I don’t know whether to talk about the bustling city with dirt roads
filled with bicycles, motorcycles, cars, and big trucks where the smell
of car exhaust is all you can smell or the roosters crowing and goats
and cows everywhere, or the most incredibly friendly people that
welcome you wherever you go.
But I think I’ll talk about the door
to door evangelism that our team has been apart of here in Uganda.
Like I said, the people who live here are incredible. Whether it be
people from the church, out on the street, or when we do door to door
evangelism, they are consistently the most genuinely friendly people I
have ever met. When we were doing door to door evangelism everyone
gives you a chance to talk and many invite you in to their house,
regardless of whether they want to hear what you have to say. In this
culture it is very offensive not to invite someone into your house if
they knock on the door, which makes door to door evangelism here a very
effective ministry. I even ran into several Muslims who definitely
didn’t want to hear what I had to say, but they still respected me and
allowed me to share what I had to say rather than giving me the cold
shoulder and dismissing me.
Also what stands out to me about
this culture is how open most people are. I am a complete stranger to
these people that I meet doing evangelism, yet I find most people very
open to talk about where they are in their relationship with Christ. I
especially find the story of a woman I met named Rita encouraging and
challenging. Rita was one of the houses we stopped at doing door to
door ministry, who we were complete strangers to. Yet when we said we
were here to share the gospel she told us she had been born again and
regularly attended a local church. Then she opened up about her walk
with God and some of the challenges she’s facing and would like prayer
over. In Africa, witch doctors and evil spirits are truly a problem
that Christians face. Specifically, Rita has 3 kids that occasionally
come home with a darkness over their eyes that Rita believes is put on
her kids by a local witch doctor the kids pass on their way home from
school. Rita herself also has a problem with her leg that was a result
of witchcraft and has been an issue for at least a year. More details
include she is very poor and her husband is not a believer. Despite all
of this, Rita is trying her best to raise her kids in a christian house
and still holds on to her very strong faith that God is bigger than any
of her situations and is always there for her. She was real about the
situation and told us that past couple years had been very hard and
wanted prayer, but still held on to her solid faith.
This was
very encouraging to me to see her faith remain steadfast despite all of
the hardships she’s had to face and I hope it is encouraging to you to
develop and hold on to this faith in God that you can rely in, no matter
what obstacles or difficulties are placed in front of you. This
experience also challenged me to be more open to brothers and sisters in
Christ about what I am going through. This is important in a Christian
community so that we can pray for each other and encourage each other
through celebrating our triumphs over obstacles in our faith.
