Visit to Lugombe's Preaching Station

~ Jake baptizes a child in Lugombe ~ Many of our TEE students travel hours and hours to get to Kampala for class every two weeks. But some of them live and serve fairly close. Today, the day after a labor-intensive and exhausting service event with our TEE class, fellow missionary Rev. Jacob Gillard and I drove an hour outside of Kampala to Lugombe, where Edward Tamale, one of our TEE students, serves at a small preaching station.

We arrived and immediately visited Edward's place. On the way, we passed by the school where the church meets and Edward jumped out to pound on the drum for a little bit, calling the Christians to church.  At his home, we were treated to tea, sweet bread with margarine (a real treat), and some pleasant conversation. Then we returned to the church for service. Jake would do a baptism and I would preach.  Before the sermon was the baptism. The father of the young girl being baptized asked if I would "be a father" to the child as well - stand as a sponsor. I am more than willing to pray for this child but to be a true sponsor isn't easy when you don't live near your god-children (just ask my god-child in the States). But since there were other sponsors also standing for the girl being baptized, I was willing to stand as well. This little girl was maybe 6 years old, so she stood in the front of the congregation with her father for baptism.  As the bowl of water was brought up towards the child, she thought it was being brought for her to drink so she tried to grab the bowl and tip it to her mouth. It was wonderfully cute and rather funny. 'Cause she did it a second time too before Edward told her that he would hold it and she wouldn't drink it. She was successfully baptized and the congregation responded with the joy and celebration we often see at baptisms here in Uganda.

~ children and adults are attentive as Shauen preaches ~ I'm slowly becoming more comfortable doing things like preaching when I'm up-country. Preaching at these upcountry congregations frustrates me somewhat because a good portion of my normal sermon preparation can't be done - I don't know enough about the congregation to be able to speak to their circumstances or challenges. I can't plan on any long-term rhetorical devices like sermon series because I get only one chance to say it all in one sermon. I have no idea what the pastor has been preaching on before my visit or what he will preach on afterwards. I don't know how mature the Christians are in their faith or what they might be struggling with in their faith lives. Ultimately, though, my own difficulty in preparing a sermon shouldn't have equal weight against a group of God's people who are eager to hear. So I continue to work towards being comfortable preaching when I visit congregations across Uganda. 

In Lugombe I was privileged to be able to preach on Mark 10:23-31, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God... it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle..." It's a great passage with a clear Gospel message, "With God all things are possible."  I even enjoyed pointing towards the child trying to drink the baptismal water as an example of how we misunderstand the ways of God.

~ a boy smiles at me ~ After church we passed by the home of a man desiring prayers as he recovers from a very bad motorcycle accident. And then returned to Tamale's house for a wonderful meal with lots and lots of great food. The small choir for this preaching station joyfully sang several songs as we finished our meal and we stepped back outside to visit a while longer with the children and adults of the congregation and Edward's family. Finally, we returned to Kampala, joyful at the opportunity to serve and a little more enlightened by what we saw in Lugombe. Praise the Lord for His work in that small trading center.  -Shauen