)? Is it true that y'all have machines that turn people's skin from black
to white? Why do muzungus (white people) always carry water bottles and bananas?
Is it true that there is really water In the toilets? There is a machine that
tells you where to go? (gps) Is it true when someone dies you just leave them on
the side of the road? Is it true people eat each other? Is it true you use
machines to wash your clothes? How can Obama be black & white? These are
only a few......
The  Village of Mwaalo: Ciara 

The Village of Mwaalo, a place that I have honestly been dreading to visit for the
last five days. According to pastor Benjamin this is a very dark village.
Riddled with witchcraft and evil, the pastor from this small town has been
unable to successfully build her church as the constant threat of local
witchdoctors prevents any light from entering the present darkness. AS a team,
we joked about how Mwaalo was our Superbowl. We had felt that this whole trip
was building up to this crescendo, and so we decided to cover it in prayer. One
of the biggest lessons I have learned from this trip, is that all God desires is
our obedience. When He calls us to a place, no matter how dark it may be, we
must prayerfully accept his beckoning and boldly go. So this is what we did.
Unfortunately, this trip has proved very taxing on most of us, both spiritually
and physically. So yesterday, there were only 6 of us that went. Myself, Molly,
Courtney, Robert, ryan, and Harrison loaded the bus at 8 am and 3 1/2 hours
later, we arrived in Mwaalo. Honestly, I was very nervous about yesterday. I had
NO CLUE what to expect, but our team decided to devote the day to fasting and
praying against anything that would threaten our safety and the ministry we were
wanting to complete. And let me tell you, there is POWER in prayer! When we
walked up to the church, it was half the size of the one we visited in Bikoko.
There were branches, tied together with leaves and the whole thing was draped in
bed sheets and dresses. It was the most simplistic yet beautiful church I had
ever set foot in. You see, the thing about these village churches is that the
Spirit moves. As soon as each person steps foot inside the "tent of God" they
worship. There are no announcements, no congregating. They simply show up, and
fall to their knees before an Almighty God. As Courtney and Ryan shared, the
Spirit was clearly moving. After 30 minutes of being there Pastor Ben waved me
over so I snuck to the side of the church. As I made it over to him, he was
  standing with a woman who was around 70 years old. She reeked of alcohol and
  collapsed in my arms. Considering she spoke no English I relied on Ben to tell
  me what she wanted. He simply said, "She wants to be saved... she's done with
alcohol, she just wants to surrender." As I looked at her, her eyes lacked any
life, she was certainly a woman with no hope. So I held her in my arms, prayed
over her, and with that, I gained a sister. It was humbling and moving, and
after that moment worship was SO much sweeter! Seeing her rejoicing in the back
of the church, knowing that her chains had been broken and her burden lifted, I
could not help but cry. AS the day went on, everyone spoke and we then continued
into a time of prayer. Many people came forward asking for healing. That is the
beautiful thing about Christians here. They have faith! What we would regard as
issues for a learned physician, they see as simple remedies for God. As they
made their way to the front of the church, we laid hands on dozens of people.
Male female, elderly, and infants, all desiring the healing power of Jesus. What
unworthy vessels we were to pray the mighty name of Jesus over the faithful. But
what a gift to see the power of Christ descend upon his children! The day
continued and we broke for "lunch", but since we were fasting it was more like a
quick nap/prayer time. We were hungry, weary, and dirty, and yet we knew that
the crusade needed to happen. At around 4 we left the church and began to walk
to the center of the village. Everyone was outside of their homes and shops,
wondering what the heck these white people were doing there, with speakers. TO
be honest, I was kind of wondering what the heck I was doing there too haha But
before I could settle into my self-doubt, Benjamin handed me a mic, asked me to
sing a Lugandan song, and preach the gospel. I'm telling you, the Ugandans don't
mess around. As I stood there in front of this village, Bible in hand, I simply
spoke on the love of Jesus. I acknowledged that many of them were living in fear
of the witchdoctors but told them there was no reason for them to live in fear
of their bewitching. To be honest, I was uncomfortable being so bold in front of
an audience of purely muslims and those practicing witchcraft, but the presence
of God was so apparent, I felt completely under His providence. At the
conclusion of my talk on the unyielding love of Christ, Benjamin stood up and
made an alter call. I can humbly say that around 20 people committed their lives
to Christ, including both of our Muslim bus drivers (whom we had been praying
for since we got here). Let's just say that the dance party in the middle of
town after these commitments was UNREAL. Praise Jesus! At the conclusion of our
day, during our 3 hour drive back to the hotel, it dawned on us. In the last
week and a half, we had seen over 80 people commit their lives to Christ (that's
those we know of) and 63 people had been baptized. God has clearly taken this
ragammuffin group of jacked up, broken people and through simple obedience,
prayer, and fasting, used us as vessels to bring Him Glory. Tumutende!!! (praise
Him)

Monday,
June 18, 2012

 Humbled:  Dominique


Hey
y'all! The fact that we are blogging from Africa, still blows my mind. God has
done and continues to do amazing things over here and we are left in awe more
and more each day. After a much needed afternoon of rest yesterday, we
definitely hit the ground running today. We drove two hours to a village called
Bikoko. The people there were SO hospitable and welcoming. The church was made
out of sticks and cloth but was completely packed. Ryan, Robert, Riley, Melissa,
and Harrison spoke...and oh my goodness they did an awesome job! Well...they did
an awesome job at being available because God spoke the TRUTH out of their
mouths. Their worship is indescribable. It's like one big dance party for Jesus.
The place is filled with joy, to say the least. Compared to how we worship back
home...it was convicting. Everyone worshipping was doing so with such a
surrendering character and rawness. We can all easily say that being a part of
this worship is one of the best experiences of our lives. Towards the end,
pastor Benjamin asked us to pray over the sick. Mothers were bringing their
children, and children were bringing themselves to be prayed over. It was so
humbling and we were reminded what child like faith we are called to have. The
power that RAISED JESUS FROM THE DEAD LIVES IN THOSE WHOM LIVE IN HIM.
Just...wow. Speechless. Praying over those sick and malnourished today knowing
that promise is SO comforting and powerful. We are fsho not worthy enough to be
used as his vessels, yet here we are sitting at our hotel in Uganda reflecting
on it. So unreal. Go Jesus. Okay, then the crew set up the sound system to get
ready for the Jesus Film and the Altar Call. The minute we moved out there and
started the music the kids of the village busted it out! Stomp the Yard:Uganda
Version! Seriously these kids had the moves! They put Americans to shame. Don't
worry, we got it all on film! Ciara then got on the mic. Christians on one side
of her, non-believers on the other. I know she brewed up a little speech in her
  mind earlier but you could tell the Lord had something different planned.
  Explaining the beauty of the Gospel and how true it is, we could all tell the
  Holy Spirit was moving. Side note: our bus drivers are Muslim, but came to the
  church with us today and were also dancing in worship! Praise God! Needless to
  say, today was so so so humbling. An eye opener. It is only by God's grace that
  we could even be there. A blog post doesn't do it justice! Whew, okay I'm done.
  Sorry for the novel friends! Ps-please be in prayer about tomorrow as part of
  the team heads to a very spiritually dark village and for health of the team.
  Thank you!

The  vessel: Robert 

God  is really funny sometimes, last week I thought I knew I was going to speak
because right when we got to church pastor Benjamin told me that I was going to
speak at a different church. then as Harrison so capably described earlier, God
had a different plan. This week again I thought I was going to speak but I
thought I was going to go to church early and just talk to the leadership before
Church. So that would have to be pretty early in the morning, around 8 am. So
when I woke up at 7:30 got out of bed and dressed and started getting prepared.
But then 8 rolled around and we were just starting breakfast. Another thing that
was weird was that we hadn't heard from Benjamin all morning so we thought that
he had taken care of the leadership team prep and I was no longer needed to
talk. It was really confirmed in my mind when Ciara told us right as we were
getting on the bus at around 9:15 that Benjamin had sent her a text asking us
where we were. So I was walking into church pretty relaxed although kinda tired
but not really worrying about anything. I thought God was teaching me not to
have expectations and to just be ready to see what he has in store for me. He
was, just not in the way that I was expecting. So we walk into church and
worship has already started so we set our things down and started dancing to the
music. Then we sit down for a bit to listen to a pastor talk for a bit. While he
is talking I decide to journal a bit because I have just recently finished a
book called "The Transforming Power of the Gospel" and there was a really deep
part in the book that I was really needing to wrap my head around. So I open up
my journal and start to really try and remember the application of the chapter
when Ciara walks back to our row and says "By the way you are about to preach so
just fyi..." and walks off. Immediately my stomach like turns and I begin to
  worry and get nervous because I had already concluded that I wasn't speaking
  today but like I said earlier God had a different plan. But the funny part
  about it was that in the book I was reading 2 of the sins that it tries to
  highlight because in our lives we don't really see them as that terrible of
  sins which makes them incredibly dangerous as disguised pride. So right as I am
  about to preach God's word he decides to convict my heart so clearly that I
  know it was his purpose for this set of events to happen from the very
  beginning. He wanted me to see how pervasive anxiety and worry had become in my
  life even without me realizing it. So at this point I wasn't even thinking
  about what I was going to say in the sermon anymore. So I just sit there and
  say "You know what God, despite my best efforts, I am totally unprepared and
forced to rely on you for this talk, take this anxiety and worry from me and
speak your word." Then they called me up and I totally forgot to check all of
the notes that I had prepared a week earlier and just read the scriptures and
said what was on my heart but the really good part was that the scripture was
the story of Gideon and my sermon was on how God uses imperfect servants to
  accomplish his will. I told you God was funny. 


Lake Nabugabo: Ryan


What's up! It's RC on tha track! It's a beautiful morning here in Uganda, and we are
getting ready to head over and worship with the Lugandan congregation! Buuuuuut
before that lets look at a recap from yesterday. Can anyone guess who the star
attraction was? Yep you guessed it, Jesus! At least 20 students names were
written in the book of life and all of heaven was rejoicing! Praise him! God
also allowed us to baptize 63 students in lake Nabugabu! It is only because of
His grace and His glory that were are able to come here and do these things! How
great it is that the creator of the universe and all things in it allows us to
be apart of His perfect plan! 

Friday,
June 15, 2012

 A  few days at Jireh: Ciara 

Ciaras Note Prewarning: THis is long! IT covers two days so that I can catch y'all up
on what God is doing here in Masaka. I know we are a few days behind on the
blog, so I will briefly go over Wednesday and then talk more about the AMAZING
things God did yesterday (Thursday). On Wednesday, I was set to talk about the
end of Ephesians chapter 3 (Paul's prayer to the Ephesians) and the beginning of
Chapter 4. Mitchell was going to finish up chapter 4 when I was done. If I were
to write and say that I was so excited to speak that morning, I would be lying.
I woke up with a horrifically sore throat and a terrible attitude. I had NO
desire to speak, and felt on the verge of tears all morning. This was totally
Satan. I felt like I had nothing good to say, and that my time speaking was a
waste of time. As I was walking up to our classroom I just surrendered. "Lord, I
am not in the mood, I have no words to say, so you are going to have to take the
lead on this one. I am SO unworthy of being your mouthpiece, but use me as you
will." And boy did he take over! The Holy Spirit was so evident in that room and
  praise God for His sovereignty! The talk was so powerful and I give Him the
  glory for the truth He poured out. Mitchell was also SO powerful and I am going
  to get him to tell you about that later to tonight when we get back to the
  hotel :) At the end of the day, I told all of the children that I had been
  fasting and praying for them every monday for 6 months. They all began to cheer
  and shout "Amena". I was filled up with tears, and it made any "hangry"
(hungry-angry) fast day that I might have had, completely worth it. I then told
them about the vision the Lord gave me, of us baptizing them, and that He
confirmed that vision by giving Dom a similar one. I felt that this might be way
too complicated to actually do. Organize 80 students, plus us, and lunches and
transportation to a lake 45 minutes away, but before I left Fort Worth, God once
again showed me that this was His desire. So I told the students and they
screamed with excitement. I could not help but be overcome by tears as I looked
at all their faces, knowing how much it meant to them that their "muzungu"
brothers and sisters loved them so much and wanted to be with them during this
special moment. So we told them to fast and pray about their decision, and that
on Saturday, we would head out to the lake! Now moving on to yesterday. Where do
I begin?? We all decided to fast as a team yesterday, since the children at
Jireh fast every Wednesday and Friday (so convicting). We covered out morning
and prayer and soon began our day. Dominique spoke on Ephesians 5 part 1. She
did AMAZING. Her testimony was so powerful and it was clear that her words were
not her own. We then spent time in our small groups, we have been calling them
families. In my family, my girls really opened up. Come to find out, 8 of my 9
girls wanted to be baptized, including sweet Fatumah. Fatumah came to Jireh last
year. Pastor Benjamin found her begging on the streets of kampala (the capital
city). She was born with no limbs and had been living life with her aunt who
abused her and used her disability to make money. However; she was rescued and
now lives up at Jireh. She has a small wheel chair that she can move herself,
but the children at Jireh are ALWAYS helping her, and care for her very much.
When Fatumah asked to be baptized, her biggest fear was that her physical
situation would not allow her to be properly baptized. When Ritah asked me,"yes
but how will you baptize Fatumah?" I answered, just like I will baptize the rest
of you". I looked at Fatumah and she had the biggest smile on her face. I had no
words. As we left family time, we all gathered to listen to Robert speak. To say
that this time was powerful would be an understatement. He covered the last part
of 5, and spoke on the importance of biblical manhood. He told the boys the
importance of being respectful to women, a concept they have most likely never
heard in this culture. You see, in Uganda, like most places of the world,
  society is extremely patriarchal. Women have little, if any rights, and are
  seen as simply vessels for reproduction. (Nothing makes me more frustrated!)
  Robert continued to talk about how, in marriage, men are to love and respect
  their wives. They are called to make them Holy, and in doing so, the women will
  be submissive to the decisions of the husband. He stressed that men cannot
  expect women to follow their decisions, if the women are being mistreated and
  feel unimportant. Thank God for the wisdom that he spoke through our brother!
  After this, we broke up into two groups, guys and girls. We spent time with
  them talking about purity, how to develop character, etc. I won't get into
  details, but I will tell you that, it was amazing to see our team bounce
  answers off of one another. One of us might remember the jist of a verse and
  another would know the reference. The spirit was moving, and there was clear
  unity in the body. We spent about an hour in our groups. While we were
  encouraging the girls to be strong women in Christ and to desire good jobs and
  educations, the boys were dealing alot with more "sex" based questions... go
figure haha But when this time had ended we came together as a body one more
time. It was here that I began to speak to the students about the importance and
meaning of baptism. I told them this is a duty as Christians, but not something
I wanted them to feel forced or obligated to do. I wanted them to take it
seriously. Once I had covered it and given them some verses to read after we
left, I began to be a little bit more serious. I told them that this week had
been Amazing. That we had gone over some serious questions and topics with them,
and that I wanted them to feel comfortable coming to us with anything that may
remain a bit confusing. I then said, " I also know that there are some of you in
this room that do not know Christ. You may think that the things in your past
are too dirty for Jesus. You may think that God could never love you or save
you. But that is wrong. There is nothing that can ever separate you from the
love of Jesus Christ. If you are willing. If you are ready to accept a life in
accordance with God's promises, you can do that." I then asked them to close
their eyes and picture Christ on the cross. I told them, "As he was hanging
there, he was not thinking of humans in general, but individually. He was
thinking of William, Kokoza, Fatumah, Florence, Irene, Happy... all of you! He
knew the hurt and pain in your life, and took that ALL upon himself so that you
would never have to live without Him. " "But he did not remain on this cross. He
rose again and ascended into heaven, fulfilling the prophesies of the Bible, and
He left us with a gift, the Holy Spirit. It is this Spirit, that when you put
your trust in Christ will live with you for the rest of your days, until you
leave to spend eternity in heaven. However, I do not want you to think that once
you believe in jesus life gets easy. In fact, sometimes it gets harder. You see,
satan does not want you to live in Christ. He will often tempt you and try to
drag you away from Jesus. But, even when we face trials, God is with us. The
power that parted the Red Sea is the same power that dwells within us. We can be
hurt, we can be sad, but we can NEVER be removed from the love and blood of
Jesus." They shouted "Amena!" With our eyes closed I then lead them in a prayer,
confessing their sin, acknowledging Jesus Christ as Lord, and admitting that
even when the troubles of life pursue, they will still press on towards the
goal. We also talked about the Glorious day on which we will be reunited with
our Savior. I told them that, in Heaven, there are no orphans. There is no pain
or abuse. There are no tears, no hunger, no thirst. You should have heard there
cheers! WE closed with how much we loved them, and together said, "Amena" So
powerful. Based on the video Riley took, over 20 students came to Christ
yesterday. Praise God! Heaven is rejoicing!! So this morning we are about to
leave to go to the lake. To join with these brothers and Sisters in baptism.
What a mighty God we serve. I am SO humbled to be considered worthy to be a
mouthpiece for the King. I am blown away by the willingness of this team to
serve the Lord, and empty themselves out to be His vessels. Please be praying
that the Lord would grant us protection today as again we fast, and that the
Holy Spirit would be present in the lives of these children Tumutende! (Praise
Him!) 

Thursday,
June 14, 2012


Day 3 at Jireh: Courtney


Last night while debriefing on stories of the day and making a game plan for the
  days to come, we talked about how this trip is shaping into more than we could
  have hoped for. We came to find out that in general Americans tend to be
  success driven, wanting to see visible progress on these kinds of trips. I can
  absolutely be categorized as such a person. It is almost as if somewhere along
  the way a wall having a coat of paint or a building being completed (all of
  which are necessary and good things!) somehow take precedence over a child's
  heart and if we are attending to the aches they hold inside that can't be seen.
  Praise God that he put this specific purpose of our trip on Ciara's heart. Yes,
  we are answering questions as Melissa previously wrote and hopefully bringing a
  bit of healing and joy. . The truth is though, they are doing everybit of the
  same for us. We are being stretched and challenged. These questions are
  becoming a bit more complicated as the kids are opening up to us more and more
  and a level of trust is built. We all see why it is important to be close at
  heart with God's word so that we have a solid basis to build our answers on.
  Usually when America comes to antoher country and brings its ethnocentrism
  (anthropology jargon Ciara would appreciate, thank you TCU education :) we can
  quickly mess things up with our forceful cultural superiority. However, taking
  a typical Texas christian summer camp setting into Jireh with our
  smallgroups/familes, coucilor type roles, song time, and playing games and
  sports is just what is needed here. Attention and fun has seemed to do the
  trick to bring these 14 + age students from the outskirts of the school grounds
  to closely huddled around us to learn cords on a guitar (Riley) or pray tightly
  shoulder to shoulder. Now I would like to spend some time describing to you
  what Jireh is like. I know if I were a reader I would like to know details to
  get the full picture. Plus, it is hard to understand the magnitude of what is
  going on here without knowing the beauty that we are surrounded by. This beauty
  can be both seen and felt. Frist with the tangible- I am sure this next part
  will be quite "flowery", but it is sort of hard to not be if I want to give an
acurate description. Jireh has been built on top of a hill with a view over the
countryside of Masaka that has "God made all of this and said it was good"
written all over it. There is a building for primary school (3 years old up to
12 I believe) and secondary school (13-20), a small nurses quarters, small
dormatories where the students sleep, the guest house where we eat lunch and
keep our supplies, and a new teacher's building that is still under
construction, but will soon house 11 teachers that Jireh is in desperate need
of. It is true that these buildings are in a condition you could find no where
in the States, but we have forgotten their lack of perfection according to the
eye because we find so much joy from the peeople who occupy them. I have to
mention also that the climate of Uganda is best put as what Texans dream about
escaping to on those hot summer days when we are melting. A cool 70 degrees
almost always and if it is slightly warmer you can always count on a cool
breeze. Hard to complain. Jireh is a safe place. It seems so much of this
  coutnry is full of evil like abuse and neglect, but Jireh is a safe haven.
  Those in charge here are people who love the Lord above all and have created a
  firm foundation for the way things operate here. They have so little, yet they
  manage everything strategically and wisely. As a former business student I
  admire it very much. Thank you gracious God for the gift of technology so that
  we can share our experiences with those we love half way around the world.
  Matthew 18:4- (verse on the shirts we made) "Therefore, whoever humbles himself
like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." PS- the pinapple and
avocado alone are worth making the trip here :) Love, Courtney